She froze and took a step back. “I am sorry.”
“You need to know something, and I hope you take it to heart. As much as you love me. I don’t have the same feelings for you. I don’t love and never will. The love of my life is Ivy. I hope you understand that. She’s the only person I’ve ever loved, and that has never changed and it never will.”
I was too shocked to speak. He said it for Nicole’s ears; I told myself. To dissuade her from ever thinking she had any future with him. That was it, I thought, but after Nicole was finally taken away by a merciless security crew, and everyone had taken their seats at their respective tables, he whispered to me, “I meant it. What I said.” It was as though he was saying it to himself than to me, but before I could ask further, he got up for his guest-of-honor speech.
And even though he’s still talking, making everyone laugh, I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying. The love of my life. It has to be something he was saying to ward off Nicole. I am not capable of love. That statement had to be the truthful one, surely.
The room erupts into another bout of laughter as Damien lands another of his jokes. Everyone seems enthralled by him and his speech, including Nolan, who’s sitting next to me. He has been the one person outside my father who hated Damien, but that seems to have changed now. Or?
“Are you really laughing at his jokes or is it all for show?” I say to him.
“Both.”
“Oh.”
“We have to put on a united front for them.” he nods at the press corp that’s in a pen at the edge of the room. “I don’t want them printing some stupid story. I can see it. ‘Nolan hates his new corporate overlord.’ On the other hand, your husband is funny and I don’t have to pretend.”
“You have to let the beef go,” I respond. “It wasn’t his fault.”
Nolan raises his eyebrows. How do I delicately tell him what really happened without dishing out all the embarrassing details? “I was the one who seduced him, not the other way round.”Nolan turns to me and then to Damien. “Why didn’t you say sooner?”
I look down, unable to face him. “Dad.”
Nolan immediately understands without me elaborating any further. “My only choice was not to say anything at all, or he would have done more than he did to destroy Damien. At that time, it seemed like that was the only option. Now I know I should have been braver.”
“You were brave. The only coward here was me for not trying my best to defend you. I should have done more and instead, I was scared. I’m sorry.”
I am touched by his speech. I think this is the first time in eight years we’ve even spoken about this. Throughout the years we’ve both tried to act like none of us were affected by that moment, but it seems like Nolan lost something too that day. He lost a friend.
“I am sorry too. For taking your friend away from you.”
“Well,” Nolan reaches out for his champagne flute and toys with the stem. “It’s not as though you made Damien and I not speak to each other. So much was left unsaid and so manyassumptions were made. But that’s all water under the bridge. At least you’re with someone you love now.”
I feel my mood darken and my mind immediately goes to what he said to Nicole. “I may love him, but he doesn’t love me. Or at least I don’t think he does. And besides, Carey and Thalia aren’t the only couple getting a divorce.”
Nolan frowns and then chuckles. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening.”
“I can’t be in love with someone and have them not love me back.”She is the love of my life.
Nolan laughs even louder, catching the attention of a few people at the adjoining table. “Let me tell you something. All this; everything that Damien did? It was because of you. It didn’t make sense to me at first. I thought he hated you. I thought he hated us the Hawthornes, but then the board meeting happened and everything clicked into place. All you needed to do to change his mind was say a few words, and he did. Damien was never going to destroy Hawthorne Inc. and sell it for parts. He was never going to destroy it from the inside. The only person he cared about was you. He doesn’t hate you. He loves you.”
“That can’t be true.”
“Are you sure?
She’s the love of my life.
“That man,” he says, pointing to Damien as he makes his way back to our table while the room erupts in applause. “Has loved you for a long time and I doubt he even knew it himself. You were meant to be together and someone like him. He’s not going to take a divorce lying down.”
Damien approaches us just as Nolan finishes talking and Nolan congratulates Damien on his speech.
“As if you heard a word, Hawthorne. I saw you two cackling like witches.”
“Laughing at your funny speech,” Nolan says. He stands up as the host introduces Nolan, “I doubt my own is going to be an improvement.” The light focuses on him and everyone claps for my brother as he makes his way to the stage. My mind is still on what he said to concentrate on anything going on around me. I turn my attention to Damien and whip my gaze back when I see him staring at me.
“Did you like it?” He says.
I nod.
