“Would you like a drink?”
The man walked over to an expensive-looking cabinet. On top was a silver tray housing a crystal bourbon decanter and two matching glasses. Matt remembered the man offering him one of those same glasses the same day the prick had tried to buy him off.
“I didn’t come here for a social call, Marsh. I came here to talk.”
“I have a feeling I know what this is about, so I’ll save you the trouble.”
One large, perfectly square ice cube landed with a dull clink as he dropped it into his glass. Pouring two fingers of what Matt assumed to be high-dollar bourbon over the frozen water, he then returning the delicate stopper and took a sip.
“Yes,” Marsh continued. “I hired a man to take pictures of you and Katherine. And yes, I used those pictures and the threat of bringing criminal charges against you to entice her to end things.”
The asshole didn’t even appear sorry for what he’d done.
Before he realized he’d moved, Matt had crossed the room and was fisting the man’s crisp dress shirt between his two fists. Bourbon spilled sloppily over the tilted glass and onto Marsh’s shirt before he dropped it on the carpeted floor.
“You son of a bitch!” Matt ground out between clenched teeth. “Why?”
Though he appeared afraid, Kat’s dad didn’t back down. “You remember what it was like back then. Whatyouwere like. I did what I did for the good of my daughter.”
“Bullshit!” Matt’s breath flew in and out of his flared nostrils. “You did what you did for yourself. No one else.”
With a harsh shove, Matt released the man and stepped back. If he didn’t put some space between them, he had no doubt he’d beat the man to a fucking pulp.
“I know exactly what I was like,” he continued talking. “I was the man who loved your daughter more than anything in the entire world. I wanted to marry her. Raise afamilywith her. No, I didn’t have a lot to offer in the way of money, but I was working my ass off in the Navy, doing everything I could to better myself so I could provide for her. For us.”
He looked around the dark, stuffy office. “Maybe I couldn’t afford to build this sort of house, but did you ever stop to think maybe Kat didn’t want that? That she was okay living life on our terms?”
“Katherine was seventeen years old.” Marsh picked up the now-empty glass and set it back down. Wiping a hand over his damp shirt, he attempted to regain his composure. “She didn’t know what she wanted.”
“She wantedme!” Matt’s loud voice echoed off the wooden paneled walls. “But you took that choice away because you were so stuck on your high-society bullshit, you were too blind to see what she wanted. The life she dreamed of having.”
Marsh lifted his chin. “She moved on. Did quite well for herself, too. Even married a wealthy lawyer.”
Without missing a beat, Matt came back with, “Agaylawyer who put a bullet in his brain because he couldn’t bear the thought of living a lie for one more day. A lie that included being married to your daughter rather than the man he truly loved.”
“That marriage was her choice. Not mine.”
“You’re right,” Matt nodded sarcastically. “It was her choice. Kat chose to marry a man who had no romantic interest in her whatsoever, because she couldn’t stand the thought of you pushing her to anymore rich assholes.That’sthe choice you left her with.”
Matt crossed the room getting in the bastard’s face. “Brian Anderson killed himself because he would’ve rather been dead than in a fake fucking marriage. Your daughter found him. She still sees the image of him lying in that goddamn shower, his blood and brains splattered all over the fucking walls.Youdid that to her.”
A hint of guilt seeped through the guy’s unshakeable demeanor. It was the first real sign of emotion he’d ever seen on the bastard’s face.
About fucking time.
“You talk about the kind of man I was back then,” Matt continued on. “Let me tell you. I was the man who would have doneanythingin order to be with your daughter. I loved Katherine with everything I had. I would have died to protect her.”
“And now?” Marsh stared back at him. “After everything that’s happened between you two, would you still give your life to keep Katherine safe?”
Matt didn’t hesitate. “You bet your ass, I would.”
“Good.”
The man’s response left him blinking.
“Weren’t expecting that, were you?” Marsh gave him a sad smile. “No, I don’t supposed you would.”
He stepped to the side and made his way back over to the bourbon. “I know you probably won’t believe me, but I do regret what I did to you both.”
