Well, I knew of him. I just didn’t know him well enough to know who his family was.
But I knew the name because when Mara and I started dating, she’d just turned seventeen. A few weeks later, I turned eighteen. She’d told me her dad wouldn’t like her dating someone older, so she said her friend volunteered to be our beard. Come to find out that the kid hadn’t had a clue he was being used, and I didn’t know he wasn’t aware. At least not until he showed up at her house when I was balls deep inside her.
“I can’t believe you didn’t know?”
The glee in her voice was sharp and cut like a knife. How could a human being be so evil and vindictive?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, Hayden. You were always so delusional. It matters. Why do you think Daddy tried getting you to see reason before the wedding? Why do you think he offered to pay you off? You had to realize how desperate he was when he turned my trust fund over to meyearsbefore I was supposed to gain access. All so I wouldn’t go through with the wedding. Because. It. Matters.”
My body broke out in cold chills. Those days were the worst of my life.
Until today.
I blinked slowly, trying to blot out the blight in front of me that had taken hold of my life years prior and was still killing off any small measure of happiness I could find.
“To answer your question, I realized it mattered to him. I just didn’t realize it mattered to you.”
“Hayden,” she cackled, “Did you think I truly had feelings for you? You were a means to an end. Even if I had felt something for you, it wouldn’t have worked between us. There’s too much of a societal gap. It’s bigger than the Grand Canyon.”
She laughed again, only this time it took a wicked turn—the evil showing through.
“And now you’re trying to build a bridge across an even bigger gap. Who knew you were so funny?”
She wasn’t wrong, but I for damn sure wasn’t giving her the satisfaction of knowing I agreed with her.
“Where’s Declan?” I asked.
“Oh, he’s in the shower. The rest of the family are on their way. They ran out to pick up food after their meeting. Daddy and I are having dinner with some of the family members who are here in town for something or other.”
“You’re having dinner with him and his family?”
“Well, yeah. We do it regularly. Our families are old friends. Everyone’s pushed for Declan and me to tie the knot, but I’m not ready to settle down, and well… he’s a littleold, don’t you think? Well, I guess you like that kinda thing since you married him,” she paused, tapping her finger against her chin. “I didn’t realize you had daddy issues, but it makes sense.”
I swallowed, turning to walk away, only to come face-to-face with Heidi Holt.
“Hayden, you’re early. Let me… oh, shit. This is bad. This is so, so bad. Don’t move. Let me get Declan.”
“He’s in the shower,” I murmured.
“Umm, no, when I left, he was on the phone with Uncle Matthew. Just let me grab him.”
I wanted to flee. I wanted to run as far and fast as my feet would take me, but disbelief overwhelmed me, and I couldn’t seem to move. At least not on the outside. On the inside, it was a slurry of… fucking everything.
I’d been played for a fool. Again.
Only now, the man I love, who I thought loved me, was in on it. My husband was in on it.
Declan knew Mara.
Mara knew Declan.
Jackson was Walker’s son—Declan’s cousin.
They were all in on it.
That got my feet moving. I strode off the porch into the fading sun toward my car. I had to get the fuck out of here.
