able to keep it out of the public eye. I’d been intending on sharing with Gerald anyway, considering his long relationship with my family. That had been strained in recent years, possibly due to the woman next to me, but Dad knew I was telling him.
I picked at the cuff of my dress shirt and gritted my teeth. “He started chemo this week.”
“Oh.” The table went silent. Possibly the whole restaurant. All I heard was the ringing in my ears. Would that confession ever get easier?
“Hudson…” Nina’s hand fell to my knee. It felt foreign and not the least bit comforting but I wouldn’t cause a scene.
“Prostate cancer. Slow growing, high chance of survival. Just a bump in the road,” I said, a ball growing in my throat.
Cancer was never just a bump in the road, but I’d pretend along with Dad for his sake.
Across from me, Gerald’s face drained of color. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard. He didn’t tell me.”
“I know. We’re trying to keep it quiet for now.”
It was as much of a statement as a warning. I was full of them tonight. “He started this week. It’s new. We’ll let news slip when we have to but until then, I’m in charge.”
God… get me back to business.
Nina’s hand on my thigh squeezed. Whether to comfort me or remind me she was here I didn’t know. Without attracting attention from her brother or dad, I dropped my hand to my lap, removed hers from mine, and reached for my wine.
Next to me, she went ramrod straight at my dismissal. She shouldn’t be surprised.
“So,” I said, moving us along. “Like I said, due to your most recent projects in the city, I’m not sure you have a shot at winning the bids anyway. So maybe you shouldn’t be asking me what I want to give up to have you walk away, but what do I need to do so you’ll walk?”
Gerald’s gaze went intense. I was a cocky, arrogant prick when I needed to be, and Gerald was no fool.
It wasn’t until the corners of his lips turned up and he glanced at his daughter, who’d remained so silent outside touching me I realized I’d walked right into his web.
Snared.
“I want you to marry my daughter.”
24
Lilly
Angie picked me up at seven. I unwrapped my scarf as soon as I rushed out of my building and sank into the passenger seat of her old, beat-up Toyota.
I’d considered canceling as soon as I agreed to go out. Staying in for a night while Hudson was out when he could return home at any minute, me probably pacing like a moron didn’t sit well with me.
Or pacing, worried about what it could mean if he didn’t.
Neither option sat well with me, even if I wasn’t in the mood to make nice with others.
“You all right?” she asked, shoving her car into drive and pulling from the curb.
I watched the building disappear as she turned the corner and headed back downtown. “Tired. Long week.”
“Which is why we’re headed out. You like Mexican food?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Sociopaths and serial killers, probably.”
I laughed despite my plummeting mood. Who cared if she was younger? Angie lived a hard life making her seem older. Plus, I needed friends that didn’t revolve around Hudson or his company.
My mom had done that. Made her life’s sole sphere of influence orbit around my dad and I figured she’d allow that to happen long before he became abusive. Hudson wasn’t him.
That didn’t mean it was healthy to have him be the only person in my life, his family the only one I could depend on.
It was the only reason why I didn’t back out of dinner. I’d listened to his voicemail. I was a half-second from calling him back when a woman’s voice called him handsome, and he immediately told me he had to go and hung up. His tone had changed, like he’d been caught. And all my earlier insecurities went on full blast.
Not that I thought for a single second he was cheating. I didn’t believe he was that kind of guy. But it didn’t make me hurry to call him back either, despite what he said about this woman being nothing to him. He was with her. Or someone. Maybe I was being too immature. Too emotional. But I’d grown up in a life where I didn’t exactly trust anyone and while I was trying to trust Hudson… he’d lied to me.
Again.
Given the way he’d behaved for the last week,