by Maya Hughes
I splashed water on my face and stared into the mirror. Rhys had trusted me with the knowledge he knew could explode his life. I wouldn’t take that for granted. Drying my hands, I ran my fingers across my lips. The flutters in my stomach crowded out the knots of fear. We could make it through this. I opened the door and smiled at Rhys standing by the window with his hands shoved in his pockets, staring out over the city. Derek walked into the office and refused to look at me.
“You’re going to want to see this, boss,” he said, handing a tablet to Rhys, along with a stack of papers. I crossed the floor to him. He glanced at it before scrolling across it and dropping it onto the desk. The energy in the room shifted. What the hell was on the tablet?
“You took money from Killian?” Rhys growled, glaring at me.
“No. No, I didn’t,” I said, trying to piece together what was happening.
“Then what do you call this?” He held the tablet up and right there, on the screen in living color was my bank account. Extra zeroes and all.
My heart stopped. How did he know? How the hell had he gotten into my bank account? I’d been trying my best to figure out where the money came from and the bank had been beyond useless, but now it all fell into place. I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening.
“I didn’t, Rhys. I swear to you I didn’t. The money just showed up in my account.”
“When?”
“Today. It completely slipped my mind with everything going on. I didn’t even know it was him. I told the bank to find out who put the money in there,” I said, hoping he would believe me. I should have told him, but with everything going on, there wasn’t time. I figured the bank would figure it out, take the money back and case closed. I didn’t plan on spending it, so I just pretended like it wasn’t there.
“Are you sure it wasn’t for services rendered? First Rachel, then you. I’ve been so blind. Stupid to fall for your tricks. You must have all had a good laugh at how fucking stupid I am.”
“Rhys, it isn’t like that. I haven’t met Killian except for that one time at the gala. That’s it. I don’t know why he gave me the money.”
“Maybe to help him make the case for why they should take Esme? Get as much insider information as he needed to destroy me and take her away. But I’m not going to let you take her.”
31
Rhys
When Derek showed me the tablet I couldn’t comprehend what I saw. It didn’t make sense. Why would she have had this kind of money deposited into her account? And then it dawned on me. She wouldn’t, not unless he got something in return. My heart pounded in my chest, like it was trying to escape. Trying to run away from what this meant. He’d have to get something substantial, but it was the folded letter that nearly sent me to my knees.
A letter from a lawyer demanding a paternity test. They had to be connected. There was no way they couldn’t be. Killian was working with Allan. My confession to her. Something she knew all along. I looked up at the woman I’d opened my heart to, the woman I’d just been inside of and saw nothing but a viper. I didn’t want to believe what I saw, but how could I doubt it. She disappeared today, Derek saw her leave. She had a mountain of cash deposited into her account and now this. A demand for me to submit to a paternity test.
Everything I’d worked for every day. To keep my little girl safe, to protect her from where she could have ended up with a dead mother and a junkie father and now it was all crashing down. It would all come out. Every single thing I’d tried to hide and it reared its ugly head and Mel was at the center of it all. I shoved the letter to her, wanting her to see the ugliness that she brought into my life.
“That was him in the park, wasn’t it? Her biological father.” she said, playing her part perfectly.
“Of course it was him. And what type of coincidence is it that you come into our lives and he shows up. Did Killian contact you and tell you to bring her out there? Did you think he’d just be able to take her?”
She shook her head and tried to speak, but I didn’t want to hear her denials.
“You were using me, just like everyone else.” I couldn’t breathe. I thought she loved me. Thought anyone could love me for who I was, not for what I could do for them or give them, just my love. It hadn’t been enough for my parents or anyone else I knew. I thought she was different.
“Rhys, I’m not lying. I’d never lie to you about something like this. I…I love you. I love Esme,” she said, tears in her eyes. Love. I rolled that around in my mind. I thought I loved her. I’d been so ready that I put my daughter at risk. The one person who loved me more than anything. It was my fault. I let her in.
I had enough to deal with. Enough to handle. Enough to protect and I wasn’t going to be pulled in even deeper into her web. I’d finally let myself feel. Let myself get comfortable that she was mine, finally mine, and now she would rip all that away from me. Help them take my little girl.
“You played me.” The veins in my neck throbbed and I hung on by a thread.
“I haven’t. I wouldn’t. Why would I do that?”
“Because of the payday Killian promised you.” Was she screwing him too? Like Rachel? Was any of this real? My mind raced as I tried to make sense of everything.
“I would never. I’ve only met him once. I haven’t had anything to do with him.”
“Get out,” I roared. She jumped and blanched under my glare. Good. I gritted my teeth. She’d lied. She wasn’t mine at all. She was like every other user who’d ever danced their way into my life. But this time I’d extended the invitation. I let her do this to me. Her lip quivered and I chained up my heart and closed my eyes. The control slid back on, like a warm, comforting coat.
