14. Scarlett
Axel walked through the building, his hand swiping across the counter at the bar. “This is it. With a little craftsmanship, we can make this place pop. A grand chandelier in the entryway, mood lighting at the bar. It’s perfect.”
“There have to be at least a hundred tables in here…” I looked at the behemoth of a space, empty tables sitting in an empty room.
“The kitchen supports it.”
“This place is up for lease for a reason, Axel. That means someone else went under?—”
“You can’t compare their situation to yours.”
“I’m just saying?—”
“Baby, come on. It’ll work out.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
He came back to me, a grin on his face. “Then the loss is a tax deduction. No big deal.”
“I don’t want to waste your money?—”
“Our money.” That searing confidence was in his eyes, looking at me with all the determination in the world. He believed in me more than anyone else ever had. “Think about it this way. I’m your silent partner. I’m investing in your business, so I get a say in the final product. This is what I envision for the restaurant. Music. Lights. Snooty waiters. This is the place. Stop thinking about the money.”
“You should always think about the money.”
“You know my net worth. This is nothing to me.”
“Doesn’t mean it should be wasted.”
He rolled his eyes.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?”
That smirk came right back. “This is what I want, and I know in your heart you want it too. So let’s do this.” His eyes pleaded with mine, tantalizing blue and endless in their depth. “Come on…”
My phone started to ring in my pocket, so I pulled it out and glanced at the screen.
It was my father.
My face must have immediately gone pale because Axel dropped his smile.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I just let it ring.
Axel stared at me. “You can’t keep avoiding him. He’ll know something is up.”
I let it ring, too chickenshit to answer it.
“Scarlett.”
The call finally dropped.
“I can’t.”
A moment later, his text lit up the screen. Call me back.
My heart stopped aching once the dread had passed. I returned my phone to my pocket.
Axel continued to stare at me. “I know this is hard, but don’t forget what’s on the line.”
My father-in-law’s life. “I know.”
“So I need you to do this for me.”
“I don’t know how I’ll be able to maintain this fa?ade.”
Axel took in a slow breath as he considered my words. “He’s a smart man. He probably already suspects something is amiss. If you think he’s onto you, confront him about what you overheard. Tell him you haven’t mentioned it to me because you’ve been so confused. That might be your opportunity to coax a confession out of him, and if it works, then you won’t have to pretend anymore.”
I stared at the dark marble countertop and felt my world spin. I’d never had to put on an act around my father. He was the one person I could confide all my truths to without repercussion. But now he was the person that I could trust the least. He was a complete stranger…but with my father’s face.
“Text him and say you’re busy with the restaurant. Ask to meet him for dinner.”
“Will you come too?”
“I think it’s best if I don’t.”
Face-to-face, one-on-one, with him sounded utterly unbearable.
“Our last conversation was quite unpleasant. And he basically hired a hit man to take me out, so he obviously doesn’t care for me.”
“Then I will have to confront him.” Even if I never wanted to speak to him again, he’d threatened the life of my husband, and no amount of heartbreak or intimidation would let that slide. “I’ll take care of it.” I pulled out my phone again and typed the message without even thinking about it. I’m caught up at the restaurant. Dinner tonight?
His message was instantaneous, like he’d been staring at the screen waiting for my reply. Great. See you tonight.
I returned my phone to my pocket. “We’re having dinner tonight.”
Axel stared at me with his hard gaze, as if he expected me to make some kind of outburst. “You’ve got this.”
“I’m not going to let my father hurt you.”
“I don’t care about him. I only care about you. And I know you can do this.”
I arrived at the restaurant first and was taken to my father’s table. My heart was in my throat like acid reflux, and my stomach was tight in uncomfortable knots. I could put up a good front when I needed to, to ignore someone’s rudeness or annoyance, but to look at someone you hated like you loved them…that was impossible.
So I sat there, the anxiety flooding my blood and muscles. A basket of bread was in front of me, but it was the first time I didn’t reach for a warm slice. I didn’t crave wine either and left my glass untouched on the table.
