Chapter 17 · Apology

Callum's hand closed over the back of my chair and spun it before I could stand up.

"Don't," he said. "Just — don't get up."

My knees hit his shins. That's how close he put us. I had the annulment file still open on my desk, Callum Rhee's own signature drying on page four, and now I had the man himself crowding into the six inches I had left.

"Get out of my archive," I said.

"I came to apologize."

"You came because Vale's lawyers found the loophole and you need my signature to close it before the port board votes Thursday." I shoved the chair back an inch. It didn't go anywhere. He had his boot against the wheel. "So skip the part where you pretend this is about feelings."

"It is about feelings." His jaw worked. "I said it wrong in the chapel. I know I said it wrong."

"You said 'a mistake.' In front of two hundred people and my father. There isn't a wrong way to say that right.