Sweet Love 2x: Miss Ruthless CEO for our Superstar Uncle

Chapter 425: I’m Sorry

Angelika rose from the table and began stacking the dinner plates without being asked.

Arianne watched her, then stood to help. The two of them moved between the table and the kitchen in a pattern that had the ease of people who had worked alongside each other before: Angelika carrying, Arianne directing, neither of them speaking much.

At the sink, Angelika ran the water and began rinsing. Arianne leaned against the counter beside her.

"I’d like to speak to the twins," Angelika said. She kept her eyes on the dishes. "If you’ll let me."

Arianne didn’t answer immediately. "What would you say?"

"That I’m sorry. That what I said to them was wrong. That I was angry and grieving and I took it out on two children who had done nothing to deserve it." Angelika set a plate down. "I know it doesn’t fix anything. But I’ve been carrying it for a long time. I’d like to put it down."

Arianne considered her. "All right. After the kitchen."

They finished in silence. Angelika dried her hands and hesitated at the doorway. "When I came to Rohan," she said, "I didn’t know. About you. About what you’d built here. I thought I was coming to work for an investment group. I didn’t know until my second week that the chairwoman was you."

Arianne said nothing.

"I sat across from Harvey at the briefing and he put your name on the screen and I didn’t know what to do with it." Angelika gave a short, humorless exhale. "Back in Montclair, after you came back, people said you’d used Rochefort Group as a stepping stone. That you’d attached yourself to Franz to recover your reputation. That you had nothing of your own and needed the Rochefort name to stand on." She paused. "They had no idea. Any of them."

"No," Arianne agreed. "They didn’t."

"Why didn’t you tell people? You could have—"

"Because it wasn’t their business." Arianne’s voice was even. "I didn’t come back to Montclair to prove anything to anyone. I came back for the twins. What people chose to believe about me was their concern, not mine."

Angelika said nothing for a beat. Then: "I believed it too. Before I came here."

"I know."

"I’m sorry for that as well."

Arianne looked at her. "The twins are in the sitting room."

Angelika nodded and walked out.

Franz’s attention had drifted from Harvey to the sitting room, where Arianne appeared beside the couch. The twins looked up. They had been avoiding Angelika all evening: Franz had clocked it early. They’d aimed their questions at Harvey, kept their eyes on the food, let their attention slide past the woman who had cornered them at a banquet and said the cruelest things a person could say to a grieving child.

"Angelika has something she wants to tell you," Arianne said.

The twins stiffened. Lily’s hand found Leo’s and held it.

Angelika stepped forward. She looked more nervous than she had all evening, her hands clasped, her shoulders drawn in. "I wanted to apologize," she said. "For what I said to you. At the anniversary banquet."

Neither twin spoke.

"I said mean things. Terrible things. I told you your daddy died because he was too tired. Because of you." Angelika’s voice broke on the last word. "That was never true. Not for a single second. Your daddy and your mommy didn’t die because of you. They died because they loved you: completely, without question, more than anything. I was wrong to say what I said. I was cruel. And I am sorry."

Lily stared at her for a long moment. Her face was hard to read, the way it sometimes was when she was working something out. "Why did you say those things? If they weren’t true?"

Angelika’s shoulders dropped. "Because I couldn’t accept that Alex was gone. He had been kind to me when we were young: when very few people were. When he died, I didn’t know what to do with the pain, and I aimed it at the wrong people. You were just children. You didn’t deserve any of it."

Lily looked at Leo. One of their silent conversations passed between them. Then she turned back.

"Okay," she said. "I forgive you."

Angelika blinked. "You do?"

"Yes. You said sorry and you meant it. So I forgive you."

Leo held up his tablet: I FORGIVE YOU TOO. THAT’S WHAT DADDY AND MOMMY WOULD WANT.

Lily nodded. "You must have been very sad when our daddy died. A lot of people were. I hope you won’t be mean to anyone anymore."

"I won’t," Angelika said. Her voice had gone thick. "I promise."

"Good." Lily turned back to the television, as if the matter was settled. For her, it was.

Arianne rested her hand on Angelika’s shoulder. Then she returned to the kitchen. Angelika stood beside the couch for a breath longer, her eyes wet, before she made her way back to the table.

Franz looked away when she passed, giving her the privacy of not being watched.

By the time Angelika settled back into her seat, her face was steady again: the effort of it visible only in the way she kept her eyes on the table a beat longer than necessary. Harvey reached over and refilled her glass without a word.

Harvey was watching him when he turned back.

"She’s something else," Harvey said. "Your wife."

"I know."

"You’re a lucky man."

"I know that too."

Harvey’s expression turned more serious. "I should apologize. For dropping the chairwoman revelation on you the way I did. I assumed you knew."

"I didn’t."

"Clearly." He paused. "But I’m not sorry you know now. She’s been carrying too much alone for too long. It’s time someone helped her carry it."

"I’ve been trying. She doesn’t make it easy."

"No," Harvey said. "She never does." He raised his glass. "To stubborn women."

Franz picked up his own glass. Across the room, Arianne had come back to the table, Lexx awake against her shoulder, one small fist curled against the collar of her dress. She caught Franz looking and raised an eyebrow.

"To stubborn women," he said.

They drank.