by M. Malone
How could he when all he was seeing every time he looked at her was a dead girl’s face?
Suddenly cold, she pulled back the comforters and snuggled underneath. Across the room, her cell phone sat on the desk, tempting her. Part of her wanted to call him, let him explain everything away with pretty words and kisses. She’d give anything to go back to that moment at the museum when she’d believed that they were going to take on the world together, two birds in their gilded cage. She buried her face in her pillow, trying to smother the memories. Would she ever be able to forget the way he’d looked at her tonight? In a room full of the most beautiful, sophisticated people she’d ever seen, Trent had only had eyes for her.
But then her heart broke anew as she thought that maybe he wasn’t seeing her at all.
That was the crux of their problem. At the heart of it, Mara could never be sure of what he saw when he looked at her. Was he seeing her or the ghost of the woman he really wanted? She’d given up her job, moved to a new state and had completely changed her way of life. There was almost no limit to what she was willing to do for him.
But the one thing she couldn’t do was be someone else.
* * * * *
DARKNESS GAVE WAY to light and for the first time in years, Trent was awake to experience sunrise over the city.
His cell phone chirped so he tilted it up to see the screen. It was almost out of power again. That was no surprise. He’d been on the damn thing all night. He’d called everyone Mara might contact. Dax had combed the city, looking for hotel reservations in her name. They’d checked all the public parks, and all the places he took her on their tour. Nothing. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air.
Panic clawed at the edges of his mind and he wondered if this was her intention. She wanted him to suffer not knowing where she was. If so, she’d achieved her goal.
When his phone dinged again, he looked down at the display and then answered immediately.
“Matt? Have you heard anything?”
“She’s safe. And that’s all I’m going to tell you.”
The repressed rage in his friend’s voice shouldn’t have been comforting. But clearly Matt knew where Mara was and had spoken to her or he wouldn’t be mad. When Trent had left a message, he hadn’t included that many details. Obviously Mara had filled him in herself.
“Is she okay?” How could she be okay, when her purse and money were there at the penthouse? Unless Matt had gotten her a hotel room and just wasn’t mentioning that part. He couldn’t blame his buddy. He knew that if Trent had that information, he’d use it to try to track her down.
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“No.”
Matt grunted on the other end of the line. “I warned you before this all went down not to hurt her. But in a way, I blame myself. I knew that I shouldn’t have let her talk to you. I knew that you would just spin more lies, the way you’ve been doing all along. But hear me now, stay away from her. I don’t know exactly what happened just yet but once I know she’s okay, I’ll be coming for you.”
“I never meant to hurt her. You have to believe that. Of all the things I’ve ever told you, I’ve never lied about that. I’m going crazy over here worrying about her. Please tell me if she’s coming home.”
“Like I said, she’s safe. You really don’t want to ask me any more questions right now.” There was a soft click as his friend hung up.
He set the phone down beside him. Then he picked it up and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and shattered. He clenched his fingers, wishing there was something, anything, else he could throw. He needed to hit something. Needed something to hit him back.
The elevator doors slid open and he chuckled mirthlessly. “I have to revoke everyone’s security privileges.”
“I didn’t realize I had any.”
Trent turned at the sound of his brother’s voice. Then he turned back to face the dawn. “What do you want?”
He felt his brother come closer. When he finally gathered the energy to look over again, James stood next to his chair. He looked over at the shattered remnants of Trent’s phone on the floor across the room and then back at him.
“I heard about what Avery did.”
“How long have you been carrying this around?” Trent asked.
“What? You mean wondering if Travis was mine?” James moved past him and took a seat on the couch. This close he could see that his brother didn’t look any better than he felt. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair looked like it hadn’t been combed for days. He was still wearing his tuxedo from the prior night. Trent looked down in consternation at his own clothes. He hadn’t changed either.
“It didn’t occur to me until he got a little older. He looked so much like you. And it made me think about that night.”
“I really don’t remember anything happening.” Trent clenched his fists, wanting to smash something. “But I should have taken you seriously when you first told me. I should have done a lot of things. Everything I’ve been doing for the past few years has been a mistake.”
James let out a sigh. “You’re not the only one.” He looked around the room, seeming to take stock of how quiet it was. “Your girl, she’s not here. You lost her over this, didn’t you?”
Trent didn’t answer. Then he said, “I never had her. Not really.”
* * * * *
MARA ROLLED OVER and hugged her pillow against her. Caught in the space between dreams and awake, for a moment she wasn’t sure where she was. Just that she was warm and her eyelids felt very heavy. She smiled, wondering what new adventures she and Trent would have that day.
Then she came fully awake and realized that she was in a hotel room and that her adventures with Trent were over.
