Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Luc
M y grandfather sipped his cabernet with the usual imperious expression, though I could’ve sworn I saw a little crack in the facade of stoicism.
“You have to accept that I’m marrying Elise. I’m sure Odette is lovely, but she’s not interested in me, and you know it.”
If he couldn’t see that, I pitied him. She was cordial and animated enough, but she made no effort to speak to me alone nor had she seemed interested in allowing him to put down Elise. This gave her points in my book, no doubt, but also spoke to her ambivalence.
“Of course she is. She may not be interested in you, per se, but she’s interested in keeping her parents happy for whatever reason.” He sipped his wine, the liquid darkening his teeth when he continued. “And this is an agreement set up without reference to her opinions or yours, however much you might want to resist that truth.”
My teeth ground together. “I can’t do that for you. I won’t.”
He whirled on me, grasping one side of my suit jacket, and hissed his next words. “You will do as you’re told after spending decades wasting my time. There’s only so much I will take before I am forced to?—”
“To what? Disown me? Isn’t that what you’ve essentially done until you decided you needed this from me? What do you have to gain here? Why go through with this when it’s clear I don’t want it? I thought we could fix things—I thought maybe seeing each other face to face might give us a fighting chance.”
Elise’s encouragement to be honest—to show him who I was—echoed through me. This wasn’t likely what she meant, but right now, it was the most immediate truth he needed to comprehend.
He released me, setting me away and swiping a hand over the wrinkled material of my tux jacket. “If you were more like your sister, you’d comply.”
Wasn’t that always where we landed?
“I wish I could be that for you, but I can’t. And I won’t pretend I want anyone but Elise. If being with her means I’m disowned, then so be it. The money has never motivated me, as you know, and it still won’t.” Not enough for me to cow to him, if he was still going to refuse it. Saint Security would thrive with or without me financing it. I’d hoped an alternative—the idea that I’d already found love and made a commitment—might convince him to drop this.
What a fool I’d been.
He hummed a low, unamused sound. “Ah, but it motivates her, doesn’t it?”
My jaw hardened. “Not in the slightest. Just like it didn’t motivate my mom, and you still never accepted her, not even in the bitter end.”
He glanced away like he didn’t have time for me, but now that I’d finally said what I wanted, I wasn’t going to stop. “I don’t know how you can stand to look yourself in the mirror after the way you treated her. And now your own son can’t stand to be present because he’s so broken.”
His nostrils flared. “He’s broken because of her. Because she twisted herself around him so tightly he doesn’t know who he is without her.” He blinked rapidly, the movement betraying his rising emotion wasn’t all anger.
“He loved her. There was no twisting, nothing wrong. They just loved each other, Grand-père, and the idea that such a thing is bad is what’s wrong. Ignoring his grief, isolating her in her illness because you saw her as a money-hungry poor waitress from the US even after twenty years in the family—I don’t want that for my life. I choose this.”
I gestured to the room, my eye catching on Kenny, then Bruce in the far corner by the back doors, Beast standing sentry just inside the main exit, and Tristan a few feet away from Jenna. My friends—the men and women who’d become my family when I’d felt abandoned. The family I’d chosen.
My gaze found Elise, who was chatting with Jenna, smiling brightly as Jenna gesticulated and no doubt cracked jokes that would have Elise beaming the rest of the night.
“I choose love and kindness and offering the benefit of the doubt. I choose family, but not if that family insists on valuing money and connection over everything else.” I held out my hand to him, hoping he’d accept. “I love you, Grand-père, and I wish you well.”
His throat worked as he swallowed while eyeing my hand, then turned and walked away.
My heart sank. It wasn’t a shock, but I’d hoped for more.
“He’ll come around. Even if it’s months from now, he’ll accept it. He does love you, and I know he’ll come around.”
Aurelie’s words were cold comfort in the wake of his storming off, but I wouldn’t give up, even if it seemed like a long shot.
And in truth, wasn’t it better if he did disown me? He wouldn’t be around to see me and Elise dissolve back into what we’d been. Into essentially nothing.
The thought weighed in my head, tipped one way then the other as though being evaluated for truth, then clattered to the floor.
I couldn’t imagine a time when we’d be nothing. I couldn’t imagine moving backward. All I want is to move ahead.
But she didn’t. And I had to respect that.
