Chapter 52
KENT
Fifteen minutes. I wasn’t sure it was enough, but I would take what I could get.
I had missed the place more than I thought I did. I had never really missed anything. Or anyone.
But my God, I missed her. Laying eyes on her fucking cut and provided the balm at the same time.
I had thought about her every day since I had left, but this sense of belonging somewhere that felt real was something I had missed as well. New York had all the amenities money could buy, but it didn’t have this kind of soul.
And it didn’t have Sylvie.
I let her lead the way. Neither of us said anything at first. Now that I knew my time was limited, I wanted to use it in the best way possible. Which meant I had to choose my words carefully.
And I was struggling to find the right words to express what I was feeling.
We ended up behind the lodge in the old maze of hedges I found during my first visit. The hedges were overgrown and slightly wild, creating pathways that led nowhere in particular but somehow felt magical anyway. Snow had settled on the branches, turning the whole thing silent and still.
“How have you been?” I asked, stealing a glance at Sylvie as she navigated around a particularly unruly section of hedge.
She was kind enough to indulge the question, though I could see the wariness in her eyes. “Busy. Really busy. The Christmas Eve party is in a couple of days. Just been working to help manage guests and decorating every surface that doesn’t move.”
“Sounds exhausting,” I said.
“It is,” she admitted. “But good exhausting. The kind where you fall into bed knowing you’ve made people happy.
” She paused, then looked at me directly.
“Okay, enough small talk. Cut to the chase, Kent. Why are you really back? I have a million things to do and really don’t want to waste time on whatever this is or isn’t. ”
Sylvie was direct. No games, no corporate politeness, just honest communication. It was one of the things I’d fallen for from the very beginning.
I took a breath, knowing that what I was about to say would either change everything or end any chance I had of earning her trust back.
“I came to make things right,” I said. “I have another offer I think you and your family should look at.”
She stopped walking and stared at me. The color drained from her face and she took a step back, distancing herself from me. That was expected.
“No,” she said, panic in her voice. “No more offers. No more tricks. No more deals. We’ve accepted our fate. I don’t need to hear anything else from you. I thought you wanted to say something about us. I’m not mixing us with my family’s business. That doesn’t lead anywhere good.”
“Sylvie, just hear me out.”
“I can’t do this again,” she continued, her words coming faster now. “I can’t get my family’s hopes up all over again just to have it come crashing back down. And I can’t—I won’t—look like a fool for trusting you again.”
The pain in her voice cut through me. I’d done this to her. I’d taken someone who believed in the best of people and made her afraid to hope.
“I understand that,” I said carefully. “I understand why you would feel that way. I get it and I don’t blame you. But please, just give me five minutes to explain what I’m proposing.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, a defensive gesture that made her look smaller and more vulnerable than I’d ever seen her. It killed me to know I did that to her.
“Why should I give you even two seconds? I don’t owe you anything. I don’t even know why I’m out here with you. Just go home, Kent. We’re not selling to you. We’re happier to see this place fall apart than to see it be taken to the ground. Go find somewhere else to destroy.”
“I’m not here to destroy anything,” I said.
She snorted. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.”
“This isn’t coming from Bancroft Industries,” I blurted out. “This is coming from me. Personally. From my own wealth, my own resources. And it’s not about acquisition or extraction or corporate profits. It’s about investment in something I believe in.”
Her expression shifted slightly, curiosity warring with skepticism. “What kind of investment?”
“A hospitality venture,” I said, the words tumbling out in my eagerness to make her understand.
“I want to help you restore this place to its former glory. Bring in the right marketing team, upgrade facilities while preserving the character, focus on the family-friendly and connected community vibes that make this place special.”
I gestured around us, taking in the snow-covered hedges and the warm lights glowing from the lodge windows.
“I want to help you bring this place back to life. Not change it into something else but help it become the best possible version of what it already is.”
Sylvie stared at me, her green eyes searching my face like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “Why?”
“Because I believe in it,” I said simply. “More than that, I believe in you. And if this place could get under my skin the way it has, if it could change someone as cynical and profit-focused as me, then it will definitely get under other people’s skin too.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t,” she said. “Or was that just another lie?”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to talk down to her or brag about my wealth, but no matter how I laid it out, that was exactly what it was going to sound like.
“Look,” I said, trying to figure out how to explain it without sounding like a complete ass.
