Million-Dollar Consequences

“I don’t need to be sober to know that I love her, Kendall,” he snapped.

Oh God. Meghan covered her mouth with her fingers, her insides trembling. She’d been counting on him to be halfway back to his happy self with good news to share about his new film role. Having him drunkenly admit he was in love with her was nowhere in her playbook.

“By the way, this is your fault,” Isaac told Kendall. “You didn’t tell me the most incredible, beautiful, amazing woman in the world was your sister.”

Kendall’s gaze softened on Meghan’s. “I can’t argue with you there.”

“She wanted me. Just as I am. Can you believe that?” A humorless laugh cracked through the speaker. Meghan’s stomach clenched. “What the hell did she want with me?”

“We don’t choose who we love,” Kendall answered, a truth Meghan knew to the bottom of her broken heart.

“I had a plan,” Isaac continued, almost talking to himself. “Finish filming the show, go home to LA, fame, fortune, blah blah blah. Instead, I’m walking around with an engagement ring in my pocket destined for a woman I don’t deserve. Do you think you can talk her into coming to the wrap party? I have to see her. Just one more time before I leave.”

“Um...” Kendall made eye contact with Meghan, but Meghan didn’t have an answer. She didn’t know what to believe. Who was the real Isaac Dunn? The confident man who had arranged his future block by block, or the sad man who had demolished that stack in the name of loving her?

“I’m falling apart, Ken,” Isaac said, his voice cracking. “But I’m not giving up. She matters. Her and the baby. Charles Howard can go fuck himself if he thinks he’s going to take that away from me.”

“Well, um, don’t tell him that, okay?” Kendall said.

“Don’t worry,” Isaac told her. “I know where the blame belongs. On me. This is my fault. I ruined my family once, with Max, and now I’m doing it again. It’s what my therapist calls ‘a pattern.’”

“Isaac, things will be clearer in the morning. Don’t make any big decisions right now.”

“Bring her to the wrap party,” he said. “Please, Ken.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Without saying goodbye, she ended the call.

Meghan’s hand went to her middle. She was hopeful and sick at once. “Is he going to be all right?”

“You should worry about you,” her sister said. “And yes, he’s all right. He’s with Max. Max always protects the people he loves.”