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“He’s decisive and opinionated and so controlling that it pisses me off .”
I pace .
“He’s serious. He hardly ever laughs. It’s annoying really .”
I pace .
“He sucks at blackjack and poker. He sucks at all card games really .”
I stop .
“You love him,” he says .
I shrug as tears well in my eyes. “It doesn’t matter if I love him. It only matters if he loves me .”
And I already know the answer. He doesn’t .
Granddad holds his arms out to me. I walk over to his bedside and curl up like a child would in her mother’s lap. I let the tears fall as he gently rubs my back until no more tears can fall .
“I’m going to tell you a story that I promised I never would .”
I hiccup .
He smiles and kisses the top of my head. “It was three years ago. Your father had fallen ill .”
I sit up before turning to look at him. “What do you mean, my father was ill ?”
He sighs. “You were in school. It was stage one colon cancer .”
“What?”
“Calm down. They were able to easily cure it because they’d caught it so soon. We didn’t want to worry you since there was nothing to worry about. He wouldn’t have died from the cancer .”
I nod although it doesn’t make me feel any better that they kept secrets from me .
“Anyway, the cancer scare was enough for your father to rethink his life plans. He loved his work. He loved running the company. It’s all he’d ever dreamed about, but it made him realize that he wanted more. He wanted to retire, to travel, to find out what living was like, outside of the daily grind of work .”
I nod .
“At the time, Killian was aware of what we wanted him to do. He had worked for a few months in the VP position and was doing better than any of us had expected.” He pauses. “So, your dad offered him the CEO position with no strings attached .”
“You mean, he could have had the position without marrying me ?”
He nods. “Yes. He told Killian to think about it, but he wanted an answer soon. Killian went to see you shortly after that .”
“I remember. He broke me and Eli up just to spite us, just because he could .”
“Is that what he told you ?”
“He didn’t have to. I understood .”
Granddad shakes his head. “He needed to see you. He realized he would be making a decision not only for himself, but also for you, too. He saw how unhappy you were with Eli. Well, I don’t really know what else he saw when he went to see you. All I know is, when he came back, he told your father he wasn’t ready to take the CEO job yet. He said he wanted to keep the condition that he would have to marry you in order to get it .”
I suck in a breath. That can’t be true. He wouldn’t have come up with a plan so that we wouldn’t have to marry—except that he did…to give me a choice about my own future .
“Your father realized shortly afterward that he wasn’t ready to retire yet. And they never spoke of it again .”
“Why would he do that ?”
