Silken Threads Read Free Page B

would give her no choice in this, he decided. He hoped by using the ranch, and her worst fears, he would force her to give up immediately. If the ploy didn’t work, the assured guarantee of not showing a profit in the next year would solve the problem.
    However, according to his plan, in two more years the ranch would show a profit. They had calculated everything to the last possible penny. Only three men knew how about the plan for the ranch, and none of them would be telling anyone else, for they had to maintain the utmost secrecy, in order for his plan to succeed.
    Yes, it was Twin Rivers for Cassie.
    ~~~~
    “ The Twin Rivers Corporation?” Cassandra echoed, sitting next to her father on his long leather couch. She had been there for half an hour, sipping coffee and waiting for her father to tell her what company he was going to let her take over.
    He had repeatedly asked her if she was sure of her decision, asking her three different times if she wouldn’t rather marry Somner Barwell and continue to enjoy her leisurely life of freedom.
    Each time he had asked she’d given him an adamant and simple no. Then he told her the name of the company.
    “ Where exactly is this company?” she asked as she racked her memory, trying to recall even a single mention of its name. Sadly, she realized her father had never spoken of it.
    “ In Arizona, just outside of Phoenix,” Gregory Leeds told her as he studied her face carefully.
    Cassandra laughed lightly and shook her head. She had never been to Phoenix, or to Arizona at all, for that matter, nor had she ever had the desire to. “I didn’t know Leeds International was involved with old-age homes,” she jested. “Or cactus.”
    “ We’re not,” he said but did not elaborate.
    “ Pray tell, Father, what is Twin Rivers Corporation?”
    “ A ranch,” he said simply.
    “ A ranch?” Cassandra echoed with a smile. “With cows?”
    “ With cattle and barns and corrals and…horses.”
    Cassandra jaw dropped. The blood drained from her face, and she fought desperately for breath.
    Gregory Leeds watched his daughter turn the color of newly fallen snow, and saw, too, the sharp rising and falling of her chest as she fought to digest his words, but he held his own emotions in check; too much was at stake.
    The world swam before her eyes. She felt as though she were falling, arcing through the air and landing on her head and right side. She could hear the snapping of her bones and feel the lancing pain. Then she reached deep inside herself for strength and forced herself to breathe normally. A moment later her vision cleared, and she stared at her father with reproach and unvoiced accusation.
    “ Do you want to call it off?” Gregory asked in a gentle voice.
    Yes !!! Was her silent scream. But, from that same place where she had found the strength to fight away her fear, she found the strength to stand up to him. “I’d rather die first.”
    Gregory kept his face emotionless. His heart pounded as it had not done in years. Despite his desire to have her turn down his offer, he was strangely glad she had not done so.
    “ All right, Cassandra.” He reached for the thick manila envelope lying on the coffee table. “This is the information you’ll have to study before going to Arizona. You have a week to prepare yourself. Elizabeth will show you to an office you can use.”
    Cassandra realized, from the tone of his voice, their meeting was over. Standing, she stared at him. “Thank you, Father,” she said as she took the envelope. Walking quickly from his office, she prayed he had not seen the way her hand had trembled when she’d taken the packet.
    Outside, with the door closed, she leaned against its hardness. She took several deep breaths before starting toward her father’s secretary. What have I done?
    ~~~~
    The sun’s bright rays bathed the rolling meadow in golden light. The velvet swath of grass, which spread out for a hundred unspoiled acres, was broken in