Strong arms wrapped around her from behind and the warmth of Raif’s body filtered through her clothing to her skin. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until she felt his heat and his comforting touch.
“It’ll be okay, Shanal. I’ll make it okay for you, but you have to let me in. I’m working in the dark here until you tell me what kind of hold Burton has on you.”
His words penetrated the sorrow in her mind. What kind of hold Burton had on her? What would make him ask a question like that? She asked him.
Raif’s sigh was deep and she felt it all the way through to her bones. He turned her around in his arms so she was facing him.
“Burton Rogers is the kind of guy who gets what he wants. By fair means or by foul. I’m guessing he’s gotten you by foul, am I right?”
She didn’t so much as blink.
“Shanal,” Raif coaxed. “I meant what I said last Sunday. I love you. I want to make everything right for you, but you have to tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it. I want there to be an us. A future with you and our baby.”
The authenticity in his words, in his delivery of them, pierced the shell around her, making her want to dream that he could be right. But Burton held all the cards in this particular game. If Shanal could have seen a way clear to leave him for good by now, she would have.
“It’s impossible,” she said, her voice so quiet that Raif had to bend his head closer to hear her. “He controls everything, Raif. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t make mistakes, not when it comes to getting something he wants. There’s no way out of this for me.”
“There’s always a way out,” Raif said, determination clear in every syllable. “Tell me, why does he have such a hold over you?”
She had to tell him. The burden of bearing it all on her own for so long was simply too much. Slowly, she began, going back five years to her father’s motor neuron diagnosis, to his negligence, to his guilt and shame.
“I don’t mean to sound callous,” Raif said when she paused. “But didn’t your father have insurance for that?”
“He did, and the settlement at the time was a generous one. But how do you make up for taking a life—a man’s future? It tormented Dad. If he hadn’t operated that day—if he’d told another consultant about his illness and admitted that he shouldn’t be operating anymore—that patient might still be alive. He’d still be a loved and valued, contributing member of his family. Dad felt he owed it to the man’s wife and kids to make sure they had monetary stability at the very least—that there would be money available for the children if they wanted to attend university, that his widow would have no financial concerns about loan repayments or being forced back to work just to provide for her kids. So he took out a loan using his home as security—a very large loan, thinking he could pay it back when his investment portfolio matured.”
Understanding lit in Raif’s eyes. “And he was one of the affected parties in that Ponzi scheme that made the headlines a couple of years ago, wasn’t he? Did he lose everything?”
She nodded. “They had some funds aside, separate from the investment accounts, which they used to meet their loan repayments for a while, and to live on. I gave up my apartment and moved back home to help them out financially, and to give my mum some assistance with Dad’s care.”
“Could your mum and dad not sell the house? Move somewhere smaller, maybe?”
“We considered it, but we’d already done alterations to the house to accommodate Dad’s mobility issues. Besides, he’s lost so much already, Raif. I promised him he’d be able to stay in his home right up until the end, and that I’d look after him and Mum. He’s counting on me.”
“So where does Burton come into this?” Raif asked.
“One night, when I was working late, Burton caught me at a weak moment. I broke down and told him about our financial troubles. He offered to make everything all right. He’d personally take over the mortgage on my parents’ house, repay their loan to the bank and provide a living allowance for them, on one condition.”
“That you marry him.”
She nodded.
“And what will he do if you don’t marry him?”
“He will expose my father’s negligence case to the media. The settlement was private and the facts of the case were never brought into the public eye. Also, Burton said he’d evict them from their home. Raif, the private shame of that case is already driving Dad into an early grave. I know he did wrong, making the decision to continue to operate that day, but he’s done everything he possibly can to make amends. He stopped practicing, stopped everything that gave him purpose in his life. That error of judgment aside, his reputation, the good work he’d done up until his retirement, is all he has left.