I Don't Want Your Love Out of Pity novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Study

Conal's POV

I met Dane at the front door, because I would not let him walk through my house.

He took off his hat anyway and held it against his chest, and his smile was the one he used at funerals.

"Conal. Your man at the gate was most polite."

"You're on my land."

"For three more days, I believe it's partly mine."

I took him into the study and shut the door, so that Leandra and the girls would not hear.

I could hear my own pulse in my ears.

Dane sat down in my father's chair without being asked and put his hat on the desk.

"I'll be quick," he said. "I'm too old to dress this up."

"Good."

"The note is due Friday. All of it, with interest, and you do not have it."

"I'll have it."

"You will not. You sold the north lease for a clinic in Switzerland, and it's gone." He looked pleased. "Yes, I know about the clinic. I know about most things."

I said nothing.

"So here is the offer, same as always. You marry my daughter on Saturday, in the church, with the Cattlemen's Association in the pews. I tear up the note as her wedding gift."

"No."

"I'm not finished. The girls go to a good school in Cheyenne, under your name."

"And their mother?"

"Their mother goes home to New York with a settlement, as befits a seamstress who got above herself."

He said it gently.

That was the worst of him, and always had been.

He never raised his voice, even while he was taking a thing away from you.

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