Maybe someday, she thought. But for now, she liked the relationship she and Shane shared. It was rare, honest and exactly what she needed. She didn’t want her impulsive ways to ruin it, so just leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, instead.
***
Julian was stretched out in Sadie’s bed, the soft silk sheet pulled up to his waist. Through the open window, he could see the sunshine start to poke around the clouds in the early-morning sky. While Sadie hurried around the room, getting dressed and gabbing a mile-a-minute about some professor who’d given her a bad grade, he gazed idly at the ceiling. Though he gave an occasional nod or acknowledging groan to keep her satisfied, he wasn’t really listening. His mind was on the next phase of his plan, the final step. If Cameron cooperated, he’d have everything he’d ever wanted. And if she didn’t; he’d have to play even dirtier.
The thought made him moody and glum. He didn’t like always playing the bad guy, but sometimes he felt like he was left with no other choice. And the bad guy act always got him what he wanted without fail, so he resorted to it in desperate times. Besides, after what Cameron had done to him…she deserved to suffer a little.
“Are you listening?”
His expertly tuned ears picked up the signs of discontentment in Sadie’s voice and his attention automatically focused back on her. “No, I’m sorry,” he said, knowing that Sadie was too smart to buy one of his lies.
Looking concerned, she tilted her head, her hands working to put in an earring. “You barely said a word all morning. Or last night, for that matter.” Fastening one earring, she tilted her head the other direction and switched ears. “Is something wrong?”
Last night they’d been too busy doing other things to bother with talking. This morning though, he happened to need an ear, and since Sadie was offering, he decided to go for it. “I’m supposed to meet Cameron this afternoon,” he said. “To sign the divorce papers.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” she asked, taking a seat at the edge of the bed.
“Yeah.” He sat up. “Sure it is. But at the same time…” he let his words trail off to bait her. Wait for it, he thought, wait for it…
“What?” she asked.
“It’s just…” he heaved a big sigh—probably a little more exaggerated than necessary. Rubbing a hand over his face, he began to play her even more. “I don’t understand how things between Cammi and me got so bad, you know? I just wish I knew why she hates me so much.”
“Aw,” she said, tilting her head in sympathy. “I’m sure it’s not like that. People grow apart all the time.”
“Yeah, but it’s different when it happens to you.” He paused just long enough for it to seem like his emotions were taking over. “I kind of feel like…when she signs today, I’ll be losing my best friend.”
With an understanding nod, she placed her hand on the top of his to offer comfort. He flipped his hand over and squeezed her palm with his to emphasize his next words. “At least I still have you.”
She smiled, bright and beautiful. Totally buying every word. “Of course.”
“I know it must put you in an awkward position,” he admitted, trying to look like he felt guilty. “Since Cameron happens to be your best-friend’s sister. I hope it hasn’t caused any problems.”
“Chad and I had problems before you showed up,” she said. “We just always ignored them.”
“But now…” he prodded gently.
She shrugged. “We’re having a fight right now,” she said. “But we’ll get over it.”
“A fight?” he asked, reaching beside the bed to pull his jeans from a pile in the floor. “About what?”
Standing, she headed back across the room to her mirror to apply finishing touches on her make-up. “For one, he’s automatically suspicious of anyone new. He just doesn’t like change. And he cares a lot about his family. So when you suddenly show up…involved with both me and Cameron…”
“Instant enemy,” he finished, the thought turning him moody again. Now he was starting to suspect that this brother might pose a serious problem for him. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
“No,” she said, laughing lightly. “Crazy things happen, and life is about learning to roll with it. Besides, once you get that divorce, most of these problems go away.”
“That’s true.” He stood up and started to put his shirt on as he talked to her. “I should probably go. I have a few phone calls to make before this afternoon.”
“The good thing about most phones,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Is that most of them are portable.”
“You shouldn’t blow off any more classes,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. “Besides, I need to shower with something besides lavender shampoo.”
She playfully poked him in the side. “It’s aroma therapy,” she said. “You should try relaxing sometime. It’s pretty fun.”
