Chapter 7
Gideon returned angry.
Not frightened.
Men his age often confuse age with immunity.
He entered the conservatory and looked around.
Dessert gone.
Julian under guard.
Odessa crying.
Marielle seated beside me.
His expression changed.
“Messy.”
Same word men use when people become visible.
I asked:
“Eight million?”
He stopped.
Good.
Then smiled.
“You’ve been told a theatrical version.”
“I’ve seen the dress.”
Silence.
“The second phone.”
Silence.
“The planted vial.”
His smile disappeared.
Better.
Gideon sat without invitation.
“Our family made mistakes.”
“Your family?”
“Business.”
“Debt.”
“Temporary.”
I looked at him.
“You planned to have your daughter kidnapped by her own brother.”
“Staged.”
“As though that improves the sentence.”
He ignored it.
The Hawthornes held several old obligations over Gideon.
Not loans exactly.
Promises.
Joint ventures.
Private stakes.
Enough that within months the Bellamy family would lose most of its properties.
Gideon could survive poverty.
What he could not survive was humiliation.
His daughter marrying Benedict Lockridge while her father became dependent on a rival family.
So he invented a rescue.
My rescue.
Eight million transferred under duress would erase the Bellamy crisis without becoming charity.
Pride preserved.
Odessa returned as victim.
I became devoted husband.
Everyone won.
His words.
“Marielle?”
I asked.
Gideon shrugged.
“A servant.”
The room went cold.
Odessa looked at her father.
For the first time, disgust appeared.
Interesting.
She had agreed to use Marielle.
But hearing the logic naked was different.
Gideon continued:
“She would have been compensated.”
Marielle laughed once.
Small.
Broken.
“What price?”
He ignored her.
Wrong.
I leaned forward.
“She asked you a question.”
He looked at her reluctantly.
Marielle repeated:
“What price were you going to pay me for everyone believing I drugged him?”
No answer.
Good.
Some numbers sound obscene once the person being priced is sitting in front of you.
I looked at Odessa.
“You knew?”
She whispered:
“Yes.”
There.
No father to hide behind.
No fiancé.
May you like
No debt.
A choice.
