30. James #2
“It’s not just a business!” She was shouting now. “It’s your life’s work! It’s your inheritance! James, you can’t just-”
“I can.” I reached for her, but she stepped back. “And I did. Because you and Lily are more important to me than any company. More important than any legacy. More important than anything.”
“You didn’t even ask me.” Her eyes were bright with tears. “You made this decision without me. Again. Just like every other time.”
“There wasn’t time to-”
“There’s never time! There’s never time because you just do things, James. You just decide what’s best for me and then do it without consulting me. The apartment. The legal fees. The spa day. And now this.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me!” The tears were falling now. “I need you to treat me like a partner! I need you to make decisions with me, not for me!”
“Haley-”
“You can’t keep deciding for me.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s one thing to help me. It’s another thing entirely to buy me.”
The words hit me like a slap. “I didn’t buy you.”
“But it feels like it.” Her voice cracked. “It feels like you’ve been buying me this whole time. The apartment, the lawyer, the childcare policy at your company. And now you’ve given up everything you have to make my problems go away.”
“Because I love you.”
“I know you love me.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “But I don’t know who I am when I’m with you. I don’t know if I’m making choices because I want to, or because you’ve already made them for me.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not.” She met my eyes, and what I saw there made my stomach drop. “But I need some time alone. You should leave.”
“Haley-”
“No, James. Please.” Her voice broke. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t think clearly when you’re here.”
“What about us?” My voice came out rough. “What about everything we said last night?”
“I meant everything I said.” She looked away. “But Lily is three years old. She doesn’t remember the affair. She doesn’t remember the hospital. She doesn’t remember any of the mess that brought us here. All she knows is that you’ve been around, and that she likes having you around.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“It’s complicated.” She pressed her hands against her eyes. “If I do this with you, if we become a real couple, Lily will grow up knowing that her mother married one brother and ended up with the other. That’s her story. That’s the family history she’ll carry.”
“Lily will carry the truth.” I stepped toward her, needing her to understand. “The truth that her mother was loved by someone who showed up.”
“Maybe.” She dropped her hands and looked at me, and I saw the exhaustion in her face. “But I need to figure that out on my own. I need to be alone with Lily for a while. I need to just be her mom without you here making everything easier.”
“Making things easier is bad now?”
“It is when I can’t tell if I’m with you because I want to be or because you’ve made it impossible to be anywhere else.” She turned away from me. “Please, James. Just go.”
I stood there for a long moment, watching her shoulders shake. Every instinct screamed at me to stay, to fight, to make her see that leaving was the last thing either of us needed.
But she’d asked me to go.
And I’d already made too many decisions for her.
“I’ll be at Daniel and Megan’s.” I grabbed my jacket from the chair. “Call me when you’re ready to talk.”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t turn around.
I let myself out and drove to Daniel’s place in a haze. Megan was the one who answered the door, took one look at my face, and stepped aside without a word.
Daniel appeared from the kitchen with a beer already in hand.
“She kicked you out?” He handed me the bottle.
“She asked me to leave.” I dropped onto their couch.
“I don’t think there’s a difference.”
Megan sat down beside me, her expression sympathetic. “What happened?”
I told them everything. The lawsuit. The phone call with Diane. Signing over the distillery. Haley’s reaction.
When I finished, Daniel let out a low whistle. “You gave up the company. The whole thing.”
“It was the only way to make it stop.”
“I’m not saying you were wrong.” He shook his head. “I’m saying that’s a hell of a gesture.”
“It doesn’t feel like a gesture.” Megan’s voice was quiet. “It feels like you decided her life for her. Again.”
I looked at her. “You think she’s right to be angry?”
“I think she’s been through hell.” Megan reached over and squeezed my hand. “Look at it from her side, James. Every Sinclair has screwed her over. Caleb cheated on her. Diane tried to destroy her. Even your help has come with strings, even if you didn’t mean it that way.”
“There were no strings.”
“Maybe not in your mind. But in hers?” Megan sighed. “She’s spent years fighting for her independence. Fighting to prove she could make it on her own. And now you’ve just upended your entire life for her. Given up everything. How is she supposed to feel about that?”
“Grateful?” The word came out bitter.
“Guilty.” Megan shook her head. “Overwhelmed. Like she owes you something she can never repay.”
I stared at the beer in my hand, the label already peeling from where I’d been picking at it.
“I just wanted to protect her.”
“I know.” Megan’s voice was gentle. “But sometimes protection feels like a cage. Even when you mean it as a gift.”