My Fiancé Butt-Dialed Me Mid-Affair, So I Married His Brother novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Call the Note

Joanna's POV

The director of the family office came to breakfast at eight, and Constance had set out the good china.

I sat at the long table with Hayes on my right and my father on my left.

Hayes had said almost nothing since the kitchen.

Under the table, his knee pressed against mine, and he had not let it go.

Constance poured the coffee herself.

"I find," she said, "that a decision is easier on a full stomach."

"I find it is easier with the facts," the director said. "I have read the letter Hayes wrote in June. I've read Mrs. Lathrop's notes on your answers last night."

"And?"

"And the question is whether this marriage is a convenience."

"It is," said Constance. "It was a trade in a single night, and everyone at this table knows it."

I felt Hayes's knee go tight.

My father put down his fork.

"I'd like to say something," he said.

"Dale," Constance said kindly. "You needn't."

"I do."

He stood up.

His blue suit hung off him, and his hands were not steady, but he planted them on the table and looked straight down it at her.

"In August," my father said, "Constance came to my house. She said she'd heard about Brandon and a girl, and that if I mentioned it to my daughter, she'd call the note that day."

The director's cup stopped halfway to his mouth.

"She told me I'd lose the house," my father said. "She told me my girl would be on the street. I kept my mouth shut for two months and watched my daughter walk around with that ring."

"Dad," I said.

"Let me finish, Jo."

His voice cracked, and he pushed through it.

"I signed that note after my wife died, because I was drowning and Constance was kind. I didn't read the clause. That's on me. But I let my daughter carry it, and that is the worst thing I've done."

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