She turned her head and the rest of the room came into view. Sunlight peeked around the edges of the heavy drapes. With one hand, she pushed back the comforter and with the other she massaged her throat, which was suddenly scratchy and dry. When she sat up, her head started pounding. Raiding the minibar last night probably wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had but at least it had given her a break from crying her eyes out.
What the hell was she going to do?
The time for crying was over and it was time to take action. She needed to get her stuff and go home. But she wasn’t sure she could face Trent without breaking down again. An idea occurred to her and she grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand. Before going to bed, she’d sent her brother a message and then turned it off to save the power. She turned it back on and instantly several messages showed up. All from Matt.
She dialed her brother’s number. His sleep-gruff voice answered after several rings. “Hello.”
“Hey, sorry if I woke you.”
Matt cleared his throat and when he answered her, he sounded like he’d come wide awake. “No, it’s fine. How are you?”
Guilt creeped in. She’d been so distraught the prior night that she hadn’t been thinking straight. She’d left her brother a message that she was safe and where she was but had turned her phone off before going to sleep. Knowing his overprotective streak, he’d probably been up late worried about her.
“I’m sorry. Things were so crazy yesterday and I just needed some time to get my head on straight.”
“I talked to Trent this morning. He was looking for you.”
“You didn’t tell him where I am, did you?”
“No. I don’t want him anywhere near you. I can come up there and get you. You’ll come back here and stay with me and Penny for a while. You won’t have to be alone.”
Her heart swelled with love and appreciation. She’d always had him to rely on and knowing that he was there for her made it easier to go forward with what she had to do. But she couldn’t allow him to disrupt his life anymore than he already had. Once upon a time, she’d been a bold and confident woman. She’d allowed herself to forget that but it was time to take that back.
“I don’t want you to do anything but give
Penny a hug for me. And to get me a phone number out of that file you have on Trent.”
“A phone number?” Matt sounded confused but she could tell from the rustling sounds on the phone line that he was moving; probably searching through the junk pile he called his desk to find the file.
“Yes, I need the number for Sophia Townsend Winbush. She’s Trent’s sister. There’s something I need to ask her.”
Matt read the number and she jotted it down on the pad of hotel stationery. “Thank you. I promise everything is going to be fine. I’ll call you when I’m back in town.”
Matt grunted but then said, “Will you at least let me know your flight number and when you’re arriving? Give me that much at least.”
She smiled to herself. “I’ll send it to you once I book the ticket. I love you.”
“I love you too, sis. And I’m still going to kick his ass when I see him.”
She shook her head, smiling at his grumbling as he hung up the phone. Looking down at the pad of paper she typed out Sophia’s number.
Although not the warmest soul she’d ever met, Sophia had known all along that Avery was a snake. She also seemed to want the best for her brother. It was a long shot but maybe she’d be willing to help Mara now. When she heard a clipped voice answer on the other end of the line, she launched into the whole story, not giving Sophia a chance to hang up before she understood everything.
When she finally paused, Mara took a breath. “Sophia, are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here. I can’t say that I’m surprised by any of this. This is exactly what I feared would happen.”
“You saw through Avery before I did. I should have listened to you. But I figured that you didn’t like me either so maybe you were just down on any girl that was close to your brother.”
Sophia’s sigh came over the line. “I’m sure it seems that way but I have good reason. Honestly, I have nothing against you personally, Mara. I just didn’t think it was a good thing for my brother to have a permanent reminder of what happened with Tia. When you two showed up to the gala, I thought that perhaps I’d been wrong. Trent looked so happy. I haven’t seen him look like that in years.”
“I think he was happy that day. Before Avery came and dropped her bombshell into the middle of it all.”
“What did she do now?”
Mara hesitated. She wasn’t sure that Trent wanted anyone to know about the situation. Then she decided that she didn’t care. He’d kept so many things from her, including the truth about how they’d met. Sophia was the only person in this screwed up world who had been straight with her. Despite her cold demeanor, she was at least trying to help and Mara knew she was only acting out of concern for her brother.
“She was waving around a DNA test that James had done on Travis. It was negative so James is not his father. Apparently she and Trent had too much to drink one night and …”
“Oh god. No wonder Trent looked so frantic last night.”
“After that, Avery showed me a picture of Tia. Finding out that Trent was a father wasn’t enough to drive me away so she used her final trump card.”
Sophia’s voice softened when she said, “I’m sorry. When I told you about Tia, I knew you’d go home and ask him. I figured that he’d be forced to tell you then. When you didn’t leave after that, I assumed you knew and understood.”
“He told me about her death. Not about her life. I wonder now how I could have missed that. He was very deliberate with the things he told me.”
“My brother isn’t a bad guy, Mara. He was never like this. Lying and keeping secrets. He needs to heal and move on. Seeing you everyday can’t have been helping him. He’s been isolated from his family and his real life ever since and he needs to stop that and face reality. Tia’s gone and she’s not coming back.”
