He Reversed His Vasectomy for Another Woman, So I Took Everything novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Franklin Speaks

My father walked to the stage with his napkin still in his hand.

He took the steps one at a time, and the whole ballroom watched him do it.

Benton stood beside me, breathing hard.

"Franklin," he said. "Tell them it was your idea."

"It was," my father said.

He held out his hand for the microphone, and I gave it to him.

I had never seen him look so old.

"My name is Franklin McAlister," he said. "Most of you have known me for thirty years."

No one made a sound.

"Five years ago I paid this man four million dollars to marry my daughter."

A gasp went up and broke over the tables.

"I paid him to keep her childless. I told him to have a vasectomy and show her the paperwork, so she'd think it was his idea. I told her the man she loved had taken two million dollars to leave. I told that man she had chosen someone else, and I had a note forged in her handwriting to prove it."

He did not look at me.

He looked at the back of the room, where Cosimo stood with his arms folded.

"I owe you an apology, Mr. Carraro. You'll have it in writing."

Cosimo gave him a small, flat nod.

"And I approved every transfer Benton made out of my daughter's trust, for two years, and I told her it was for her safety. It wasn't. It was for the McAlister name." His voice shook. "I was afraid, and I was a coward, and I called it love."

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