Southern Secrets

by Madison, Natasha

  "Holy fuck," he says and then looks at me. "Did you read this?" He holds up the paper, and I just shake my head.

  “It was all a blur. There was the DNA proof and all that, and I didn’t really look at that one. Why?"

  "Because according to this paper." He reads it. "You are rightfully heir to his money as soon as you turn thirty." I look at him, confused. "Liam’s allowance will be stopped as soon as you turn thirty."

  "Oh my God," Jacob says, looking at the paper.

  "And if you are not around to collect it," he continues, "Liam’s allowance will continue as usual."

  "What about Ethan?" I ask, looking at him, hoping he doesn’t feel left out.

  "Ethan gets control after Liam dies." He laughs. "Apparently, I’ve got my inheritances, which is the mayor’s office." He shakes his head. "What a fucking idiot." He continues to read the paper "You’re loaded," Beau says. "Really loaded." He flips over the papers.

  "We need to make sure that nothing happens to these papers," Jacob says, and Beau puts the papers on the desk and takes pictures of them and then emails them to Casey.

  Who calls him right away. "What is this?" he asks.

  "That is the whole reason Liam is trying to get rid of Asher," Beau says and fills him in.

  "I’m going to send this to my lawyer and make sure it’s filed with the court," Casey says. "He’s going to make sure that everything is put into place."

  I sit at the table, not knowing what the hell is going on. My head spins around and around. "I don’t understand any of this," I admit, and Beau smiles.

  "For once, the good guy is going to win," he says, turning his attention back to the phone.

  "I had everything I ever wanted or needed," I admit. "I had a woman who I loved with everything I had and who loved me back." I shake my head, the pain of not seeing her today too much to bear. "I had a job I loved. I was finally fucking happy. The money meant fucking nothing to me."

  "And then it’s ripped away from you, and all you can do is watch it slip away," Ethan says, his hand going to my arm. "You are going to get her back," he says, but even I know how Amelia is. I know how stuck in her ways she is. If she has written me off, I’m written off, and nothing anyone can say or do will change her mind.

  "If Liam is looking for me," I say. "I won’t stay here and wait for him like a sitting duck." I swallow, knowing what I have to do. "I have to leave and go as far away from you guys as I can go."

  "Or," Ethan says, looking at Jacob. "We lead him to us."

  Here, in the middle of a bank, the four of us put together a plan that I can either walk out alive or walk out dead.

  Chapter 32

  Amelia

  I open my eyes and look over, seeing the bed empty. The pain in my chest comes right away as I turn away from what was his spot. The tear runs down my face, no matter how much I fight it. I finally sent everyone home last night. It’s been three days of everyone hovering around me, and I needed space.

  I flip the covers off me and get up, my body aching. Grabbing my robe, I walk out to the coffee maker. Looking outside, I find the sky starting to turn a little gray with the sun coming up. It’s been three days since I’ve seen him. It’s been three days since I felt his touch. It’s been three days since I could breathe without feeling like something was lodged in my chest.

  When it’s the quietest is when it’s the worst. It’s when my mind has time to wander. It’s when my mind plays games with me and makes me remember the little things. When he used to kiss me right behind my ear and say I love you. When he used to bring me coffee in the morning. When he would make me feel like I’ve never felt before. It’s all there, no matter how much I try to put it in a box and lock it. I pour the black coffee into the mug and turn to drink it in the kitchen. Even my house isn’t a sacred place anymore. Every single corner has a memory of him. I blink away the stinging of the tears that threaten to come.

  The soft knock on the door makes me shake my head. I walk over, wondering which family member could be here so early. I don’t even check, and when I open the door, my body tenses up while my heart starts to beat for the first time in three days without pain. "Asher." His name falls off my lips in a whisper.