I grimaced at the thought and Aurelie squeezed my shoulder. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
She likely thought I was worried about our grandfather and didn’t like where we stood—or didn’t stand—but it wasn’t him causing my heart to twist. My gaze found Elise and after a second, she turned slowly until her eyes locked with mine.
The sensation of loss doubled until she smiled. Her beautiful lips tipped up and spread wide and she looked so genuinely happy and at ease, my heart nearly burst in my chest for an entirely different reason.
I loved her. Somehow in all of this pretending, all of this certainty that I wouldn’t end up feeling more than simple attraction and admiration for her, I’d fallen.
Hard.
Instead of guarding myself against the thing I feared most—the thing that was ultimately at the root of what drove me and my grandfather apart, even—I’d let it come for me. And it had, without mercy. She’d encouraged me to be myself, and though I felt crushed with my grandfather’s dismissal, I also felt the inklings of freedom.
Instead of fear and dread and anger like I almost wished for, I felt… joy. Like I wanted to scoop it into my mouth and fill myself up with this love for someone who wanted the best for me, who cared for me. A woman I admired and yes, astoundingly, loved.
Even if she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, return the sentiment.
“Thanks. I—I’ve got to go,” I said, still entranced by the woman across the ballroom.
“Yes, you do. Love beckons and you must answer!” Michele said, and even as Elise drew me to her, I couldn’t hold back the laugh at his cheesy lovesick little heart.
When I reached Elise, I didn’t say anything. She took the hand I offered, and we whisked out onto the dance floor. The perfect excuse to hold her close, especially when I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d get to.
“How’d it go?” she asked after a minute or two of twirling around the dance floor.
“I won’t be shocked if he isn’t at dinner.” I also wouldn’t be surprised if he was and simply didn’t acknowledge my existence, but we’d see. There were only about ten minutes left before they’d ask us to be seated for the dinner portion of the evening.
She inched closer and brushed her hand over my neck, the contact sending a shiver of pleasure through me.
“I’m sorry.”
With slight pressure at her back, I urged her closer. I wanted her plastered to me, but that wouldn’t be appropriate, though a glance around would show a handful of couples getting as close as they could while still managing to stay on tempo—impressive.
“I’m not. I regret that he seems unwilling to listen to me or accept anyone’s opinion but his own, but I don’t regret being honest. I’m sorry dinner will be awkward if he does attend.” It wasn’t fair to subject her to any more of this, so maybe we’d just leave. I could see what Aurelie thought.
“It’ll be—” Elise’s words halted, and her attention was pinned over my shoulder.
I turned to look and saw what’d snagged her focus. Callum .
He stood by one of the bars with a scowl so exaggerated it would’ve been comical if it weren’t upsetting Elise. Before I could twirl her away, he shoved off the bar and sauntered over with a sneer on his lips.
“Well, well, well,” he said, like he’d found us in a compromising position and not dancing in a ballroom at a formal event.
“What do you want, Callum?” Elise said, all impatience.
“Oh, nothing. Just taking a minute to give my best to the happy couple. But you know people who get together by cheating don’t last, right?”
Elise sighed, and I clutched her close.
“No one cheated, Callum. You and me? We weren’t together. We haven’t been for a long time.” Energy coursed through her, but her breathing stayed calm.
He muttered something under his breath, and I nearly lunged for him, but Elise’s hand on my chest held me steady while he stalked away.
“He needs to get a life and move on from you. This should help him figure out you’re really not going back to him.” The grit in my voice might’ve betrayed my repudiation of the man. I almost wished he’d given me an excuse to make good on my promise.
“He’s lost it if he’s been thinking we were together. He must’ve decided his scheme to sell out from under me wouldn’t work, but it makes me nervous that he’s planning something bigger.” She’d directed her attention in the opposite direction, straining away from even the vicinity of where the man had gone.
Leading us to the far side of the dance floor, I used the moment to ask a few questions I’d wanted to but hadn’t wanted to upset her with. “Have you spoken to him recently?”
“No.”
“Good.” It was simple. He shouldn’t have been contacting her at all, especially now. More importantly, “Are you alright?”
Her dark eyes found mine, and she seemed to understand I meant more than generally. I meant was she okay about Callum—with him talking to her and now glaring. She needed only say the word and I’d find a way to haul him out of here.
Her gaze flickered between my eyes as though searching for something, or maybe deciding, and then she pressed up on her toes and brushed her lips over mine. “Yes. I’m alright.”
It wasn’t a declaration of anything, but peace settled between us—around us—new and weighty.
It almost felt like a promise.