Arthur gestured toward the chair.
“Go ahead.”
“My father told me that you had promised to help him financially. He said you had agreed to support his business if I married you.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I made no such promise.”
“I know that now.”
She lowered her eyes.
“He said you were lonely and that you wanted someone young enough to make you feel alive again. He said you’d do anything to keep me.”
Arthur looked at her for a long moment.
“Is that what you believed?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Claire swallowed.
“Later, I started to believe I could take whatever I wanted because you had so much.”
Her honesty surprised him.
She continued.
“I knew you were a good man. I saw how you spoke about Margaret. I knew you had treated my father like a brother. But I convinced myself that your kindness made you weak.”
