Page 44 of The Marriage Bid
“What is this I hear? Are you two in trouble?” Nolan’s worry was clear through the phone. In the background, I could hear the sounds of water sloshing and wind blowing.
“Are you on a boat?”
Nolan sighed. “Carey has gotten my son and Ivy’s into sailing, and now we’re all stuck on a boat.”
Nolan was making it sound like a punishment when he was enjoying what I wished I could do right now. Instead, I had to spend the day in my home office dealing with the fallout of the article. The damage was minimal, especially since Massimo held on and even offered a supportive quote when an architectural blog asked him about the scandal.
“Come on! You love it!” I heard Carey say in the background. As far as I was aware, it was Forrest, Nolan’s son, who was into sailing and kept pestering Carey and Lake to teach him to sail. Lake especially was fast becoming an expert sailor and winning school competitions.
“Can you come up with an excuse for me so I can escape these people?” Nolan said.
“Can’t, unfortunately. I have to deal with this bullshit.”
The background sound changed, and I heard a door close. He must have gone into the boat’s cabin. “Is it really that bad? I thought it was a smear article from one of your competitors.”
“It is, but not in the way you think.”
“Oh?”
I didn’t know where to start or how much to tell him or if I should tell him the truth. I opted for the easiest explanation. “An old rival of mine is haunting me from the grave.”
“How dark and poetic. Who is it?”
“Remember Channing? Saffron’s father?”
“Saffron the model? The kid who had a big old crush on you? Been a while since I’ve heard of her. Is she still pestering you? Or did you finally hit that?”
“Please don’t say hit that in your grand old age. You sound like a youth pastor.”
“Okay, mister young and thirty-something,” he said, chuckling.
“Nolan.”
“Yes. Channing. How is he haunting you?”
“Well, Dad, if you can imagine it,” I said sarcastically, “he bribed the commissioner so he could grant us a permit for one of our buildings.”
“Oh, gosh.” I could hear Nolan slam his forehead. I didn’t have to convince him that it was something Dad would do. “Sometimes I wish I could dig up that bastard and beat him to a pulp.”
“I know what you mean. Channing found out. And he has damning evidence of the crime.”
“How? It can’t be the emails I read in the paper?”
“Not that. Those are doctored. They added my name to the emails to make it seem as if I was part of it. That I can fight. This other stuff, though…”
“What did he have on you?”
“On Dad. Pictures of Dad exchanging money with the commissioner. A Mafia friend of his is also in them.”
“Yeah, that’s bad.” Nolan sighed. “Fucking hell.”
“I know. Channing blackmailed me with the material years ago. The accusations would have been hard to combat back then if he had made them. It was when we were just starting out, so I did what he wanted me to do.”
“And what was that?” Nolan’s voice hardened.
“He wanted money, so I gave it to him.”
“Money! How much! Why didn’t you tell me!”
