“Just look at me, please.”
She does, and all I see is pain. “You sided with the one man who truly only has his best interests at heart. How could you?”
“I know it looks bad, and he is an asshole, but believe it or not, he was lookin’ out for you.”
“Show me. I’m not gonna ask you again.”
I reach into my cut to pull out the folder. “I was gonna show you tonight.”
“How long have you known about this?”
I sigh. “Just over a week.”
“Before we decided to rekindle things?”
“No. After that. We were always gonna rekindle things.”
She frowns, looking at the photocopies. Her face an exact replica of how I’d imagined it when I finally came clean. “Holy shit.”
There’s a long stretch of silence between us.
“Please say somethin’.”
“I-I don’t know what to say, Aust. I thought I knew what kind of person you are, and clearly I don’t know a damn thing.”
I move in front of her before she can leave. “Don’t go like this. Let’s talk it over.”
She wipes a tear, her face angry. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yes, there is. I was always going to tell you, but I was scared out of my mind.”
“All I hear in that sentence isI.This isn’t about you, it’s about me,” she says, her eyes hard. “It isn’t even this.” She waves thepapers at me. “It’s the idea of my dad and you having a secret meeting about me, and I’m the last one to know.”
My heart sinks. “It wasn’t like that. I swear to god. He was desperate. He doesn’t trust anyone, and he came to me, that meant something.”
“I’m sure it did, from a man you hate.”
I shake my head. “That’s not what I mean. For him to be worried, that had me panicking.”
“And to think I came here to apologize!” she snorts. “Never thought I would be the one walking out of here with bitter disappointment.”
“You’re not goin’,” I tell her when she tries to reach past me for the door. “I let you go once, and that was a mistake.”
“Austin, move.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “What matters is that we find out who’s doin’ this, and we need to start with questionin’ Hally Baltmore.”
She frowns. “What did she do?”
“Let’s just say she’s been snoopin’ around and we need to know why.”
“Fine. I’ll talk to her.”
“No. I’m steppin’ up as a husband, and you may not like the idea that I’m gonna be right here next to you when you’re mad at me, but I don’t care. I’m not lettin’ you walk outta here.”
She closes her eyes. I can see how tired she is and I hate myself because I’m putting her through more stress. “I don’t like you right now.”
“You don’t have to like me. But this is serious.”
