front door, without uttering a single word to her father.
I turned and left him with one last piece of advice before I left. “I will only say this once. You are going to get help for your gambling and you’re going to start being the husband and father you should have always been. If not, I will do everything in my power to take everything you have from you. Believe me, don’t believe, I really don’t give a fuck, but if I hear of you mistreating Fiona ever again, I will do more than ruin you. I will make you pray for death.” I didn’t wait for him to respond. I walked out of his house slamming the door behind me.
The drive to Fiona’s was too long and too short. I was fucked, and I wasn’t going into this thinking anything otherwise. I knew my only option was honesty, but the fear of losing her had my hands sweaty against the steering wheel. She asked for one thing, and one thing only after everything I’ve done to her and that was to never lie to her. And, while some people might argue that I didn’t technically lie, I knew she wouldn’t see it that way. Hell, I didn’t see it that way.
I pulled into her driveway and actually had to count to ten before I got out of my car. This was unfamiliar territory for me. I didn’t do scared. I didn’t do nervous. I didn’t do anxious. But, then, there was never anything I ever really cared about except her. Will was a close second, but even he knew he was no match for Fiona.
The front door was unlocked, almost mocking me as it encouraged me to walk through to meet my demise. Since her house was so small, I walked right in to her pacing her living room. The second she heard me come in, she pounced. “What the fuck was all that about, Damien? Why were you at my parents’ house? What did my father mean? What did you mean when you said you may have planned all of this? Planned what?!” Fiona was shrieking by the time she was done with her questions.
I could feel my blood turning to ice as I laid bare my final secret. “I bought Smithtown Textiles five years ago. Four years ago, I had upper management promote your father to the accounting department. Three years ago I approached him and befriended him, allowing him to write check advancements against his yearly bonuses.” The look on her face was one of nothing but torment, but I continued. “I knew he had a gambling problem. I’ve known it for years, even when we were kids. I made it a point to know everything about you and your family.”
I knew she knew where I was going with this, but she demanded the words, anyway. “Why?”
“I had always planned to come back for you. Always,” I told her. “From the second I climbed out your window graduation night to the second I walked into your office with the intention of blackmailing you, I felt as if my life had been put on hold. These past ten years were just a means to an end. Everything I did, everything I accomplished was all to forage a path back to you.”
“Damien...”
I held up my hand to stop her. I needed to get this all out. There was no way she would love me or be with me if there was even a hint of wrongdoing in our relationship. “I knew there was no way in hell I could come back here and simply ask you out. I knew you wouldn’t give me the time of day unless I forced it and I couldn’t and wouldn’t have blamed you. So, I set the wheels in motion five years ago to give you no choice but to have to accept me. I knew your dad wouldn’t be able to help himself. The blank checks were too tempting for an addict such as himself. I sat back for three years as I watch and waited for your dad to dig himself into a hole so deep, I’d have everything I need to force your hand.”
Her face was covered in a flow of tears by the time I was done explaining the level of my duplicity. “Were you ever going to send my parents to prison? If I had said no, would you have gone through with it? Would you have