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Summer waited expectantly for me to begin, and I could tell that we’d released some of the tension simmering between us. She was willing to listen to me for the first time since the incident.
“You know that I owned a small percentage of the restaurant business, right?”
“Owned?” Her brow furrowed. “As in past tense?”
I smirked. “A lot has changed over the last three years.”
When the business was started so long ago and a partnership agreement was made, Michael and I were babies and Summer wasn’t born yet. Our dads decided that they wanted it to be a family business, so they each owned 42% of the business, while Michael and I were given 4% each. It was mostly a gesture to show their intention of passing the business down to us someday. But as we got older, Michael realized that he had no interest in the business. While he was in college, he sold his shares back to our dads, splitting them evenly between the two men.
“When our dads had that fight three years ago, the one about expanding the business overseas, I should have been the tie-breaker. I was a partner in the business, no matter how small my slice of the pie was. But instead of asking my opinion, my dad concocted his plan to force yours out of the business.”
“I know that,” she snapped, her anger surging to the surface again. “I know exactly what you two did.”
“No, you don’t. The only way for a partner to be forced out of the business was by majority vote, so Dad needed me to agree, but he knew there was no way I’d ever do that. Hell, I think your dad was right about not expanding overseas in the first place.”
“But youdiddo it,” she argued.
“I trusted my father.” I felt like an idiot for that now. “He and your dad ran the business, and I just signed off on financial statements a couple of times a year to collect my dividends from the profit. I didn’t even read them, Summer.”
“What are you saying?”
She sounded exasperated, and I knew that she didn’t understand what truly happened. Taking a chance, I scooted closer to her, reaching out to take her hand. She let me, and relief washed over me.
“I’m saying that your dad wasn’t the only one betrayed. I went to dinner at my parent’s house one night and was told to sign a few papers. ‘Dinner’s on the table,’ he told me that night. ‘Don’t waste time reading over some boring financial stuff.’ And I listened. I scrawled my signature on papers I didn’t even read without realizing one of them was a document to force out the minority partner.”
“Minority partner? My dad owned 48% of the business!”
“Yes, and that’s why my dad needed my signature. The partnership agreement made it possible for him to be forced out with the agreement of the partners that owned over 50%. But I swear to you, I didn’t know that’s what I was agreeing to. Back then, I trusted my dad, to a fault.”
When I realized what he’d done, I’d never felt so foolish. My dad had used me for his own agenda, and I’d lost one of the most important people in my life as a result. I understood why Summer placed so much of the blame on me for what happened, but I never would have done it if I’d read the damn papers like I should have. Will was a good man that helped build the business from the ground up, pouring his heart and soul into it. He was given a fat check covering his capital investment plus interest, but it was still a devastating blow for him.
“By the time I found out what my father had done, it was too late,” I continued. “I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“What happened between you and your dad?” she asked in a soft voice. She hadn’t said much as I told my story, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“We had a huge fight. I wanted out of the business after that, so I insisted on selling him my shares and cut off contact for good.”
She blinked at me in shock. “Are you saying you haven’t spoken to him in three years?”
I nodded grimly.
I had done it, I had finally told her everything and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, one that I’d carried around for way too long. Now that I’d come clean, the ball was in her court.
All I could do was hope she believed me.
CHAPTER9
Summer
My mind was whirling. I couldn’t believe that I slept with Levi. He was supposed to be my enemy, and I had given in so easily. The moment his lips touched mine for the second time, all of my resistance just melted away. I was so tired of fighting my feelings, and I just had to know what I was missing.
Then, it was over, and reality came rushing back to me. I felt like I had betrayed my family. It wasn’t just because of the sex. I could forgive myself for that part. It was the emotional connection I felt to Levi that flooded me with guilt. I was naive to believe that I’d put my crush far behind me. The truth was that I’d just buried those feelings under layers of anger and resentment.
It was too much to deal with all at once, which was why I’d pushed him away from me as soon as my orgasm passed. In the moment that I climaxed, I felt a rush of affection for him that scared the hell out of me.
My plan had been to put distance between us immediately, and now, he was telling me a story that painted him as innocent in all this, but could I really believe him? I wasn’t sure.
In my heart, I wanted to trust him again. The walls I’d built up around my heart had been demolished the moment I gave in to my desire. But it was complicated. My family was still carrying so much hurt over the past, and I didn’t want to add to it by moving forward with Levi. And yet, I didn’t feel as if I could walk away, cutting him off again. I wasn’t strong enough to do it. I was so torn between my loyalty to my dad and the affection I felt for Levi that my heart was shredded by it.
