I Can Hear My Paralyzed Billionaire Husband's Thoughts novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Without the Cane

Damian's POV

The cane rolled away across the marble, and I walked without it.

Straight toward the staircase.

I had walked three that week, and thirty at the gate, and none of them had mattered.

These did.

"Stay back, Damian," Rhett said.

"No."

"I mean it. I'll do it."

I could hear Clara, very loud, in the space behind my eyes.

Don't look down. Don't look down. If he lets go, grab the rail.

She was not thinking about herself.

She was thinking about how to make it easier for me.

I took another step.

My left leg shook, and I locked the knee, and it held.

"You won't do it," I said. "You need her to sign, and you need me alive until the vote. If she goes down those stairs, three hundred witnesses watch you do it."

"They already watched me." His voice cracked. "You think I don't know how that sounded? You think I don't know what's on that drive?"

"Yes."

"Then I've got nothing left to lose."

"You've got me," I said. "Let her go and take me."

Clara's thought went white with horror.

No. Damian, no.

I didn't look at her.

I looked at the man I had played chess with every Christmas since I was nine.

"Why?" I said. "Tell me why, Rhett."

Behind me, the guests had filled the doorway, and nobody breathed.

Rhett's grip on Clara tightened, and then, slowly, it loosened.

"Because I ran that company for nine years," he said, "while you took the credit. Because your father looked at you and saw a CEO, and he looked at me and saw a man to carry your bags. I was good at it. I was better than you."

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