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I search for my own words. I weigh everything carefully, trying to choose the ones that won’t hurt him. The ones that won’t make him reject me and hate me forever. “I was marrying Andrew for a business deal.”
He growls. He always growls when I say another man’s name. I kind of like it, the way he’s so possessive. It makes me feel like I’m his and only his.
“I didn’t want to. It’s complicated.” I pick up his comb and run my fingertips along the sharp teeth. Fiddling with it is easier than looking at his expression in the mirror. “My dad spent years tinkering and inventing things. There are patents in his name. Most of it is stuff that will never make it to production. But I never stopped believing in him. Neither did my mom.”
My chest feels tight, the way it always does when I think of her. Would she be ashamed of me for what I’ve done? She married my father because she was in love with him. Because they were soulmates. I sniff at the thought she’d be disappointed in me for the choices I’ve made. “She was the prettiest, kindest person you’d ever meet. I lost her when I was just six.”
Suddenly, Brennon is in front of me on his knees. He cups my face in his big hand and I can feel the empathy pouring from him. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to. The expression on his face tells me that he feels her loss as strongly as I do in this moment.
His features blur as I continue the story, “My dad has never dated since her. He thinks there’s an afterlife. That Heaven is a real place. He insists she’s there waiting for him because she’s his soulmate.”
Before I met Brennon, I didn’t know how he could believe in something so silly. But now that I’ve found my soulmate, I get it. Because that belief must be the only thing that lets him carry on in the absence of my mother. The only way his heart continues to beat is because he believes he’ll see her again.
“He’s a good man,” I explain. “The best.”
My husband wraps his arms around me, pulling me close. I burrow into his chest, not caring that my tears are wetting his skin. I cry for all the things that are wrong. That my mom is gone. That my dad is alone. But most of all, I cry because I’ve already lost my soulmate.
When I’m able to collect myself, I pull away from his embrace. He grabs a washcloth and cleans my face. I can only imagine what a mess I look like. I want to close my eyes to this. I want to let him carry me back to his bed and touch me until I forget. Instead, I tell him softly, “My dad is in jail now.”
Before he can ask me about it, I take a deep breath and say the words that hurt, “And your dad put him there.”
Brennon
My new bride looks up at me with puffy red eyes, pain etched on her features. “That’s why we’re married. A marriage into the Abernathy family for my dad’s freedom.”
I frown, trying to make sense of this. What would my family have to gain from me marrying Cadence? As far as I know, she’s not from wealth or fame. She has nothing to offer my parents.
She continues, “I told you my dad is an inventor. One of the designs he created, well, your dad wanted. My dad said no. To get back at him, Jack made it look like my dad is cheating his investors. It’s all fake, but nobody will stand up to the Abernathy name.”
She smooths down the towel that’s wrapped around her luscious body. The towel that I was wrapping around her curvy figure only moments before, feeling like I was on top of the world. Now I’m in the pit of hell. I had no illusions about my marriage. I went in knowing that there was a deal.
But I never expected something like this. It explains why she called me her enemy, why she didn’t want to fall in love with me. Too late on my part though. I rub my chest absently, aware of the way it aches so deeply. She’ll never want me for real, all because my father is a bastard who takes whatever he wants.
I’ll never be able to make her want me or forgive me. But maybe I can find a way to make this right for her. I have to. I can’t stand the thought that she’s missing her father while he’s paying for crimes he never committed.
“I own the majority of my father’s company. It was willed to me on my mom’s passing. So I went to Jack and made a deal. My father’s technology in exchange for his freedom. Your dad…well, he was the one who added the marriage term.”
