Page 85 of Man Splain

He didn’t screw people over.

Silas wouldn’t screw me over. He had only wanted to help me, and I’d shut him down with every chance.

I had to fix this. I was the only one. I knew just who to call.

54

SILAS

“It all startedwith the cam room?” Robert asked.

I came clean with the man. All of it, although I left out all the sex, which made my recount pretty short. I also skipped what Eve did in the cam room, but I wouldn’t shame her that way. Although, I had a feeling he knew, or at least the gist, since he’d overheard a few naughty seconds of it.

I shook my head. “It started with Eve turning down the James Corp loan.”

“The program your brother and his future wife created.”

I nodded. “That’s correct. And it ended with us marrying. For me to ensure this deal went through and for her to get control of her trust fund. We married for money.”

He made a sound, like a grunt of disappointment.

“Except for the date of our wedding, every aspect of our James/Hyport deal, every aspect of our… friendship is the truth.”

I wasn’t sure if he saw me as a friend, but I considered him one. A mentor, in a sense. He’d started his hotel empire before I was born. I only took over mine. Now that he was retiring, I had hoped to do him proud with where I could take his hotels into the future.

But not now.

“I’m not sure if I could make a story like that up if I wanted to lie,” I admitted.

“What happens with her ex?” he asked. “The man who controls… controlled her trust?”

I couldn’t imagine why that was so important in all of this, but he had me by the balls.

“I’ve dug up some information on him. Shady sh–stuff.” I shifted in my seat. “There’s more, I’m sure. I’ll get it soon and see him ruined.”

He nodded. “Good.”

I sighed, met his shrewd gaze. “I know the deal is dead,” I said, resigned to it. “I have too much respect for you to expect to continue a working relationship. You were right to end things with my father and you’re right to end things now.”

“And if I want the deal to go through?” he wondered, studying me closely.

The answer was easy. “I’d end it myself.”

“Oh?”

I nodded, shifting in my chair. “Like I said, I’m just like my father. Maybe worse.”

I glanced at my hands.

He was quiet and I let him take the time he wanted. Filling it with empty chatter was a sign of nervousness. Of weakness. I was neither. I was resolved. After all these years since my father died, after all this time busting my ass to prove I was nothing like my old man, I finally caught on that I couldn’t run away from fate.

Finally, Robert spoke. “You forget I knew your father. Very well.”

I nodded, but I hadn’t forgotten. That was why it seemed I’d worked extra hard on this deal.

“You didn’t marry Eve for money,” he said.

I looked up, met his gaze. “What?”

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