Minutes trickled by, but it felt like a lifetime.
And then, finally, he entered the restaurant, in a long-sleeved hunter-green shirt and dark pants. It took him less than a second to spot me, like he’d noticed me through the window when his driver had brought him to the curb.
Once I finally saw him in the flesh, my heart stilled. Adrenaline came from nowhere and crushed me. I felt like I was about to attend a brawl, not a dinner.
He hesitated by the table, like he expected me to rise to my feet and greet him. When I didn’t, he sat across from me. “Hello, sweetheart. How are you?” He pulled his chair in and looked at me with eyes that were affectionate but discerning.
How am I? Ha, if only I could answer. “Good. How about you?”
“Good?” he asked, his eyebrow cocked. “That’s it?”
My heart dropped into my stomach. “What do you mean?”
“You said you and Axel got back together. I just expected more than good.”
“Oh.” He was right. I should have more to say. “After he took some time to calm down, he came to my apartment and said he was sorry and wanted to work on things. I’ve moved back in, and things have been nice. I’m sorry I’ve been absent…just busy.”
“It’s okay,” he said with a smile. “I figured that was the case. I’m glad the two of you worked things out.”
“Me too.”
The waiter came over, and my father ordered a bottle of wine for the table, either because he expected to drink it himself or he expected me to switch my wine for his. He glanced at the menu then his hands rested together on the table. “What are you having?”
I had no appetite. “The gnocchi.”
He nodded. “Same ol’ salad for me.”
I’d never felt so uncomfortable, so out of place with him. But I felt like there was barely enough air for us both to breathe. Or we were both in the desert, but he was the only one with water. I couldn’t start a conversation or ask a question, not when my mind was elsewhere.
He continued to look at me. “Everything alright?”
“Yes,” I said quickly. “How are things with you?”
“Just working on a few projects.”
“How did that meeting go?” I asked.
“What meeting?”
“You had someone at the house when I stopped by.”
“Oh, that’s right.” He watched the waiter fill his glass before he took a drink. “Yes, it was an old friend. Just catching up.”
“If he’s an old friend, wouldn’t he have understood that your daughter needed you?” I was supposed to be calm. I was supposed to be sly. But shit was about to hit the fan because I’d inherited his temper.
His eyes narrowed on my face. “So you are angry with me…”
I’d just stepped into the snake pit without gloves or boots.
“Considering everything worked out between you two, I assumed you wouldn’t be upset?—”
“I forgot my purse.” The moment of truth had arrived—and we hadn’t even ordered dinner. “I sat in the car for a while fighting back tears, but when I tried to drive away, I realized I had no keys. So I came back in to grab it.”
My father was still and composed, but his eyes darted back and forth between mine.
“You asked this old friend to kill my husband.” I wanted it to be a misunderstanding, but what possible misunderstanding could there be? I’d heard him, like a boom box in a silent room, and there was no mistaking the threat.
He gave no reaction to this. None whatsoever. He just continued his stare. He didn’t feign surprise or look appalled by the accusation. But he didn’t admit to it either, plotting his next move behind the rough exterior. “You were eavesdropping?—”
“I forgot my purse. And even if I were maliciously and intentionally eavesdropping, it doesn’t change what you said. You said you would kill both Axel and Theo. Axel, my husband, and Theo, my brother-in-law. You said those words.”
He inhaled a slow breath, not blinking once since the accusation had been put on the table.
The waiter approached. “What will we be ordering?—”
“Leave us, and don’t come back.” My father didn’t raise his voice or drop it, but there was a distinct threat to his tone.
The waiter remained for a moment, taking a second to wonder if he had heard my father correctly, but whether he did hear correctly or not, the tension between us was unmistakable, so he fled.
My father continued his ruthless stare, all the fatherly affection he’d previously held gone. “Scarlett, you had just told me he served you divorce papers?—”
“And five minutes later, you decided to kill him?” I couldn’t believe he tried to justify it, let alone admit it. “Those plans must have already been planted in your head and grown to a full tree for you to act on it so suddenly.”
