It couldn’t be so simple. Right? Get talkative Sydney to give us the details? I’d been ignoring my feelings for Oliver for days now, but as he stood there wooing the person who held the answer to my question, I was grateful… and something more.
“I didn’t speak to her myself,” Oliver said. “But she sounds dreadful. And Mari here was just trying to help her fiancé. You may have heard of him, Pierce Kensington?”
“She’s the fiancée?” she said emphasizing the word fiancée and pointedly not looking at me while she said it, even though I was standing inches from the both of them.
Oliver nodded. “She was trying to make sure Pierce’s accounts were in line and that he paid for Mrs. Jorgson this month. But Hazel wouldn’t give her any information.”
“That sounds like Hazel,” she said to me directly that time. And then without another question, she began pounding on the keys at the computer in front of her. “Yeah, auto paid on the fifteenth, every month.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
She dropped one eyebrow low and then the printer beside her started. “Yes, here take the receipt.”
I scanned over the piece of paper she handed me, noticing the dollar amount at the bottom, and folded it up to stick in my purse. Pierce was definitely in the clear.
Melissa not so much.
“Thank you,” I said, giving Oliver a quick nod and letting him know I was satisfied.
Deep down I always believed Pierce paid the bills. He had nothing to gain from lying, whereas Melissa did, but my heart still broke a fraction with the news. From what I’d seen, Pierce was continuously giving back to the city, and people were always looking for a way he messed up. That, or they wanted to use his money.
The reasons he stuck around didn’t make sense.
Oliver held the door open for me again as we walked out back into the sunshine. “Now do you believe Pierce?”
“I always believed him. I just wanted proof,” I said as he led the way to the car and held my door open.
He didn’t have to be so smug about his cousin’s innocence. I’d gotten used to being wrong in life—something I hated when I lived in San Francisco. I’d been humbled more than once before and this time wouldn’t be any different.
21
Oliver
The early afternoon sun shone through the large expansive windows in Pierce’s kitchen and breakfast nook where Mari liked to have her breakfast glass of orange juice. I never partook in in the event, but I noticed from afar. It seemed to be the one time of day she and Pierce had a moment to talk, and I never wanted to interrupt their time.
It may have been because I was a good man and wanted my cousin to spend time with his fake fiancée, but more than likely I worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my emotions in check that day if I was around the two of them too long. What would Pierce do once he figured out I had feelings for Mari?
My stomach twisted as my eyes scanned the small space and then stepped to the window and looked out at the pool, finding it empty. Mari was not on the first floor of the Kensington estate.
I tried to live a good life—a quiet one where I didn’t search out material things. I may have grown up as a Kensington, but our family had been distinct and set away from the same lifestyle Pierce enjoyed as a child. I spent time with him on occasion, but my everyday home was filled with loving parents set in only upper middle-class privilege. We were practically poor in the eyes of Pierce and his family.
Most of my wealth hadn’t come until the passing of our grandfather, and even then my father made sure much of the money was in stocks and other portfolio investments. My branch of the Kensington line wasn’t concerned with world domination, more self-fulfillment.
In ways it made it better and in others worse. I tried to give back as often as I could. I searched for ways to use the money not be for my enjoyment, but to improve someone else’s life. It was my personal way of guaranteeing I never fell down the dark paths others in my position had fallen to when gobs of money came into play and changed their lives.
I loved Pierce as a brother. He’d grown into one of the best men I knew. Pierce wanted to do the best for the city and the people he lived with. And even though I saw his finer sides, I also recognized that sometimes those good deeds came with a price. Pierce believed he knew what was best for everyone and had the money and the means to make everyone agree with him. He’d gotten better with age, but it was still obvious Pierce tried to move all the chess pieces on his gameboard by himself.
And sometimes life just didn’t work out the way you expected.
I planned to spend my years on the solar energy project and helping developing countries in Africa, but Mari was an unexpected detour. Per my original estimates I’d already be halfway on my journey back to Africa, but now I was looking for excuses to stay. For six months.
When he told me his fake fiancée plan, I thought the woman would never agree. I planned to come and laugh at his failed attempt. The only woman who would agree to something as crazy as Pierce promised had to be a gold digger. Imagine my surprise to find Mari not what I expected. She didn’t agree to Pierce’s fake fiancée plan for herself, but for others. She was selfless.
I had the monetary means to do whatever I wanted, but Mari lost access to her family money and was now making a sacrifice of her own life to help those in need. It was an unconventional fundraising method, but I didn’t fault her for the bravery it took to accept Pierce’s offer.
I’d been at war with myself over the situation and finally that morning my emotions bubbled to the surface waiting to pop. This couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t take it another second. I needed to know how Mari felt, not only about me, but Pierce.
With a sigh I left the view across the pool and turned to head back into the house. A better man would have laughed at that moment. I should walk in the opposite direction, into the garage, take my car, and drive away for the entire afternoon. Give myself time to think and rationally decide on what I want to do next. A decent man would have stayed away—a day, week, however long it took to rid myself of the incessant thoughts of Mari.
