My Husband Played Stranger, So I Took Off the Ring novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Your Call

The door swung shut behind Lionel, and the boardroom began to talk all at once.

I didn't hear any of it.

I looked at Nate.

"What does that mean?" I said. "Yours to lose."

He took my elbow and steered me out into the hall, past the portraits of dead trustees.

Maisie and Bridie stayed behind to guard the folder.

He didn't answer until we were at the top of the marble stairs, where nobody could hear.

"Two years ago, after your mother fell," he said, "I went to my father."

"You never said that."

"I said I took a job at the company. That's true." He rubbed his eyebrow with his thumb. "He offered me a trade in the same breath. I sign three years at the Hargrove Group, no questions, and the Care Foundation covers a third of your mother's bill."

I stared at him.

"You sold him three years."

"I sold him three years of working in a tie."

"For my mother's bed."

"Yes."

"Without telling me."

"You'd have said no."

"Of course I'd have said no!" My voice cracked off the marble. "It was my mother, Nate. It was my bill. You decided for me, again, in the dark, and you let me think the money came from a grant."

"I know."

"You keep deciding what I can stand to know."

"I know." His jaw was tight. "I did it twice. Her sickness, and this. I was wrong both times."

"You were wrong because you didn't trust me."

"I was wrong because I trusted myself."

That stopped me.

He looked at the floor.

"The contract ended on Friday night at the dinner. He can't hold it over me anymore, and the board just took the Foundation out of his hands." He took a breath. "So there's one more thing I decided without asking you, and I'm done doing that."

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