by Rye Hart
CHAPTER ONE - BELLA
I’ve seen the world through a camera lens from as early as I could remember.
I couldn’t help but be drawn toward the beauty around me. For whatever reason, I felt the need to document it in a timeless photograph that could speak to others, and maybe even spark a moment of serenity in their hearts.
Yes, it all sounds very artsy-fartsy, even hippie-ish . But I couldn’t help myself. I was who I was.
My mother saw it in me before I did. Even with pressure from well-meaning teachers, attempting to dissuade me from what they saw as a simple hobby, Mom always told me to screw what they thought and go after what was in my heart.
“Bella, you have a fire in you,” she’d told me at a young age. “You don’t realize it now, but you will change the lives of others with your talents. Promise me and, more importantly, promise yourself that you’ll always go after your dreams, no matter how hard the journey.”
Yep, she was pretty much the best mom on earth.
And now the best mom in heaven.
She’d done a damn good job raising me all on her own, and I hoped and prayed that someday when I had my own children, I could be half the mom she was.
May her precious heart rest in peace.
Fast forward to present day, and I’m nowhere near where I’d imagined I’d be at my age. On paper one would think I was nuts for even complaining about my situation.
Engaged to a good, beautiful wealthy man.
A big princess wedding only months away.
And an even bigger rock on my left hand.
I’m not one to lack appreciation for the lavish life I was living, but I felt my confidence dwindling day by day in my fiancé Gavin’s presence. Gavin’s constant berating and trivialization of my interests had all but destroyed the passion I had left for my art.
He would never admit to it, but he essentially saw me as his trophy wife. In his eyes, my job was to sit quietly and look pretty. He didn’t mind me having a side hobby or two, but he didn’t like the idea of me pursing my dream of becoming a widely influential artist. He knew how much it would take, and that simply didn’t align well with his plan for life.
He did everything he could to diminish the flames that sparked inside of me. Now, as I look at myself in the mirror, I can barely recognize the girl I once knew. It was the thought of losing that last bit of fire that scared the fuck out of me.
“This place is a dump, Bella.” Gavin had curled his lip at my friend’s place for the second time that evening. The first time was when we drove up and parked outside, and now I’d hoped he’d keep his voice low enough that the other artists present wouldn’t hear. There were writers, painters, and other photographers within earshot.
A friend of mine from my photography class owned the coffee shop, so I hoped he wouldn’t throw his countless insults this direction, but that was a proving to be a major fail at this point. The truth was the coffee shop was one of the best and busiest shops in the city, and the patrons had all built such a camaraderie that they were like a small family. It would take a complete asshole not to appreciate the charm it had to offer. Today Gavin was that asshole.
Kayla finally showed, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she crossed the room. My best friend would be just the lift I needed.
“This is awesome! I’m sure you’ve already sold a ton of copies of the journal, right?” she asked enthusiastically.
“She’s signed five and two of those were for the same woman. She has only sold one print.” Gavin smirked.
Why am I with this dickhead anyway? I asked myself.
“She bought the books for her daughters,” I said, in attempt to sway the direction of the conversation back to something positive.
I smiled remembering the older woman who had seemed way out of her element. She had come across town to buy copies of my photography collection for her daughters, who were avid readers. Both had enjoyed my collections in the past and owned a few prints, so she’d wanted to surprise them.
My book was a passion project. I wanted to do something different and had one of my earlier collections made into a journal that told stories from my childhood with my mother. I had thought about it since her death and finally made the dream into a reality. It meant a lot to me that others would now get to see it.
“I still think giving away too many of your images in one sale is a bad idea. Even if it is one collection.” Gavin had failed to see many of my ideas as practical, and he measured success solely on money.
“I think the journals were a really cool way to showcase those older pieces. It’s a gorgeous book, and it’s not like it’s your entire collection,” Kayla said, rolling her eyes at Gavin. She was always the positive influence in my life. I thanked my lucky stars for her, because her positivity was all I had left to hold on to after my mom’s passing. Kayla, much like my mom, had the ability to see things in me that I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, see in myself.
“Frankly, it wouldn’t matter what you were trying to showcase here. It’d be lost on the tacky setting. I’d ask the owners to turn the lights up, but no telling what kind of crap the bad lighting is hiding in this place,” Gavin said.
About that time, I turned to see the owner and my friend turning to duck out in the other direction. From the looks on their faces and their body language, they’d heard every cheap shot Gavin had taken.
“How long is this thing going to last,” he sneered as I stood there with my cheeks flaming red and tears in my eyes.
Those tears were a mixture of embarrassment and the hurtful comments he’d made, and I’d finally had all I could take.
“You can leave now!” I gritted my teeth so hard that it hurt, but I knew if I didn’t keep a tight jaw I’d make a scene.
“Excuse me?” He lifted a brow and looked down his nose at me.
