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“He loves you. He hired us to find you. We had to pull a lot of strings to get a conversation with you. Isn’t there anything that you want him to know?” Jax asks me.
“Trask is a good man. I fell in love with him. He doesn’t know the real me. The only me he knows is the one I became since I was in Comfort. My past will never set me free. It’s like I am tied down by it. I want to be a better person. I will be a better person, but I will never be good enough for Trask.” Sage and Jax are both staring at me when I look at them.
“Kelly, you know I treated Kim terribly after the stunt you pulled in the bar that night. I blamed her and she could have held it against me, but she forgave me and gave me a second chance.” Sage hesitates and then looks out the window. “You know not everyone knows but the Mayson family adopted me and my sister Nalia when we were young. Our birth mom wasn’t the best mom, and she didn’t take care of us. My parents adopted us, and the entire Mayson family showed us love and how to live right. I could have turned out like you did if I stayed with the woman that gave birth to me. I know what love from good people can do for you. I also know that everyone deserves a second chance, and it is up to you as to what you do with that second chance. Trask loves you, so what are you going to do with that? Run like your birth mom taught you or embrace the good and see where it can go?” Sage turns his head back to me and looks me in the eye. I see he is serious.
“Why would you say something like that to me when you hate me?” I ask with tears in my eyes.
“Because it’s what Kim would say and do.” I feel the tears roll down my cheek. Sage Mayson just gave me something no one else besides Trask has given me, hope.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Trask
I got word from the Mayson’s that I could speak to my parents. I have been staying at the house that Kelly and I shared so I haven’t seen either of my parents. I have made sure to avoid them. I don’t think I could hold my temper.
I did contact the ranch attorney about the rights I have involving the ranch. He was a wealth of information. Not only do I have my rights to what my father signed over to me when I became a legal partner, but I now know I inherit the rest of the ranch soon. It’s time to turn the tables. My parent’s need to learn that I am not a naïve fool that they can control any longer.
I will pick the woman that I will spend the rest of my life with. I will make the critical decisions pertaining to the ranch from this day forward without interference from my dad. I am my own man, and I won’t be under their thumbs any longer.
I walk into the house that I grew up in with purpose. I enter the sitting room that my mother uses to entertain her friends during the day. She’s sitting there looking through a magazine and she looks up at me. “Follow me,” I tell her. I am to the point.
“Hello to you too, Son. It’s so nice of you to grace me with your presence since I haven’t seen you the last two weeks,” my mother starts.
“Cut the crap, Mom. Follow me or I will pick you up and carry you.” My mom sets her magazine down and stands up.
“You will not speak to me in that disrespectful tone. What has that girl done to you that you think that you can speak to me this way?” My mom can’t stop the hate in her. I take a step toward her. “Fine, where are we going?” I don’t answer. I walk to my dad’s study and open the door without knocking. My dad is sitting behind his desk with a bourbon in his hand in the middle of the afternoon.
“Have you heard of knocking? Where have your manners gone?” Dad starts. Mom follows me into the room. I look at her and ignore my dad.
“Sit,” I tell her. Mom must see the look in my eyes.
“Why are you speaking to your mother in that tone? What the hell has gotten into you?” Donald goes on.
“Shut up.” I say in a strong voice, looking at my dad. He looks at me. “Just listen to me and you better listen good.” They both stare at me, but they keep their mouths shut.
“I am a grown-ass man, and I don’t need my mommy or daddy butting into my love life. I don’t need or want you sticking your noses in my business period. I am going to run this ranch the way I want. I am going to marry who I want and if you butt in again, I will cut you both out of my life.” They both sit with their mouths open but don’t saying anything.
“We run this ranch together and I think it is within my rights as your father to express my opinion on who you date and who you bring into our family,” my dad tells me.
“You and I will run this ranch in name only for less than two years and then it reverts to my name by Grandfather’s will. I work this ranch and make sure everything runs smoothly. I doubt that you know one name of any of the men that I have hired in the last year. The only thing that you are interested in is the bottom line. I keep us making money and that has been happening the last ten years. So, keep watching that bottom line until your time is up. I will be making all the decisions unless you want to get out of bed before the sun rises and not get home until after dark because that is my normal schedule!” I yell at my dad. “You have zero input about who I choose to be in my life.”
“We are only trying to guide you, Son. To be a Stillman, you need to have breeding that only comes from people with money.” I know I am going to lose it if I don’t hurry this along.
“Tell me, Skeeter, what was your breeding?” Mom’s face turns red. She knows as well as I do that the only reason she wants me to marry money is for her standing in the community, but the laugh is on her, this community couldn’t care less. It’s all her and her snobbish cronies.
“I am telling both of you that if I can get Kelly back, then I am going to marry her, end of discussion. If either of you try to interfere, then you will both be out of my life and you know I will keep my word.” I drive my conviction home to them. I leave them there in that cold house that I hope I never see the inside of again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kelly
My testimony took longer than expected. It was three days instead of one, and it was grueling. I was surprised when I had seen Sage and Jax Mayson sitting in the back of the courtroom. They were the only ones in the courtroom that I knew besides the attorney who prepped me and Special Agents Torres and Kace.
I’ve done my part now to put away the men that organized the human trafficking ring. I could go back to my life in Tennessee now or even Alabama, but I would always be looking over my shoulder and everyone I know there would be in jeopardy. Ginny may not have been a good mother, but she is all I had at one time. I don’t want any harm to come to her. Then there is Kim, and I have brought enough grief into her life. I know Sage loves her and will always protect her. The way his eyes light up every time he mentions her name is something that I long for from Trask.
I keep going over everything that Sage and Jax told me about Trask. I want to believe that Trask loves me. I mean, I know he loves the Kelly he met that day in the diner, but can he love the real me with all my flaws? Will he trust me to never touch the drugs that my body still craves on my worst days? Can he still touch my body since he knows the many men I let touch my body for the drugs my body craved? Sage Mayson gave me hope that day in my hotel room and it’s all I have hung onto since that day. It’s been my lifeline.
I’ve also been thinking about what Haddie told me when I was running from that ugly confrontation in her den. She told me I had to forgive and love myself before anyone else could. Is that my problem? It has been driving me crazy. Forgive myself? Can I forgive myself? Have I forgiven myself? I don’t think I have, and I don’t know if I can. I let myself get into this mess. I watched my mom as she drug me from place to place and went through men like they were disposable. She used people, and I swore I would never be like her. I was going to do better. I would never be dependent on drugs or a man to take care of me but instead of doing the opposite, I became a carbon copy of her. If I had stayed on that road, I would have continued the line of a dysfunctional family. I have my second chance. I want it and I will make the most of it. I am going to work on forgiving myself. This last year, I have done my best to make myself a better a person. Not for a man, not for anyone but me. I wanted to be a better person. I am a better person. Now I just need to forgive myself for the way I was before. I need to look in the mirror every morning and say I love you and mean it. I can work on that. I might not be able to do it today or tomorrow but one day.
