Page 25 of The Ring Thief
Bitch.
Three hours later, I’m in the kitchen of my childhood home, pouring the whole sorry story out to Julie. She’s cooking dinner, making sympathetic noises as she listens, and every now and again mutteringassholeunder her breath.
Swear to god, every time she curses, I get a little giddy.
I end on how I’ve basically cloistered myself in Sasha’s apartment, and she looks up from the stove. The scent of her chicken fried rice makes my mouth water. Not surprising my body would crave something substantial after eating junk all week.
“So, what’re you going to do?” she asks.
I shrug, picking at my nails. “Tell Dad, I guess. Other than that, I don’t know.”
“He won’t be happy, you know.”
“I know,” I say miserably. “I should never have—” I shake my head, blowing out a breath of frustration. “I shouldn’t have held my tongue. Ishould’ve told him the night I came back. Maybe if I had, he wouldn’t have gone through with the sale. If I’d known about it…”
After fiddling with the dial on the stovetop, she turns to face me, giving me her full attention. “That wasn’t what I meant, but I’m curious why you didn’t tell him the night you got back.”
“Wait, what did you mean then?” I raise my head, sending her a puzzled frown.
“Lily, your dad… the company is important to him. We both know that. But you’re his daughter, and that supersedes anything to do with Hi-Tech.” She comes to stand next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Your dad is going to be devastated that you felt like you had to go through this alone. He’s going to be sad that you didn’t give him the opportunity to be there for you.”
A surge of heat rises in my chest, bitter words spilling out before I can stop them. “It’s not like I’ve had practice with him being there for me, Jules.”
She squeezes me, a silent reprimand at the rancor, and I sink against her, inhaling her fruity perfume. She’s been our housekeeper since I was a kid, and has been more of a mother to me than the one who walked out on me ever was.
“He’s made mistakes,” she says. “But he’s trying to fix those, and this would’ve been the first opportunity for him to do it.” She pauses a beat, and then asks, “So, why have you been avoiding him?”
“Um,” I hedge. “Is that burning?” I look over at the rice, and she scoffs.
“You saw me turn it down. Out with it, girlie.”
I groan, but slowly let it all pour out. “Dad didn’t like Dec at first, remember? Like at all. And he did a terrible job of hiding it. I figured maybe he was just struggling with the fact that I was seriously dating someone.”
“Declan was the first man you brought home,” Julie says.
“Exactly. I thought Dad just didn’t want to compete with another man in my life, you know? But the more time they spent together, the more Declan grew on Dad.” I pause, processing the memories of the two of them ‘hanging out’ and murmur quietly, “Guess we know why Declan made such an effort towin him over now.”
Julie doesn’t comment, her hand stroking over my head, a silent encouragement to keep going. “Dad’s always wanted Hi-Tech to go to someone who cared about it, but that was never me. I cared, but not like he did. I wasn’t interested in running it, and I never pretended otherwise.”
“He’s always encouraged you to follow your dreams, and wouldn’t force his own on you.”
I nod, eyes starting to burn. “I knew he wanted to sell, that he was ready to step down, but I also knew he still had this little seed of disappointment that it wasn’t going to be me taking over. When he told me that Declan was the one buying it…” I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to shed one more damn tear. “Dad was so happy, Julie. And I didn’t want…”
“What, Lily?”
I swallow thickly. “I didn’t want him to blame himself for not seeing who Declan was, but I also didn’t want him to blame me,” I confess brokenly. “I brought Declan into our lives, after all. If it wasn’t for me…”
Julie tugs on my shoulder, forcing me to turn until I’m facing her, and then she pulls me into her body, tucking my head against her shoulder. For the first time since that phone call, I let it all go. My shoulders shudder under the weight of my emotion, my tears wetting Julie’s shirt.
We stay like that for several minutes, Julie slowly swaying us as her hand rubs my back. When my breathing calms, she pushes me back to cup my cheeks.
“You’re emotional,” she tells me. “You’re exhausted and in shock. We don’t always make sane decisions in the best of times, let alone extreme ones like that. But you forgot one thing in all that, sweet girl.” Her voice drops to a soft whisper, “Your dad might have forgotten to show up many, many,manytimes”—we share a chuckle at her dry expression—“but you were always his greatest joy. Not his company. And he would never blame you for someone else’s mistakes.”
I sniff, wiping my wrist under my nose. “And now? When I could’ve stopped him from losing Hi-Tech?” I shake my head. “If I’d just told him that first night, he never would have had his meeting with Declan the next day. Now?—”
A rough voice interrupts. “Now, you finally get to see me show up.”
CHAPTER 12
