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“Yes?”

“Did you ever cheat on your wife?”

William’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything.

Gramps spoke firmly. “I never even thought about it,” he said. “She died before you was even born, but she still my one and only wife. I never hurt her, not ever. She’s the best thing I ever had going for me.”

Joy smiled. Somehow she needed to know that it was possible. I love you, Gramps.”

“I love you too, Baby Girl.” Then he looked at William. “You hurt her. Don’t you dare pretend like you didn’t.” And then he looked at Joy again, and left.

William momentarily stood there and pinched the bridge of his nose. He above anybody else knew that he stole the joy from Joy. And he had to do all he could to get it back. To win her back. To keep her.

When Joy stood up, and William removed her gown and began dressing her, a wave of emotion came over both of them. And tears appeared in Joy’s eyes. Those same tears that always did something to William. He pulled her into his arms.

They held on for dear life while Joy allowed her sobs to run their course. And then she pulled back again, and she and William began putting on her clothes.

They were a long way from okay, and they were nowhere near on the same page, but at least they were in the same room.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

William, Bobby, and the CEO of SPR Jim Flannagan, were in the living room at William’s estate speaking quietly when Joy made her way downstairs. She had showered and changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, hoping that she and William could speak further about their situation. But she wasn’t in the shower yet when she heard the intercom announce the arrival of Jim and Bobby. Minnie was also in the room seated beside William. As Joy saw it, she was sitting pretty beside William and doing little of nothing the way she was usually doing.

Not that she had anything against Minnie. She didn’t. It was just that she couldn’t help but be suspicious of William whenever it came to women. She hated that she felt that way, but she felt that way.

“Joynetta,” William said with a lift in his voice when she entered the room.

Jim and Bobby, realizing that the boss’s wife had entered their orbit, quickly rose to their feet. Minnie, although it was obvious she was only following their lead, rose too.

“Come sit by me,” William, who remained seated himself, said to her. He was patting on the sofa seat on the other side of him.

Joy would have rather sat in a chair, with its own boundaries, but William was always directing her movements. So much so that she almost told him that she’d rather stand. Since that would be a lie, she didn’t go there. She didn’t see the point of creating more problems when they had way too many already. She spoke to their guests, and sat down beside him.

“You okay?” William asked her as she sat down.

She didn’t respond to that. He knew she wasn’t okay! How could he even ask her that?

William and everybody else in the room could feel the chill she brought with her. And rightly so, both Bobby and Jim thought. That was why they glanced at each other. But Bobby was particularly upset by the entire affair. He even wondered, like many others in the upper echelons of SPR, if that shooting wasn’t directly related to William’s affair with Diana Davenport, or, if not Diana, some other woman from his past.

William didn’t like Joy’s nonresponse, but he knew he could be that way too, so he moved on. He was leaned back, with his legs crossed, while Minnie and Joy were seated more on the edge of the sofa. Neither one of them seemed particularly comfortable. “What’s the fallout so far?” William asked his chief-of-staff.

“Arthur Davenport is our problem,” said Bobby. “He’s all over social media blasting you. Not just because you had an affair with his wife, but he claims you manipulated his wife into having an affair with you. He even claims you had just gotten married to Joy when this affair took place.”

“That’s a damnable life,” said Jim. “Arthur attended the wedding. He knows better than that.”

Joy looked at William. “He attended our wedding?”

William hated to admit it. “Yes.”

“His wife too?”

There was a pause. “Yes,” William said.

Joy wanted to run upstairs and pack her bags and leave for good. “What’s wrong with you?” She said it in a tone that shocked all three of his employees. Nobody talked to Willliam Skeffington that way!

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” William said.

“But you knew you slept with her. Why would you invite her to our wedding?”