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There’s some awkward shuffling as we move our seats into the places where we normally work and Noah starts firing up the computers. I keep my eyes locked on Charles for any sign of ulterior motives, though even I can admit at this point it’s hard to pinpoint what to look for. All I notice is the widening of his eyes as he watches Noah work. There’s no calculating or speculative gleam I can catch. I hate how sincere he seems as he whistles low and near silently.
“More than just Scar has changed,” he notes.
His words put me on edge, but they enrage Kade. “We’re not the same gutter kids from back then,” he sneers.
Charles drops back in surprise. “I,” he stammers, “I never judged you for where you came from. I was always grateful you were able to protect her when I no longer could.” Each word comes out quieter, with less confidence, as if he knows he shouldn’t be saying them to us.
Kade is quick to react, launching himself across the room toward Charles’ still form, already braced for the hit that never lands. Declan and Ryder step in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. No matter how angry Kade is, he won’t hurt one of our own.
Probably.
This fit is one that has been building for a long time. Kade needs to release it as much as Scar needed a moment.
“You have no right,” Kade yells over Ryder’s shoulder. “You did nothing to protect her. Nothing at all. When she needed you most you abandoned her!” The vitriol spewing from him would concern me, should concern me, except I happen to be in full agreement with him. Charles was in a much better position to save her than Kade or I ever could have been back then, and yet he did nothing but watch her suffer. Made her pain worse.
Instead of cowering like I expected him to, Charles' spine snaps straight. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. What I risked to do what I could for her!”
Ian pulls Jade behind him, while Holden grabs Rachel, ensuring both of them are out of the fray. Mikey already has Britt stashed in the corner with Ronan at his side as if he knew this was going to get ugly. Noah steps up to Charles, not allowing him to get any closer to Kade. With a quick glance in my direction, I know he’s also clocked where I am and is keeping himself in between the two of us as well.
The whole room is on edge once more. A growing rage makes my blood pound at the entire situation. At the fact he’s here. That he has the audacity to face off against Kade. That he even thinks for a moment that anything he says can change the past. Change what he did. What he allowed to happen.
“We know what you did for her,” I spit. “A whole lot of throwing her to the sharks. You were the one with her in that bullshit elitist school of yours. You were the one in the hallways, ignoring her tears. Acting oblivious to the continued harassment. It was your friends that attempted to rape her all over again.” My voice rises to levels I haven't reached in years. Anger and disgust flowing out of me with every reminder of how helpless we were against the world Letty was born to. The world that destroyed her. “What did you do? What did you risk to stop that? Nothing! You sat back in your ivory tower and watched it happen. You don’t deserve to be here. You don’t deserve to be fucking alive. You may not have touched her, but you betrayed her. I promise you, what you allowed to happen to her cut deeper than anything those fuckers did to her. You broke the last piece of her, stole the last bit of her light. The detached shell of herself she became? You fucking did that. You.”
I’m shaking by the time I’m done. The entire room holds their breath and immediately I recognize that I’ve said too much. Put too much on display for everyone here. Too fucking many people. Pieces of Letty that she wasn’t willing to share. She didn’t want them to know her history with Charles and I just blew that to hell.
Ryder and Delcan are both tense as they continue to hold back Kade, though he isn’t fighting against their hold either. I meet their eyes to see rage burning in their expressions, mirroring the battle we’ve been waging since that miserable fucking gala. I’m not sure how much effort Kade would even have to make to get at Charles now that they know more.
If I had thought my words were going to be enough to get him to back down, I was sorely mistaken. He shakes his head looking back and forth between both Kade and I. His own hands are trembling with his rampant emotions.
“You’re both so clueless,” he huffs.
Kade cuts him off from saying anymore. “What more do we need to know?” he demands. “You broke her and we kept her safe until she could fit the pieces back together.”
Charles rushes toward him, but Noah is able to hold him back. “You think you’re the only ones who loved her?” he demands, ratcheting up the tension in the room tenfold. “That I didn’t recognize you both? The way you watched her from afar every chance you got? Our paths crossed plenty of times even if we were from different sides of the track. I didn’t know why you cared about my fiancée.” The jab to remind us both who she was to him lands as he intended. A stinging slap of what our reality used to be. “But I knew you did.” He laughs bitterly. “Did you think it was a coincidence she landed in your group home? Don’t tell me you really thought no one was willing to take in a young, famous, helpless heiress. She was a perfect target for selfish and greedy bastards eager to have her under their control. Even if it was just for a few months.”
He stops fighting against Noah as his words sink in. No. It’s impossible. The meaning behind them slowly dawning on me. I can’t believe it. He was only seventeen, same as Letty. Too young to be able to pull strings the way he is insinuating.
He nods as he watches my disbelief. “There are no coincidences in money. Right, James?” Declan flinches at being dragged into the conversation. “You must realize how odd it was for her to end up where she did.”
I wait for Declan to acknowledge the words. He slowly nods. “It never quite made sense,” he admits reluctantly.
“I put her there,” Charles declares, his voice husky with raw emotion. “I got her out of my world as much as I could and delivered her to you. For you to take care of her. For you to protect her in the ways I couldn’t. I fucking pushed her away and let her go forher. No matter what I was losing in doing so. It might have hurt her but it saved her too, whether you want to see that or not. I saved her just as much you assholes did.”
Silence echoes through the room. No one knows quite how to respond to that. Can we even believe it? Trust him?
Kade swallows thickly, clearing his throat, a jarring sound in the silence. “That doesn’t change everything else.”
Charles laughs, almost hysterically. “Of course it doesn’t. You only saw what I wanted the world to see. That I cut ties with her like everyone else.”
“You did,” I grind out between my teeth. “Whatever you may or may not have done to get her placed with us, you still washed your hands of her after that. It doesn’t make you a hero. Not when you stood by and watched her being attacked.”
His hands run through his already messy hair. “And who saved her then? Who got to be her hero?”
Kade narrows his eyes on him, running his thumb over the scar on his cheek. “You know who.”
He nods in acknowledgment. “How’d you find out again?” The way he asks makes my hackles rise, like I’m about to hear something else I not only never expected, but something I don’t think I’m ready to hear either.
“Oh, that’s right,” he drawls sarcastically. “She was taking too long to meet you at your normal spot. Yet, even though she was delayed enough for you to realize something was wrong, they weren’t able to take it very far before you showed up.”
