Christmas at Fireside Cabins - Jenny Hale Page 0,82

“You have this innocent outlook on the world, but it’s not always as easy as a phone call. My mother abandoned me. And my father… He’s a complete disaster.”

“Any idea why your dad’s been staying here at the cabins?”

“I don’t know.” He dropped her hand and rubbed his face in alarm. “That’s why I left. And why I went dark—to protect you. I saw him slowly drive by the shop, and I knew he’d figured out where I was. I was hoping to spend the rest of my life alone, away from his warped judgment and bad choices.”

“What happened with him? Would you tell me?”

“Do we really need to get into it?” he asked.

Lila took his hand again and squeezed it gently. “I think that you have a decision to make here,” she said. “If you want to let me in, you have to let me all the way in.”

Theo took a drink, then held up his glass of wine and looked at it, as if he were playing for time, his thoughts clearly somewhere else. Holding her breath, Lila realized the full scale of what she’d just said. He could get up and walk out right now, and decide not to tell her. Or he could stay.

When he surfaced again from his contemplation, he began, “I owned the production company with my father and I produced some of my dad’s music…”

He was letting her in. The man who hadn’t seemed to let a soul into his world for a long time. Unable to stop herself, she put her hands on his face and kissed him, surprising him, nearly knocking his wine out of his hand and making him laugh. He set down his glass, wrapped his arms around her, and pressed his mouth to hers, the feel of his lips like oxygen, filling her and making her feel like she hadn’t been alive until that moment. Then he pulled back. “What was that for?” he asked.

“For trusting me,” she replied. “Now, tell me the rest.”

He rested his hand on her knee. “So, my finance guy asked me one night if he thought I should change the budget to reallocate funds. When I asked him why, he said it would make sense, since we’d been paying three times the normal amount to my dad in salary for the last few months. When I looked at the books, I found out that my father had been signing business checks in his own name.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked.

“To fuel his overspending habit. He invested in quite a few shady businesses—I’m not sure he knew that at the time. He felt invincible, like he was made of money, and he overcommitted to these people. When he didn’t have what he’d promised, they came looking for him.”

Suddenly, it all became clear—the articles, the media painting him as a bad seed… the press had it wrong: none of this was Theo’s fault. Everyone had been so quick to blame him, and even she had almost fallen for the lies.

“Why didn’t he go to jail for stealing from the company?” she asked.

Theo replied, “Because I had my accountant convert it all to legal income, saying that I’d paid him, and then I paid taxes on his extra income for him. It took every cent I had in my bank account to do it.”

“Oh my gosh, Theo. Why did you cover all that up?”

“Because he’s a train wreck, but I love him. He’s my dad, after all. When I confronted him about his spending and taking the money, he cut me off, and kicked me out of the partnership. When I sold the business, we went our separate ways. I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t see me.” Theo ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve dealt with that kind of stuff my whole life, and this was the tipping point. I’d had it. I didn’t want any part of it anymore.”

“I’m so sorry, Theo,” Lila said, her chest heavy with sadness for him.

“When I had no money, Alexa was angry and embarrassed because of the way things had ended, and she spread rumors to all our friends that the family was bankrupt, that she didn’t believe I’d had any money in the first place, and that I was a fraud. Alexa threatened that she’d find a way to take everything I had left—even if it was through unnecessary lawyer fees. Me being broke would make it look like her claims about me

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