AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And I took advantage of it,” Haley stated. “Don’t blame Gabby for this mess. She wouldn’t turn me in not with Donald looming over my shoulders. The only thing Gabby’s guilty of is loving her family too much.”
“Alright,” Isaac said turning to his son, “we know why Gabby covered for Haley but I’d like to know why you married her.”
“To protect the business,” Wyatt said quickly.
“No, it’s more than that,” Joan stated. “You wouldn’t be this mad if you were just out to protect the company. You could have gotten the money back, found out a way to keep it under wraps without marrying Gabby. Don’t tell me it was to get the money from Granddad’s will, because I know, yeah Wyatt, Iknowyou didn’t use it to cover the business account. Morris told me you donated it all to the center six months ago.”
“You covered it with your own funds?” Isaac inquired.
“I did,” Wyatt admitted.
“Then why force Gabby to marry you?” Haley asked.
“Because it was the only way for him to get her into his life and bed,” Adam said observing his tense frame. “She turned you down when you came onto her, didn’t she? So you used the situation to your advantage…I should beat the hell out of you.”
“Do you think I haven’t been?” Wyatt questioned. “Fine you want the truth, yes I could cover the loss out of my own pockets and I did, long before the wedding, but you weren’t in the room when I confronted Gabby. She was so smug about it and yeah she turned me down, a fact that annoyed me and made me more determined to get her and I did.”
“Oh my god, Wyatt,” Joan said shocked. “This whole time I thought you cared about her, but you don’t, do you? It was all about your damned pride, wasn’t it?”
Wyatt said nothing, he was full of rage at the woman who’d lied, and lied, and lied to him and he was forcing himself not to go find her and beg her on his knees for another chance.
“You’re worse than Graves,” Adam stated, “at least he was upfront about it. If I ever find out that you hurt Gabby more than she’s said, I’ll make you pay.”
“Go ahead, take your best shot,” Wyatt said holding his arms out wide. “I won’t apologize for any of it. I’d do it all the same, except I wouldn’t have let her get by with the stunt she pulled on our wedding night.”
“Wyatt, I suggest you shut your mouth,” his father said as the five men in Gabby’s life turned to stare.
“Why? I’ve admitted everything else why not that I made sure Gabby knew exactly what I wanted on our wedding night?” he continued. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Sam, Nate and Adam were on the other side of the table and knocking him to the floor. Owen and Rick stood pulling their sons off him and then gathered the others and turned to leave.
“Come near Gabby ever again and you’ll find out just how farI’mwilling to go to protect her,” Owen said. “The same goes for Haley and her daughter. Gabby was willing to sacrifice herself for them, but I’ll make damn sure that doesn’t happen.”
Wyatt wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth before telling them, “Trust me the last thing I want is a sob story coming out, our stock’s soaring and making me millions. I’m not going to allow Gabby to disrupt it. She’s caused enough damage already.”
Nate turned to go after him but Maggie stopped him and pushed them towards the front door. She stopped to go back for her bag, pausing next to Haley cupping her face and hugging her, before she allowed her and Jess to be led out by Rick and Adam. Owen stopped in the doorway, watching his wife pick the bag up.
“I truly hope you’re putting up a pretense right now Wyatt,” she said softly, holding his gaze. “Gabby was scared of not loving her baby and I promised her that would never happen. I’ve never broken a promise to her and if you make this the first one I do, there will be no hope for Gabby’s heart to ever heal. You’ve both made mistakes…are you going to continue to punish Gabby and your child for them?”
She left leaving Wyatt to his thoughts and he grabbed the bottle of whiskey before heading in the opposite direction they’d just taken. He wanted to be alone and drown in the bottle but his family had other ideas.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” his mother asked as his dad grabbed the bottle from him.
“You know at first I sided with you,” Joan said. “I could understand you wanting to get Gabby to tell you what happened to the money and to even want to punish her, but my god Wyatt. You basically said you raped her on your wedding night.”
“So what?” Wyatt said glaring at them.
“Please tell me I did not just hear you admit to it,” Isaac yelled.
“No, I didn’t rape my wife. She wasn’t agreeable to it at first but she came around,” he said taking the bottle back.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Joan said staring at him.
“Wyatt, I saw you the day she was missing and when she came home bruised and bleeding. You weren’t acting like a man afraid that he was going to never find millions of dollars, you were acting like a man who was scared that he’d never see his wife whom he loved again,” Caroline said putting her hand on his arm.
“Maybe I was just thinking about never having sex with her again?”
“You disgust me,” Joan stated walking to the door. “I should have gone with my gut the day we heard about the miscarriageand found that divorce attorney for Gabby. How’d you convince her to put on that loving display?”
“She offered to, she couldn’t tell you the truth that she’d seen that an old friend had died and that everything had bubbled over, not without admitting that she’d…that Haley had taken the money. You should feel lucky Joan, Gabby liked all of you better than me, she included you in her definition of family.”
