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I swallow over the lump in my throat as my grandfather and Jay stare one another down. The silence is excruciating, and hatred drips from them both, permeating the air with bitterness.
“I only did what you asked,” my grandfather replies, doubling down.
“You kept my daughter from me. For twelve years. I missed twelveyearsof her life.”
Cash’s eyes go wide and lock on me. My heart shatters as a look of betrayal mars his features. “She’s yours?” he whispers.
I nod.
“You had a baby and didn’t tell us?” he says louder, angrier, as if this is his fight.
My grandfather holds up his hand, and like magic, all attention returns to him. “Youput my family in danger.Youbegged me to fix your mistakes.Youtold me to keep her safe. How could I have done that if you knew she had a baby?”
This time it’s my turn to break. “How could you? Ibeggedyou to tell me the truth. And my voice mails…if you heard them all, you knew. You knew how broken I was. How alone. And you let me believe he didn’t care. That he’d gotten Mia pregnant. That I was nothing to him.” A tear rolls down my cheek, and I swipe it away.
“Wait,” Cash says, his face red with anger. “You told us thathegot Mia pregnant.” He points in Jay’s direction, punctuating each word with a jab of his finger. “That he slept with her friend. You told us he betrayed them both!”
And suddenly, the final puzzle piece clicks into place. This is why my brothers hate Jay. Why Carter, his best friend, became his enemy. Why we’re engaged in this damn war to begin with. A fucking lie that my grandfather told to keep us all apart.
To keep us…safe.
“I never touched Mia!” Jay bellows. “Your sister was everything to me. I gave up everything for her, and I’d do it again without a second thought. But what about you, Cash? You claim to love her. To care about her. Where the hell have you been for the last nine months? Your sister has been working herself to the bone for a company that you knew was going under. You told her you’d give her a seat at the table, and then you threw the goddamn wood in the fire and told her to watch it burn!”
My brother’s eyes cut to me. He sees it now. That I’ve always told Jay everything. That this isn’t and never was a marriage of convenience. That Jay is the love of my life.
Dropping his chin, he closes his eyes as shame ripples across his expression.
But is it me he’s ashamed of? Or himself?
Cash’s breaths are heavy. “Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you and your lies.” Jay pushes his chair back and holds his hand out to me.
I look between my brother and my husband, my heart splitting.
But Cash’s lies, my grandfather’s lies, are what brought us here. We could have had it all, but they only thought of themselves. And Jay is my family now—Jay and Chloe and me—so I slip my hand into his and stand.
“Please sit,” my grandfather says, sounding less sure of himself.
Jay is red-faced and trembling with rage, but I tug on his hand, begging him to give me a few more minutes.
“We had an agreement,” my grandfather starts, his eyes cold and set on Jay. “And when I got sick, you went behind my back, started going after the deal we’d discussed. Youdid this,” he admonishes.
Jay’s shoulders sag. “I would never have burned your family. I’d cut out my own eye before I hurt Cat again. But Cash didn’t know about our agreements. He was angry. If I’d told him our plans, no one would have believed me.”
Cash scoffs. “This is fucking unbelievable.”
My grandfather clears his throat, garnering our attention again. “And then you used all the secrets I told you in confidence. The things I told you because you were a broken boy who needed the truth. And you used them to steal my company.” His booming voice vibrates through the room.
Jay’s heavy breaths beside me are like a drumroll, beating each of his words into my brain.
My father’s affairs. Chase’s birth mom. Even in death, Edward James’s transgressions haunt us.
“I wasn’t stealing your company. I was fucking honoring you by continuing with our merger plans.”
Across from us, Cash gasps.
“The plans we made before you tried to destroy my company and force my granddaughter into a marriage she didn’t want.”