“I would never do anything to put her in jeopardy. I’d die before I let anything happen to her. The fact you don’t believe that, that you don’t know that shows me that this was all. You’re doing this because you’re scared. You’re scared that what we have is something we’ve never experienced before. You don’t think I’m scared? That I don’t know which way is up around you? That the thought of losing Esme makes me want to wrap her up and run out of here with her?”
I glanced up at her. “Do you know how I knew you wanted to do that? Because the same exact thought ran through my head. The minute you said it.”
I couldn’t look at her. This was what she and Killian planned. Maybe trying to wring a bit more out of me.
“You’re going to realize you were wrong. You’re going to see how much hurt you caused because you couldn’t face the fact that I love you. That I love Esme. I would never hurt either of you, but if you can’t look past your past, like I could, then it will never work.”
I didn’t care about her pain. I couldn’t care about it. The fate of my little girl hung in the balance. I didn’t know why I thought things would be different. That she could return the love I had for her. My selfishness created this mess. She dug that knife in deep. Her scent lingered on my skin and I wanted to scrub it off.
“Leave, Mel, there’s nothing left for you to take now. You’ve taken it all.”
32
Mel
The roar in my ears disoriented me as I tried to figure out which way was up. He thought I wanted someone to take her away. That I’d let it happen. That I wanted Esme to end up with the guy from the park. I tried to speak to him, but Derek stepped between us, his arms crossed over his chest, and shook his head. Blocked. I glared at him in betrayal. I’d thought we were friends. I couldn’t even laugh at that one. He’d shut me out.
I walked out of his office, my legs unsteady. The hallway grew longer with each step. I slid my hands along the wall to keep me upright. I gasped in hungry breaths like I was clawing my way to the surface of a surging ocean.
I sat on the edge of my bed and I didn’t know what to do. Where will I go now? I had a lot of money in my account. I could start over. Build a new life for myself, but my stomach soured as I thought about leaving Rhys and Esme. I loved them. I knew that now.
I loved them more than I’d ever loved anyone and I didn’t want to leave, but there was no way to stay if he thought I’d done something so terrible.
The fact he thought I’d be working with Killian to expose his secret made me want to rage back at him. Shatter a few glasses of my own. My anger poured off me in waves. After everything we’d had together, after how much I cared for Esme, he still thought I could do something so traitorous, so vile.
Then my rage turned to the people who deserved it most. The fucking bastard wasn’t going to get away with it. I wasn’t above showing him just what happened when someone fucked with my family.
“Ma’am, you can’t go in there.” A stocky woman in her fifties chased after me. I blew right past her and pushed the solid wood door open and closed it right in her face, locking it behind me. She pounded on the door, but I didn’t give a shit. The time for being nice was over. The breakdown I’d had when I left the apartment was far from pretty. Everything was ruined. I told him I loved him and he kicked me out. He didn’t believe me. But something bigger than him and me was at stake. The life of a little girl hung in the balance.
“Mel, I certainly didn’t think I’d be seeing you so soon,” he said, his hand behind his head as he leaned back in his chair, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“What did you do?” I said through clenched teeth. My hands fisted at my sides. The appeal of punching him in his smug mouth wasn’t lost on me. No wonder Rhys went for it that night on the balcony.
“I did what I needed to do to get back what was mine,” he said, leaning forward.
“What was yours?” I said, my voice hitching. “You dragged me into this. Made him think I had anything to do with you. That I was working for you.”
“He should know what it feels like to have the people closest to him betray him.”
“I didn’t. I’d never do that to him.”
“It doesn’t matter if you did, it’s what he thinks,” he sneered. “And when he watches his fortune drain away, everyone will see him for who is really is. Maybe Rachel will see who he really is.”
“You dragged her into this too. You’re talking about the money? Who gives a shit about the money?” I couldn’t believe that with lives on the line, he cared about something so petty.
“It’s not just about the money, it’s about justice. I’m not going to let Rhys get away with his good guy routine he’s been pulling his whole life.”
“Money and justice, huh? Justice for who? For you?”
“Yes, for me and for his wife. And everyone else he’s fucked over in his life. Everyone who’s ever been mixed up with him ends up regretting it. He’s thrown around his money for so long, he doesn’t know what it’s like to deal with the consequences.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” I couldn’t believe someone so powerful could be so petty.
“He killed her,” he roared, toe-to-toe with me now. “I knew Beth, a scholarship kid like me and just like he railroaded me and everyone else at our school he railroaded her. And when she wouldn’t agree to whatever plans he had, he killed her.”
My mind swam as I tried to piece together what the hell he talked about. This story did not fit in with everything happening right now.
“What are you talking about? Were you in contact with Beth?”
“Yeah, she got in touch with me not long before she died. Said she was wrong about Rhys and needed money to run away. She was going to leave him.”
“For you?”
“No, not for me. For Allan. But she couldn’t contact him, so she got in touch with me. The three of us were from the same neighborhood growing up. She was like a sister to me.”
“Then you knew about her problems. About the drugs.” How could he think Rhys killed her? He had his issues, but he wasn’t a killer. Killian’s hand waved it away.
