The investor looked at the father.
“I wasn’t sure you’d recognize me.”
The single father did not move.
His voice came low.
“I recognize you.”
The girl looked between them.
“Who is he?”
Her father did not answer.
The elderly man looked at the child.
His eyes filled.
The single father finally said:
“He’s my father.”
The billionaire stared.
The storm roared around the lodge.
The little girl’s mouth opened.
The elderly investor closed his eyes.
And suddenly the broken Rolls-Royce no longer felt like the most important reason any of them had arrived.
The single father’s daughter looked at the old man.
Then at her father.
“Your dad?”
“Yes.”
“You said Grandpa was gone.”
The father swallowed.
“I said he left.”
“That’s different.”
He looked toward the old man.
“Yes.”
“It is.”
The billionaire remained near the Rolls-Royce.
She felt like an intruder in something private.
The investor turned toward her.
His eyes changed again.
Business returned, but only partly.
“I owe you an explanation too.”
She folded her arms.
“I would hope so.”
He looked toward the damaged front of the Rolls-Royce.
“You had trouble.”
“The mechanic you apparently arranged to bring here fixed it.”
The old man frowned.
“I didn’t arrange for you two to meet on the road.”
The single father laughed bitterly.
“No.”
“You just arranged for us both to end up here without telling either of us why.”
The investor accepted that.
“Yes.”
The father stepped toward him.
His daughter stayed close.
“What do you want?”
“Come inside.”
“No.”
The elderly man looked toward the girl.
The father immediately shifted in front of her.
The investor’s pain became visible.
“I will not touch her.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
“Dad.”
The girl tugged his coat.
“What?”
“I’m freezing.”
The argument stopped.
The billionaire almost smiled.
Children had an extraordinary ability to destroy adult staging.
The father looked toward the lodge.
Then at his daughter.
“Fine.”
He looked at the elderly man.
“We go inside because she’s cold.”
“Nothing else.”
The investor nodded.
“Understood.”
The lodge’s great room was larger than some houses.