“You’ve done nothing but criticize and insult, and I’m sick to death of it. If you don’t like it here, then leave, but these people are my friends, and you’re being completely rude and disrespectful!” I said through clenched teeth.
Gavin went to grab my arm, but I pulled away before his fingers could get a tight grip, and I stormed away to the bathroom.
As I took my first few steps away from him, I heard Kayla tell him to let me go, and then she was on my heels. I pushed the bathroom door open so hard that I almost took out the tall blonde on the other side. I apologized and stepped around her to go to the sink and splash cold water on my face. I was two seconds from storming back out and telling him off for good.
“I’m so sick of his shit, Kayla. I swear I’m done!” I leaned against the counter by the sink, and she stood with me as a couple of girls finished drying their hands and walked out.
“Do me a favor and mean it this time, Bella. You’ve said it before, and you always give him another chance.”
She was right, and I hated that I couldn’t even argue with her about it. I had let him back into my life one too many times. I guess I was afraid of being alone.
My mother had been my whole world up until her death from a lost battle with cancer five years earlier, and though I had gotten used to life without her, I’d never been all on my own. Even through college, I’d had Kayla by my side. She was all I had in the world. Then I met Gavin and things took a turn for the worse. At first he was so charming and sweet, but I later found out that was all a façade to leer me to him. He did the worst thing a guy could do to a girl: he took full advantage of my vulnerability.
“This time I mean it,” I said firmly. “He had come along at a point in my life where I was weak and vulnerable, and I let him in. But I haven’t been happy with Gavin for a long time, and I need to move the fuck on. Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll lose myself in him. I took care of Mom while she had cancer; I buried my head in my books after she died; and then I became Gavin’s showpiece. I need to focus on me for a while. I’m calling off the wedding. Is that completely selfish?” I asked Kayla, knowing she would tell me the truth no matter what
.
“No, you should do what’s right for yourself first. I’ve always told you that. You have so much incredible talent, and he’s smothering you.”
She was right again. Creativity was my driving nature, and he’d done all he could to insult me and belittle my skills.
“I should have never moved in with him; he’s not going to make leaving easy. He’s spent so much money on the wedding venue and everything else. I hope it’s still early enough for him to get refunds, but I know I can’t go through with it. He doesn’t even want children.”
“You mean you got him to have the children talk?” Kayla’s eyes lit with surprise.
“Yeah, and the reason he never wanted to talk to me about it was he knew I wanted a child, that I had even considered having a baby all by myself after mother’s death, but then I’d met him.”
It had been a half-baked idea, but I had always known I wanted children and thought maybe a baby would fill the void my mom’s death had left. I figured she’d done it on her own, why couldn’t I? I’ve always adored children. Maybe it had something to do with me being an only child growing up and having memories of begging my mother to have more babies. Who knows.
“Aren’t you thankful you didn’t do that?” Kayla let out a long breath and stared at the ceiling. She’d been against me looking into the single-mom life, and she was only looking out for what she thought was my best interest. It wasn’t the right time for me to become a mother, but I couldn’t wait for the day to finally come.
“Yeah, and I’m glad I didn’t go out and get a pet like you recommended.” She’d tried to get me to get a puppy. Instead, I’d changed jobs from working at a probations office to working for a company that did estate sale auctions. It was a little less money, but a hell of a lot more interesting. Gavin had hated that decision too.
“Big difference.” She looked in the mirror and smoothed her hair.
“I think I’m at the point in my life where I just want time to myself,” I said.
“Well, don’t become a nun either. We can go out and just have fun together. I’ll introduce you to some hot singles.” She grinned and winked at me in the mirror. “It’s been a while since you’ve had a real man in your life, Bella. Now’s the time.”
“I’m going to take a month, get my things in order, save up some money, and then I’m out. I’ll need that much time to find a new place anyway,” I told her.
“Good. I can’t tell you how excited I am for you. And don’t forget I leave in a month to go see Rick, so I won’t be around to help you move.”
“You’re going to meet him?” My mouth hung slack, and my internal warning bells started going off. I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.
“Yes, I know you think it’s crazy, but I video chat with him daily, so it’s like we’ve already met. I know all about him, and he’s amazing. It’s not like there will be any surprises.” She put her finger to her mouth and bit her long nail. “I’ve got an idea. Instead of you sticking around here, why not pack your things, move them to my house for a while, and then you can come with me when I go to meet Rick. He has tons of friends, and I’m sure he won’t mind you coming along. I talk about you all the damn time anyway; he practically knows you! We’re going to the rodeo in Dallas. Maybe you’ll meet a handsome cowboy who will whisk you away.”
I looked in the mirror and caught the redness around my light hazel eyes, and then I smoothed out my wavy brown hair and stood up tall. I looked how I felt inside, like a damn mess, but I considered her offer.
