Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 211

Chapter 206: Giving Him A Chance

CAMERON

“I caused that,” I said. “What you heard. That was because of what I did.” I kept my voice level-not performing ease, just steady. “I did something that hurt him and you heard what it cost him and you decided I was dangerous. That was the right call with the information you had.”

Lake looked at me. He was doing the assessment. “He cried for a long time,” he said.

“I know.”

“He didn’t know I was awake.”

“I know that too.”

“He never cries,” Lake said. “Not where I can see. He’s been sad before but he just gets up and makes tea.” He said it with the matter-of-fact tone of someone reporting observations-what he’d catalogued, what he knew. “So when I heard him I knew it was very bad. Because of the tea thing.”

The tea thing. Lucian’s version of the getting-up-and-going-on. The small private ritual of continuing.

“You decided I was the kind of person who does bad things,” I said. “Like your mum. The kind of person who makes the people you love cry and then-” I stopped. Felt my way through it carefully. “And then doesn’t stay.”

Lake looked at me. His eyes were still slightly swollen. “She went,” he said.

“Yes.”

“She didn’t come back.”

“I know.”

“You made my dad cry and then you came back the next day and gave him his job back,” Lake said slowly. “But you could do it again. You could do it again because you are still his boss. You still have all the power to do it.” He looked at his hands on his knees. “That means you can hurt him whenever you want.”

I sat with that for a moment.

“You’re right,” I said.

Lake looked up.

“I have that power,” I said. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t. I’m his employer. That’s real.” I kept my eyes on the bird drawings. The hadada ibis. The careful pencil lines of a child learning to see something accurately. “What I can tell you is that I understand what I did and why I did it and I’ve-I’ve looked at that thing and it doesn’t run me the way it did. But I can’t promise you I’ll be perfect. I can’t promise that.” I looked at him. “What I can promise is that I will always come back. I’m not the kind of person who goes.”

Lake was very still.

463

Giving Cameron A Chance

Clam

“Your dad has people who stay,” I said. “Lily stays. You stay. Drew and Dante stay.” I let a beat pass. “I’d like To be another one of the ones who stays.”

Lake looked at the nightlight by his bed. The star one, switched off in the evening light. He looked at it for a long time.

“You brought the right sausages, he said finally.

I felt something in my chest adjust. “I had help with the brand.”.

“My dad?”

“Your dad.”

Lake pulled at a loose thread on his blanket. “He likes it when people pay attention,” he said. “To what people actually like. He says it means you see them.” He pulled the thread once more and then stopped, deciding against unraveling it further. “You paid attention to the sausages.”

“I tried.”

“And the paper. The heavy kind.” He glanced at the drawings on the wall. “I did three drawings on it already.”

“I can see that.” The ibis. Something that looked like it might be a red-chested sunbird. A shape I couldn’t identify that was probably something Drew had shown him. “They’re good.”

Lake looked at me.

“I told Drew it was Cameron,” he said. “That my dad was seeing you. Drew said maybe you had become friends first. Before the other thing.”

“We didn’t,” I said. “I should have. It would have been better. But I didn’t-I didn’t know how to be his friend when I was also his employer. I got that wrong.”

“Drew said maybe bullies become friends sometimes,” Lake said. “After.”

“Did he think that was possible?”

Lake considered. “He said it was not impossible.” He said it with the precision of someone relaying a technical finding. “Drew is careful about the difference between impossible and just unlikely.”

“He’s right to be.”

“I know.” A pause. “He said my dad was happier lately. He said that was probably because of you.” Lake looked at the wall again. “I noticed the happy thing. I thought it was because of the playdates and the birds. But he said-and I thought-” He stopped.” He seems to be happier with you around”

“He’s happier,” I said. “I think so too.”

Lake looked at me. Fully-the direct look, not the sideways processing one.

“If you make him cry again,” he said, very clearly, “I will be very, very angry.”

“That’s fair,” I said.

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<Giving Cameron-A Chance

And I will not eat any of your sausages.”

Also fair.

Chaum

He looked at me for a long moment. The border inspection-one final pass. Then he said: “You can sit on the chair. If you want. You don’t have to sit on the floor.”

I looked at the small desk chair by the window. I got up from the floor and moved to the chair. It was slightly too small and I was slightly too tall and I sat in it with the careful dignity of a man who had won something important and was not going to undermine it by mentioning the chair.

Lake pulled his blanket around his knees. “Drew says the ibis is very loud in the mornings,” he said. “He says his dad is used to it but that visitors always complain.

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