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Now those same words rearranged themselves. Friday and Trust kept circling each other in my head until I could hardly tell which word angered me more.

Marriage, suddenly, looked less like a promise than a door someone else expected money somehow tied to me, to walk through.

I stood so quickly the chair legs scraped the floor.

“When did you first come here?”

Martin looked at Dean whose face told me before he spoke.

“Tuesday.”

For a second I thought I’d misunderstood him.

“Tuesday? Six days ago?”

“Lorrie—”

“You knew an investigator was asking about Alan and Paul six days ago?”

“I knew a man was looking into a financial matter involving Alan. That’s all. I didn’t know what any of it meant.”

“You knew he was asking about the man whose son everyone thinks is going to propose to me on Friday.”

Martin quietly picked up his folder.

“I should probably give you two a minute.”

“No,” I said. “Stay.”

Dean folded his arms. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.”

My anger sharpened. “Because it involved me?”

“Because it involved Paul.”

“That makes no sense.”

“It does from where I was standing.”

“And where exactly was that?”

Dean looked at me for a long moment. “The guy who doesn’t want you to marry him.”

That took some of the air out of the room. He went on before I could answer.

“If I’d come running to you Tuesday saying an investigator was asking about Paul’s father, what would that have looked like?”

“I don’t care what it would’ve looked like.”

“I did.”

“Well, congratulations. You looked honorable while I remained completely ignorant.”

His jaw tightened, but his voice stayed even. “I didn’t have any real information, Lorrie. I had a business card and a man who told me he was investigating something financial. I could’ve handed you that card and let you imagine the rest, and I wanted the rest to be bad.”

The bluntness stopped me. Dean looked away for a second, then back at me.

“I’m not proud of that, but it’s true. Part of me wanted there to be something wrong with Paul because that would make everything easier for me.”