“I don’t have access to the billions that Bancroft Industries has in assets.
That’s corporate money, board money, shareholder money.
But I do have my own portfolio, my own investments.
I can free up some stuff, move money around, liquidate some holdings. ”
She crossed her arms tighter. “Get to the point. How much are we talking about?”
“Enough,” I said. “Several million. Maybe more if I need to get creative with some of my real estate holdings.”
“Several million,” she repeated flatly. “Just like that. You can just move several million dollars around like it’s pocket change.”
I could hear the edge in her voice. I knew I was walking into dangerous territory. “Well, yes.”
“What happens when we fail?” she asked. “Because that’s what businesses like ours do, Kent. We fail. We’ve been failing for years. What happens when your several million dollars disappears into a black hole of bad Christmas tree sales and empty lodge rooms?”
“That’s not going to happen.”
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Oh, really? You can guarantee success now? That’s quite a superpower.”
“I’m not guaranteeing anything,” I said, frustrated that this wasn’t going the way I’d hoped. “But failure isn’t an option here. I won’t let it happen.”
“You won’t let it happen,” she repeated, shaking her head. “God, do you hear yourself? You think you can just will a struggling business back to profitability through sheer determination and money?”
“Money helps,” I said. “And so does experience. I know how to run businesses, Sylvie. I know how to market, how to scale, how to—”
“How to destroy,” she interrupted. “That’s what you know how to do.”
The accusation stung. “Look, even if the worst-case scenario happens, even if everything goes to hell and we lose every penny I invest, there’s still option B.”
“Which is?”
“I buy the property anyway. At fair market value, not the offer my family made. Your family gets enough money to start over somewhere else, debt-free, with money left over.”
She stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “And you? What happens to you when you’re out several million dollars?”
I shrugged, trying to make it sound casual even though the amount would definitely hurt. “I’ll still be rich, Sylvie. I won’t be broke. I won’t be living in a cardboard box. I’ll just be less rich.”
“Less rich,” she said slowly. “Must be nice to live in a world where losing millions of dollars is just being ‘less rich.’”
The bitterness in her voice made my chest tighten. I was handling it all wrong. But I had a feeling no matter what I said was going to offend her in one way or another.
The silence stretched between us. I waited, hardly daring to breathe, while Sylvie processed what I had just proposed.
“Can I think about it?” she asked finally.
Relief flooded through me. She hadn’t said no. She hadn’t walked away or told me to leave. She was willing to consider it.
“Of course,” I said. “Take all the time you need.”
“I’ll need to talk to my family. Get their input. We don’t make major decisions without everyone being on board.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
She nodded, but I could see the wheels turning in her mind, probably already thinking through all the ways this could go wrong, all the reasons she should be suspicious of my motives. She expected an investment at the very beginning. She didn’t trust me now.
I knew I had to address the elephant in the room, the fact that business wasn’t the only thing I’d come back to discuss.
“Sylvie,” I said, taking a half-step closer. “I need to apologize. Again. I know I’ve said I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ve properly acknowledged how badly I hurt you.”
She looked up at me. I could see the pain in her eyes.
“I lied to you,” I continued. “I used your trust against you. I made you look foolish in front of your father, and I know how much that meant to you—having his respect, being seen as capable of handling important family business.”
Her throat worked like she was trying to swallow around something difficult.
“But more than that,” I said, my voice dropping to barely above a whisper. “I hurt someone I care about. Someone who showed me kindness and joy and what it felt like to belong somewhere. Someone who made me want to be better than I’d ever thought I could be.”
“Kent—”
“I will never hurt you again,” I said, cutting off whatever protest she’d been about to make. “If you give me the chance, I’ll protect you. I’ll stand by you. I’ll be the kind of man who deserves your trust and your faith and your—”
I stopped myself before I said the word love, but it hung in the air between us anyway.
“I’ll be better,” I finished. “If you’ll let me.”
Sylvie searched my eyes with an intensity that made me feel exposed and hopeful and terrified all at once. I could see her weighing my words, testing them against her memories of how I’d behaved before.
“What are you asking me?” she said finally.
The question was simple, but the answer felt like stepping off a cliff. I didn’t do vulnerable. I didn’t do feelings.
But if I wanted her, I had to shed that outer layer of armor and go all in.
“To give me another chance,” I said. “Not just with the business proposal, but with us. With whatever this is between us.”