  "I know you don’t want me here," he says, and I take a second while he is talking to look at him. He is wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, nothing he hasn’t worn before, but it feels like home to me. His eyes are red, and it looks like he hasn’t slept in three days. His face is covered with a beard, and his brown eyes have no shine in them. No light. "I just need five minutes of your time, and then I’ll be gone.” He looks at me, and my hand doesn’t move from the door handle as I grip it with everything in me to stay in place. "I’m leaving town," he says the three words that I was hoping to hear, yet make the pain in my chest feel like someone is setting my body on fire. It’s a pain I’ve never felt before. A pain that goes deep to your bones. "I tried to stay, and I made reasons for staying, but it’s just too much," he says, his voice almost breaking as he looks down and sniffles. "Not being able to be with you or see you. I just … there is no reason for me to stay." My tongue feels like it’s a hundred pounds. "But I wanted to let you know that what happened between us was nothing that I planned. Falling in love with you."

  "Was a lie,” I finally say, and if he didn’t look like he was in pain before, I know my words cut him.

  "Nothing about how I felt for you was a lie. Nothing about what we shared was a lie." He shakes his head. "What I felt for you was the most real thing I’ve ever felt. What I felt for you …" His eyes fill with tears, and a smile fills his face. "What I felt for you will never go away. It will stay with me until the day I die. You, Amelia McIntyre, will forever be the love of my life." My hands shake. "I hope you find someone who can give you everything you deserve," he says, turning and walking down the steps. He turns back one last time. "I love you, Amelia." The tears run down his face. "Until my last dying breath, I’ll love you." He takes one last look at me and turns around to walk back to his truck.

  My feet don’t move from the spot even after the red lights from his truck disappear in the distance. The tears continue rolling down my face, one after another. When my hand finally lets go of the door handle, I shut the door softly.

  The shower helps wash away the tears, and when I walk into the barn forty-five minutes later, my grandfather is there waiting for me. I look at him, shocked when he walks over to me. "What are you doing here?" I ask.

  "Was wondering if you had time to take a ride with your grandfather," he says, and I see that my horse is there and saddled already. "Figured you needed to clear your head."

  I swallow, nodding, and walk to my horse with his arms around my shoulders. I put my foot in the stirrup and push myself up. We ride side by side down the path he used to take me when I was a little girl. "I remember when I used to take you down this path." My grandfather starts talking. "And you wouldn’t stop talking. You would talk about the air and the trees." I smile at him. "It was the part I enjoyed most," he says softly. "So what’s on your mind?" he asks, and when I look over at him, I can’t help but cry. "Might as well get it all out."

  "Nothing really," I say as he stops our horses when we get closer to the creek. He gets off his horse, and I follow, getting off mine. He grabs the reins to both horses and leads them to the water.

  "Let’s go sit down," he says, pointing at the rock where I used to sit on when I was younger. I sit down and look over at the tree where my parents engraved their name. He sits next to me as we watch the creek move along. "When I found out that you and Tex were a couple,” he starts, and I look at him shocked. "You think I didn’t know." He shakes his head. "I knew about it. I also knew there was something about him that I didn’t like."

  "Well, you should have shared the information with me," I say, and he laughs.

  "Would you have listened?" he asks, and it’s my turn to laugh. "Exactly.

  "Life is all about mistakes," he says, and I bring my legs up
and hug them to my chest. I put my head on my knees as I watch him talk. "Everyone makes them."

  "He lied to me, Grandpa," I say, the tears are running down and soaking through my pants.

  "Did he?" he asks, and I huff out. "He isn’t Tex."

  My mouth opens. "It’s the same thing," I point out. "Omitting to tell me who he was is just as bad as Tex showing up at my birthday party with his wife. Even when I say the words, I know it’s not the same. I know deep down it’s not the same, but the fact that he hid it from me. The fact that he wasn’t truthful. That he lied about who he was."

  "Did you ever think about how he must feel?" he asks. "Knowing that you have a family out there after being alone all your life. Knowing that your father just left your mother and you like you were trash."

  "He isn’t trash," I finally say. "He’s …" My voice trails off.