“She was screwed up in all that when we were in school, but she got clean. Cleaned up her life until she married. She wasn’t going to toe the line anymore. Be the good little wife he wanted and he killed her,” he said, his eyes fierce and his fists clenched. The tears in his eyes told me this wasn’t just some vendetta about money.
“She died in a rest stop bathroom of an overdose, Killian.”
“She didn’t,” he said, looking away from me, shaking his head. “She was clean. Had been for a while, she told me. But he was practically keeping her prisoner. She said he was having her followed.”
“He was having her followed because she couldn’t keep the addiction at bay. She did have a problem. She was using. She was there in that rest stop with Esme. She brought her little girl there to get high and she died.”
His head snapped back, the color draining from his face.
“What?” He stared at me like a part of his world imploded.
“I’m sorry. I can tell she meant something to you, but I saw the sealed police report, unredacted. She died of an overdose. Esme was with her. Stuck in that rest stop bathroom for hours before Derek found her.”
He staggered back and I almost felt bad for him. Almost. If I hadn’t remembered what he’d brought into our lives, upending the quiet tranquility of the life Rhys had built for his daughter.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he cover it up? Why wouldn’t he let them publish that report?”
“Esme. She’d already been through enough trauma. He didn’t want her to have to face that in the news every day of her life. To have other people bring it up and shove it in her face. He did it to protect her. All he’s ever done is protect her and now you’ve opened a Pandora’s box that’s going to destroy that little girl.”
A thumping and pounding came to the office door. I glanced over my shoulder. I didn’t have much time left. Security flung the door open and burst into the office. Three burly security guards, grabbed my arm and tried to haul me out. Killian held up his hand.
“Stop! Let her go. I’m fine,” he said to the guards, who immediately let me go. They glanced back and forth between us. “I said go,” he said through gritted teeth and the guards backed up like they were trying to escape a rattlesnake. He did seem like the type to strike out at anyone who got in his way. And then his focus was back on me.
“You’re going to ruin more than Rhys’s life with this vendetta built on lies.”
“I haven’t done anything, except try to expose the crime he committed.”
“To protect Esme!” I said, trying to control my anger. “He didn’t want it splashed all over the papers about his wife losing her battle with her addiction. He didn’t commit a crime. He tried to protect his daughter from the truth of her mother’s death. To not have it splashed all over the tabloids for her to read and know about for the rest of her life. I grew up in a shitty situation too. I’m sure being a scholarship kid at a school where Rhys went sucked, but you know what, I would never hurt a little kid because of some grudge I held against someone.”
“He had a hand in her death,” he said, the vein in his forehead protruding.
“He didn’t, Killian, he didn’t. She overdosed. She was sick and couldn’t get a handle on it. She died and he did everything he could to protect her from herself. But bringing Allan to challenge for custody? Do you know what that would do to Esme? How it would destroy her to be taken away from Rhys? Even for a day,” I said, slamming my hands against his chest. But he just stood there, completely still. My hands didn’t move him an inch.
“What did you just say?” he said slowly. And then the room shifted as I realized he didn’t know anything about that part.
“Esme isn’t Rhys’s?” he asked, the words falling slowly from his mouth. Oh fuck.
“You’re saying you didn’t call Allan to file for a paternity suit? Didn’t try to get him to go after Esme?”
“He did what?” he roared. And it looked every part his nickname. Kill.
“He served Rhys a letter demanding a paternity test. You didn’t do that?” I didn’t know if I believed him. He did have
his sights set on completely destroying the man I loved. I didn’t think somehow his conscious got to him, but the way the veins in his neck were throbbing, I wasn’t sure what the hell happened.
“No, I didn’t.” He ran his hands through his hair, his muscles bunching under his shirt, like he might burst at any moment. “Fuck,” he roared, so loud it made me jump and I’d spent a fair amount of time around temperamental men.
“What did you think was going to happen, Killian? You didn’t think that if you got your way and exacted your little revenge it would hurt his daughter? You didn’t think about it because all you cared about was the vendetta, not who was swept up in the wake of your destruction. So now, you’ve put his daughter in jeopardy and if you think he’s going to take that lying down, you’d better think again,” I said, my voice hard as steel. Rhys might not want me anymore, but I sure as hell would be whatever I could to protect Esme.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said, squeezing the back of his neck.
“How are you going to take care of it?”
“I said I’ll take care of it,” he growled. “Why do you care anyway? I’m sure from the way you stormed in here, he fired you. Told you to get out. Why try to protect him?”
“Because he’s a package deal. And I don’t know what kind of crazy shit I’d do if someone threatened to take my child from me. He might have kicked me out, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do whatever I can to protect her.”
“You care that much about a kid who isn’t even yours?”
“Yes. She might not be my blood, but I’ll do whatever I can to protect her. You better fix it because if you don’t I’ll find a way to hurt you. I might not have your money or your influence, but I swear, I will do everything in my power to end you,” I said, completely aware of how much I meant it. I didn’t care what I had to do, but if he didn’t fix this, I would make him pay.
