Chapter 13
“Yes.”
“And you never questioned them?”
“I questioned everything.”
“Except the parts that involved me.”
His eyes lifted to hers.
“I questioned those most.”
“Then why did you never tell me about Bell Street?”
“Because your mother asked me not to.”
“You obeyed her?”
“When it came to you, yes.”
Norah closed the ledger.
The sound echoed through the little room.
“You obeyed her request to protect me, but you told Arthur you would change the locks and forget my name if I left?”
Nico went very still.
Mara looked between them.
Norah had not planned to say the words here.
She had not planned to say them at all.
But the darkness had stripped away the careful distance she had maintained since leaving.
Nico’s face changed as though she had touched a wound he had been trying not to acknowledge.
“You heard us,” he said.
“You knew I heard you.”
“No.”
“You knew I was outside your office.”
His eyes closed briefly.
That tiny movement gave her the answer.
“You saw me.”
“I saw the tray.”
“You saw me standing there.”
“I saw your reflection in the glass.”
“And you kept talking.”
“I thought you had already walked away.”
“You thought wrong.”
His jaw tightened.
“I know.”
The confession held no excuse.
Norah had expected denial, perhaps anger, perhaps the cold certainty with which he handled every conflict.
Instead, he stood in front of her with his shoulders lowered and his hands empty.
That did not absolve him.
It made the hurt harder to defend against.
“What did you want me to hear?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“That is not true.”
“I was speaking to Arthur about the possibility that you might leave.”
“You said you would not lose a minute of sleep.”
“I said it because I was afraid.”
Norah’s fingers pressed against the ledger.
“Afraid of what?”
“That you were going to realize you had built your life around a man who could never give you a normal one.”
She stared at him.
“You thought insulting me would keep me from leaving?”
“I thought pretending you meant less to me would make it easier if you chose to go.”
“Easier for whom?”
“For me.”
The honesty hurt.
Nico glanced at Mara, then back to Norah.
“I was wrong.”
“You were cruel.”
“Yes.”
“I stayed beside you when your enemies made threats against your businesses.”
“I know.”
“I sat in hospital corridors while your men recovered from decisions you made.”