Page 34 of It Starts With A No

His brother reveled in the chance to launch his whole you-should-stay-away-from-that-woman speech.

She’s linked to the Eolenfelds. She can be nothing but bad news. You can’t trust her. Elton said a lot more. After all, the elevator in the building moved at nearly about the same pace as the elevators at EB Co.

Seth had tuned his brother out. That was until he caught the word ‘blackmail.’

At first, Seth thought Elton had found out that he’d gone to Edward Eolenfeld for a loan. Then he realized his brother was talking about Clary and her wound. I’m sure she’s going to use that to blackmail you.

She hadn’t.

Elton didn’t know that Seth had already seen Clary that morning, and she’d had plenty of time to blackmail or guilt him into owing her a favor. She didn’t.

He would rather she’d done that.

Because her silence made him feel more guilty. Enough for him to go out and buy that diamond ring. “You’ve already been sensing numbness in your fingers, right?”

“I refuse to accept that report. I’ll be fine.”

“You refuse to accept that report?”

“Jesus will heal my wound up just fine.”

He blinked. He wasn’t expecting that. She had seemed interested in his robotics work. There wasn’t a single Christmas decoration at her house. “You’re one of them.”

“One of them?”

Seth shook his head. “You were never going to help me with the loan.” Why did he spend all of last night and this morning feeling so guilty?

He’d been thinking about what happened, about how she’d put herself in front of him. He’d played the scene over and over in his mind and come up with a list of what he could have and should have done that would have kept her from getting hurt.

Once again, he’d been played.

He’d been duped into thinking that someone related to the Eolenfelds might actually be a decent human being. He ran his tongue under his teeth, stopping at the chipped canine. “I should’ve known better.”

“Whoa.” She grabbed the sleeve of his suit jacket when he stood. “What are you talking about? One of who? Known what?”

“You’re a Christian.”

“Yes, so?”

“So you think what I’m doing is an abomination. I’m going against God’s will. I’m playing God.”

“What? I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

Seth shook her hand off. “Stop pretending.”

“Seth Anderson.”

He’d come with a prepared speech about how the robotics arm could help change the world. He was going to offer her a tour of the laboratory, something he’d never done before.

Stopping at the door, he spun back to her. “And just so you know, your God’s the one who made it necessary for me to do what I do.”

She opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again.

Seth waited. The people picketing outside his office always had a snide retort, usually a Bible verse or something that sounded like one.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Again, the complete lack of anger in her voice caught him off guard—just as it had when she dealt with Elton at the hospital.

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