Chapter 9: What He Paid

"Let me explain," Rowan said.

"Explain."

He did not touch me.

He stood with his hands open, in the firelight.

"Constance was going to sell that vote to Tobias," he said.

"He offered more than I did."

"If she had, he would have taken the company, and the vote would never have reached you."

"So you outbid him."

"Yes."

"And you didn't tell me."

"I intended to tell you when you turned twenty-six. I was going to hand the shares back."

"You were going to hand me my own mother's shares," I said.

"Yes."

"After I had spent five more months scrubbing your fiancée's mother's floors."

His face went still.

"You saw me at the dinner," I said.

"You saw a girl carrying soup who owned thirty percent of your company."

"And you went home and wrote a check to her jailer."

"Willa..."

"Say it was a mistake."

He closed his eyes.

"It was a mistake."

"Say you could have knocked on the kitchen door."

"I could have knocked on the kitchen door."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I wanted the vote," he said, very low.

"I told myself it was for the company."

"I should have knocked."

"Then be a husband who knocks," I said. "That is the only kind I want."

The fire cracked.

I took a long breath and waited for the anger to hit me.

It came, hot and clean, and it was almost a relief.

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