Chapter 5 - The Apology with Conditions
Dad wanted to send Collin away.
I asked him to wait.
“I’ll speak to him through the door.”
Mom stood in the hallway. Dad remained within hearing distance. Nobody told me I owed Collin privacy.
I opened the inner door and left the security screen locked.
He looked relieved when he saw me.
“Thank God.”
The flowers were white roses.
Our wedding flowers.
I wondered whether he had bought them or taken them from a centerpiece.
“What do you want?”
“To talk like adults.”
“We’re talking.”
He glanced at the screen.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened before he remembered to look sorry.
“I handled things badly.”
I waited.
“Brynn was upset. You were under pressure. Everything got out of control.”
“Why did she tell her mother you were marrying her?”
The flowers lowered.
“Teresa called you?”
“That’s your concern?”
“She gets confused.”
“No,” I said. “Try again.”
Collin looked toward the driveway.
For the first time, I noticed how carefully he was measuring the conversation. Not listening. Calculating.
“We were close,” he said.
“How close?”
“It was complicated.”
“Were you sleeping with her?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Yes.”
The word landed quietly.
For all my suspicions, some foolish part of me had still hoped the truth would stop short of that.
“How long?”
“Mal—”
“How long?”
“On and off.”
“While I was sick?”
He looked away.
That answered more than I wanted to know.
I pressed my palm against the doorframe.
Behind me, Mom inhaled sharply.
Collin heard her.
“Can we please do this without an audience?”
“You brought two hundred people to the last conversation.”
He stepped closer.
“I love you.”
“No,” I said. “You love that I make your life look respectable.”
“That’s unfair.”
“Did you plan to announce your relationship after we signed?”
His expression hardened.
“Who told you that?”
I felt something inside me go cold and still.
“You did. Just now.”
He shook his head.
“There were discussions. Nothing was decided.”
“Discussions with whom?”
“Mallory, my father is trying to keep hundreds of people employed.”
“So am I.”
“You don’t understand how much is at stake.”
“I’m beginning to.”
He leaned toward the screen.
“Withdraw Adrian’s allegations. Tell your father you overreacted. We can work out the rest privately.”
There it was.
The apology with an invoice attached.
“Good night, Collin.”
His hand struck the doorframe as I began closing the inner door.
Not hard enough to break anything.
Hard enough to make me jump.
Dad was beside me instantly.
“Step back.”
Collin looked from him to me.
“You think Shaw is better? Ask him why he bought those loans.”
I stopped.
“What loans?”
A small, ugly satisfaction crossed his face.
“Oh. He didn’t tell you.”
Dad opened the door wider, keeping himself between us.
“You’re leaving now.”
Collin dropped the roses on the porch.
“You’re all going to find out what he really wants.”
After his car disappeared, I called Adrian.
He answered with the same question.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes. Did you buy Prescott debt?”
Silence.
Then, “My investment group acquired part of a loan portfolio that includes Prescott Coastal.”
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I intended to show your counsel the holdings today. We never finished reviewing the packet.”
I remembered Elena keeping the documents.
“Do you stand to profit if their company fails?”
“It depends on the recovery. Yes, that is possible.”
He could have softened it.
He didn’t.
“Then I need to know whether helping me helps you.”
“It might,” he said. “That’s why you need independent advice.”
I sat on the bottom stair.
The difference was almost painful.
Collin wanted me to trust him by asking fewer questions.
Adrian was telling me to ask someone who did not work for him.
“Send Elena everything.”
“I will.”
“And don’t come over tonight.”
“Okay.”
No argument. No wounded performance.
After we hung up, I sat quietly until Dad lowered himself onto the stair beside me.
“I owe you an apology,” he said.
I looked at him.
“For the agreement. For the deadline. For letting a deal put weight on a decision that should have belonged entirely to you.”
My eyes filled.
“Why did you agree to it?”
He stared at his hands.
“Because I thought I knew everyone involved.”
Then he looked at me.
“That is no excuse.”
May you like
For the first time that day, I leaned against him.
He held me without mentioning the company once.
