Chapter 6 - Words Without Shields
She did not run inside. She did not yell. She wiped her soil-stained hands on a canvas rag, spoke a quiet word to the man beside her, and stepped out through the side door into the biting wind.
She stopped ten paces away from me, her arms crossed over her chest. Between us lay a gulf wider than the canyon outside town.
"You violated my request, Gabriel," she said. Her voice was remarkably steady, lacking the high pitch of panic or the crackle of rage. That calm was worse than screaming; it signaled detachment.
"I didn't hire anyone," I said immediately, holding my hands out, palms open in surrender. "The lease agreement for this building was listed in the legal disclosure packet your attorney sent. That’s how I knew."
"You shouldn't have come."
"Rebecca, please. Just ten minutes. Not through attorneys, not through your father. Just ten minutes of honesty. I owe you—"
"You owe me nothing," she interrupted cleanly. "And I certainly owe you nothing. Are you here to convince me that what I saw wasn't real? Or are you here to explain that Madeline threw herself at you, that you were exhausted, that the pressure of the fund clouded your judgment?"
Every single defense I had rehearsed during the three-hour drive evaporated before her clear, amber eyes. She had mapped out my excuses before I even arrived.
"No," I choked out, the cold air burning my throat. "It was real. I was flattered. I was arrogant. I wanted to feel powerful in every room I entered, and when she offered me validation, I took it like a coward. There is no excuse, Rebecca. None. I tore our life apart for nothing."
She looked at me for a long moment, the wind pulling loose strands of hair across her cheek. "I’m glad you can admit that. For your sake. Maybe your next wife will benefit from the lesson."
"There is no next wife," I pleaded, taking half a step forward. She didn't retreat, but her eyes hardened into flint. "I fired her. Well—I tried. I was suspended from the firm. My career there is over. I don't care about Sterling & Vance anymore. I will walk away from Denver. I’ll buy a house here. I’ll carry soil for you. Just don't sign the final decree."
A bitter, sorrowful laugh escaped her lips. "Look at you, Gabriel. Even now, your solution is to buy your way back into my life. You think you can purchase redemption by giving up the things that were already taken from you. You didn't leave Sterling & Vance for me; they pushed you out. You didn't come here because you realized my worth; you came here because your pride cannot handle being the villain of the story."
"That isn't true—"
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"I spent five years waiting for you to come home for dinner while it was hot," she whispered, her voice finally trembling with the ghost of her former pain. "And the one night I finally bring the dinner to you, I find you trading our five years for an office thrill. The woman who stood in that doorway died that night, Gabriel. The woman standing in front of you now doesn't know you, and she doesn't want to."
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