Page 69 of The Ring Thief
That threat was immediately followed by another message with the name of the restaurant and the time, leaving me with exactly ten minutes to get out of here to make it in time.
Rolling my eyes, I get up and knock on Grant’s office door, heading in when he calls out. He lifts his head, his smile of greeting falling away when he catches sight of my expression.
“You okay, Declan?”
“I need a long lunch today,” I tell him, the words feeling strange on my tongue. It’s been a weird change in our relationship, this internship.It’s forced us to find a new way to interact with each other, one where we pretend I didn’t completely fuck over his daughter, and he didn’t plant a well-deserved fist in my face. “Mom needs to talk to me.”
He drops his pen, leaning back and aiming a speculative look at me. “Is she okay?”
I’m not quite ready to come clean about this development and how it involves Lily, so I just smile tightly. “She’s struggling with the gossip, I think.”
“Understandable. Nothing quite like when a respectable pillar of society crumbles. Never liked how it meant that society paints the family with the same tarnished brush, though.”
There’s something…empathetic in his voice that has me asking, “You don’t blame her for her part in it all?”
He cocks his head to the side. “What was her part?”
I step further into the office, partially shutting the door behind me. “She wasn’t completely innocent.”
“No one is,” he agrees. “But she also wasn’t responsible for her husband’s actions. Do you blame me for Gloria’s decision to keep up the affair?”
I shake my head. “That’s different. Mom didn’t know he was a murderer, but she’s always looked the other way with him, pretending his behavior was completely normal and acceptable.” My tone is slightly bitter, and a flush creeps into my cheeks, hating myself for it. I don’t blame my mother, not really. But I did wonder what life might have looked like if she had stepped in when I was younger.
Grant’s tone gentles, and I avert my eyes from him, looking at a spot on the wall above his head, unable to hold his stare. “I don’t know your mother. We never spent time in the same circles, for obvious reasons. But living with a man like Donald Masters can’t have been easy for her. You know how he treated you, but do you know how he treated her?” Arguments burst into my mind, but Grant carries on before I can get any words out. “I don’t mean in front of you, Declan. There’s a lot that would have happened behind closed doors. Just because you think you know what went on in that house, doesn’t mean you actually do. You know a lot of Donald’s secrets, but a man like that? He’s got more than one skeleton buried in his closet, so don’tassume you know anything, especially when it comes to his relationship with his wife.”
I press my lips together, the reprimand hitting home. “You never told me why you gave me this job,” I say gruffly. “Or why would you even think of giving me another shot after everything I did to Lily.”
The silence stretches out between us. When I look back at him, his eyes are thoughtful. “I don’t want you to think I’ve forgiven you just like that.” He snaps his fingers, smiling wryly. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hold a lot of lingering anger over what you did to my daughter, or what you took from her. She’ll never look at the world quite the same now, and I…” he sighs heavily, eyes turning grim. “I hate that for her. It’s why I took such great pains to hide the truth of her own mother from her, though I now know that was the wrong decision.” His eyes gleam as he says, “I guess that anger is a part of why I take such joy in giving you the most inane tasks and errands I can think of. Never considered myself a petty guy, but you bring it out in me.” I shake my head at him as he chuckles. “After our…discussion the night you broke our deal, I could see you were genuinely remorseful, even if neither of us fully understood exactly what Donald had wrought on both our families.”
“Do you believe I never intended to harm Hi-Tech?” The question has been on the tip of my tongue for weeks. Inwardly, I can guess it comes from my younger self—the child who was desperate for his father’s approval—even after learning it would never come. During my relationship with Lily, Grant had become something of a father-figure to me, and knowing I’d hurt him had been as big a blow as what I’d done to Lily. I’d reassured myself so many times that my intentions had been honorable, knowing I needed to protect them from Donald.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and all that.
I should’ve told my father to go fuck himself. I should’ve told Grant what he had planned. I should never have lied to Lily.
Should have, should have, should have.
“I would like to believe it, and that’s the most I can say on it,” Grant tells me now, his eyes almost apologetic. “But we’ll get there with time, Declan.” I nod, ignoring the pinch in my chest. It’s more than I deserve, but it only makes me want to work even harder to regain his trust.
“I’ll see you after lunch.”
He nods, waving me out the door.
Mom stands up to hug me as I approach their table, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. “Hello, Declan,” she murmurs. “It’s good to see you.”
I hug her back, inhaling her familiar perfume. She looks leaner than she did the last time I saw her. I shoot Darcy a concerned look, but she just shrugs, shaking her head.
“Mom. Darcy. No classes today?” I ask my sister as we sit down.
“It’s been a bit…” she trails off with a grimace, her eyes flicking to Mom and then back to me. “I’ve decided it would be better if I completed the rest of the semester online.”
“And your professors are all okay with that? Do you need me to?—?”
Donald’s accounts were all frozen, but money wasn’t an issue. I’d invested every cent of my trust fund as soon as I turned twenty-one, and I was using that now to continue to support my family, including keeping up with Darcy’s tuition payments.
“It’s all sorted, Dec,” she reassures me. “I’ve got it all handled.”
Mom smiles, picking up her water and sipping delicately. “It’s been nice having your sister around the house, keeping me company. I haven’t been out much lately, but I’ve been getting into reading.”
