“Um.” I bite my lip, suddenly wondering why I thought this was a good idea. “I was looking for the owner. You know what, it’s fine, I should probably call first.”
“What’s your name?” the woman asks, almost snapping. She looks like she’s about to either call security or chase me out herself.
“L-like I said,” I stutter, stepping back towards the exit. “I should probably just go. I thought he would be here himself, so if he’s not, it’s fine.”
“Candy.”
I turn at the sound of his voice, my heart thumping in my chest. He’s here. And he heard me. He’s striding toward me across the gallery floor, dressed in a black suit as always, a white shirt open at the neck.
“I’m sorry,” I say, cringing inwardly at my awkward decision to come here without thinking. “I should have sent you a message, at least.”
“No, no,” he says. He reaches for my arm and draws me away from the woman who greeted me, over towards a row of paintings of landscapes that I noticed at the party. “You don’t have to apologize. I’m glad you’re here. It’s alright, Amanda – you can go back to work. I know her.”
The woman retreats back to where she was when I came in, but I can still sense her eyes on me, boring into the back of my head.
“I just…” I swallow my nerves, try to find again the determination that brought me over here in the first place. I need to know what all of this means. How we’re going forward from here. Right. “I need to talk to you. I couldn’t wait. I have to know… I have to know a lot of things, actually.”
“Then we’ll talk,” Finn nods seriously. “I know what happened last night was a surprise. It was for me, too.”
“I… I need you to answer me honestly,” I say, looking up into his face. I try to catch any sign of a lie there. “Alex’s mother. Is she still on the scene? Was that all a lie to make it easier for you? Tell me now.”
Finn blinks, and I see something in his face shift and change, his jaw tightening. “Come into my office,” he says, glancing behind me at the woman still standing there and watching us. “We can sit down and talk privately in there.”
He turns without waiting for my response and heads off to the back of the room, where a white door is almost imperceptible in the white wall.
I feel my heart lurch in my chest again. I made a mistake coming here. He’s going to take me in there and tell me off because I came here without notice. He’s probably furious with me for trying to make a scene, for bringing up Alex’s mother in front of his employees. No wonder. There’ll probably be a lot of gossip because of this.
And now what? The way his face changed – was I right? Is he still married? Alex never said anything to me about her parents other than that her Dad owned the gallery. It feels like she might have mentioned it if her mother wasn’t part of her life anymore. Did he… cheat on his wife with me? Is that what’s going on?
And if he wants me to come into his office for privacy… will he try to pay me off to keep me quiet, or threaten me, or something?
I clench my fists and grit my teeth, and follow him through the gallery. One way or another, I need a resolution to this.
I need to know what I’ve got myself into.
Chapter Sixteen
Finn
I sit down heavily behind my desk, then rethink, it’s too formal, her facing me across this workspace as if she’s a client or an employee. She’s so much more than that. I get up again as Candy takes the chair opposite my desk, and wheel mine around until I can sit next to her.
“I’m glad you came,” I tell her again. I reach for her hand, but she pulls it away at the last minute.
“Just answer me,” she says, and there’s something harsh in her voice – something that might be a sob about to happen.
“Right.” I bow my head, then look up at her again. “Lexie’s mother has never been on the scene. Not since the day, Lexie was born. She gave her up.”
“What?” Candy gapes at me. “So, you weren’t… married? Or together?”
“No,” I tell her. “It wasn’t a relationship, just a stupid mistake. One night that changed my life forever. But I got Lexie out of it, and her mother left us to it. It’s just been the two of us this whole time.”
Candy takes a breath, and I can see her thinking. I don’t want to disturb her or push her too much just now. I wait, watching her formulate her response.