Chapter 6 - The Choice Silas Couldn’t Make for Her
The remaining leak was discovered two days later.
Leon Vieri.
Tomas’s nephew.
A junior financial officer nobody had considered important.
Silas sent Mave the evidence instead of appearing at her door.
One message followed.
You decide what happens next.
Mave stared at it for ten minutes.
Then replied.
Dinner. Public restaurant. Seven.
Silas arrived at 6:48.
Mave arrived at 7:06.
“You’re late,” he said.
“You’re early.”
“I was nervous.”
Mave stopped.
Silas Carbone admitting nervousness was almost suspicious.
They sat.
No private dining room.
No locked doors.
No guards visible beside the table.
Mave noticed everything.
“You changed the security.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So you can see it.”
She studied him.
“That sounds simple.”
“It should have been.”
Dinner arrived.
Neither touched it.
Silas spoke first.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“Specificity helps.”
He nodded.
“I’m sorry I let you believe you knew my life when I was withholding the largest fact in it. I’m sorry I decided protecting you gave me permission to make choices for you. And I’m sorry you learned you were involved with a married man from a television.”
Mave looked down.
“I loved you.”
“Loved?”
She looked up.
“Don’t push your luck.”
Silas leaned back.
“Understood.”
“Were you ever going to tell me if the divorce hadn’t happened?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“That’s the problem.”
He paused.
“I kept waiting for a safe moment.”
“There isn’t one.”
“I know that now.”
Mave finally took a sip of water.
“What happens with Vivien?”
“She controls her company. We speak when business requires it.”
“And Tomas?”
“Prosecutors have the evidence. Leon too.”
“No revenge?”
Silas’s mouth tightened.
“No.”
“Was that difficult?”
“Yes.”
She appreciated the answer.
Silas reached into his pocket.
Mave stiffened.
He placed something on the table.
A key.
She stared at it.
“You have got to be kidding.”
“It isn’t the townhouse.”
“What is it?”
“Your apartment.”
Mave stared harder.
Silas quickly clarified.
“The replacement lock. The landlord contacted my security team after the threats. I paid for the upgrade. The key belongs to you.”
“You don’t have a copy?”
“No.”
“Security?”
“You control access.”
Mave picked it up.
“You’re giving me a key to my own apartment?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds less impressive.”
“It sounds ridiculous.”
“I’m discovering most healthy relationships are less dramatic than my instincts.”
Mave laughed.
Silas smiled.
She hadn’t seen him smile in weeks.
Then he became serious.
“I don’t expect you to come back.”
Mave’s smile faded.
“What do you expect?”
“Nothing.”
He looked directly at her.
“I want you. But wanting you and being entitled to you are different things.”
Mave remained silent.
Silas stood.
“Finish dinner. I’ll pay downstairs.”
“You’re leaving?”
“You asked for dinner.”
“Yes.”
“Not forgiveness.”
He walked away.
Mave watched him reach the restaurant entrance.
“Silas.”
He stopped.
She hated how quickly he turned.
Mave pointed toward the chair.
“I didn’t say dinner was over.”
Silas came back.
Slowly.
And this time, before sitting beside her instead of across from her, he asked:
“May I?”
Mave looked at the empty chair.
Then at him.
May you like
“Yes.”
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