Page 136 of Keep Me Never
“She’ll lose her studio for good if you walk away!”
My foot freezes midair, my head turning in what feels like slow motion. “What did you say?”
He holds my gaze, motioning to my chair.
I glare from him to the back, to where the bathrooms are. Where Paige has been for quite a long time now.
“She’s fine,” he assures me, and I don’t even think to ask how he would know.
I fucking sit, shaking with anger. I feel like the ground is shifting beneath me, the weight of his words sinking in. I don’t know how to process this, how to respond. My mind is racing.
“What do you mean, she’ll lose her studio? Why would that happen?”
True confusion crosses his features, and his head tips. “You didn’t know?”
“Knowwhat?”
“I assumed you did,” he says, almost more to himself. “The repairs, Chase. After the flood, she’s had no choice but to let it sit.”
“But she goes there all the time…”
“She couldn’t afford insurance, so she goes to fix what she can, but it takes money to truly fix problems, doesn’t it?”
My face falls, my thoughts spinning, nausea working its way up my throat.
Why didn’t she tell me?
The same reason you didn’t tell her.
My head snaps up, eyes narrowing. “You’re rich. You can help her. Why haven’t you helped her? Why leave that stress, that…that pain on her? Do you even know what that place means to her? Do you even fucking care?!”
His features tighten, and he looks away, but only for a beat, He comes back just as calm and unbothered as before. “I will help her, Chase. I have planned to all along. She knows this, but first I need her to sign a contract.”
“What contract?” What the hell is he holding over her?
“I have a legacy to leave behind. My business is built on family, on hard choices and long-lasting loyalties. She is the only family I have left. She signs, marries the man who brings to the table the one trait she will ever need in a partner, and after one year, everything is hers. But the day she signs, I’ll have a crew ready and waiting to take that little hole in the wall she loves so much and create something within it beyond her wildest dreams. Whatever she wants will be hers.”
“That is so fucked up. You’re trying to trap her and you’re using her love for that place, her love for herdad, and your ability to save it to do it.”
“I’m not trapping her. I am offering her something more. It might sound cold, but she and I have had many conversations about this. It’s not as cut-and-dry as you think. She understands my position, and I understand hers. There is just one last piece.”
My throat is closing in on me, dread and I don’t even know what caving in from all sides. “What makes you think she’ll sign?”
“She’ll sign because you won’t be in the way, making her hesitate.”
His words are like a blow to the chest.
Is that what’s happening?
Is that why she’s not giving in to his…fucked-up version of caring?
Because of me? The man who doesn’t even have a truck to his name anymore.
The man with nothing to give but his damn self.
Because that is all I have to offer. Me and my love.
How can so-called family do this to one another? My mother to me, her grandfather to her. Why does money make people so goddamn ugly?
