Now she knew better.
And the truth was so much worse.There was only one person she could talk to about this, but she didn’t know how to reach him, except through his law office.
But Paige…Paige would know.
Chapter11
The city blurred past his windshield, neon streaks bending in the glass as if the whole world had slanted.Tripp drove too fast, his jaw aching from how tightly he clenched it.He should have gone straight to his office, buried himself in case files, drowned in work until the heat of his mother’s revelations cooled.But the storm inside him wouldn’t quiet.
His mother’s words clung like smoke.
She tried to trap you.That ridiculous wedding.You had your future mapped out.
She had known.All along, she had known.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles throbbed.For twenty years, he had carried the belief that Nicole had walked away.That she had chosen ambition over him.That she hadn’t loved him enough.He’d used that betrayal like armor, every late night, every long case, every wall he built around his heart.
He’d even married a nice girl, trying to forget Nicole.Hoping that Anna would somehow wipe his mind clear of the girl he’d loved.But all he’d done was hurt her in the end.
And today, in the span of a few careless sentences, his mother had ripped it all apart.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, he knew there was no more running from the truth.He had to go home and confront his mother.
The streetlights flickered over him as he drove, throwing shadows across the dashboard.His chest heaved, fury pressing against his ribs like it wanted out.He saw flashes of Nicole in his mind, her laugh, bright and reckless, the way she used to kiss him under the bleachers like they were the only two people in the world.
And the way she’d looked at him in court today, sharp, unflinching, refusing to back down.
She didn’t leave me,he thought savagely.She wastakenfrom me.
The thought burned through him, scorching away twenty years of certainty.
He didn’t realize where he was driving until he pulled into the long circular drive of the family estate.The house loomed in the darkness, sprawling and immaculate, every window glowing with warm light.To the world, it was a picture of elegance.To Tripp, it had always been a gilded cage.
A cage he was living in, but starting tomorrow, he’d hire a real estate agent to find him a house.A place of his own.It was time to move out and move on.He’d only moved in to help his mother with the grief of his father, but the woman wasn’t grieving; she was conniving.
The boy who had once adored his mother could never have fathomed the cruelty she was capable of, the depths of evil she would embrace.You don’t imagine that of the people meant to love you, the ones you trust to want your happiness.And realizing it now felt like having the very ground ripped out from under him, leaving nothing but betrayal where love had once been.
He killed the engine, sat in silence, breath harsh in his throat.He could have turned around.Should have.But fury propelled him forward.He slammed the car door and strode up the stone steps, his shoes echoing in the humid night.
The front door opened before he could open it.Of course, she’d heard the car.His mother stood framed in the light, a glass of wine in hand, pearls catching the glow.
“You’re home,” she said as though she’d summoned him.
“Right now, I live here, but not for long,” he snapped, brushing past her into the foyer.
She shut the door with quiet grace, the click of the latch loud in the cavernous entryway.“You’re upset.”
He spun on her, fury sparking.“Upset?You let me live for twenty years believing Nicole left me.Youknewwhat we were planning, and you ended it.”
Her expression flickered, the faintest tremor, before the mask slid back into place.“I was protecting you.”
“Protecting me?”His voice cracked.“From what?From being happy?From the only woman I’ve ever loved?”
Her tone sharpened.“From throwing away your future.You were a boy, Dustin, blinded by hormones and puppy love.That girl would have ruined your life.”
His fists clenched.“She was my life.”
His mother’s eyes narrowed.“No.The Masterson name is your life.The firm.The legacy.That girl didn’t belong in our world, and you know it.She’s made good, but she still is beneath you.”