  "Your father lied to your mother," he says, and my head comes up. "All those years ago, he lied to her about being Ethan’s father." My mouth opens, and he holds up his hand. "He’s Ethan’s father, there is no mistake about it, just as I’m Ethan’s grandfather and I would fight anyone who says otherwise. I love him just as much as I love all of you." He smiles and puts his big hand on my cheek. "But your father made a mistake and lied. What if your mother never forgave him?” He tilts his head, and I see the side of his eyes crinkle when he smiles. "I don’t even want to think of it."

  "Me either,” I answer him right away.

  "A man steps up when he’s wrong and admits that he fucked up," he says, and I laugh because he curses so infrequently. "He messed up, honey, and he knows it."

  "I don’t know if I can forgive him." The truth comes out. "What if I say I do, and I throw it in his face?"

  He throws his head back. "You know damn straight you are going to do that regardless. Your grandmother still throws things I did to her when I was seventeen." He looks down. "Can you imagine your life without him?" I don’t answer him. "All you have to think about is how will you feel knowing someone out there will be holding his hand?" The thought makes me sick. "How will you feel knowing someone else is going to love him? If that doesn’t bother you, then let him go." I put my chin on my knees and look at the creek.

  Neither of us says anything when we hear a blaring sound of an alarm filling the forest. My grandfather's phone rings and so does mine. "Someone has broken into the utility barn," my grandfather says.

  And at the exact same time, I yell out, "Asher!”

  Chapter 33

  Asher

  I pull into the barn parking lot and let out the biggest sigh. I wrap my arms around the steering wheel and place my head on it. Walking away from her for the second time destroyed me. I didn’t think I could do it. I wanted to beg and plead for her to take me back. I wanted to promise never to lie to her again. I wanted to do all of that, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew I couldn’t drag her into this mess with Liam. Until we know where he is, I am staying clear of her.

  Pushing off, I head toward the barn. It’s where I’ve been staying the past couple of days. Beau fought with me and so did Jacob and Ethan, but I couldn’t take them up on their offer. I also didn’t want Amelia to feel like they chose me over her.

  I open the door to step into the barn, turning to turn the alarm off. I stop dead in my tracks when I see the alarm is already off. I turn around, looking into the dark barn, and the only light is coming in from the open door. "Hello?" I say, flipping the switch and seeing that none of the lights turn on. I take two steps into the barn, and I know someone is here. "Hello?" I call out again and walk a couple of steps in. The light from the top window gives a little light in the middle of the barn. Bales of hay are all around me. I stand in the middle of the room, looking in each corner, when I see a shadow on the right. I watch him walk toward me, the hair on the back of my neck sticks up when I see him finally in the light. "Who are you?" I ask the man who stands there wearing a linen suit. His black hair pushed back with the front strands falling onto his forehead.

  "Well, well, well," he says once he’s close enough. "If it isn’t the son I never knew about," he says. I feel physically ill when he gets close enough, and I smell the aftershave he wears. "Got to say …" He shakes his head. "I did good with you."

  "I am not your son," I say, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

  He laughs, and everything from my blood to my bones goes cold. "With that attitude, you definitely are my son." I stand where I am, hoping I’m not here alone. Hoping someone is out there with me. "Your mother …" he starts. "I met her when I was on my way home." He looks up and puts his hands on his hips. "She was so hard to get into bed." I want to throat punch him, but instead, I let him talk. "But when I did, fuck, did she light up."

  I swallow the bile that comes up my throat. "I would come home and go back for her. That is how good she was. When she told me she was pregnant, I laughed at her. Like I would take her word that I was the father. From what I saw, she gave it away to everyone." He shakes his head. "She wasn’t stupid, that is for sure. One night, the bitch followed me home. She rang my doorbell and pounded on the door, ranting and yelling that she was pregnant with my child. My mother took her in, and the next morning, my father dropped her off. She took five thousand dollars from them and told them she would get rid of you." He shakes his head.

  "Guess she lied about that," I say. "I’m standing right in front of you."

