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“Thomas denied his siblings what they were owed, keeping this place for himself. He refused them sanctuary in their own home.” His voice rises. “My grandfather was the oldest. It was his right to own this manor, but it was given to Thomas—an ungrateful, selfish prick who cared about nothing and no one but himself. Just look at your mother. Why else would she have left?
“I did my time here, watching the old man wither away for months with the hope he would give me what was rightfully mine, and instead, he gives it to the grandsons he never even knew.” A tremor of disgust tightens his voice. “You’re strangers to this family, to this town, and you don’t belong here.”
Rowan shakes his head. “If you were paying attention last night, then you know my brothers have their own stipulations. There’s no guarantee that whatever those are will keep the manor in your name.”
“We’ll cross that bridge once the estate is signed over to me. For now, keep your word and work on convincing them to do their part.” Sam gathers the papers and his phone from the table, frowning as he studies us. “You’ve got twenty-four hours to sign and return the contract.”
We sit in stunned silence once he leaves the room, and I wind my arm across my stomach, swallowing the bile rushing up my throat. After everything we’ve done for this place… It’s gone, just like that.
“There has to be another way,” Rowan says eventually, even though we both know there isn’t.
“We could talk to Patricia,” I say. “Tell her the truth, and hope she’ll be understanding.”
He rubs his lower lip in thought before standing to pace. “That won’t work. She’s got some deep-rooted attachment to this place, and the second Sam gives her that evidence, she’s going to revoke our engagement.”
“Okay, but you have to be married to obtain the estate.” My head spins as I try to make sense of it all. “And if we go through with this, Sam takes everything. You’ll not only lose the last tie you have to your mother, but a chance to rebuild your relationship with your brothers.”
A sense of foreboding blankets me to acknowledge the other option. I close my eyes, hating to even voice it. “But if you were to marry someone else… As long as she believed you were a true match, Sam would get nothing, and you could have it all.”
“No,” he says without hesitating. “I won’t have another woman step foot in this house. Our fucking house.”
“Don’t you see? He thinks he has us backed in a corner because he doesn’t believe you’ll leave me.”
“Because I won’t.”
A heavy sigh drags my shoulders. “Be reasonable, Rowan.”
“Reasonable?” He turns on me, angered by the injustice of our situation. “Are you telling me you’re willing to sit idly by while I take another wife? While I parade her around town, convincing people that I could ever possibly love her the way I love you?”
I jerk my chin up. “If I have to, I will.”
He scoffs. “I’m not entertaining this.”
“What other choice do we have?” Frustration has me on the edge of my seat with my heart battering my chest. “You can’t give this place up. Thomas wouldn’t want you to, and especially not to Sam.”
“Fuck Thomas,” he growls before clearing the books and magazines from the table in a single, rage-fueled swipe. They tumble across the floor in a chaotic heap. “He’s to blame for all this to begin with.”
“You don’t know that. Sam could’ve been lying about the kind of man he was,” I argue weakly. “We don’t know the whole story.”
“And we never will because the only people who have the answers are dead.” He’s vibrating with fury, his chest heaving while he combs his fingers through his hair. “Thomas has risked the livelihoods of innocent people by forcing us to play his games, but this isn’t a game to me, Molly. I refuse to lose you.”
I sit with my hands in my lap, watching as he continues pacing frantically, and at once, despair consumes me.
All Rowan ever wanted was to have his family whole—to show his brothers what they mean to him, to be a husband, a father—and it’s unbelievably unfair, but right now, I’m in the way of that.
Patricia isn’t going to honor our marriage if Sam shows her that recording or any of the other damning evidence against us, and I’m not letting Rowan go back to Seattle where he’ll fall back into being the cold, closed-off man I first met.
I’d been convinced that allowing myself to care for him was a mistake. Caring for him meant the possibility of insurmountable consequences, but loving him? I couldn’t have anticipated loving Rowan because I’ve never been loved the way he loves me.
He values my hidden truths and accepts the flawed parts of my humanity as if they’re something to cherish. And it utterly breaks me to look at him now—this man I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with—knowing the decision I have to make.
But it has to be done.
I carefully rise from the couch, and he stops before slowly facing me.
“You’ve only ever asked me for the truth.” I lift my shoulders with a wobbly smile. “And the truth is, I love you, Rowan, but I’m not willing to be the reason you lose something as important as this.”
He moves across the room in a flash, pulling me to him. “Don’t.” He kisses my eyelids, my nose, then my mouth, urgently trying to stop my words. “I already told you it’s not a fucking option.”
