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“Are you insane?” she asks.
“Yeah, probably, why?” I ask and follow her into the living room.
“I ran into Londyn at the airport. She was a mess.” She pokes a finger in my direction. “And you, my brother, are an idiot.”
“An idiot and insane. This is getting better and better.”
She points to the sofa, and I sit.
“Do you really think she set this all up, Cason? Do you really think she knew you were going to be at the gentleman’s club and went through all this trouble to get information from you?”
“Well, I know how it sounds—”
“Here’s how it sounds. She hurt you once and you were so damn certain she was going to do it again, you just jumped to that conclusion.”
“Her father, the website—”
I scrub my face, and try to put the pieces together but they simply don’t fit.
“Cason,” Peyton says, her voice softer as she sits beside me. “Mistakes were made in the past, and that’s where they need to stay. You two love each other.” I open my mouth, but how can I protest. I do love her. “You have this tendency to push people out before they can push you out.”
I shake my head. “Londyn said something similar, and she told me I needed to work on myself.”
She gives a humorless laugh. “Don’t we all.”
“You say she loves me, but she walked away.”
“Did you ever stop to think why?”
“Because her father...” She shakes her head and my words fall off. My heart sinks to my stomach as I think about my exchange with Londyn. Her father tricked her once, who’s to say he hasn’t tried to do it a second time. No way in hell did I say those things about her back in college, and when I defended myself, she agreed—she believed in me.
You didn’t believe in her, dude.
I exhale, loudly as my rattled brain settles, and the truth seeps in. “She left because I didn’t trust her.” Hell, I wouldn’t even listen to her. “She left because she saw no future if I couldn’t let go of the past.”
“That’s right, big brother.”
I swallow, the world crashing in around me. “I was cruel.”
“You struck out from a place of fear. She knows that.”
“I’m sure she must hate me.” My throat tightens. “I screwed up and ruined everything.”
“Yeah, you did. Now what are you going to do about that?”
“I should call her.”
“You need to do better than that, Cason.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Londyn
IT’S BEEN
ONE MONTH since I’ve been back from Cannes, and Cason has yet to send me my belongings. Not that I care. Everything in that suitcase will simply remind me of him, and my heart is already in pieces as it is. I’ve been working, however. On my own designs, and while my mother calls every day begging me to make amends with my father, that forgiveness will be a long time coming. I still can’t quite wrap my brain around everything that happened, or why my father wants me to fall into the role of the perfect little daughter. Image and stature are important to him, apparently, and that all comes before my happiness—before his wife’s. I see now that my mother might have all the jewels and shiny things, but deep down I’m not sure she’s really happy.
What I truly can’t wrap my brain around though, is that the second half of Cason’s payment landed in my bank account shortly after I returned home. Why would he pay me? He still thinks my father’s businesses are in jeopardy, and putting those funds into my hands only helps a man who has done nothing but try to destroy Cason. I guess that just goes to show Cason is a man who is true to his word, and is full of integrity and kindness, despite what the system did to him and how it destroyed his trust in others.
