Page 245

“She just handed it around the dinner table.”

Niko sucks in a breath. “No, she fuckin’ didn’t. Really? Dammit. Fuck. Shit.”

I look back at the house. A pale face ducks out of sight and hands whip the curtain closed.

“What exactly did she say?” Niko is asking in my ear.

I stare in the direction Lilah went, longing to tear after her. But this is important, too. I can’t grovel to get this shit fixed properly without Niko taking care of the logistical details. So I catch him up.

When I finish, he asks, “And you corrected her?”

“No.”

“Then what’d you say?”

“Nothing?”

“Like, nothing during the presentation, you mean. But what about after?”

“Nothing then, either.”

“Jesus H., man, you just stood there silently? Why?”

I grit my teeth. “Because Lilah left.”

To my surprise, Niko snorts. “Can’t say I blame her.”

I grip the phone harder. “Care to repeat that, brat?”

“The packet makes it look like you directed the whole thing,” he explains. “Down to telling that shithead ex of hers to forge her signature. It looks like you coerced him. You’re the boogeyman in her eyes, brother.”

“I wasn’t going to explain myself in front of them,” I snarl. “You know my rule.”

“From where I’m standing, dude, that rule did a whole lot more harm than good just now.”

“I’m not giving Vivian a fucking argument to enjoy.”

“This isn’t about Vivian enjoying herself.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Because an innocent woman just stood in front of that family alone while you protected your precious code.”

“Watch yourself.”

“Dad would have understood.”

“Don’t you fucking⁠—”

“He always had a reason he couldn’t put Mom first, too.”

My first thought is to hang up. My second is to find him so I can throttle him myself.

“I am nothing like him. Do you hear me? Nothing.”

Niko is unmoved. “Then stop making his choices.”

I have no answer to that one.