Chapter 26: On His Knees
The doors closed behind Chloe, and the showroom went quiet, like a held breath.
Jason stared at the glass.
"Chloe," he said, to no one.
She did not turn around.
He looked at Lily then, and the performance fell away from his face. What was left was panic.
"Lily," he said. "Wait. Listen to me. This got out of hand. I can explain the application, I can explain everything."
"You filed it at nine oh four this morning," Lily said. "You had all day to explain it to the woman whose name you used. You chose theater instead."
"That was a mistake," he said quickly. "A stupid, desperate mistake. I knew it in the bank, I swear I did."
"And yet you signed it."
"I was trying to be worthy of her," he said. "Of that family."
"I know what it costs to stand in a room you built," Lily said. "It is not the same thing."
His knees hit the polished floor.
The sound was soft and terrible, suit trousers on stone.
"Lily," he said, from the floor. "Please."
"Get up, Jason."
"No. Let me say this where I belong. I was stupid. I was stupid six years ago and I have been stupid every day since. I walked out on the best thing in my life because I was scared."
"You have spent six years telling magazines my work was yours."
"Yes," he said. "I did all of it, and I hated myself every time, and I did it anyway, because being the man who left you looked better than being the man who could not keep up with you."
Around the room, nobody moved.
"Please," Jason said. "I still love you. I never stopped. Chloe was me trying to rebuild the life I threw away. It was always you, Lily. It was only ever you."
Lily looked down at him, and she waited for the anger.
It did not come.
What came instead was a memory. A pawnshop counter in Detroit, six years ago. Her hand, bare and shaking, sliding the ring across scratched glass. A man who weighed a promise like scrap. She had done the arithmetic in the cab home: the ring, plus what was left in the account, equaled one final payroll. Every person at Hart Dynamics paid in full. She had signed the checks with that bare hand, and it had not trembled.
She had grieved that ring for one night. Then she had gone back to work.
"Lily," Jason said. "Say something. Anything. Tell me I am a coward. Tell me you hate me. Just say something."
She felt nothing she needed to name. Not rage. Not triumph. Not even pity, quite. It was cleaner than pity. It was the quiet after a machine stops.
Her father had a saying for engines like that. Some things do not break, he used to tell her. They just finish.
"Lily, please. Take me back. One chance. I will spend the rest of my life earning it. You know me. Underneath all of this, you know me."
"I do," Lily said at last, gently. "That is the problem, Jason. I know you."
"Then you know I mean this."
"I know you mean it now," she said. "On your knees, with the doors closed and the money gone. You meant Chloe this morning. You will mean whoever is standing in front of you next, provided they are holding something you need."
"That is not true."
She did not answer him.
She turned, instead, to the desk by the Meridian, where Derek Sloane was trying to become invisible.
"Derek," she said.
He flinched. "Ms. Hart. I had no idea who you were this morning. If I had known, I would never, security is part of my job, I was protecting the prototype."
"You grabbed a customer by the wrist this morning," Lily said. "You pulled her away from the car and you told her people like her do not touch cars like this."
"I did not," he said. "You cannot know that. Whoever told you that is mistaken, or exaggerating. I would remember something like that."
"I know," Lily said. "It was me."
The color left his face.
"Your employment with Aurelion ends today," she said. "For putting your hands on a customer. Your desk will be cleared by the end of the day. Marcus will walk you through what happens next."
"Ms. Hart, please, I am the top earner in this showroom, I have numbers nobody here can touch."
"So I have been told," Lily said. "Every time someone decided your numbers excused your hands. That ends now. End of day, Derek."
Behind her, still on his knees on the polished floor, Jason whispered her name again, as if repetition might turn it into a door.