Page 116 of Beau and the Beast

His voice was full of reverence and the enormous reality of what he was implying struck her.

"You're kidding."

He shook his head slowly. "I know it seems unlikely that he—"

"Oh myGod," she interrupted. "I mean, Ithoughtthe other morning when I came to see what you wereroaringabout—I found myself thinking…—but then I told myself I was crazy and—"

"You weren't crazy."

She laughed but it wasn't cruel. It was the sort of bubbling laughter of relief, of surprise.

"Wow. That is... a lot to take in," she said, smiling. "You and Beau. That is..."

"It's wrong."

"I wasn't going to say that at all," she cut in, frowning.

"I don't know where to go from here. All I'm going to do is hurt him."

"Why do you say that?"

Wolfram explained what had happened after dinner, the way that Beau had approached him and Wolfram had denied him flat, even getting angry and absurdly directing his unhappiness at Beau.

"Am I being unfair?" he asked Violet at the end of his explanation.

Violet thought back to the way that she’d been forced to sever her ties with her own family, the way that the staff had voted to come to a decision to make a clean cut with the people outside of the penthouse. How much of their suffering would’ve been alleviated if she’d been able to just be honest with her children? How much would have changed for them all if she’d been able to hear their voices?

And even then, Violet had agreed with the decision at the time. It wasn’t like that for Beau. He’d taken the terms of their agreement blind.

"Yes,” she said, finally. “You’re being unfair."

He narrowed his eyes at her, as if shocked by her answer. She couldn’t believe she was about to give relationship advice to herboss.

"I'm not going tolieto make you feel better Wolfram," she said. "If he would feel that much better to talk to his brother, I don't understand why you won't let him."

"What if it makes Noah too curious? What if he tries to finish what he started with the blackmail?"

"Preventing Beau from talking to him isn't going to make him anylesscurious."

"I seriously doubt that. There's a reason why the saying says to let sleeping dogs lie."

"It's backwards as all hell to keep him here like some prisoner. The least we can do is to allow him to have contact with theonefamily member he’s worried about."

Wolfram frowned but she could tell that her argument made sense to him.

"Let him make the call, Wolfram. He'll feel better and you will have done the right thing."

"But you acknowledge that it's a risk?"

"Sure—does that make you feel better?" she asked. "I acknowledge that there's always an element of the unknown. But I don't think that means that it's a bad idea. Ask yourself what's right for Beau."

Wolfram nodded after a moment, sipping his tea thoughtfully.

“You’re right,” he said finally. “Violet, I wonder sometimes what our lives would’ve been like if I had known you then like I know you now.”

She smiled, understanding exactly what he meant. She’d thought it a hundred times about him, about the other people trapped with them in the penthouse. Yes, sometimes they tired of each other so much that they were at each other’s throats—but she had grown to know and understand them all so deeply. It was hard to remember a time when she hadn’t always been surrounded by them.

“If I had someone close to me like you in my life,” Wolfram continued, “things would’ve turned out much differently.”

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