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“I have all the time in the world,” he replied.
She gulped and let out a slow breath, trying to compose herself. “This won’t be easy to talk about.”
“Give it your best shot.”
She nodded. “Well, my mother and father got married when they were really young. My mom was barely eighteen, and my dad was twenty. He was from a really rich family. My grandfather had some oil fields, and he owned a bunch of land that’s since been sold for development. My dad was about twenty-five when he inherited everything. He was an okay investor for a while. But when my mom died, he sorta lost it.”
“I’m sorry about your mother,” he said softly.
She gave him a sad smile. “I barely remember her. I was only eight when she died, and I didn’t get enough time with her. But Dad made it so much worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“He loved her. A lot. He didn’t take her death well, and he soon started to make some really weird deals and investments. He was losing his family’s fortune and drinking more and more.”
“Oh, I think I know where this is going.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Hold on to your butt cheeks because it’s about to get so much sorrier.”
He laughed, the sound surprising both of them. “Hold on to mybutt cheeks?” he repeated as he tried not to laugh again.
Her face flushed. “Sorry. I just mean, there is no way you can guess where this story is going.”
“Well, my butt cheeks are waiting.”
She grinned at him. The man was all serious, and he was clearly not the kind of man to smile easily, yet his light tone relaxed her enough to go on. “Dad got in with some bad people to try to recover some of the cash he had lost. It didn’t work too well for him. He made worse investments with Greg Stevens.”
“Your husband.”
“He wasn’t my husband then.”
Wilder tensed. “Excuse me?” His tone was cold with fury. “What are you implying? Your fathersoldyou?”
She shook her head. “It was more of a Beauty and the Beast situation. We changed places.”
“What do you mean? Changed places?”
“Greg was going to maim or kill my dad to pay off his debt, but I intervened. I have a trust fund. It was my mother’s parents who set it up for me after she died. They were smart enough to put in some protection on the cash. My father couldn’t get a penny of it, though he did try to force me into relinquishing the funds. I held firm.”
“Until Greg was in the picture.”
She smiled sadly. “Yes. I offered to pay my father’s debts with my trust fund, but Greg had different plans. He decided that the only prize he wanted was me. For a wife. I fought it, but there was no point. Greg’s mind was made up. Either I married him, or he killed my dad.”
“I would have let the rotter die,” Wilder growled. Amelia cringed a bit, and he quickly recovered. “Sorry.”
“I couldn’t lose another parent, so I agreed to marry Greg. He assured me that I would eventually fall in love with him.”
Wilder snorted. “I’m sure that happened.”
“Well, no. Obviously not. At least he didn’t make me do anything too terrible,” she hinted. Greg had kept his hands off her. For the most part. He slapped her a few times, pulled her hair, and, more than once, he’d punched the wall beside her head. “It could have been much worse,” she added, looking down at the omelet Wilder placed in front of her.
“That doesn’t make it right,” he said.
“I know.”
Wilder’s eyes were dark, and his nostrils flared with anger again. “Where is your father now?”
“He passed away a couple of years ago. Heart attack.”
