then we will lose everything. Everything that your mother and I have built up over all of these years.”
I shake my head. I don’t know what to say.
Of course, I don’t want him to lose everything, but I also don’t want to marry someone that I don’t want to be in the same room with and do so without an exit strategy.
“You know about the people who have their pensions tied up with Tate Media, right?”
I nod.
"They’re not like us,” he says. “They don’t have houses to sell and stock options to liquidate and all of those other things that protect us from the so-called real world.
“They just have their measly one hundred, two hundred grand tied up in a company that’s going to go up in flames unless you do something to save it.”
“But why is it up to me? You never wanted me to be involved before and suddenly it’s all up to me?”
“Honey, I fucked up. I’ll be the first one to admit that. I took money that I shouldn’t have out of the company’s coffers. I spent all of it. I thought I’d be able to put it back, but I couldn’t. That’s what all of those people were investigating. They know exactly what I did and the only way to deal with the situation now is to have Franklin‘s people cover it up and to have Tate Media be absorbed into OMS, his parents’ company.”
I shake my head. I get off of the barstool and pace around the room.
“Okay, let’s say I marry him. What then? What’s my end goal? How do I get divorced and get the company back on its feet? How do we make any of that happen?”
My father shakes his head.
“The simple answer is that you don’t,” he says quietly.
My eyes open wide and I stare at him, finding it hard to believe that he’s saying this.
“Do you want me to actually stay married?"
“I want you to marry him and I want you to try to make a good life with him. After some time, he will grow the company and bring it back up to his feet. Those people will not lose their jobs and they will not lose their pensions. And who knows, maybe the two of you can be happy?”
“And if we’re not?”
"If you’re not, then you wouldn’t be the first couple to find happiness… Elsewhere.”
Tears well up in my eyes and I turn away from him to not let him see me cry.
“Honey, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make you upset,” my father says.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t let this get to me,” I say, taking a deep breath and trying to push away my tears.
“What’s wrong? Tell me what you’re thinking.”
I flip my head back.
“I’m not going to marry him,” I say.
“You have to," Dad says calmly. His voice is so monotone and detached that it sends shivers down my spine.
“No, I can’t. This isn’t going to solve your problem and it’s just going to add to mine. I want more for my life than to be married to some man who I don’t even like.”
My father plates our dinner. We sit down silently at the dining room table, him at the head and me at the chair next to him. Without another word, I start to eat. I’m hungry and thirsty and disappointed and I hope that this will alleviate at least some of that.
“I know that this is a difficult thing for you to do,” Dad says after finishing all the broccoli. “I know this is a difficult thing for you to do since your mother and I have never really asked you to do anything for us.”
“It’s not about that,” I say, glancing up at him.” I just don’t think that you can ask someone to marry someone they don’t love as what exactly? A favor?”
“I have to tell you something,” he says with a heavy sigh.
“What?”
“I promised your mother that I wouldn’t and I don’t like to break my promises to her but in this case, I think I have to.”
“What?”
He takes a deep breath and finishes his glass of wine.
“I’m not just facing a long prison sentence. It’s more than that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They’re going to kill me,” he says quietly.
I lean over to hear him better, unsure as to whether his words came out properly.
“What did you say?"
“My life is in danger,” he says after a long pause. “If this doesn’t happen, if you don’t go through with this