  "I should have made sure she went to the doctor. But by then, I was working my way into Savannah’s bed." He mentions Ethan’s mother.

  "Your father paid off that situation also, didn’t he?" I look at him.

  "My father was always so fucking charitable." The tone coming out of him is as if his father was so stupid.

  "Not that charitable." I finally find the words. "Considering that in a month, I’ll be getting all of his money, and you’ll be stuck with nothing." The color leaves his face. I clap my hands and laugh. "Imagine that, the son of a bitch is getting everything." I take a step toward him. "And you are getting nothing," I hiss.

  "That fucking money is mine!" he roars out. "It’s all mine. It was me who had to swallow all the shit he threw at me. I had to swallow my tongue every fucking time just to please him. Even when he fucked my wife," he says between clenched teeth. "But no more. I am not going to take anything anymore. And I’m not going to have you step between me and what I deserve."

  "Is that why you burned down the barn?" I ask, and his eyes shine as if he is proud of it.

  "You aren’t as stupid as I thought you were," he says, a smile filling his face. "Burning the barn was for two reasons. One was a warning for you to leave." He smirks. "Two was because I could."

  "What were you going to achieve by burning down the barn?" I ask him. "It wasn’t even mine. I wasn’t even there."

  "Exactly, but you’re here," he says. "I knew the minute I told that fine piece of ass that I was in town, you would be out on your ass and no one would be protecting you." He sneers at me. "I thought for sure when I hired that fucker to knock her out, you would have left. But did you leave? No, not my son. Why do I have to have sons who protect their women?" I lunge forward, surprising him, and grab the collar of his jacket, yanking him to me so his face is right in front of mine.

  “If you fucking touch her,” I hiss in his face, my nose almost touching his, "I’ll kill you with my bare hands."

  "Asher." I hear Jacob walk into the barn taking in the scene. "Don’t do it."

  "Oh, look who it is," Liam says, and I let him go. He steps back, smoothing down the front of his jacket. "The other shmuck who got stuck raising my kid."

  "You’re a fucking waste," I say. "Your father was right about you." I look at him. "What was it that he put in the letter he gave me?” I take a second to remember it. "You’re pathetic and a swine, nothing like a real man should be." I know the words hit right in the chest. "Nothing like he was. Nothing like he raised you to be. Instead, you were the pussy of the family." I shake my head. "Did you ge
t it?"

  "Yeah." Jacob nods his head.

  "Get what?" Liam asks, his hair falling more and more in his face.

  "Your confession," I say. "You were so eager to tell me how you planned to fuck me over." I shake my head. "Forget that you were stupid enough to light the match to burn down the barn and then smoke a cigarette, leaving your DNA at the scene." I laugh at how pathetic he is. "And the fact we found the money wire from you to the man you hired to take out Amelia. The fact that you cut the wires to the alarm system at this barn. Oh, and let’s not forget the motel room you’ve been renting out for the last month." He looks like he’s seen a ghost. "Little did you know that we’ve been on to you for the last three days. You see what you did wrong there, dear old Dad?" I say. "You showed your hand too soon. Thought your three of a kind would win. What you didn’t know was I had the full fucking house." I open my arms to my sides and laugh at him. "You did all that, and in the end, I. Still. Fucking. Win." I look him straight in the eye when I say the next line, the sound of sirens off in the distance. "And. You. Fucking. Lose." He reaches behind his back, and I see the gun come out as he aims it at me.

  "Asher!" I hear yelled right before the sound of the shot rings out.

  Chapter 34

  Amelia

  The ride back to the barn takes forever, or at least I think it takes forever. The sound of sirens off in the distance makes my whole body go stiff. "Leave the horse." Willow rushes out of the barn when we get back. "And go. Quinn is already on his way there, and we are locking down the barn," she says, and I look over to see all the other workers starting to close everything down.

  I get off my horse. My grandfather is already five steps ahead of me, running to my car. He starts the car when the phone rings in his hand. "You’re on speakerphone. I’m on my way," he says right away.