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I nod, then squint.
“What did you say to her?”
“She came into the office a while ago while I was working alone. I know, they’re not supposed to be allowed on company property, but...she cried and apologized for all the shit she’s done, Ward. She begged me to forgive her—”
“And said it was going to be different this time,” I finish with a hard roll of my eyes. “The usual song and dance.”
“Right, and since I’ve heard it before, I thought it was just another one of her drunken guilt trips. It was that week when we were all pushing hard, trying to close the Winthrope deal, so my desk was a mess. I cleaned it this morning, looking for something for Trista. That’s when I realized some media plans were missing.”
Where the fuck is this going? Nowhere good.
“Okay? And? What media plans do you mean?”
“The big plans we hatched a couple months ago. A detailed page of media events complete with love cues to help you and Paige come across as authentic, in love—”
“What?” I damn near bite my tongue.
“The page that was missing. Ward, it was that page.”
“You fucking idiot!” It tears out of me like a Nick-seeking missile.
He doesn’t try to defend himself.
“You’re the leak. You’re the reason our mother knew where to find Paige, and lay into her...” I swipe a hand over my face, temples pulsing.
Silence.
“You should have cut her off when I told you to. You know what she is,” I snarl.
He turns his head away from me with a rough sigh.
“I’m sorry, Ward. You know I couldn’t. I wasn’t fucking strong enough.”
“You shit the bed this time. There’s no telling what she could’ve done with hard evidence,” I say. “I don’t need to tell you how lucky we are that Winthrope didn’t bite.”
“I know.”
“But like I said, it’s not completely your fault.”
“How is it not?” He meets my eyes again, that lost boy look on his face.
“No one wants to think their parents hate them enough to wage war like ours. You’re constantly seeking her approval.”
And constantly getting rejected, but there’s no point in stating the obvious.
“You don’t have a problem keeping your distance. It’s easy for you,” he says glumly.
“I maintain I was born in a test tube.” I shrug.
“I wish I could be as cold as you sometimes,” he says.
“Even if you didn’t keep confidential information as secure as you should have, you didn’t make her steal it. She knows she’s horrible. She knows we’re fucked up because she’s the most selfish bitch on the face of the planet, and she preyed on that. You want to know whose fault this is?”
“Whose?” His voice is so quiet it’s like he’s six, and I’m eight and need to protect him again.
“Giselle and Victor’s. No one else’s.”
He’s quiet for a minute.
“I realized something, though.”
“What?”
“For Mom to be involved with this, I don’t think it’s just about money,” he says.
“Like they ever cared about anything else?” I snap.
“If you did pay Dad off, what’s the chance he’d share it with Mom?”
I shrug. “She’d pop up and make the same demand. Pay me or I’ll blow the cover on your engagement hoax.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. If money is what she was after, she would have gone straight to Winthrope herself. Why involve a man she hates? There was at least a page or two of that media material in the bombshell they sent with Dad’s handwriting on it.”
That’s a good question. I don’t know.
“This was about hurting Grandma and getting even. Spite, maybe,” Nick says with a sigh.
Maybe.
“She always was a vindictive witch.” I scratch at the needling sensation in my throat.
“We got lucky, Ward. You fell so hard for your girl—”
“Paige is a sweethe—” I stop mid-word, horrified at how fast it spills out of me.
Nick’s smile is the kind a man reserves for casino wins. And I’ve just given him the damn jackpot.
“Easy, bro. I didn’t mean to insult your girlfriend,” he says smugly.
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“When are you proposing for real? Don’t you think it’s about time?”
“I’m not the marrying type, and you know it,” I whip back.
“So, you’re cool if I marry her then? Because I’ve been considering making a move.”
My stomach knots, even if I think he’s just messing with me.
Joking or not, I’m still ten seconds from pushing my own brother off the balcony.
“You’ve never even been on a real date in what, five years? Not since you were swept up with Carmen what’s-her-face.” I don’t add more, knowing Nick’s stormy relationship with that terrible woman is almost as big an open wound as my torched engagement.
He laughs so hard he bends at the waist.
“Relax! I’m just fucking with you, man. I’ve never seen you so pale.” He stops to laugh it up some more before throwing a glare. “Seriously. Hurry up and propose before someone else beats you to the punch. She has plenty of eyes on her, and not everyone’s going to be playing.”
