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“I can’t sit and listen to this nonsense any longer. How could you be so dense?” She threw her arms in the air.
“How do you mean?”
“Wolfe never entertained himself with the idea of marriage and a wife. Not until he saw you for the first time. You were never in his plan. He never spoke of you. Barely even knew about your existence until he saw you. Which leads me to believe that his spontaneous decision had less to do about your father and more to do with the fact that he simply wanted you for himself and knew that courting you was out of the question. Since he had leverage on your father, he thought it would be a win-win scenario. But it wasn’t.” She shook her head. “You made things harder for him. Messier. He could have had your father locked in prison for life if it wasn’t for you. The minute you stepped into the picture—he wanted something of your father’s, and they both had things to bargain. You didn’t help Wolfe’s plan. You sabotaged it.”
“Wolfe is doing the best he can to ruin my father’s business.”
“But he is still out and about, is he not? Your father tried to assassinate him, and Wolfe still held his wedding in this house. The boy has had it bad for you from the moment he saw your face.”
I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry.
I’d seen Ms. Sterling going to extreme measures to try and patch things up between Wolfe and me, but this was stretching it, even by her standards.
“What kind of leverage does he have on my father?” I changed the subject before my eyes decided to spontaneously leak again.
Ms. Sterling raised her tea cup to her mouth, glancing at me from behind the rim.
I didn’t think she’d actually answer, much less that she would know what was going on, but she surprised me on both matters.
“Your father is paying off the governor, Preston Bishop, and Felix White, the man in charge of Chicago’s Police Department, a handsome monthly fee in exchange for their silence and full cooperation. Wolfe’s investigators found out about this not too many months ago. Since Senator Keaton was always in the habit of playing with his food, he decided to torture your father a little before airing his dirty laundry. Have you ever wondered why he never hit a home run?”
I munched on my lower lip.
My father had murdered Wolfe’s brother and then his adoptive parents. He then tried to assassinate him right after burning down an entire pub just to get rid of Wolfe’s briefcase.
Yet Wolfe never striked back.
And it wasn’t as if he was incapable of ruining my father.
“I’m guessing the answer is me,” I said.
She was relentless.
Ms. Sterling smiled, leaning forward. I thought she was going to pat my thigh as she often did, but no. She clutched onto my cheek, forcing me to look into her eyes.
“You took a hammer and broke down his walls, brick by brick. I watched as they collapsed, how he scrambled to try and rebuild them every time he left your room. Your love story was no fairy tale. More like a witch tale. Wicked and real and painful. I swooned when he began to seek you out in the house. When I noticed he was spending less time in his office and more time in the garden. I was thrilled when he gave you gifts, took you places, and showed you off, barely able to contain his joy every time you entered his vicinity. And I must admit, I was relieved to see him breaking down in your room, devastated and guilt-stricken, when he found your pregnancy test in your pillowcase.”
My head reared back, and I shot her a helpless glance.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Her eyes crinkled with naked joy.
He knew.
They both knew.
Yet Wolfe still hadn’t come for me. Contradicting, fierce emotions of excitement, dread, and fear stunned me into silence.
“Francesca?” Ms. Sterling probed, nudging my hand.
I ducked my head down, not daring to see what was on her face.
“It doesn’t matter. Too many things have happened. I cheated on him, and he cheated on me.”
“Love is stronger than hate.”
“How can he love me after all the bad blood between our families?” My head shot up, tears clinging to my lower lashes. “He can’t.”
“He can,” Ms. Sterling insisted. “Forgiving is one of his more beautiful virtues.”
