Page 14 of Threaded Lies

“Nor have I broken up with anyone.”

“Well, we sure as shit know it isn’t Holden. There’s no love lost there.” He snorts and my breath hitches.

“Drop it,” I warn.

“You can’t lie to me. Like I said, I know you.”

“You really don’t,” I say it softly, and it’s the most honest thing I’ve said this whole conversation.

He blanches. I could have stabbed him, and I think it would have hurt him less. “Wow. Okay.” He holds his hands up. “Apologies.”

We stare at each other across a dishonest silence that normally I’d wallow in. This time though? After the events of the past few weeks? I’m so sick of caring, so sick of placating everyone else.

I look down at my fingers twisting together and feel the need to revisit what exactly got us to this point. To the catalyst and my reasons for saying yes.

It’s almost as if as much as I’ve wanted to avoid this conversation, seeing him suddenly has me needing to rehash it again.

“Tell me again how you found out about my inheritance because the longer I think on this, the more it’s not exactly sitting right with me.”

His sigh is resigned but expectant. He is right. He does know me—or rather he knows me well enough to know that I’d want to talk about this again. “I went to my uncle—Gran’s executor of her will—to pick his legal mind about ways we might be able to get around this whole Holden mess and keep the company in our hands.”

“The same company you had no problem handing away?” I lift my eyebrows, my tone more than accusatory.

“Yes. No. I mean”—he sighs—“I thought it was a good idea; it was what Rhett wanted, but then after I sat back and talked to you, after you made some very valid points, it was like all those doubts I had pushed away came back with a vengeance and made me realize just what we’d be giving away.”

I snort. “A little too late for a change of heart, don’t you think?”

“I think that inviting Holden in was the morally right thing to do to save the company and everyone’s jobs, but his ask of a return was too high and Rhett agreed too quick.”

“Go on,” I say.

“He has too much power and I think it’s pertinent for us to grab back as much control as we can so that there is a set of checks and balances against him.”

“He’d still have the majority ownership and control.”

“He would, yes.” He rubs Winnie’s ears and then looks back at me. “But with everyone on the board on our side, there would be constant strife against anything he wants to do that we disagree with.”

“I don’t think you understand Holden very well. He thrives on that kind of shit.” And when push comes to shove, I don’t agree with his statement that the board is 100 percent on Rhett’s side.

“Perhaps, but I also know from the promises Holden’s made Rhett that he clearly wants the best for the company.”

Promises mean shit coming from Holden. The executed contract in his drawer is proof enough. I bite back the retort though, and study Chad.

He has to know that Rhett has already signed the paperwork, that the company is Holden’s, so why this change of heart? Why now, of all times? And more important, why should I trust a man, why should I marry a man who is clearly keeping this whopper of a secret from me?

I shouldn’t. I won’t. But that doesn’t mean I won’t use him and his lifelong infatuation with me to my advantage.

Nasty and deceptive? Yes. Valid? Very much so.

“So you think me marrying you would help hold tighter to that control?” I finally ask.

“We already went over this.”

“I’m well aware. Explain it to me again.”

“Which part?”

“Let’s start with how good ol’ Uncle Henry told you the details of my inheritance,” I say, baiting him to see if he’ll say more this time or will stick to the same narrative.