Chapter 16 - THE PROMISE BLAKE COULDN’T KEEPSix weeks into the marriage, Sloane stopped wearing her wedding ring at home.
She still wore it publicly.
Photographs mattered.
At charity dinners, she and Blake looked perfect.
At home, they spoke through closed doors.
The argument that broke them open began with an email.
Edward Carlisle forwarded Blake a proposal involving the Nashville development.
Blake read it twice.
Then called Sloane into the study.
“What is this?”
She glanced at the screen.
“Dad’s project.”
“I know what it is.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“Why is he requesting Mercer financing?”
“Because you said you could help.”
“I said I could introduce him to people.”
“You said once you had authority—”
“I don’t.”
“Whose fault is that?”
Blake stared.
“Mine.”
The answer surprised her.
Sloane recovered.
“Exactly.”
“And yours.”
“Excuse me?”
“You keep pretending everything would be fine if Mom had behaved.”
“She interfered.”
“No.”
Blake stood.
“She saw through us.”
Sloane’s face chilled.
“Through what?”
“My exaggerations.”
“Our plans.”
“No. My exaggerations.”
He almost laughed.
“I told you I would control investments I didn’t control.”
“You believed you would.”
“I wanted you to believe it.”
Silence.
Blake forced himself to continue.
“I liked how you looked at me when you thought I was taking over.”
Sloane stared.
“And what does that say about you?”
“A lot.”
He looked at her.
“What does it say about you that your entire attitude changed when you realized I might not?”
She stepped back.
“That is unfair.”
“Is it?”
“I married you.”
“Yes.”
“Before you had the shares.”
“Because you thought they were coming.”
Sloane’s eyes flashed.
“You think I married you for money?”
“No.”
A pause.
“I think money was part of what you loved about being with me.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“So is pretending it wasn’t.”
She picked up a glass from the desk.
For a moment Blake thought she might throw it.
She didn’t.
She set it down carefully.
“You know what I loved?”
“What?”
“Certainty.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“My family has spent five years pretending everything is fine while my father borrows from one project to save another. I hated it.”
Blake said nothing.
“You were certainty.”
Sloane continued.
“Your family was stable. Your company was stable. You were going somewhere.”
“I still am.”
“Are you?”
That hurt.
“You don’t know.”
“Neither do you.”
Silence.
For the first time, Blake saw that Sloane’s obsession with image came from fear.
It did not excuse her.
But it explained something.
Just as his hunger for power came partly from spending his entire adulthood beneath Harrison’s shadow.
Two insecure people had built a relationship by telling each other their insecurities were evidence they deserved more.
They had mistaken mutual reinforcement for love.
Blake sat.
“What do we do?”
Sloane looked at him.
“Fix it.”
Again.
The same answer.
Not heal.
Not apologize.
Not change.
Fix the situation so the future returned.
Something inside Blake finally recoiled.
“You mean fix my father.”
“Your mother.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“No.”
May you like
It was perhaps the first meaningful no he had given her.
And the marriage changed immediately.
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