He Chose His First Love. I Own His Empire. novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Clean Life

"Where are you going?" I asked.

Benton picked up the duffel bag and held it in front of him in both hands.

"There's a security firm in Denver," he said. "A man I served with runs it. He's offered me a job since the spring."

"Since the spring."

"I never answered him."

Odile's lawyer had tactfully gone down the steps to find the car.

The wind came off the river and pulled at my coat.

"The hearing is over," Benton said. "You won. You have the vote, you have the baby, and nobody can drag your name now."

"And?"

"And mine is still in every paper from here to Phoenix. Thief, ex-con, the cousin they threw out. I don't want my name on your daughter's school forms."

"Daughter?"

"Son. Whichever." His mouth twisted. "Hallie, you can have a clean life. A man with a normal past and no scar on his face."

"Benton."

"You've earned it. I won't be what stands between you and it."

I looked at the bag and then at his bandaged hand.

I thought of him at four in the morning in the boathouse door, saying Not her.

"You think I'm going to pick a clean life," I said.

"I think you should."

"Pick up your bag."

"Hallie..."

"I mean it. Pick up your bag, and carry it to the car, and put it in the trunk."

He stared at me.

"I've spent two weeks being decided about," I said. "Dalton decided what I was. Odile decided what was worse for me. You decided I'd want a clean life, and nobody asked me what I want."

"What do you want?"

"I want a man who got blamed for something he didn't do and came back to drive an old woman's car anyway," I said. "I want the man who signed a house away in one minute."

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