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"Through my company, WestRock. I worked on some of the accounts for his real estate business. Helped him acquire a few businesses and advised him on how to rework them. Helped him make them more profitable in the long run."
"Starting when?"
I sigh. "A few years ago. But I'm trying to tell you, I didn't know it was him back then. I only ever spoke to him through his company's email system. Oftentimes, I was just talking to his secretary or someone else in his company. Even when I sent him emails, he only used his initials to sign off. So when I met you, I didn't know it was your brother sending me after your business."
"But you found out," she insists, her lip trembling. But whether it's in sadness, anger, or a hazardous combination of both, I can't really tell. "Youknewwho he was when you saw him tonight. You've met him."
"Only over video calls. And those only started a handful of weeks ago. Shortly after I met you. And after I… after I realized who he was."
"When?"she asks me again, her tone hard. Unyielding. "When did you realize?"
"I realized it the night you and I had our dinner at the Sandcastle Steakhouse. When you were telling me about your family." My free hand curls into a fist, my fingernails digging into my palm. "I wouldn't have done that if I had known, Denise. I swear—"
"Donewhat?" she asks. "Seduced me? Toyed with me?"
"I wasn't toying with you."
"Youwere," she spits. She's definitely trembling in anger now. "Even if you didn't know you were working for my brother initially, you still knew you were going after my business. Right? You still took me on a date under false pretenses tomanipulate—"
"They weren't false pretenses," I insist, my fist clenching painfully now. "I never lied about my feelings for you. About how beautiful you are, or how much I cared—"
"But you lied by omission, Brett!" she shouts, standing up in a rush and knocking my hand away. "You knew I wouldn't want to go out with you if I knew what you were here to do! You wanted to rip my mother's bakery out from under me! I can'tbelieveI let you help me at the Sugar Breeze—I can't believe I let you anywhere near—!"
I stand too, towering over her. "I did everything I could to stop this, Denise. Tonotbe involved. I risked my job by refusing to go along with Austin's plan to take the bakery from you."
"But you still helped him do it! You kept working for him!"
My belly burns with frustration now. Why is everything suddenly my fault? I expected her disappointment, her feelings of betrayal. But she has no right to blame me for everything that her brother did. "I didn't know one of the people I was buying out was your landlord. I had to help your brother withsomething, Denise. He works closely with my boss, and if I wanted to make partner, I had to—"
"That's right," she says bitterly, crossing her arms. "Partner. It's always about your job with you, isn't it? I guess I should have expected this. Your job is the only thing you care about, after all."
I suck in a deep breath. "That's not true, and you know it. I care about you, Denise. More than I can explain. More than I can put into words."
"Yeah. You haven't put much into words ever." She lets out an exasperated sigh, her eyes straying out to meet the sea. "You'll say anything to woo me. But you still couldn't tell me the truth."
"That's rich, coming from you," I say bitterly. As soon as the words leave my mouth, I regret them. "Sorry." But it's too late.
Denise looks at me again, her nostrils flaring. She's fuming. "Don't you turn this back on me, Brett. I have been nothing but honest with you. This isn't about my relationship with my daughter."
"We've both made mistakes in this, Denise," I say, trying to calm myself, no matter how much her anger stings. "But now that everything has come to light, there's nothing else to do but to talk about it. To work through it together."
"When were you planning to tell me?" she asks, her voice so quiet now it's almost drowned out by the ocean behind her.
"Tonight. Or tomorrow."
"Or next week, or next year." She rolls her eyes. "Typical."
I chew my tongue again. "It's not like that. I waited until after the wedding to tell you because I knew how much this all meant to you."
"And Brittany… oh my God, Brittany," she says, as if only just remembering her assistant manager's role in all of this too. She runs a harried hand through her hair. "You knew about her too…my God, Brett!"
"I only learned about Brittany and Austin at the party last week. I didn't know how to tell you. I thought it would be kinder to wait."
"What if shewastrying to sabotage this job for me, Brett?" Her eyes glare at me, dark as the night sky around her. "Just like she was messing with the bakery. What if Tinsley had cut open the cake and a… a…." She waves her hands through the air, exasperated. "I don't know. A bunch of fake spiders suddenly poured out of it? A dead rat?! If you had warned me, I could have stopped it—"
"But that didn't happen," I remind her. I rub my forehead, feeling tired of this back and forth. "Everything was fine, as far as we know."
"Yeah," she says bitterly. "As far as we know." With another sigh, Denise sits on the low wall again, her eyes cast downward. "I don't even know if I can describe… how much this hurts me, Brett…. To be lied to like this again… it feels so…."
