Even now, Nicole wasn’t enough for her.In his mother’s world, the only woman fit to be his wife was one she handpicked, some polished puppet she could control.Like that blonde she’d dragged to dinner the other night, dull as dishwater and twice as forgettable.He couldn’t even recall her name, and the fact his mother thought she was suitable made his blood boil.
Better single forever than shackled to one of her puppets.
Tripp laughed, jagged and bitter.“You’re wrong.She belonged more than you ever did.She was kind.She was real.Everything you can’t even pretend to be.”
Her nostrils flared, the stem of her wineglass trembling in her hand.“Mind your tone.I am your mother.”
He stepped closer, fury radiating off him.“No.For once, you’re going to hear me.You lied.You let me believe Nicole chose to walk away.You made me hate her for something she didn’t do.Do you know what that did to me?”
Her lips thinned.“It made you strong.Cold.Exactly what this world requires.”
Oh my God, she wanted him to be shattered.Her own words.It was like someone ripped the blinders from his eyes, and for the first time, he saw her clearly.Not as his mother, but as the cold-hearted bitch she truly was, a woman who cared only for wealth and power.
His chest heaved.“No.It made me empty.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.The chandelier above threw fractured light across the marble floor, gilding the distance between them.His mother lifted her chin, her mask of composure cracking just slightly at the edges.
“You’ll thank me one day,” she said softly, her voice honey over steel.
Tripp stared at her, the woman who had orchestrated his life like a chessboard, moving pieces in secret while he bled for her victories.His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.“Don’t hold your breath.”
He turned, yanked the front door open, and strode out into the night.The door slammed behind him, the sound echoing like finality.
He sat in his car in the driveway, the leather seat hot beneath him, his breath ragged.The house loomed in the rearview mirror, glowing with all the false warmth.He couldn’t stay here tonight.
For twenty years, he had lived inside a lie.His mother had stolen his past, rewritten it, twisted it into something that had fueled his ambition but hollowed him out inside.
God, how he wanted to speak to Nicole.To find her, to sit across from her, and finally untangle how it had all gone so wrong.But they couldn’t—not in public.Not until the trial was over, or risk handing the judge a reason for a mistrial.So he bit back the urge, even as the past clawed at him, fierce and relentless, begging to be dragged into the light.
The past was a grave he’d thought long buried.Tonight, it cracked open, and everything inside clawed its way out.All the ugliness, but not the details.Sooner or later, he had to have the details of how they had carried out this devious plot that destroyed their happiness.
He sat there for a long time, the cicadas screaming in the humid night air, headlights washing over his car as neighbors came and went.
Finally, he drew in a shuddering breath.He couldn’t sit here drowning in the wreckage.He needed answers.Paige had come back and was doing her best to learn what she could about that night.Tonight, he needed to talk to her.
Before he could second-guess himself, he shoved the key into the ignition.The engine roared to life, headlights slicing through the darkness.He pulled away from the house, gravel spitting under his tires.
This time, he wasn’t driving to outrun the past.
This time, he was driving straight into it, a storm of truth and betrayal that churned inside him like a hurricane, every gust threatening to tear him apart.At its center stood his mother, cold and immovable, feeding the winds with her lies.And circling just as fiercely was Nicole, the only woman he’d ever loved, the one he’d lost, the one he might never reclaim.
He gripped the wheel tighter, bracing for impact, knowing there was no way out, only straight through the heart.
Chapter12
The ocean whispered outside Paige’s rented beach house, steady and relentless, like it had all the answers Nicole couldn’t find.She sat curled on the sagging couch, bare toes buried in the throw blanket, a mug of tea cooling in her hands.
Outside, it was hot, but Nicole was shaking inside and out from what she’d learned tonight.
Inside, her nerves quaked like a nine-point earthquake, splintering her.She’d prepared herself to face the truth about Mrs.Masterson, that much she had always suspected.But her own parents?That betrayal struck like a collapse she hadn’t seen coming, crushing her in ways she didn’t know she could survive.
If she couldn’t trust them, who was left?
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she said, her voice raw.“Everything I thought I knew about what happened with Tripp…about why we ended…it’s unraveling.”
Paige sat on the cushion next to her.She didn’t press, didn’t pity, just waited.
Nicole’s throat ached as she forced the words out.“Mrs.Masterson was waiting for me in the parking lot after court today.”
