Before I could wonder any longer, he turned to face me, letting go of my hand and placing both of his on my cheeks. He leaned in close, almost touching noses. I sighed and closed my eyes when his familiar, warm breath washed over my face.
“Baby, before we go any further, I want you to listen to me. Are you listening?”
I nod and opened my eyes, finding his watching me. The anger on his face from minutes earlier had been replaced with concern.
“Everything is going to be okay. I promise you.” I wanted to believe him.
“How do you know? I don’t want you to lose everything you’ve worked for all your life.”
“I’m not going to lose anything. I’ll hire a ton of lawyers if I have to, but I know enough to be sure the most that could happen to me now is a fine and penalties from the trust. I promise you everything will work out. Do you believe me?”
His thumbs brushed under my eyes until I nodded, and he kissed me lightly on the lips.
“Good. Remember your promise from before when we talked about Rosemary and Willis? The only thing you need to worry about is taking care of yourself and our baby. I’ll fix the rest. Right?”
“Okay.”
I tried to put as much strength in my voice as possible, but I wasn’t sure he completely believed me. I didn’t really believe me.
“Willis?” Jefferson asked, interrupting us, his face scrunched up in thought.
Why did Hector’s name trigger that reaction?
Nicholas took my hand again, turning to face his father. “Yes. That was something else we were going to talk to you about tonight, before your big revelation. You should have told me about this a long time ago.” He glanced over at his mother. “And I can’t believe you kept it from me.”
Clara cringed and Jefferson put his hand on her shoulder.
“Stop. You want to be angry with anyone, be angry with me,” Jefferson said. “She didn’t know about what I did until recently.”
He didn’t tell Clara either?
“Why have you waited so long to tell me?”
Jefferson let out a long, frustrated breath, and I wanted to scream at him. This was his fault, and Nicholas had every right to demand all the answers.
“At first it was shame. I tried to forget about it and kept telling myself nobody would ever know. I almost convinced myself it hadn’t really happened. Then you took the money and started your company. I still told myself it was nothing . No big deal. But then your company took off. It exploded. The more successful you became, the more vigorous I had to be in keeping what I did a secret. I couldn’t be the reason you lost anything.”
“But there was never any threat of criminal charges against you after a certain amount of time, it all came down to money. Why didn’t you talk to a lawyer or something? Why did you believe everything Simon threatened you with?”
“I did speak to a lawyer. It was early on, but the gist I got was that any money tied to what I did could hurt you.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Let me guess, this lawyer knew Simon too?”
Jefferson didn’t say anything, but the look on his face showed he was beginning to realize exactly how much he’d been duped by Simon.
“You’re so smart about most things. I always admired that about you. But I can’t believe you fell for this. I can’t believe you let him manipulate you all this time into thinking he could touch me.” Nicholas let out a short laugh. “I have to admit though, the fact that you did all this for so long because you thought you were protecting me is kind of a relief. Even if it was monumentally stupid.”
My eyes widened at the hint of hope in Nicholas’ voice. It was the last thing I expected to hear. He had every right to feel hurt, betrayed again, and angry at his father for the years of misunderstandings, yet he was looking past all that and seeing the meaning behind it. I watched him, my admiration deepening for this man who held my heart in his hands.
“I did want to protect you. That’s always what I wanted.” Jefferson’s voice was soft, full of apologies, and Clara scooted closer to him, rubbing his arm. “And I want you to know, there’s never been a day when I wasn’t proud of you, even if I couldn’t show it.”
‘Couldn’t or wouldn’t?’
I tried to keep my temper in check, not wanting to hinder the possible resolution between father and son. This was Nicholas’ life they were discussing, and if he was showing the strength to understand his father’s motivations, then I was going to bite my tongue. Even if I was still angry enough at Jefferson to breathe fire.
Nicholas’ eyes were focused on the table, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. Ever so often, he would squeeze my hand, and it assured me he was still here with me, thinking of me while taking in his father’s words.
Jefferson’s admission of pride couldn’t possibly wipe away the years of Nicholas believing he was unworthy. But maybe it could soothe the pain a little. Perhaps it could be the first step in fixing what had been broken so long ago.
Whatever Nicholas decided, in regard to his father, I would stand beside him.
“Thank you,” Nicholas finally said, lifting his head, a determined expression on his face. “I think I needed to hear that, no matter how inconsequential it may be right now.”
The whole table seemed to exhale in relief.
“The question is what do we do now?” he added.
Jefferson cleared his throat. “It’s obvious I don’t fully understand the consequences, but at this point, I’ll do whatever is best. Whatever you need me to do. If it will make your life easier for me to admit to the authorities or whoever what I did, then I’ll do it.”