When the Billionaire Begs novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The First Beg
"One minute," I said.
Stellan stayed on the top step with his hands in his coat, and I came down to the pavement.
Carlton looked at me for a while before he spoke.
"I didn't know," he said. "Not any of it. I swear on my father."
"Your father was the problem."
"I know." He laughed, and it came out broken. "She raised me on that house and those rules. I thought it was love when she said you were sensible."
"It was a leash."
"It was a leash." He nodded. "I held the other end for three years and never looked at who was wearing it."
"You looked at me every day."
"I looked at the one thing you needed from me." He wiped his face with his sleeve. "I'm going to say it plainly, since nobody ever taught me how. I'm sorry. For the wrist. For Odette. For the freeze, and the lawyer, and the way I made you wait in a doorway."
"Go on."
"For all the dinners where I let you sit at the far end."
I waited.
"I'm not asking you to take me back," he said. "I'm asking you to forgive me, so I can stand to live with it."
It was more than I had ever heard him say.
It was also exactly what I would have given everything for, three years ago.
"No," I said.
His face went white.
"Not because I'm cruel," I said. "Because forgiveness is a thing you earn with years, and you've given me a week. I'll tell you what I can do."
"Anything."
"I can stop hating you. That costs me nothing and it's already happening."
He closed his eyes.
"And the money?"
"The money is mine to repay. The real number is thirty-one thousand, four hundred dollars, and I'll bring it to you with every statement I have."
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