Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 202

Chapter 197: Giving Him A Chance

Lake’s POV

“My dad said Cameron reinstated him, said. “That means he gave the job back.”

“Yes.”

“He came to our flat.”

Drew looked up. “He came to your flat?”

“To give the job back. He came to tell my dad in person.” I remembered this. “He met Aunt Lily. And me, I think-I came home while he was still there, but I didn’t know who he was, I just saw a man in a suit talking to my dad.” I paused. I had a memory now that I hadn’t connected before. A man in a suit in our hallway, very tall, talking to my dad quietly. My dad had a look on his face I couldn’t name at the time. “Oh,” I said.

“What?”

“He had a look,” I said. “My dad. When I saw them. He had-” I tried to find the right word again. “He looked like someone had said something important to him.”

Drew waited.

‘Not happy exactly,” I said. “But like-something had landed. Like when you’re doing a puzzle and you’ve been stuck for a long time and then one piece goes in and suddenly you can see what everything is going to look like.”

Drew looked at me with his serious eyes. “That sounds important.”

“Maybe,” I said. Cautiously. Because I was not going to change my mind just because of a look. One look did not make up for crying. One look did not mean Cameron was good.

But it was a piece. A small piece, that I put in a careful mental box and did not do anything with yet.

“My dad says Cameron told him he was going to tell his parents about them,” I said. “That’s why it’s been a secret. He hasn’t told his family.”

Drew absorbed this. “So Cameron is keeping my dad secret.”

“Yes.”

Drew’s expression shifted. “That doesn’t seem good either.”

“No,” I said. “It doesn’t. If my dad is someone you want to be with, you should tell people. Not hide him.”

“Does your dad mind?”

“He says he understands.”

“But do you think he minds?”

Giving Him A Chance

Claim

thought about this properly. My dad’s face when he said he’s going to tell them soon*. The patient face. The face he used when he was okay with waiting but had been waiting for a while.

“I think he minds a little,” said. “But he’s being patient.”

“Your dad is very patient,” Drew observed.

“Too patient,” I said. “He’s patient with people who don’t deserve it.”

Drew looked at the leaf in his hand for a long moment. Then he set it down again, carefully, on the bench beside him. He had a specific way of putting things down-not dropping them, but setting them. Like things deserved to be placed properly.

“Lake,” he said.

“Yes.”

“I think you should give it some time.”

“Everyone is saying that.”

“Because it might be right.”

“Or they’re saying it because they want me to stop being upset.”

“Both can be true.” He looked at me steadily. “I didn’t know about Sedona and my dad until last night. I was surprised. But I thought about it and I think-I think my dad is happier lately. He laughs more. He comes home from things and he’s-different. Better.” He paused. “Maybe your dad is also different. Better.”

I thought about my dad in the mornings recently. He had been-I looked for the word-lighter. That was the word. Like something heavy had been put down somewhere. He still looked tired sometimes, but it was a different kind of tired. The good kind.

“Maybe,” I said.

“So maybe Cameron is part of that,” Drew said. “Even if he’s also done bad things.”

“People can be part of the good and still have done the bad,” I said slowly. This was something my dad had actually said to me once-I couldn’t remember about what, but I remembered the shape of it.

“Yes,” Drew said.

“That is annoying.”

“I know.”

“It would be easier if bad people were just bad.”

“I know,” Drew said again.

The bell rang. The yard started moving toward the doors-the complicated river of children all heading in at once, bags and voices and someone’s lost water bottle rolling across the pavement. Drew stood up, put the leaf into his jacket pocket-his specimen pocket, he had a dedicated pocket for this-and picked up his bag.

Giving Him A Chance

Istood up too.

“Drew,” I said.

He looked at me.

Claim

“If my dad is happier. Because of Cameron.” I said it slowly, testing the weight of each part. “Even if I don’t like Cameron yet. Is my dad being happier-does that matter more?”

Drew considered this with his full attention, the way he considered things that deserved it. “Yes,” he said. “I think it does.”

“Even if Cameron is scary and wears suits and took his job for one day?”

“Even then.”

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