Work would be no problem since I could pretty much make my own schedule. I was due two weeks off and had saved up some time for an extended honeymoon, which I clearly wouldn’t be needing now.
It would be nice to have a place to go. It would give me the space I’d need and enough time that Gavin wouldn’t have a chance to come around trying to beg me back like all the other times he’d been an asshole. Not that it would change my mind this time. I had drawn a line in the sand and my decision was final. I felt liberated by the thought of it, and I was finally excited about what the future had in store.
With all that said, I was also scared shitless about the unknown.
Fuck it. We only live once.
“Sounds good. Count me in.”
I took a deep breath as Kayla squealed and hugged me.
CHAPTER TWO - REED
I’d been waiting in my lawyer’s office for over twenty minutes before he came into the room. His wrinkled suit looked as if he’d slept in it the night before, and he fidgeted with his tie and tucked his shirt in his pants a bit before taking a seat. He offered me his hand, but seeing that it had been down his pants moments before, I simply curled my lip and jumped right into business.
“Let’s get down to it. I’ve got a meeting after I leave here.” He didn’t need to know that my meeting was with my best friend and that it was to talk about our plans to go out to the rodeo. We’d had the same yearly event planned since we were kids and hadn’t missed a year yet, not even when my father had died when I was twenty-two. The old man would have done the same if it were one of his lavish weekend destinations with his wealthy big-boy crew. The rotten apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Yes, well, I’m afraid you won’t be pleased, Mr. Harrington.” He flipped through a file that had my name, along with my father’s, marked on it, and breathed through his mouth making an annoying sound.
“You said you found something. Does that mean you overlooked something in the past?” I’d tried to wrap my head around how they could have missed something that seemed so cut and dry, not to mention important. I’d waited years for my thirtieth birthday, the day I’d inherit my father’s fortune, the day I’d no longer have to deal with my uncle, to whom my father had left the company.
It was finally time for me to inherit my billions and figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, out from under my father’s shadow.
“It seems there was an oversight,” the lawyer said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He cleared his throat nervously and continued. “I’m afraid that to gain your inheritance, you must produce an heir by your thirtieth birthday.”
I blinked a few times, my stern expression still on my face otherwise. “An heir? As in a child?”
“Yes, that’s what it states. Your father was concerned about your lifestyle and hoped that you would settle down and start a family.”
I was stunned, and the fact that my father, who’d been a total womanizer who’d all but driven my mother to her death, would give a shit about family life was fucking laughable.
“I turn thirty in eleven months. The last time I checked, babies take at least nine months to be born. So how the hell am I supposed to make this happen with what time you’ve left me?”
The lout dared to giggle. “I’d suggest you get on it, and by getting on it, I think you know what I mean. Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Harrington. I’m sure there are many women who would love to carry your child.”
“That’s not really an option. I don’t want to have kids right now. I’ve never even considered marriage, much less a child.” I had to consider my inheritance, though. If I couldn’t get over my hang up about having a kid, it could cost me a fortune. My entire inheritance was well over $2 billion, and I couldn’t let anything get in the way of that. I had to figure something out, and quickly.
“I’m sorry, but the stipulations are very clear, and I’ve already looked to see if there was any way around it.”
“You’re sure there are no loopholes?” My hands wrung together in my lap, and I cracked my knuckles, itching to punch something.
“No, I’ve anticipated every possibility, and you’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. I’m sorry that there isn’t more time.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid that sorry doesn’t help much. If you’d done your damn job in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this mess right now, would I?” I stood and stormed out of his office, slamming his door behind me
so hard that his secretary wilted behind her desk. I had to try and wrap my head around this and fast. Time was not on my side. I’d spent the past five years sowing my oats, but I was sure I’d always been careful. I couldn’t be too careful with my fortune, and I’d never taken the chance of letting a woman trap me. Now I had to go out and spring my own goddamn trap.
Even in the grave, the old man screws me over! Fuck!
I got in my car and headed out across town to Rick’s. Once I arrived, I swiped through my contacts and checked out what kind of women I had available and willing to have a kid with me. None were the type who’d I’d want to be linked up with for any length of time, much less the rest of my damn life. They were all shallow and brain dead, as I’d only chosen them for a quick lay and not a lasting relationship.
“What are you doing here so early?” I looked up to see that Rick was standing on the other side of the window with a lifted brow and a big smile.
I lowered the window and cut the engine. “I’m screwed. I seriously don’t know what I’m going to do.” The man knew me better than I knew myself, so I couldn’t hide what was going on from him.
“Damn, the meeting with the lawyer was that ugly? What did he tell you? You’re only getting one billion instead of two?” Rick, who came from old money himself and had inherited his grandfather’s ranch, had always teased me about my level of wealth. His own was in the millions, but my family’s work in the oil industry had put us at billionaire status years ago.
