Chapter 19 - HE SEES HIS OWN FACEDorian asked Arielle to meet him.
She chose a public garden.
No privacy.
No nostalgia.
Dorian arrived without a driver.
He looked older.
“I watched the video.”
“I know.”
“Kendra talked.”
“Yes.”
“My mother…”
He stopped.
Arielle waited.
“She orchestrated some of it.”
“Some?”
“She says she only wanted Cambria to provoke you.”
Arielle smiled without humor.
“Convenient.”
“I don't believe her.”
“Good.”
Dorian looked down.
“I’m withdrawing from Westbrook Holdings temporarily.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
“The morality trust provision.”
Arielle watched him.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“My mother benefits if our marriage becomes publicly scandalous.”
“Yes.”
Dorian exhaled.
“She told herself she was protecting the company.”
“Of course.”
He looked at Arielle.
“I’m sorry.”
She said nothing.
“I betrayed you in Atlanta.”
Nothing.
“I lied afterward.”
Nothing.
“I hit you.”
Arielle’s face changed slightly.
Dorian continued.
“And every time I explain why, I make myself smaller.”
Good.
He was learning.
“There is no why that matters more than what I did.”
Arielle nodded once.
That was the first apology she believed.
It still did not repair the marriage.
Dorian knew.
May you like
He did not ask.
That mattered too.
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