Her phone lay where she had thrown it, dark and silent, a mute witness to the shattering of her world. She stared at it, breath hitching, then wrapped her arms around her knees, drawing herself in as tightly as she could. For now, that small gesture was all the comfort she could summon. Tomorrow, the world would expect her to move, to speak, to act. But tonight, she let the sorrow wash over her, untethered and wild, until at last she drifted into a restless, broken sleep, the sheet wrapped around her like a cocoon.
Chapter 16
"You need to fix it!" Lisa barged into the office with the harried assistant on her heels. Eyes blazing, she whirled around and sent the woman scampering away. Slamming the doors shut, she fisted her hands on her hips and glared at the man behind the baronial desk.
"Let me call you right back." Robert slowly put the phone down and gave his daughter a gimlet stare. "You'd better have a damn good reason for storming in here like your tail is on fire. That was a very important phone call. In case you haven't heard, we're in a mess. The airline merger has stalled and—"
"I don't care." She punctuated her passionate statement by striding forward. "Your son is in trouble—"
His mouth tightened at the mention of Leon. "My son got himself tangled up in a crappy situation. A secret marriage?" When the boy had confessed to him what he had done, Robert had hit the roof. "Do you know the legal ramifications—"
"Legalities?" She planted her hands on his desk, eyes blazing. "Is that all you can think of? He's suffering, for Christ's sake. He'sbeen away for more than a week, and they—he and his wife—are both the worse for it. He's planning on filing for divorce—"
"Which will make things a hell of a lot worse! She'll be entitled to pretty much half of everything." His blood pressure felt as if it was spiking, and his heart was pounding. He wanted to strangle the boy. "And with that family—"
"The woman was your best friend!"
"She was more than that!" he shouted back. Shoving away from the desk, he marched over to the recessed cabinet and shoved at the button viciously. Grabbing the bottle of scotch, he poured a generous amount and turned to face his furious daughter. "She was more than that," he repeated quietly. Walking to the sofa in front of the window, he sat down shakily. "I loved her. Christ!" He took a fortifying sip and leaned back, closing his eyes. "I loved her. I would have married her, but she didn't love me that way. So I stepped back. When she chose Donaldson, it pissed me off, and I decided to hell with her. But she was in trouble, and I had to be there." His expression turned bleak. "She was too good for that conniving, low-down bastard, and I tried to tell her." He gave a jerky shrug, barely noticing that she had come to sit next to him. "All he wanted was her money. I could have killed him for using her like that. And for a while, I despised her for choosing him over me." He drank some more as if to get rid ofthe bitterness that burned his throat. "But when she came to me, I had to help her." He jolted when she touched his arm.
"Now her daughter is in trouble. Dad, she's suffering. I went to see her, and that man is making her life hell. He's pretending to be sick—I know he is—and he's using guilt to keep her chained to him. Leon has been away for more than a week, and I know he's hiding. He refused to speak to me. She cried—" Lisa bit her lip as she recalled the crack in the woman's façade, the hopelessness on her face. "He hasn't called her since he asked for a divorce."
"Damn fool." He muttered. "Why couldn't he have told me before doing something like this?"
"Because he was in love, and the situation looked hopeless. He was in love with the enemy, and they felt like they had no other choice." She squeezed his arm again and forced him to look at her. "You loved her mother. This is the daughter, and this has come full circle. She needs your help."
His brows arched. "What do you propose I do about it? The lawyers are going to have a field day—"
"No." She shook her head, expression firm. "Stop thinking about legalities. Your son is not happy. And if I don't miss my guess, I think his wife might be pregnant. She told me about her dizzy spells and nausea, thinking it's because of stress. I think it might be something else."
His eyes flared at that. "Again, what do you propose?"
She smiled. "You're the only one who can confront that man with his lies and set things straight. Kadian believes she's the one who caused his heart attack, and frankly, I don't believe he had one."
"One cannot have an attack if there's no heart." His scathing response had her smile widening.
"Precisely. Daddy—" She felt the flinching of his muscles at the name she hadn't used since she was sixteen. "They both need you. You work on the father, and I'll handle Leon and his wife." Leaning over, she kissed his cheek. "She's not after his money; she genuinely loves him. Please, do something."
For a long moment, Robert stared at the city through the leaded panes, the glass blurring the evening lights into trembling halos. The silence stretched, weighted with the burdens of years andthe sharp ache of regret. Lisa sat quietly by his side, her fingers still curled around his sleeve, anchoring him to the present.
Finally, he drew in a shaky breath and set the tumbler aside. "This isn't just about business, is it?" he said, voice rough. "It's about not making the same mistakes again. About not turning away when someone needs you because pride gets in the damn way."
Lisa nodded. "You still have a chance to fix things, Dad. For Leon. For her. For yourself."
He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, as if he could rub away the memory of every wrong turn, every word left unsaid. When he looked at her again, the steel in his gaze had softened, replaced by something older, sadder—an acceptance, perhaps, or the first flicker of resolve.
"Tomorrow," he said, forcing his voice steady, "I'll talk to him. I'll make sure the truth comes out—about everything. But you're going to have to keep Leon from doing anything stupid in the meantime. Can you do that?"
She managed a small smile. "If anyone can rein him in, it's me. I learned from the best."
A dry chuckle escaped him. "God help us all if you did."
For the first time that evening, the air between them felt lighter, as if the storm had broken and left the faintest promise of calm in its wake. Outside, the city's lights pulsed on, indifferent but eternal, as father and daughter sat together in the hush that follows confession—bracing themselves for the work and reckonings to come.
*****
Marge hurried over as soon as Kadian pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"There's a man here with your dad." The woman looked furtive and a little scared and anxious.
