“She took it? The piano?”
I clench my fists as I nod, feeling every bit of the anger I did that night.
“Who is Erin then? AndTara? It doesn’t make sense.” She turns away from me, running her hands through her hair.
“Will you come and sit down?” I ask.
She moves to stand in the space between the lounge and the dining area, her brows drawn together in question. “Where is it now?”
“In the west wing at Lowerwick.”
Her face drops, and I know that hurt her. “You never would have told me, would you? You were just going to hide it away and not tell me.”
“I didn’t want to.” My nostrils flare, not wanting to lay it all out but knowing I have to. “I thought if you knew, I thought you’d never be able to look at me again.”
She shakes her head, looking at me in shock. “His actions… that rapist! Mason, he got everything he deserved. I don’t condone using your money to play with karma.” She walks to me, and my eyes burn. “But I don’tblameyou. You didn’t do it for you.” She reaches up and palms my cheek. “Mase, you would have lost me. If Charlie didn’t tell me.” Her brows pull in as she searches my face. “Why do you try and carry it all alone?”
“I don’t want my mistakes to burden you, Nina. Despite all you have been through, you are good and pure. I don’t want to fuck that up.”
“You don’t think I’m fucked up? Mase, I dream about the men who took my mother every night. I dream about wrapping my hands around their throats and squeezing until they can’t keep their eyes open and on me.” She throws her hands out to the side, shocking the shit out of me with her words. “I wanted it all with you. All the ugly parts. All I’ve ever wanted from you is you.”
My eyes close briefly as I absorb her words. The more she gives me, the more I know I don’t deserve her.
“I thought you’d run if I told you. I never thought it would bring you back to me.”
“I never said I was staying.” My chest aches as she utters the words.
I don’t know how to be without her anymore.
“I want to know everything,” she says. “About Cara, or Erin. Whatever her name is.”
I look past her and out the window. “Lance found out about the piano and knew we’d have to do something. I was freaked out about Marcus and hadn’t heard from Vinny. I knew I needed to go to work, but Elliot and Charlie would have known something was up, and I couldn’t have them finding out. Charlie wouldn’t have been able to live with it.”
“I think that was your first mistake.”
I nod in agreement with her. Maybe if I told him that day things wouldn’t have gotten so bad.
“Cara took the piano. She was smart, and she took something she knew I treasured and made sure I couldn’t find it.”
“The studio. You didn’t know it was there.”
“No, not until that day I came to you.” I give her my eyes, pleading with her to believe me. “Vinny looked into Cara. We found things.”
She looks off to the side, shaking her head. “Do you realise how disgustingly toxic it is that you prey into the lives of other people, Mason?”
She takes a deep breath in, and I can see how conflicted she is.
Wetting my lips, I continue, needing to get my side of the story across. “She has multiple stolen identities. Vinny found a paper trail that allowed us to track her down. She blackmails men. Rich men specifically, using different identities to keep herself covered. Thousands of pounds stolen over the past seven years.”
“What?!”
“She would have done it to me, too, if it wasn’t for Lance. He threatened to expose her. We had more money between us and more connections. She didn’t have a choice but to listen. We sold her businesses, her home.” I swallow thickly, knowing how this all sounds. “Then I sent her to Australia and made sure she had nothing to come back to.”
“You made her leave?”
“I needed the control, Nina. She was blinded by greed and went willing. She doesn’t have a bad life, and I couldn’t have her here.”
Her face screws up in pain, and I avert my gaze, not being able to stomach that look. “I met her in a café. She told me she had to find a tenant within three weeks. She said her mother was ill.”
