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“I’m ready,” Andries informs us, and we all make our way to the dining room in silence, where Roxanne is no doubt waiting in agony for us. I have the bitter thought that I should take as long as possible to bring Andries to her, just to give her a little taste of how Dan and I have felt this entire time she’s been holding back from telling my brother the truth, but the longer I keep this discussion from happening the longer we all have to suffer.
When we enter the dining room, Roxanne has gotten herself under control and looks calm and collected, at least compared to the way I left her. The way Andries goes to sit across from her instead of next to her is telling, and I can see the hurt on her face when he does so. I decide to sit next to her instead, and Dan takes the seat next to my brother.
“I feel like this is an intervention,” Andries drawls. “What did I do wrong now?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Roxanne replies, keeping the look on her face soft and open. “I… well, I’m not sure if you already know what I’m here to talk about, because I feel like things have been off between us these last few days, and I promise that I never meant to do anything to hurt you. In fact, I only kept quiet so Ididn’thave to hurt you, and in the beginning, I thought I could get it all taken care of before we got back and then it wouldn’t even be a big deal. I mean it’s just one business, right? It’s not like––”
I put my hand on her leg under the table and she jumps. “Roxie, you’re rambling.”
She lets out a shaky sigh, still trying to look calm even though I can feel the nervous energy rolling off her. “Sorry, you’re right. Let me start over.” She inhales deeply and looks her future husband in the eye as she speaks carefully. “Do you remember that cabaret Bar Rouge? You went there once.”
Andries nods. “Yeah, what about it?”
“I own it,” she says quickly to lessen the blow of it. “I have been the owner for a little less than a year, but I don’t manage it. I have a team there that does everything for me, so I’m not involved in the day to day operations.”
“I’m sorry… what did you just say?” Andries’ eyes go wide, and his tone is disbelieving, but I’m not sure if he is just pretending or not. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you wanted an honest relationship based on mutual trust.”
“I know, and I do. That’s why I’m telling you now,” she explains. “I know it’s not the right time, and that I should have told you in the beginning, but I never really lumped Bar Rouge and my escort business together. When you asked me to close the latter, I figured that Bar Rouge wouldn’t be a problem. I was still afraid, and even though I meant to tell you, I kept putting it off over and over…”
“And I’m assuming there’s a reason you’re telling me this now instead of continuing to keep it to yourself?” Andries asks, his jaw clenched as he leans back on his chair.
“There is, yes,” Roxanne looks desperately at me and Dan in turn, but only for moral support, not because she wants us to do her dirty work for her. She’s already taken the first huge step, and I know that she’ll tell him everything now. “One of the new dancers behaved very inappropriately on stage which led to an investigation of the cabaret. During the investigation, they found employees consuming and selling cocaine on-site, and that caused the investigation to ramp up and become much more serious.” She nearly breathes a sigh of relief after getting it all out. “Andries, please listen to me. I swear that I knew nothing about it.”
Instead of storming out of the dining room or screaming, my brother just crosses his arms and shakes his head, chuckling in disbelief. “Let me guess, you are telling me all this now because Elise and Dan knew already and have been pressuring you to do so?”
Roxanne looks down at her hands, which are clenched together on the table in front of her, and says nothing. Her silence speaks volumes, though. Now it’s time to try and lessen the damage of the just-dropped bomb, for better or for worse.
“It was Dad who told me,” I tell him before she can do so. “Not Roxanne, so it’s not like she confided in us before you.”
Dan nods and does the same. “I also found out because my Dad told me, coincidentally.”
“That’s no surprise,” Andries replies casually, as he keeps his arms crossed over his chest. “Of course, she wouldn’t tell a soul about it, not even her future husband. It’s like she hasn’t learned anything from her past mistakes.”
He sounds coldly furious, but I press on anyway. “While it’s not ideal that she lied about being the owner, I believe that Dad and Karl are responsible for the dancer and the cocaine. From what I’ve seen, Bar Rouge has a relatively clean record otherwise.”
Roxanne jumps back into the conversation now, seeing a way out of Andries’ bad graces. “Yes, Karl is most likely behind it for the sake of revenge. You know as well as I do that he’s petty and conniving. The cabaret doesn’t just have a relatively clean record; it had zero issues before I left for vacation. Everything was totally above board. I’m absolutely certain it was premeditated.”
Andries huffs, still reeling from all the information being thrown at him. “And what happens now?”
“It’s currently shut down, and what’s next is still up to the prosecutor, but I suspect they’ll want to put me on trial,” Roxanne tells him. She’s leaning across the table, drawn into Andries like a moth to a flame, hungry for his forgiveness and approval. It’s so unlike the sharp, intelligent, unshakeable Roxanne that had been a thorn in my side before I began to consider her a friend of sorts. It makes me look at her in a different light; not because she seems weak right now, but because this vulnerability tells me just how much she values and loves my brother. She loves him enough to bare her soul, and I know that can’t be easy for her.
“You? On trial for drug trafficking?” It takes Andries a second to put it all together, but when he does, he’s in absolute shock, just like I had been earlier in the day when Mom filled me in. Roxanne goes silent again like she’s hit a roadblock, and the laugh that Andries backs out is cruel. “Right before our wedding. Well done, Roxanne.”
He pushes out of his chair so hard that it scrapes across the floor, but Dan rockets out of his own seat to stop him. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Andries, why are you pretending you had no idea about all of this?”
He narrows his eyes. “Because I didn’t.”
Dan has had enough, and I can feel the confrontation swiftly pivoting from Andries versus Roxanne to Andries versus Dan. I guess my fear that Dan would support my brother no matter what was misinformed, and it makes me respect Dan even more, knowing that he will do the right thing even if it’s difficult.
“Oh, shut up,” Dan snaps, causing my mouth to hang open at his reaction. “Of course you did. You even took us to that villa where the poet died of a cocaine overdose. The hints were all over the place, dude. You wantedthis. You made absolutely certain that Elise and I would force your fiancée to speak up, and now that she did, don’t you dare behave like some sort of victim.” I don’t notice that he’s truly angry, not just annoyed until he points at Roxanne and then at Andries. “Sheis the one who might have to go to trial, so the leastyoucan do is to support her.”
It’s deathly silent in the dining room. Roxanne’s eyes are wide as she looks at Dan, her lips parted, while my brother is completely frozen in place. Dan himself is breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling, and I can’t take my eyes off him. He makes me feel so many things, but seeing him stand up for Roxanne changes the way I see him permanently. Even if I know that he is upset with her for putting us all in this position in the first place, he put all that aside when seeing how Roxie needed someone to support her unequivocally, and rose to the occasion brilliantly. Meanwhile, my brother is so focused on his perceived betrayal that he’d leave his obviously suffering fiancée alone to be miserable with no support from the man she loves.
I’ve never wanted to pounce on Dan and kiss him more than I do right now. If we were alone, I would crawl across the table just to get to him as fast as possible, but I manage to hold myself in my seat. Dan’s loyalty is the most arousing thing I’ve ever experienced, and it lets me know that no matter how bad life can get, Dan will always stand up and support the ones he loves.
This is a good man. Maybe the best man I’ve ever known. And he loves me.
After the dust of Dan’s vehement defense settles, Andries, who is rendered speechless, sits back in his seat and simply stares straight ahead.
