Chapter 4 - The First Crack
Jason came to the hotel that night.
He looked exhausted, wet, and badly dressed for the first time since I’d known him. He had borrowed a coat from someone because his own was still at Pine Manor. Security called up before allowing him into the private lobby outside our suite, and my mother gave me the choice.
I took it.
He stood when I entered, relief rushing across his face so quickly it almost insulted me.
“Danielle, thank God.”
I stayed standing.
He started talking before I even sat down.
“My mother went too far. Madison was out of line. I know that. But please don’t let this destroy everything.”
Everything.
Not us.
Not my trust.
Everything.
I asked him one question.
“Did you know Pine Manor needed my mother’s company?”
He hesitated.
That was enough.
“Danielle—”
“Did you know?”
His shoulders dropped.
“Yes.”
The word landed exactly where it needed to.
He stepped toward me. “I didn’t bring you there to use you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell them who my mother was?”
His mouth opened, then closed.
“Because my family is difficult,” he said finally. “I didn’t want them behaving differently just because of your background.”
I almost laughed.
“They behaved exactly how they wanted to. That’s the problem.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought if you met them first as just you, they’d have to get to know you.”
“By making me walk nine miles in a storm while your sister filmed it?”
“Danielle, I didn’t think they’d actually—”
“Stop,” I said. “You don’t get to be surprised by something you watched happen.”
That made him flinch.
For the first time, he looked less like a polished man managing a crisis and more like someone discovering he could not talk his way out of it.
Behind me, my mother’s chief legal officer entered with a folder and placed it on the table between us.
“Mr. Carter,” he said, “our preliminary review suggests Pine Manor is currently in material financial distress.”
Jason stared at the folder, then at me.
“I was going to explain that,” he said.
“When?” I asked. “Before or after you got the contract?”
He had no answer.
That was the first real crack.
May you like
Not the moment I learned his family was cruel.
The moment I understood he had always planned to tell me the truth only after it was useful to him.
