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Her eyes snapped open. She glared at him. “No!” She shook loose of his hold on her and moved away. “Absolutely not. I love Mitcham.” She rushed over to Michael, clasped his forearms in her hands, and insisted in a breathless tone, “I love your father. Never, ever doubt that. I was deeply moved by his pain. I was drawn into something with him that I hadn’t imagined possible. Unconditional love, soul-deep love. We have that and I’m so, so blessed. Everything I told you last weekend about how we met and fell in love is the truth. I swear it.”
She released him and returned to where Scarlet and Sam stood. She laid a hand against Scarlet’s upper arm and said, “I am truly sorry you got caught in the middle of this. I’m positively horrified that you were hurt. And for it to have been a potentially deadly car accident that Sam had to live through again—”
More tears fell as Karina turned to him. Sam’s insides were a mess. He felt gutted, shredded to the core. His stepbrother was reeling from the possibility of his father being duped when Mitcham had so freely given his affection to Karina. Scarlet sported wounds indirectly inflicted by Sam’s mother. And Sam …
He was a man raised on principle, honor, and loyalty.
All of that was being challenged today, pushed to the limits.
Then there was the matter of his mother fisting his shirt and staring up at him, imploringly, while fat drops rolled down her flushed cheeks. The agony in her eyes killed him.
She said, “I can explain all of this. I know it’s too late to apologize for it, but I can assure you that this was no sort of setup. Not in the way you all are thinking.”
When Sam swallowed, it felt like razor blades slicing his throat. “This had better be the truth, Mother. Tell us the honest-to-God truth.”
“Yes. I will.” She sucked in a sharp breath. Spared a glance over her shoulder at Scarlet and said, “You’re right in that I had a hand in this. And that I did work with Wyatt and Dylan to steal the collection.”
“Mother!” Sam exploded.
Her head whipped back to him. She rushed on, saying in a quavering voice, “It wasn’t for personal gain, Sam. I promise. I had to do it. I had no choice. Wyatt and Dylan came to me.” She relinquished her hold on Sam and turned once again to Michael. “I had to do what they demanded. I couldn’t let your father suffer any sort of humiliation because of me.”
“Oh, my God.” This from Scarlet. A low, sympathetic whisper.
Sam eyed her. “What?”
Scarlet shook her head. Said, “It’s not that she had no other choice. Your mother’s back was to the wall.”
“Yes,” Karina fervidly contended. “Wyatt didn’t want to have anything to do with me when he found out I was pregnant. He vanished. I had to give up Dylan. I just couldn’t manage two babies. Not financially. Physically. Emotionally. And I’m so sorry about that. But I did what I thought was right for all of us. I truly believed Dylan would have a better life with different parents. I was wrong.”
“Because he has his father’s genes,” Scarlet surmised.
“Yes.” Karina nodded. “Clearly, that apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. And when he was old enough, curious enough, he went looking for Wyatt. When he found him, they started down the path of father-son criminal activity. And when Wyatt saw my picture in the paper with Mitcham at a society event … He and Dylan hatched a plan.”
“They extorted that money from you,” Scarlet deduced, her entire demeanor softening. “They threatened you.”
Karina sank into a chair. Pulled in a few breaths. Sam handed over tissues and his mother dabbed at her eyes. She said, “I didn’t have a gambling debt. I don’t gamble at all. There was no loan to repay. But everything else I told you last weekend really is the truth. I had a terrible time adjusting to the Hamptons. And all I wanted was to be perfect for Mitcham, because I felt he deserved it. I feel that way even today. He’s been so good to me. And to Sam. I love him with all my heart. I just couldn’t have him caught up in my drama. I didn’t want him to know about my past.”
“It has to be more than that,” Michael said, leveling Karina with a look.
The color drained from her face, her complexion turning stark. “Yes.”
Sam said, “They really did threaten you.”
“No.” Her gaze locked with Sam’s and she told him, “They threatened you.”
Scarlet gasped. Stepped closer to Sam. An innate response, even though the man could certainly take care of himself. And there was no imminent danger at the moment.
Karina said, “Wyatt showed up at a charity luncheon one day, after I’d married Mitcham. He stood in the periphery so that I’d know he was there. He didn’t approach me. Then I caught sight of him at a gallery opening. Followed by a concert in the park. I knew I had to confront him. But I also knew that if he’d suddenly reappeared in my life after making a huge statement about not wanting to be in it by leaving Colorado, then he wanted something from me.”
“You didn’t tell my father about the sightings because you’d have to reveal that you have a second son? That you gave him up?” Michael was the one to make the observation.
“That’s correct,” Karina said. “It wasn’t quite a year before you and Sam turned twenty-four. Mitcham had just given me the art collection.”
She mangled the tissue in her hands. Took a few moments to compose herself as best as possible. No one else spoke.
Finally, Karina told them, “When Wyatt came at me, telling me he’d let all of New York society and my friends in the Hamptons know what ‘trash’ I was for ‘giving it up’ in the backseat of his car when we were eighteen, getting pregnant, and then putting one of my children up for adoption … All I could think of was how it’d tarnish Mitcham’s reputation and undermine the strides I’d made in proving I was sincerely in love with him. That I could be a part of his life and the community. Not just be some outsider, some waitress from a diner that he’d brought home to the Hamptons.” She shook her head miserably. Added, “I asked that he not tell anyone I was a waitress but instead let them know I was a docent at a gallery … say we met there. Otherwise, I feared we’d be doomed from the lies I’d crafted to fit in. Mitcham didn’t feel that way, but I begged for his acquiescence.”
Scarlet heard again in Karina’s voice the guilt and shame. And it tugged at her heartstrings. Sam’s as well, she had no doubt.
