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From my vantage point on the couch, I watched Cam glance at my things on the floor, bewilderment casting his face in shadow. Ravi took the pizza box and hurried to the kitchen. He didn’t return.

Cam stepped into the living room, taking in the tableau of me, Mama and Mari with a deepening crease in his forehead. “Shay?”

I wiped my face and tried to smile at him, though I couldn’t meet his eyes.

My mother attacked with a threatening slash of a smile. “Hey there, rich boy.”

“Hello, Miss Honeycutt.” He took a hesitant step forward, still wearing his jacket. “Is…something wrong?”

I finally made eye contact, and once I did, an entire thunderstorm formed in his gaze. He surged forward, making a seat on the coffee table before me and taking my hand. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I hear my phone,” Mari said in a loud voice. “Audra, you want to check with me?”

Mama shook my shoulder, her own silent question. I nodded at her, and she stood. Before she left, however, she stuck a finger beneath Cam’s chin, angling his face up toward her. She said nothing, but the threat was clear.

I pushed on her hip and rolled my eyes. “You’re five-three and a hundred pounds. You couldn’t hurt him if you tried.

“I know people,” she said and flounced away.

Cam’s half-smile disappeared the moment he met my eyes again. “What happened?”

I fought the rising ache in my throat. “After you left, your—your dad asked to talk to me.”

His eyes fluttered shut, and he gripped both my hands. “Are you going to tell me what he said this time?”

My breath expelled out of me all at once, and unadulterated pain took its place. I winced. “Cam, we can’t be together.”

He froze, silent seconds passing while my shattered heart pounded in my chest. His body parts unstuck one at a time, and he took a small breath. “May I ask why?”

“He won’t stop fighting this,” I whispered. “He’ll do anything in his power to keep us apart. He’ll take everything from you.”

“Everything is you,” he whispered. “You’re all that matters.”

I shook my head. “He said he’ll sell the distillery.”

His already stormy eyes went electric. “What?”

I nodded. “He threatened your job with the Fraternization Policy, then said he’d go as far as liquidating the distillery to keep me away from you. He thinks if you’re broke, I won’t want you anymore.”

His hands tightened on mine as he said, “He can’t do that.”

“Are you sure? He seemed pretty confident.”

“He—” Cam released me and straightened. “He wouldn’t. It’s my mother’s.”

“He seemed pretty desperate.” I dropped my gaze to my lap. “He also offered to pay me off.”

He said nothing.

Fingers fidgeting, I continued to speak to my lap, “He said that if I stayed, he’d take everything from you, but if I left, he’d pay me a lot of money.”

His voice went neutral, careful, each word spoken slowly, as if they hurt to say. “And did you take the money?”

I opened my mouth to spit out Of course not! but then thought better of it. Would it be easier if he thought I was leaving him for money? He could direct his anger toward me instead of ruining his relationship with his father.

I looked up into his eyes and managed not to blink when I said, “Yes.”

His expression didn’t change. The tumult in his eyes still roiled like a stormy sea, and through that mayhem, he studied me—my face, my lips, my eyes.