Page 29 of The Wife Deception
Her eyebrows shot up.
"I shouldn't have mauled you like a beast. That was not nice of me and I apologize."
Aelin's face softened. "Apology accepted. And I am not trying to baby trap you, regardless of what you heard on that tape." She sighed and let her cutlery fall onto her plate. "You said we should be honest with each other, and I want to be. But there are things about my relationship with my grandfather that I can't tell you."
"I mean, it sounded like you were in on the conspiracy."
Her head drooped. "All I can say is that wasn't the real me on that audio. I tend to… act differently when I am with my grandfather. It's hard not to acquiesce to his aggressive aura."
I suppressed a chuckle. "Sounds like my father."
"Do you have any idea why they hated each other?"
"They used to be in business together. They wanted to do a joint venture, but then Kenneth stole my father's investors and brought them to W. Burgess. Or at least that's how my father told the story to me. That started a series of never ending industrial espionage which ended withus."
"With you buying W. Burgess and marrying me?" She stabbed her fork into a small piece of potato and sucked it off the utensil. My groin tightened.
"My father wanted to buy W. Burgess for a long time and sell it for parts. He could never do it no matter how rich, powerful or bigger he became."
"And is that what you're going to do?"
"Your grandfather almost ran it to the ground all on his own and it would have gone to the dustbin of fashion history if I didn't step in."
"Then why did you buy it? Why not let the company die? Wouldn't that be even better revenge? I've seen the way you speak with my grandfather. You hate that man. And I know little about business and finance, but I do know that the Hawthorneshares he got in the deal will probably net him a tidy profit."
W. Burgess was a white whale that my father chased to his grave. He wanted the company to go under the Hawthorne umbrella at any cost. On his deathbed, he had lamented that he was going to die without getting the company. When I told him I will fulfill his wish for him, he looked at me as though I was a delusional child. I will not forget that look. It said everything he thought of me without him uttering a word. After he died, I made a vow to myself to acquire W. Burgess. I could not explain it, and I doubt she would understand. "I did what my father could not do."
"And you would even marry a woman you hate to prove to your dead father that you're better than him."
Huh. She was more astute than I gave her credit for. "I don't hate you. I used to, but now that I've gotten to know you, there's something about you that is interesting."
"Oh really? Pray tell."
"You're not what people think you are."
She stared at me as though I had uncovered a secret she didn't want me to find out. Her face was white, drained of all blood. Just as I was about to ask why, the concierge desk ran. I went to answer. We had a visitor. My brother.
17
Aire
"Don't they have accommodation at the university?" Nolan sounded annoyed. His brother had walked in while we were in the middle of dinner, suitcases in hand, or should I say, in the doorman's hands. Levi, as Nolan called him, only hada Ruitertassen Professorsatchel slung across his cardigan clad shoulders. With black horn-rimmed glasses and the khaki pants to complete the look, Levi was like a younger nerdier version of Nolan.
"There's been a mixup, plus I would rather die than stay in those ghastly rooms. And besides," he said as he gave the doorman a tip before closing the door, "I wanted to see my new sister-in-law!"He raised his head to flash a smile at me. I was standing a few feet behind Nolan in the foyer while Nolan stood between Levi and I.
"And they didn't have room at the Carlyle?"
Levi casually shrugged. "I hate hotel food." He took off his satchel, threw it next to his other luggage and marched past Nolan, coming to me. "You look better in person than you do in pictures. And that is a compliment." He took my hand and kissed it. My cheeks flushed like I was a debutante at a ball.
"The least you could have done is call." Nolan's gaze honed in on where Levi's and my hand touched. I snatched it back, believing I had done something wrong.
"I did. I even left messages."
Nolan took out his phone out of his pocket and cursed as he went through it. "I was in a meeting when you called."
With his gaze still on me, Levi said, "Why is he so uptight? Did I intrude on a lovers' interlude?"
I shook my head. The notion itself was quite ridiculous. "We were having dinner."