He stared, his features those of my father, but his spirit belonging to someone I didn’t recognize. “You aren’t even denying it.”
“Because I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Really?” I snapped. “So, once he was dead, how would you explain it?”
“Nothing happened, so we don’t need to discuss this further?—”
“I told you he was the love of my life—and you plotted to kill him. So yes, something did happen.”
“I told you I’ve never liked him?—”
“It doesn’t matter what you think. I love him. I’m in love with this man.”
He didn’t look guilty or apologetic. He was a man without a conscience. “He went to prison?—”
“He’s innocent.”
“He cheated on you.”
I sucked in a hard breath and swallowed, using my full restraint to keep my mouth shut. My eyes burned as my eyelids were stretched open, and my rage was restrained in a delicate glass bottle that was about to shatter.
He waited for my rebuttal.
But I couldn’t give it.
“He’s never been good enough for you?—”
“So he deserves to die?”
“He backstabbed me?—”
“Because you backstabbed him first. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Now my voice rose in complete disregard to the people enjoying their dinner around us. “How dare you.” There were no words to match my anger, no words that could convey the depth of my rage. “Axel doesn’t like you either, but he would never kill you. Who are you? Who the fuck are you?”
The hardness in his face started to slacken. “Sweetheart?—”
“Don’t sweetheart me, asshole.”
“Axel made some bad decisions that really messed up my business?—”
“I was almost raped and killed, and the only reason I wasn’t was because of him.”
“That meeting wouldn’t have happened in the first place if Axel had any business sense?—”
I shoved my chair back and got to my feet.
“Scarlett.”
“Fuck off.” I stormed off, leaving him to foot the bill for our wine. It would give me a chance to escape.
But he walked out right behind me and onto the sidewalk. “Scarlett.”
I walked down the sidewalk and headed to my car, which was parked in a lot a block over. My jacket had been left on the back of the chair, so I walked in the cold, but my anger created an inferno of warmth inside me.
“Stop.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Let me explain?—”
“Explain what?” I snapped. “How can you explain this? Who was the guy you were with, and why would he want to kill your business partners?”
“Have you told Axel this?”
“Is that all you care about?”
“No,” he said with a cold voice. “But I don’t want him getting a false version of the truth?—”
“I didn’t say anything to him because I hoped, prayed, that I didn’t overhear what I thought I heard. I didn’t want my father and my husband to pull out their guns and start shooting each other.”
He raised his hand. “Then let’s forget the whole thing.”
“Forget?” I asked incredulously. “You think I can just forget this?”
“No harm was done.”
“Trust me, it was done,” I hissed. I turned away again.
“Sweetheart, please. It’s complicated.”
“It’s not complicated.” I turned back to him. “If I hadn’t been in the right place at the right time, my husband would be dead a few days from now.”
“I wouldn’t have gone through with it once I knew you were back together?—”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I’ve never lied to you before, sweetheart.”
I was repulsed. Utterly repulsed. I believed my father had forced Axel to hurt me, but I always hoped that there was more to the story, that perhaps something got lost in translation. But hearing my father openly admit this…made me realize it was completely true. Every word that Axel said. “Really?” I asked. “Never?”
His steely eyes hardened.
“I’m not sure I can believe that.”
“Axel has complicated my business, has compromised my relationship with the Colombians, a relationship I’ve cultivated for the last twenty years?—”
“We sat together in that restaurant, and I asked you if you had anything to do with my breakup with Axel. You looked me in the fucking eye and said no. Was that the truth?”
My father froze in place, his stare guarded by a twelve-foot wall.
“You’re trying to get rid of him now. What if you were trying to get rid of him then? You didn’t care about making me a widow. Why would you care about making me heartbroken?” My eyes took in the immovable features of his face, piercing the stone of his eyes. My breaths were quick, and I felt the dump of adrenaline in my blood. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run or slam my fit into his face. “Did you lie to me?”
He retained his silence, only breathing, his eyes vicious.
I knew there would be no answer, so I turned my back on him and walked off.
