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‘But she was too stubborn?’
His lips thin into a tight smile as he avoids giving me the answer I know he’s thinking. But I’m not letting him get out of it so easily—not when it hurts Lexi.
‘So—what? You worked behind her back to see her pushed out?’
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘It’s how it seems.’
‘Why do you think Marie came to you?’
I’m taken aback, thrown once more, and my brain reels, trying to process where this is going and what it means.
‘She came to me because she was worried about Alexa’s health,’ I say. ‘The fact that she was working so hard. She knew things in the company were unsettled and...’ Suddenly it all clicks into place. ‘You spoke to her?’
He takes a second to respond, and then he acknowledges it with a nod of his head. ‘I did. I had to. She had her own grief to come to terms with. She couldn’t see what was happening to Alexa under her nose. How exhausted she was. How overworked, under-rested... Not to mention she wasn’t grieving. Not properly, at any rate. She was too busy protecting your mother from seeing anything bad.’
Now I truly am lost for words. It makes sense now—so much sense I can’t believe I didn’t see it for what it was. How did I not guess Ethan’s motivations from the off?
But it was a risky strategy. Using the company to do it, risking its reputation—not to mention he played me.
‘I’m sorry if you thought it backhanded,’ he says, as I quietly process it all, my conflicted emotions likely playing out in my face. ‘But Alexa needed someone to break through that exterior of hers, make her realise that it’s not a weakness to accept help, and that someone was you.’ He shrugs again, and this time his eyes sparkle, a true smile playing about his lips. ‘Judging by the two of you this evening, I think I called it quite well.’
His suggestive comment has those gut-flutters taking off again and I cover them with a stern statement of fact. ‘You risked the company to do it.’
‘No, Cain.’ It’s his turn to be severe. ‘Alexa needed help, and Alexa is the company. You both are.’
I don’t want to dwell on whether he’s right or not—whether I want him to be right or not, I’m still reeling from the fact he set us up and I was blind to it.
‘So you played us?’
‘Don’t sound so defeated about it. I was playing these games when the pair of you were still in nappies.’
A surprising laugh erupts from within me. Shock, I guess. Shock and a sea of other emotions I can’t begin to identify.
I take a swig of champagne, my eyes sweeping the room, looking at the people who have welcomed me back with open arms. But the only person I want to greet me in that way is currently in the ladies’, and all I want to do is go to her and tell her I’m sorry. Which is madness when I think about the past and all she’s done to me. It doesn’t stop the urge, though.
‘And it wasn’t just for the good of the company...’
Ethan’s voice is thick with emotion once more and I look back to him, my eyes narrowed. ‘No?’
‘It was for your father too.’
The drink catches somewhere between my stomach and my throat, burning like acid. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It was always his dream to have you come back, to have both his boys at the helm. He never realised his first step in that direction would send you running...’
He has the good grace to look apologetic about raising what my father did, cutting me out, but he carries on anyway.
‘And then, when you got so big all on your own, he knew he could hardly go asking you to return. He never gave up hope that you would to do it of your own accord, though... One day.’
My stomach churns and my ears whirr as blood races too fast through my system. I need to breathe, but I can’t pull in air. Dad was right. I always intended to come back. I even had a house built—a home not far from theirs, made ready for when that day came.
Only I waited far too long and fate stepped in. And their deaths brought an anger that I’ve clung to in order to avoid this crippling force inside me, this desolation, this agonising loss.
Mum has helped me to understand my father’s motives—helped me forgive, even. And Ethan’s words only reiterate what she’s told me many a time.
The regret I feel at never being able to fix it, to make amends...it’s crushing. But Liam... My head shakes. My battle with him is about so much more. It’s about her. Lexi. My twisted heart taunts me with my age-old feelings for her—feelings that no amount of jealousy or hatred have been able to quash.
