He Sacrificed My Career for Her—Then I Resigned Without Looking Back Chapter 11

On Graham’s third day in Southport, he finally met my parents. I didn’t arrange it.

That evening, I went with my parents to a restaurant near their neighborhood. One of Tom’s old coworkers had just retired and was throwing a small dinner, and he insisted I come and show my face.

When dinner was over, a few of the older guests lingered by the door, chatting. I stood by the steps waiting

for Tom to bring the car around, and Miles happened to walk by.

He lived close by. He was carrying a bag of fruit, and he looked surprised to see me. “Ms. Kane?”

I hadn’t expected to run into him either. “You live around here?”

“Yeah, right up the street.” He saw Linda and dropped his usual goofy attitude at once. “Hi, Mrs. Kane.”

The moment Linda heard he was my new coworker, she lit up. “Well, hello there. Iris just moved back, so

please look out for her at work.”

Miles waved his hands. “Oh, no, Ms. Kane’s the one looking out for us. Since she got here, our briefs have

gotten shorter on average, and our suffering has gotten more specific.”

Linda laughed.

I gave him a look. “You’ve done a lot of research on suffering.”

“You would too, after three rounds of your edits.”

Even Tom laughed.

Right then, someone called my name. “Iris.”

Miles stopped smiling.

I turned around and saw Graham standing under a streetlight.

He’d obviously seen my parents too, and for a moment, his face went blank.

My parents had only ever seen him in a photo. I’d taken it on the sly. Graham was sitting in a conference room at the firm, looking down at a file.

His profile was sharp and handsome, and he looked cold enough that nobody would dare get close.

Linda had laughed when she saw it. She’d said he looked so serious that nobody at the dinner table would

dare reach for seconds in front of him.

Now he was actually standing in front of her. It had only taken until after we’d broken up, after I’d quit, and

after I’d moved back to Southport.

Graham walked over slowly. “Mr. Kane, Mrs. Kane.”

The smile on Linda’s face faded a little, but she stayed polite. “Hello.”

Tom didn’t say anything. He only moved the car keys from one hand to the other.

Graham’s throat worked. “I’m Graham Whitmore.”

Linda nodded. “We know.”

An awkward silence hung in the air.

Miles looked at me, then at Graham, and quickly came up with an excuse. “Ms. Kane, I’m going to head

home. Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Kane.”

He hurried off with his bag of fruit, and Graham’s eyes followed him for a second.

Tom suddenly spoke up. “That’s Iris’ new coworker.”

Graham pulled his eyes back, and a flush of embarrassment crossed his face. “I’m sorry.”

Linda looked at him. “Are you here to see Iris?”

“I wanted to apologize to you both in person.” Graham kept his tone humble. “Back in Kingsbury, I stood you up. I left you waiting all night, and that was wrong of me.”

Tom finally looked at him. “That was a long time ago.”

“It might be in the past for you, but it isn’t for me.”

Graham’s words came out a little hoarse. He turned to me.

“Iris, I only found out later that you took them back to their hotel by yourself that night. You never told me your mom slipped you an envelope of cash, and you never told me your dad carried the leftovers the whole

way.”

I frowned. “You looked into me?”

“I asked the driver who used to work near that hotel. And your mom posted about it on Facebook that day. I

never saw it back then.”

Linda gently touched the back of my hand. She was probably afraid I’d blow up right there.

I pushed my feelings down. “Graham, don’t drag all this back up and bother them with it.”

“I only wanted to make up for the apology I never gave.”

“Make it up to who?”

He didn’t have an answer.

Linda sighed. “Mr. Whitmore, we’ve heard your apology. We won’t get involved in what’s between you and

iris.”

“When she was little, we let her pick her own after-school activities. Now that she’s picking how to live her

life, that should be up to her too.”

Graham’s face went pale. He said quietly, “Mrs. Kane, I know I hurt her. But I want to make it right.”

Tom gripped the car keys and spoke heavily. “Graham, whether you can make things right depends on

whether she still needs you to.”

“Iris has only been home a few days, and she’s finally eating and sleeping well again. We’re her parents. We

don’t have any special talents. We only want things to be easier for her.”

Graham’s hands slowly curled into fists at his sides.

Headlights swept past on the road, and the red in his eyes was easy to see.

All of a sudden, I remembered the coffee he’d handed me in the firm’s stairwell all those years ago. Back

then, I’d thought he was only bad with words, and that he’d always be there beside me.

Time was a strange thing. It could wear a promise like “You are” down into a grown man who didn’t know

what to say in front of my parents.

Linda opened the car door. “Iris, let’s go home.”

I nodded.

But Graham stepped forward. “Iris, give me ten more minutes.”

Tom stepped between us.

He did it clumsily. He wasn’t like the young guys with their swagger. There was nothing threatening about it. He was a father who’d moved in front of his daughter without thinking.

Graham stopped.

I walked around Tom and looked at him. “Tomorrow at four, at the coffee shop downstairs from the bar association. After we talk, don’t come looking for my parents again.”

His eyes finally lit up a little. “Okay.”

On the way home, Linda didn’t say a word. Tom drove slower than usual.

When we reached the gate of their neighborhood, Linda suddenly asked, “Does it still hurt?”

I looked out at the familiar streetlights. “It did a little, back there.”

Tom’s shoulders tensed at once. I smiled. “It doesn’t now.”

Linda reached over and stroked my hair.

The next afternoon, I got to the coffee shop ten minutes early. Graham was already there. There were two

coffees on the table, and one of them was light ice, half the syrup.

I sat down, pushed that one aside, and ordered a hot water with lemon for myself.

Graham watched me do it, and his eyes dimmed.

“Iris, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few days.”

I didn’t interrupt. He took a few documents out of a folder.

“This is my plan for the apartment in Kingsbury. You lived there for years.”

“It’s in my name, but you paid for the remodel, the appliances, and a lot of our living expenses. I’ve calculated

part of it at market value, and I’m transferring it to you.”

“I won’t take it.”

“This isn’t me paying you off for…”

He stopped himself before he finished. I looked at him.

He swallowed the rest and started over. “This is a financial settlement. You can have a lawyer look at it.”

I pushed the documents back. “Calculate what I paid based on receipts. Anything without a receipt, forget it.”

“The receipts aren’t complete.”

“Then go with whatever can be verified.”

Graham’s knuckles went white around his coffee cup. “Do you really have to keep things this separate?”

“Yes.”

He lowered his head and gave a bitter laugh. “You used to hate it when I kept things separate.”

“We used to be together.”

He was quiet for a long time. People in the coffee shop talked in low voices, and cups clinked softly on

saucers.

Graham finally looked up. “Brooke quit.”

That surprised me a little. “She quit on her own?”

“After the risk management review came back, she wasn’t in a good place. Halcyon also complained that

she’d leaked photos from a client dinner. The firm wanted to move her into a non-core role, and she wouldn’t

take it.”

“Oh.”

Graham looked at me. “You’re not going to ask where she went?”

“It’s none of my business.”

The little bit of light left in his eyes went out.

I wrapped my hands around the cup of hot water. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes.”

He took an old photo from the very bottom of the folder. It had yellowed a little.

A teenage Graham stood in front of a run-down storefront, next to a middle-aged man and a little girl in a

ponytail. The girl looked about seven or eight, and she was grinning.

I looked at the photo, and my chest suddenly tightened.

Graham spoke very quietly. “That’s Brooke and her father.”