39. Kent
Chapter Thirty-Nine
KENT
“What’s up?” Dahlia asks as she enters the library, where I asked her to meet me after Liz stormed off.
I shut the door behind her, my gaze glued to my feet. “I need your advice.”
“What’s going on?” Her voice goes softer. She knows something’s wrong.
I take in a deep breath. “All right. I need to tell you something but you can’t tell anyone, especially my dad.”
“Okay, what is it?”
I shake my head. “You’re not going to like it? And now it’s a huge mess.”
“Kent, just spit it out. What?” she demands.
I blow out a big breath and shut my eyes, bracing myself for her reaction to what I’m about to admit. “Liz and I aren’t really engaged.”
“What!”
I open one eye, cringing. “We’re just pretending to be so the board of directors will vote me in as the president of Bonnaire Capital in a few days.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Dahlia’s jaw drops.
“I’m not.” I barrel on with the full story. I tell her about the company holiday party, the deal we made, and how it’s all starting to fall apart at the seams. By the end, Dahlia hasn’t said a word.
“Will you say something?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I’m still processing. I mean, I really thought you two were . . .”
“I know but we’re not. Well, not exactly.”
“I can’t believe you lied to me about being engaged.” Dahlia looks slightly hurt from the whole thing. And I knew she would be, but now I feel like a real ass.
“I know. I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you the truth but when you showed up that night, you caught us by surprise. And you seemed so happy about the idea.”
“Because I am. I want to see you happy.”
“I will be,” I say. “When I get this promotion.”
“Yeah, but Kent, is this really how you want to land it? By lying to everyone?”
“Believe me. I hate the lie as much as you do. But they were going to give my job to Collin. Fucking Collin Evans!”
“I know Collin’s an ass, and I get that the financial world is brutal, but we’re your family. How long were you going to string us along?”
I shrug, feeling sheepish. “Not much longer. We were going to stage a break up once it was all said and done.”
Dahlia shakes her head and plops down in one of the leather reading chairs. “I’m just so confused. You seem like you’re smitten with her.”
“I am. I care about Liz. A lot more than I anticipated. That’s why I don’t know what to do.”
Dahlia raises an eyebrow. “I hate to tell you this, but you’ve gotten yourself into a real shitshow. I mean, you lied to Dean about getting married.”
“I had to.”
“No, Kent, you didn’t. You could’ve been honest and let him and the board know how much you deserve this position. That is if you actually do deserve it.” Now Dahlia’s giving me that same look Liz did when she uttered the same sentiment.
I gulp back my insecurity. “I do deserve it.”
“Do you really think the president of a major venture capital firm would pull a stunt like this?”
“Have you read the news? Financial firms pull way worse stunts than this.” Which is exactly what got Liz back to Bonnaire and in this mad arrangement with me.
“Okay, but is that how you want to lead? How can it sit right with you to build your leadership on a lie?” she asks, and I can hardly look at her. “Unless it isn’t completely a lie.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Remember, I’m an actress. You and Liz would have to be very well-trained actors to fool us all as well as you have. So I don’t think it’s all an act. I see the way she looks at you. I think she loves you.”
My heart skips a beat when she utters the word love. “You think Liz loves me?”
“Yes, I do. But do you love her?”
My breath gets caught in my throat, and my stomach knots. Do I love Liz? “I . . . I have feelings for her. But I’ve never been in love. So how do I know?”
“You know you’re in love because you don’t want to be apart from her.
She’s the first person you think of when you wake up and the last person you dream about before you go to sleep.
You know you love her because just the idea of losing her hurts like hell because deep down, you know you’re a changed person, and you can’t be without her. ”
Every single thing Dahlia’s just said rings true. But does that mean . . . ? “Shit. Maybe I do love her. What do I do now?”
Dahlia rises from the chair and walks over to me, resting her hands on my shoulders as if she’s about to give me a pep talk. “Here’s the thing, your lie is going to catch up with you. Maybe not before the vote but it will. The question is, are you going to lose Liz in the process?”