He let me go.
When I returned home, Axel was on the couch in front of the TV screen. He didn’t seem to be watching anything, just staring at the screen as he waited for me to return from the dinner. His head snapped my way the second I walked into the room, and then he was on his feet. He didn’t ask how I was. He figured it out on his own, eyes switching back and forth between mine as he gauged my mood.
“He admitted it.” I tossed my purse on the table and kicked off my heels until I was on my bare feet. “Even tried to justify it. Said he thought it didn’t matter because we were getting a divorce.” I dropped into one of the armchairs at the dining table and slouched, my elbow on the table with my fingers underneath my chin.
Axel pulled one of the chairs close to me and sat down.
“I—I don’t even know him.”
His hand moved to mine on the table.
“I’ve never known him…”
He didn’t gloat. Didn’t say I told you so. There was no victory in his eyes.
“Then I asked him if he’d pulled this kind of stunt in the past…and he didn’t own up to it. I asked him if he’d lied to me when I looked him dead in the eye and asked if he’d said something to you to make you go away.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“I doubt he’ll ever admit that. Plotting to kill me is more forgivable than that.”
I stared at his hand as it rested on mine, his wedding ring sitting there. “I don’t know him. I’ve never known him.” He’d lied to my face, and then a moment later, Axel had walked in with Cassandra, an invisible gun pointed at his head. My father had planned all of that, planned for me to be utterly heartbroken just because he didn’t like Axel. “I feel so stupid…” Tears welled in my eyes and streaked down my cheeks. “Everything you said about him…you were right. I could have lost you for good and continued to eat his bullshit for the rest of my life.”
“But you didn’t,” he whispered. “Nothing will come between us again.”
“I was fucking livestock for him this entire time. I was running around in a little pen, eating slop from the damn trough. He’s never given a damn about me. He hates you enough to break us up, but he didn’t hate me enough to guilt me into marrying you once that suited him. I hate him.”
Axel’s fingers dug into mine as he held my hand on the table. Silence trickled by as the echo of my words filled the air. “I don’t like your father. Never have and never will. But I do believe he cares about you.”
My eyes lifted to his.
“In fact, I know he does. He just has a strange way of showing it.”
“You’re seriously defending him right now?”
“I’m not defending him. I just want you to know that he does care for you. He’s lied to you and manipulated you, and he’s done unforgivable things, but he does love you. I know this in my heart.”
I pulled my hand away from his.
Axel took a slow breath at my rejection.
My arms folded over my chest, and I sat against the back of the chair. My phone was in my back pocket, and I’d expected it to vibrate and ring nonstop, but my father hadn’t tried to contact me. He was probably plotting his next move, a trick I wouldn’t fall for.
“What can I do?”
My eyes returned to his. “Nothing. There’s nothing anyone can do.”
“Did you eat dinner?”
I shook my head. “We barely had a sip of wine.”
“I can take you out for pizza.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Want to take a bath?”
“No. I think I just want to go to sleep.” That was what I did when I was depressed. My mind turned off, and all I did was rest. I’d been down so low just a week ago, and now I was in a new era of sadness. Could I just be happy…for a little while?
Axel looked like he wanted to argue, to make me eat dinner or relax in his arms, but he let me be. “Then let’s go to bed.”
I went into the bathroom and did my nighttime routine, washing my face and brushing my teeth, but I barely looked in the mirror, like I didn’t want to see my own features. I pulled my hair back in a bun, and then I returned to the bedroom.
Axel was in bed, the sheets to his waist, one arm propped under his head.
I pulled back the covers and got in bed beside him. My back was to him, and I stared at the curtains that were closed over the window.
He moved against me, his chest against my back, and he tightened his arm around my waist and pulled me close, his face pressed into the back of my hair. It was only eight thirty, far too early for bed, but I didn’t have the energy to do anything but lie there. My phone was left in the other room, so if it rang, I wouldn’t have to hear it.
“I love you, baby.”
Despite my heartache, I still melted at those words. “I love you too.”