“Maybe I will.” He gave her one more kiss, and then pulled himself from her arms. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
As he left Sadie’s apartment, Julian ran through his to-do list for the day. Whether this meeting with Cameron went well or not, he knew this would be a very big day for him. Either he’d get everything he’d ever wanted, or eventually turn himself into everything he’d ever hated.
***
Sitting in a booth at the back of a small diner, Cameron waited for Julian. He hadn’t liked that she’d insisted on meeting in a public place, but she wouldn’t budge on that one. Meeting at his hotel room was just too risky and uncomfortable given the way he’d acted last time.
A waitress came up to Cameron’s table and refilled her cup of coffee. “You sure you don’t want to order some lunch?” she asked. “We’ve got a roast beef special.”
“Thanks,” she said, spotting Julian’s car pull into the parking lot. “But I’m not hungry.”
“Let me know if you need anything else,” she replied with a smile, and headed off.
Julian entered the diner, carrying a large manila envelope. Spotting her at the back table, he joined her with a smile. “Cozy spot,” he said, placing the envelope in the seat next to him. “You look a little stressed, Cammi. How’d it go with the family after I left?”
But she only shook her head impatiently. “Did you bring the papers?”
“Yes, I did.” He turned his charismatic smile to the waitress as she approached the table again. With a discreet glance at her nametag, he said, “Afternoon, Gabby. How are you today?”
She seemed a little flustered under his gaze. “Great. What about you?”
“Just perfect. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? A day full of…possibilities.” He glanced at Cameron, his eyes lit with energy. “I’ll take an iced tea and a menu if you don’t mind.”
“Coming right up,” she said.
Julian waited until Gabby came back with the drink before he finally turned his attention to Cameron again. But instead of speaking, he only gave her a little smirk and opened the menu, taking a long look over it.
Frustrated, she reached out and grabbed the laminated paper from his hands. “Stop stalling,” she said, locking eyes with him in a warning.
He held her gaze, as if debating whether to drag this out or just get on with it. “As you wish.” Picking up the envelope, he opened it and took out a stack of papers. “Lindsay came up with an agreement for us. Of course, what I couldn’t put on paper is that if you sign, I’ll give you back that bag you’re so desperate to get your hands on.”
“A divorce and your leverage?” She glanced up at him as she took the stack of papers he held out. “What’s the catch?”
“I think you’ll find it’s a generous deal.” Reaching across the table, he took a few pages off the stack and laid them face down. He pointed to a spot on the remaining page and leaned in, lowering his voice. “With this divorce, you get a pretty hefty sum of money and I get…”
She followed his finger with her eyes and finally found the catch in his deal. “F
ull custody of Brady,” she whispered, as all the mysteries surrounding Julian’s motives clicked into place.
“Technically, your deal with Anne was never legal. Which means you’re the one who has custody,” he said. “Sign it over to me and I’ll be out of your life for good.”
“This was your endgame,” she said quietly, staring at Brady’s name printed like some property in their divorce contract. “That’s why you tricked me into marrying you. All for this moment right here.”
Saying nothing, he handed her a pen.
Her heart sank and despair set in. She’d known trusting this divorce would happen, that she’d finally be free was too much to hope for. There was no way she could agree to his terms, which meant she was still trapped.
“Sign it,” he urged, “and all your problems go away.”
Shaking her head, she finally looked up at him. “So this is it, then,” she said, her voice soft and husky with disappointment. “I’m probably going to jail, and everyone is going to know every terrible thing I’ve tried to hide.”
“If that’s the option you choose,” he said with an affirmative nod. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
“Julian, it’s not that simple. I can’t just…hand him over to you.”
His eyes narrowed, growing a colder shade of grey. “You didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it when he was born, considering you gave him to Anne.”
“Julian, I’ve told you a thousand times,” she said, leaning closer so she could whisper. Maybe a diner hadn’t been the best idea, after all. “I didn’t know he was yours until after I gave him up. Now he thinks she’s his mom,” she said. “How are you going to explain that to him?”
“Are you serious? You’re never going to tell him who you really are?”