“I agree. And that’s why I’m going to leave. Trent needs to figure things out and he can’t do that while I’m here. But I need your help to do it. Can you get him out of the house for a while? Ask him to meet you somewhere?”
“I can do that. I’ll have to think of a way to get him to show up but yeah, I’ll do it.” Sophia sounded shocked but happy.
Mara tried not to think about the fact that she was happy because Mara would be gone and out of Trent’s life.
“Tell him that I called you. Tell him you know where I am but that you’ll only tell him if he meets with you. That’ll give me time to go back to the penthouse and retrieve my stuff. Then I’ll be out of your hair for good.”
The thought made her want to start sobbing again so she focused on the mechanics. The only way she could go through with this was if she thought of it like a mental checklist. Bullet points that would carry her from point A to point B.
“Mara?”
“Yes?”
“I wish you all the best, I really do.”
“Thank you, Sophia. I really hope that this is for the best. For all of us.”
Chapter Nineteen
AFTER JAMES LEFT, Trent finally got up. He’d been sitting in the same chair, in the same clothes for almost twelve hours straight. He called his parents and then checked in with Dax, who still had no idea where Mara was. After a brief moment of hesitation, he called him off.
Mara was safe and didn’t want to be found. If he found her and tried to see her against her will, then it would just be one more time that he’d ignored her wishes. She would think that he was still pursuing her for the wrong reasons and that was a major point of contention between them.
She didn’t believe that he’d really fallen in love with her.
He stripped, leaving his tuxedo in the middle of the floor. In the bathroom, he scrubbed his skin roughly, anxious to get dressed and start figuring out a plan. He had to convince Mara to talk to him and then maybe they might have a chance to work things out. The longer he left her alone, the longer she’d persist in her thoughts that he didn’t really care about her. He had to explain everything.
He could not lose her over this. Not when they’d come this far.
When he stepped out of the shower, his phone was ringing. Sophia’s picture flashed across the screen. His first instinct was to ignore it. He could check in with his sister after he’d fixed things with Mara. But when she called back again, he answered. It wasn’t like Sophia to call more than once.
“Sophia, I really can’t talk right now.”
“You’ll want to talk to me. I know where Mara is.”
Trent paused in the act of pulling on a pair of jeans. “What? How do you know that? Where is she?”
“She called me. She told me what happened and asked me to let you know that she’s okay. She’s thinking about everything.”
“Where is she?” he repeated.
Sophia sighed. “I can’t tell you that. Come meet me for lunch. I need to see that you’re okay with my own eyes.”
“I don’t have time to play games, Soph. This is too important. Tell me where she is.”
“No. I need to know that you’re okay. If blackmailing you to get you here is the only way to do that, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Fuck!” He yanked a shirt over his head and then stuck his feet in the first pair of shoes he saw. “Tell me where to meet you.”
“Just come to my place. I’ll see you soon.”
It was just like Sophia to put him through some kind of test before she’d give up the information. He grabbed his wallet off the kitchen counter and stuffed it in his back pocket. As he was leaving, he nodded at Ernesto. The older man gave him a sad smile.
Great. Now he was an object of pity to everyone, from his family members to his doorman.
He hung his head and headed east toward the condo Sophia shared with her husband and two children. Like his parents, they maintained two residences, one in the city and the other in the Hamptons. He realized with a start that he didn’t even remember what Sophia’s place looked like. For so long he’d been ignoring invitations and taking every opportunity to avoid his family t
hat he had missed out on so many things.
He hadn’t gotten far when he bumped into someone. He started to move around them when a hand clamped on his forearm. He looked up in surprise.
“Avery? What are you doing here?” It seemed strange that she would just happen to run into him on the street. “Are you following me?”
“Trent. Please don’t walk away.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” He pushed past her, intent on walking on and leaving her behind. She could follow him if she wanted to. Sophia sure as hell wasn’t going to let her in.
“You can talk to me here or I’ll make a scene. All I want is for you to listen to me.” Her loud voice carried and several people walking by glanced their way.
Trent cursed under his breath and then turned back. “Fine. Come upstairs. I’m not talking about this on the street.”
They walked back in the direction of the penthouse and Trent ignored Ernesto’s shocked look as they entered the building.
Once they got upstairs, he walked to the living room, trying to keep distance between them. Avery followed, standing a few feet behind him.
“I know you don’t believe me but I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have come here after the gala. Not like that.” She reached out for him and Trent backed up a step.
“Don’t touch me. Ever again.”
Her face changed, the soft vulnerable look replaced by a manipulative, sly look he’d never seen before. How long had he been blind to her true character? Had she always been this way or was the stress of loving and hating his brother what had driven her to this level?
“It’s over, you know. She’s not going to forgive you.”
“Don’t talk to me about Mara. In fact, don’t talk to me at all.” He moved to walk past her. Avery grabbed his arm.
