Chapter 8
The story was on the news the next morning.
Not all of it.
Enough.
Billionaire’s Wedding Halted by Daughter.
Bride Accused of Bigamy.
Brother Arrested in Corporate Coercion Plot.
I hated seeing my name.
Dad called every station and demanded they remove it because I was a child.
Some did.
Some did not.
By noon, our front steps had cameras on them.
Dad closed the curtains.
I sat on the kitchen floor with my cereal getting soggy.
Clara sat beside me.
“I don’t want everyone to know,” I said.
“I know.”
“Will kids at school talk?”
“Probably.”
I groaned.
She bumped my shoulder gently.
“But you know the truth. That helps.”
“It doesn’t feel like it helps.”
“Not right away.”
Dad spent the day with lawyers.
His company board called an emergency meeting.
Eric had prepared more than papers.
He had hidden debt.
Fake vendor contracts.
Emails to Vanessa.
Messages about placing me in an overseas boarding school where Dad could visit only twice a year.
When Dad read that part, he left the room.
I found him in the hallway with one hand against the wall.
“Daddy?”
He wiped his face fast.
But I had seen.
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
He gave a small, sad laugh.
“No. I’m not.”
I stood beside him.
“Was Uncle Eric always bad?”
Dad slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
I sat beside him.
“No,” he said. “Or maybe I did not want to see it.”
“Why did he hate me?”
Dad turned to me fast.
“He did not hate you because of you. He hated what he could not control.”
“That sounds like Vanessa.”
“It does.”
He took a breath.
“My father left the company to me because Eric was reckless. I kept trying to help him anyway. I thought if I gave him chances, he would become my brother again.”
“Did he?”
Dad shook his head.
“No.”
I leaned against him.
“Clara says truth helps but not right away.”
“She’s right.”
“Are we keeping her?”
Dad looked surprised.
Then certain.
“As long as she wants to stay.”
I nodded.
“Good. She believed me.”
May you like
His eyes filled again.
“Yes,” he whispered. “She did.”
