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“Last Monday! A week—nearly a week ago! And you didn’t tell me? When were you planning to give me the news, Cass? After the wedding?” he demanded, his hushed voice growing louder, a vein throbbing in his neck.
She reached for his arm. “No, Colton, I swear—”
“Don’t bother,” he muttered, yanking his arm away from her in disgust.
“But I called—I was just at your house, looking for you—”
The back door flew open, and Ivan raced into the room. “What the devil’s going on?” he demanded, his eyes darting anxiously from Colton’s stiff spine to the tears rolling soundlessly down Cassie’s cheeks.
Colton’s face turned to stone. He started for the door, but Cassie ran after him, catching him just as his fingers curled over the knob.
Throat knotted, tears streaming from her eyes, she clutched Colton’s sleeve. “Wait—I can explain—”
“I just bet you can!” He yanked open the door. Hot night air streamed into the room. “How do you think I felt when I told a friend of mine you and I were going to be married?” he demanded.
“But—”
“That’s right, I let Warren Mason know. Warren just happens to work at LTV labs. He was congratulating me all over the place, then asked who the lucky girl was. When I mentioned your name, he got real quiet, I mean real quiet.”
“Oh, no—”
“I asked him what was wrong, and he told me—reluctantly, mind you—that he’d seen your pregnancy tests. I was stupid enough to think he was going to congratulate me on becoming a father, but he didn’t. Instead he let it slip that the test was negative.”
“Oh, God,” Cassie whispered.
“There never was a baby, Cassie, and you knew it.”
“Then why would I have the test done?”
“To convince me,” he growled.
“No—”
“Then why didn’t you tell me last Monday?”
“I wanted to—”
“Did you?” Seeing her fingers curled into the folds of his denim jacket, Colton snarled, “Let me go, Cassie.”
“I can’t—I love you.”
“It’s over!”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Didn’t mean to what? Lie to me? Deceive me? Trap me into marrying you?”
“I never—”
Slowly, he peeled her hands off his jacket. “Save it, Cassie. Save it for someone who’ll believe it. Maybe the next guy you seduce!”
She shrank back at his cruelty. “I can’t let go,” she whispered pathetically.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Wounded beyond words, she felt her shoulders begin to shake, her body droop heavily against the wainscoting.
“Get out, McLean!” Ivan commanded, his voice a deadly whisper as he stalked into the entryway. His face was purple, his eyes bright, his fists clenched at his sides. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here, but I don’t care. You get out and leave my daughter alone! If you ever so much as step one foot on this property again, I swear, I’ll kill you!”
