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Their father stiffened. “I can’t think of any reason why I should accept such a stipulation.”
“Because it lends credibility to our position about the article,” Mason pointed out. “The fact that you insisted on keeping her with the company despite the rumors is practically a recommendation in and of itself.”
Crafty. Appealing to their father’s ego.
But then, Mason had always been more effective when it came to navigating the waters of flattery.
Heaving a beleaguered sigh, Parker Kane shook his head.
“Fine. But should there be negative consequences to any part of this arrangement, I will hold you both personally responsible.”
There had been times when Samuel had refused to speak and times when words failed him. But never in his memory had there been a moment so pure and rare that words felt like a betrayal.
A victory had been won.
The polite tap on their father’s office door interrupted the tense silence.
“What?” he barked.
The door inched open, revealing Charlotte’s concerned visage. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “You have a call with Vibrant Health in five minutes.”
“I believe we’re finished here.” He looked from Samuel to Mason.
“Totally finished on this end,” Mason said. “Samuel?”
“Completely.”
Together, they exited their father’s office. Samuel’s knees were rubbery, sweat drying on his clammy skin. Walking down the hallway toward the elevator, the brothers fell into step. Legs of precisely the same length finding the same stride. Twins after all.
They stood side by side, waiting for the car to come.
“I’m not sure why you did that,” Samuel said, “but I want you to know that I’m grateful. After what I tried to do—”
“What you tried to do,” Mason said, “was get me booted from a role I’ve clearly resented for years by reuniting me with a woman you mistakenly believed I loved. You absolute bastard. How dare you?”
“Point taken.”
Mason nodded to a pair of admins who ducked their heads and giggled the second they passed. “I’m the one who should apologize.”
A sentence Samuel had never in his life expected to hear. “For what?”
“For letting you shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility as long as you have.” His brother glanced toward the expanse of windows at the end of the hall. “I guess I had always assumed that you took on as much as you did because you wanted to. Not because I was such a fuck-up that you had to.”
“You’re not a fuck-up.” Samuel smirked. “Just especially gifted at evading responsibility.”
“Accurate,” Mason agreed. “I just never really wanted this, you know? The whole corporate-owned soul thing.”
“It’s not like any of us were given much choice,” Samuel said. And this was true. From the time they’d been old enough to lurch down their family home’s marbled halls, they’d been guided through a carefully orchestrated regime of activities designed to prepare them for the life their father had in mind. They had arrived at an entirely different territory now.
“So what are you going to do?” his brother asked.
“About what?”
Mason raised an eyebrow at him. “About the fact that you’re madly in love with Arlie Banks?”
The denial rose in Samuel’s throat, but he no longer had the strength to pretend.
He was in love with her.
He had been in love with her.
“She has no reason to forgive me,” he said.
“I did,” Mason said. “Don’t you think there’s even the slightest chance that she might understand how what you did had everything to do with our father and nothing to do with her?”
Samuel just stared at his brother, shocked by this unexpected insight.
“Maybe you could try to look a little less surprised that I’m capable of empathetic thought?” Mason asked.
“I’m sorry,” Samuel said. “I just don’t know how she could want to be with me after all that’s happened.”
The elevator dinged, burnished-metal doors sliding open.
They stepped in.
Mason stepped toward him, dropping his hands on Samuel’s shoulders.
“You are Samuel Kane. You graduated magna cum laude. You have pulled off seventeen mergers deemed impossible by Forbes. Beyond which, I happen to know that you’re remarkably good looking. Go. Get. The. Girl.”
