Page 96 of The Bodyguard

“All he wants is for you to be happy, Lena.”

“When it suits him.”

“This has rattled him. I mean, really rattled him. I think what happened in Germany really got to him, more than he’s ever going to be willing to admit, but he’s shaken. I can see it. And without Jonah, he knows he may not have made it.”

“So he’s, what? Forgiven him? Just like that? And now he’s suddenly potential son-in-law material?” I shake my head. “I’m not buying it, Ollie. Dad will never be able to relinquish control, of anything.”

“Do you love Jonah?”

I take a step back, narrow my eyes, and stare at my brother. “I’m sorry?”

“Do you love him? Just answer the fucking question, Lena.”

“I don’t… Jesus, Ollie, this is starting to feel like an ambush.”

Jonah’s coming. Here. To this house, and I’m not ready. I don’t even know if I want to be ready, everything I had planned, this new, exciting start I was all set to undertake, it’s crumbling down around me now and I have no idea what to do.

“We all get that you want to step back from Nielsen Construction, take a back seat as far as the family business is concerned, but does that also mean you have to take a step back from us?”

“I still don’t understand what Jonah has to do with anything. Why Dad went to see him, I mean, what did he tell him, exactly? I’m struggling here, Ollie. Help me make this make sense because, right now, it doesn’t. None of it does.”

“He thinks you’re running away. He thinks that you want to be with Jonah, that leaving your family behind is the only way that can happen.”

“I had no idea where he was, Ollie. No fucking idea. So, even if Ihadwanted to be with him, he was –isnot the reason I’m walking away from this family. I just can’t be a part of what you do anymore. And it’s a number of things, shit that’s probably been building for years, I don’t know, it just feels like a million straws suddenly broke the camel’s back and I needed to get away. Finding out Novak was my dad – my biological dad – that really messed with my head. And then finding out that you all knew about that, all this time…” I cross my arms again, and shake my head. “None of this has anything to do with Jonah. And everything to do with this family. So, just let me have time, Ollie. Tell Dad that, okay? Just give me time.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know all that much right now, I need to think. And, knowing Jonah is on his way, I didn’t need that. I don’twantthat.”

Lies.

That’s a lie.

Ollie drops his head and rakes a hand through his hair. “Aright,” he sighs, raising his gaze and locking eyes with me. “Alright. I’ll tell him.”

“It’s a compromise. And I’m not saying I’m coming back home, don’t make him that promise. Don’t do that. Because I really do need some time away. I need something else, Ollie. Something new.”

“What about Jonah?”

I lean back against the glass and shoot a quick glance over my shoulder. “I can’t exactly turn him away, can I? Not after he’s come all this way.” I look at Ollie, and although I’m angry and tired and so done with the fact that I don’t think I can ever really escape my family, I’m secretly excited to see Jonah again. And yet, at the same time, I’m wary. Nervous. I don’t trust my family. I don’t trust my father’s motives. This could be a trap. And all of a sudden I’m gripped with a new kind of fear.

“This doesn’t feel right,” I whisper, walking towards Ollie. “None of this feels right. I don’t believe Dad has no idea where you are. You’re doing his dirty work, telling me what he wants me to hear, and using Jonah like this…”

“Lena, Jesus, come on! You can trustme…”

“No.” I shake my head again, more vigorously this time. “No, you see, that’s where you’re wrong. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust any of you. Dad doesn’t forgive betrayal, he doesn’t do that, regardless of whether Jonah saved his life or not. He isn’t that kind of man.”

“Almost dying can change even the hardest of men, Lena. Even men like Dad.”

“If this is a trap…”

“I’m begging you, Lena, you have to believe me. And, yeah, okay, I lied about Dad not knowing where I am. He sent me. But only because he’s literally just got back from Sweden. And he is desperate, I mean, really desperate to stop you from cutting yourself off completely. He can’t lose you. He can’t. And I don’t want to lose you either.”

“I can’t live with the fear anymore, Ollie. Do you understand that? I can’t live with the fear and the worry and that constant sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time you and Dad are involved in something dangerous and – and wrong. It’s wrong, what you do. Whatwedo. It’s wrong.”

“We don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. You know that.”

“Until someone who doesn’t deserve it gets caught in the crossfire. And it happens, Ollie. You know it does. It happens.”

---