Page 120 of Worth Every Penny

“I did.” His voice sounds apologetic.

Tears spill down my face as my words from Jack’s party return to haunt me.Dad didn’t deserve it. He was a good man. A hundred times the man you’ll ever be. I yelled it in Nico’s face and he barely blinked, when all the while he knew exactly whattype of man Gerard Lansen was. Shame rushes through me. I’ve been such a fool.

Nico walks towards me, one hand outstretched.

“No.” I hit at his arms. “Don’t touch me.”

He stops. “Kate…”

“No!” I scream. “You lied to me. You swore you wouldn’t, and all this time… all these years…” I close my eyes, my hand clasped over my lips, chin trembling beneath my palm. “Why did no one tell me?”

“Your father. He asked us not to. We swore to him.”

“Why? Because I wouldn’t be able to understand? Because I’m too young? A child? A woman? What was it?” With each word, the pitch of my voice rises. I’m strangely detached, as if the person losing their mind isn’t really me at all, but someone I’m watching from a distance.

“We did it because he asked us to. He made us swear we’d protect you.”

“From what?”

“The truth.”

The word silences my senses before anger screams in my veins. “You can’t protect someone from the truth! You can only hide it from them.”

Tears stream down my cheeks. I can’t stay here. I need to get out. I grab my handbag, fix my gaze on the door and stride towards it. My heels crunch over shards of broken glass with each step.

Nico blocks my path. “Where are you going?”

“Away from you.”

“Let me explain,” he begs.

“Explain what? That you didn’t cover up a crime? That my father didn’t steal from his own company? That you aren’t as much of a fucking criminal as my father was? That you didn’thide it all from me for years? That when you swore to me that you wouldn’t lie to me, you knew you were lying about this?”

There’s a storm of emotion in his eyes as he watches me speak, but he makes no attempt to answer me.

“Can you deny any of it?”

The silence seems to quiver with hope. Desperation. Longing for some other reality than this one.

With a pained look, Nico replies, “No.”

I never knew one tiny word could be so destructive. I clutch at my chest like I can hold myself together as sobs wrack my ribs and tears drip to the floor.

“Fuck, Kate. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” I gasp. “Do you know how painful, how humiliating it is to have your ignorance exposed by someone you barely know? Someone who comes at you with such malice? You didn’t protect meat all. None of you. Not my father, not my brother, and certainly not…” My throat is thick, my voice shaking with emotion. “You… whatever you are to me. Whatever youwereto me.”

“Were?” Nico’s voice is as unsteady as mine and the sound of it nearly brings me to my knees.

“Yes. Were. This”—I wave my hand between us—“is over.”

His face blanches. “Over? You can’t walk away from this. This is once in a lifetime—”

I don’t let him finish. “Cut the crap, Nico.” The words croak out in a pitiful shout. “This isn’t once in a lifetime. This is lies and dishonesty and a dozen other red flags I should have seen a mile off. I deserve more than this. It’s over. We’re finished. I’m finished.”

The words choke me and heartbreak looms at the periphery of my awareness. One more second in this room and it will swallow me. I pace towards the door. I don’t need to look to know Nico’s following me; the dominating crack of his footsteps splits the air.

He grabs my upper arm and spins me around. His handsome face twists with emotion so intense I want to shy away from the force of it.

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