Chapter Seven #2
“Then what are you actually angry about?”
Camille opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Elliot waited.
Her eyes filled.
“I didn’t know.”
“That is the secrecy.”
“No.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I mean I didn’t know either of them had changed this much.”
Elliot’s expression softened.
Camille sat beside him.
“Aisha is supposed to tell me everything.”
“She probably thought this was the one thing she couldn’t.”
“And my father—”
She shook her head.
“He doesn’t love people like that.”
“You mean he doesn’t say it.”
“He said it to her.”
“Yes.”
“I walked in and he was looking at her like…”
“Like what?”
Camille swallowed.
“Like she was home.”
Elliot took her hand.
“That is probably why they were afraid to tell you.”
Camille cried then.
Not because she wanted Graham alone.
Not because she believed Aisha had stolen something from her.
Because the two people she trusted most had found a version of happiness neither had shared with her, and somehow their happiness made her feel left behind.
The following afternoon, Camille found Marianne seated on the hotel terrace reviewing floral invoices.
Her mother looked up.
“You heard.”
“I saw.”
Marianne removed her sunglasses.
“I’m sorry.”
“You knew before me.”
“By approximately four hours.”
“That does not help.”
“No. I suppose it doesn’t.”
Camille sat opposite her.
“Tell me it’s a terrible idea.”
Marianne considered her.
“Why?”
“Because he is my father and she is my best friend.”
“Those are facts, not reasons.”
Camille stared at her.
“You confronted him.”
“I did.”
“So you disapprove.”
“I raised concerns.”
“Mom.”
Marianne sighed and set aside the invoices.
“Your father has spent most of his life doing what he believed was expected of him.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“He married me because our families approved. He remained married to me years after we had stopped making each other happy because he believed leaving would harm you. He took control of a company he never wanted because his father became ill.”
Marianne looked through the terrace doors toward the hotel.
“Graham mistakes sacrifice for love. He always has.”
“And Aisha?”
“Aisha is the first thing I have seen him want without turning it into an obligation.”
Camille looked down at her hands.
“He lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“So did she.”
“Yes.”
“You’re supposed to take my side.”
“I am on your side.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“Being on your side does not require me to tell you that every feeling you have is correct.”
Camille gave a wet laugh.
“You really couldn’t just hug me?”
Marianne stood and came around the table.
She embraced her daughter.
Camille held on longer than she intended.
“They should have told you,” Marianne said against her hair. “You deserve an apology for that.”
“But not for being together.”
“No.”
Camille pulled back.
“Would it bother you if they stayed together?”
Marianne’s smile was thin.
“It would complicate Christmas.”
“Mom.”
“No.” She glanced toward the ballroom. “It would not bother me.”
Graham stood alone in the old library that evening when Camille found him.
He looked tired.
Not physically. Graham Hale could survive a week without sleep and still appear more composed than most men after a vacation.
This was different.
He looked stripped down.
“Can we talk?” she asked.
He closed the folder in his hands.
“Yes.”
Camille entered but did not sit.
“Do you love her?”
“Yes.”
No hesitation.
No attempt to soften the answer.
Camille had expected certainty.
It still hurt.
“How long?”
“I do not know.”
“That isn’t helpful.”
“I realized it recently. That does not mean it began recently.”
She looked away.
“Did you hire her because you wanted her?”
“No. Nora recommended her firm. I approved the contract because her work was the best.”
“Did you follow her career?”
Graham’s expression shifted.
“She told you.”
“I heard enough.”
“Yes. I followed her work.”
“Why?”
“Because she mattered to you.”
Camille studied him.
“And later?”
“Because she began to matter to me.”
She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Aisha thinks she has to end it.”
“I know.”
“Are you going to let her?”
Pain flickered across his face.
“She is not something I can allow or forbid.”
“You always fight for what you want.”
“I fight businesses, contracts, and problems. Aisha is none of those.”
Camille took a breath.
“If I told you I couldn’t accept it, what would you do?”
Graham went still.
She hated herself for asking.
She needed the answer anyway.
“If I said I wouldn’t attend holidays, wouldn’t visit, wouldn’t let you both be around me—would you end it?”
Graham looked at her for a long time.
“I would hope it never came to that.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Camille felt the answer before he continued.
“I would not abandon her to earn your forgiveness.”
Her eyes burned.
Graham’s voice roughened.
“But I would never stop loving you. I would never stop trying to repair what I damaged between us. I would spend the rest of my life hoping you found a way to remain in it.”
Camille looked down.
Part of her had wanted him to say he would choose her.
The larger part—the part she did not want to examine—would have lost respect for him if he had.
“You really love her.”
“Yes.”
“Enough to let me hate you?”
“Yes.”
Camille wiped beneath one eye.
“I do hate you a little.”
“I understand.”
“And I’m still angry.”
“You should be.”
“And seeing you touch her may make me throw up for at least a year.”
“That seems excessive.”
She glared.
Graham’s mouth shifted faintly.
Camille saw it then.
The difference Aisha had made.
Not a complete transformation. Graham was still difficult, controlled, and emotionally exhausting.
But there was warmth where there had once been only restraint.
“You hurt her,” Camille said.
His faint smile disappeared.
“I know.”
“She thinks she has to choose.”
“I will not ask her to choose me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t make every decision sound like a board meeting.”
“I do not.”
“You absolutely do.”
Graham sighed.
Camille walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To speak to my best friend.”
Hope appeared on his face before he could hide it.
Camille pointed at him.
“Do not follow me.”
He remained where he was.
For once, Graham Hale listened.