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Scotty scooted closer and brought our hands down. “Explain the reasoning for caring so much about a lunatic who chloroformed you, kidnapped you, and bound you to a chair for hours.”
“Clearly, he’s not mentally well. He treated his dead mother like she was still alive because she was all he had because of my father.”
“He was with it enough to plan his crimes. He broke into your parents’ house and showed him a photoshopped picture of your head on someone else’s body tied to a chair. Said if your dad didn’t come with him, he’d kill you, so your dad went.”
I was honestly surprised he cared enough. “Is my mom okay?”
He nodded. “She was at some spa retreat in Arizona. The hospital contacted her, but she said she wouldn’t be home for another week.”
“That’s not surprising,” I muttered. I’m sure Austin would already be on top of dealing with the legalities of Dad’s death.
“My point is, Gordon was meticulous in his actions. That’s not what I’d consider mentally unstable. I’m not sure he deserves to be cut any slack.”
“Did you see the house he grew up in?” It was filthy and falling apart. “His mother died, and he convinced himself she was just sleeping until he could get money to get her better.”
His shoulders dropped, and he cleared his throat. “That’s not the point. He knew right from wrong.”
“You don’t know, do you?”
He raised his brows. “Know what?”
“That was her, Scotty.”
“Who was her?”
“His mother. She was my nanny… The woman I thought I killed. That was her.”
He squinted as if it would make him understand but seemed unable to comprehend it. “Wait… She’s not dead. I mean, she wasn’t dead?”
“Nope. Not until a little over a week ago. The second I saw her, I knew.” I shivered. I’ll have nightmares about how morbid all this was. “When I asked my father why, all he said was sorry. Gordon tortured him all night before I got there, so he wasn’t much more cognizant than when you were there.” A muscle in Scotty’s jaw twitched as I spoke. “So my dad was blackmailing me with absolutely nothing.” And I was naive enough to believe him.
Seeing Scotty speechless was a first. He always knew what to say. “I don’t even know what to think right now… why do you think he kept her alive?”
I shrugged. “I mean, he had to have been sleeping with her. Gordon’s what, early twenties? She was probably pregnant when I pushed her down the stairs… maybe that’s why Gordon’s so…”
“Don’t do that to yourself. None of this is your fault.”
It felt like it, but it was over, so it didn’t matter anyway. What did matter was coming clean about a couple of things with Scotty. If we were doing this, really be together, I needed to get it over with. “Listen, what I said about that dating app was true. I went on one date that ended badly and deleted the app. I forgot that it was still accessible online. I wasn’t actively on it.”
“I know.”
“Good. And, um, I should have told you about the email he sent me with the picture of us, but there was just so much going on, and I kind of forgot but also didn’t want to tell you.”
A rumble rolled up his chest. “Nothing like this will ever happen again, but if it does, and you lie to me about it, I’ll be pissed, sugar.”
“I didn’t want to lie to you, but I—”
“I get it,” he said, cradling my head in his hands. “Just don’t keep anything from me ever again, okay?”
I thought he’d be more upset, but like the man he’s proven to be over and over, all he cares about is me. “I won’t lie to you ever again.” I blinked back tears. “I promise.”
“Good.” He kissed my forehead and then brushed his thumb across my cheek. “I love you. You know that, right?”
I really, truly believed it when I said, “Yes.”
“And because I love you, I want you to be happy. A lot has happened, but you loved planning weddings, so if that’s what you want to do when you get out of here, then do it.”
“I would love to, but my reputation in the business has already been sullied.”