She was speechless. Honestly, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. It took so much just to get through the day, especially when Julian loved to fill it with moments like this.
“This is what I’m talking about,” he said. “You don’t want him and I do.”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“I tried to visit him after you ran off,” he said. “And you know what that bitch did? She slammed the door in my face. That’s after she went on and on about how he was her son, and not mine.”
Again, she didn’t know what to say.
“You’re both lucky I didn’t sue for custody then and there,” he said. “I thought I’d give you a chance to do the right thing.”
“Julian,” she said, trying to keep her mind rational when everything inside of her was panicking. “What do you know about raising kids?”
“I’ll figure it out, just like every other parent out there,” he said.
“This can’t be happening.” She covered her face with her hands.
“Once you sign the dotted line, all your problems go away.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “You can stay in this dumpy town if you want.” He threw his arms up in the air between them and relaxed against the back of the booth, as if to indicate he was finished with her. “Give me my son and I’ll go.”
“What makes you think you can raise him?” Cameron asked, trying to reason with him. “You’re…manipulative,” she stumbled to find the right words to describe the reasons this was a bad idea, “and selfish and borderline abusive. I wouldn’t trust you with a dog.”
His eyes bulged at her, and his voice took a matter-of-fact tone. “Are you really going to tell me that you consider Anne to be the lesser of two evils here? Don’t you remember what she did to you? All those time she put you down and made you feel like crap? All the times she chose Allen over you? How can you justify letting her raise our son?”
“She loves him,” Cameron insisted, as if this cancelled out the years of neglect the woman had shown her. “Now that Allen’s dead, Brady is one-hundred percent safe. And we can move on.”
“Just forget about him right?” Julian asked, staring at Cameron in disgust. “You want to just take our chances that he’s not going to turn out as screwed up as you are?”
That one stung, but she fought it off with a sharp, lashing insult. “Have you looked at yourself lately?”
“You’re acting like you have a choice,” he said, impatience showing in his eyes. “If you say no I’ll just sue you for him. What kind of secrets do you think will come out then?”
She glared at him, hating him for doing this to her. Why couldn’t he move on?
“There’s not a judge in the country that would choose either of you two basket cases over me and you know it. Especially considering your little situation with the police.” As if sensing she was becoming intimidated, he continued, lowering his voice to a threatening whisper. “You abandoned him, Cammi, leaving him in the hands of an unfit guardian and, to do what? So you could party and have a good time.”
“That’s not why I left and you know it.”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s the story I’ll sell. With your track record, it won’t be very hard at all.”
She did know that if the custody battle went to court, Julian would stop at nothing to win. He’d throw her completely under the bus to do it, and not think twice. But what kind of life would Brady have with Julian, and how did she know he wouldn’t turn out to be a manipulative monster just like his father? Pushing the papers back across the table, she decided she couldn’t risk that just to save her freedom and pride. “The answer is no, Julian.”
She started to slide out of the booth, but he reached out and grabbed her hand as quick as a snake snapping its teeth. “If you walk away without signing this, the kid gloves come off. I’m not kidding.”
Refusing to be intimidated, she yanked her arm from his and stood. “Do what you have to do.”
As Cameron walked away from the table, Julian tightened his hand into a fist, squeezing harder and harder as he felt the anger inside him build. After a moment, he pulled out his cell phone and sent a text message to his lawyer.
She didn’t sign. Time for plan B.
Chapter Fifteen
Half an hour later, he was packing his hotel room, using his Bluetooth earpiece to talk to a realtor about finding a house. Let’s see how Cameron liked it when he set down permanent roots in her ‘hometown’, he thought as he set the appointment for tomorrow morning.
As he was finishing the call, someone knocked on the door. Assuming it was Cameron, coming to plead or convince him to bow out peacefully; he pulled open the door with a smug smile on his face.
But found Sadie outside instead.
Seeing her, his smile fell and she noticed. She looked at him a second, her eyes cautious before she finally said, “Is this a bad time?”
“No.” He walked away, letting the door swing open.
She stepped inside, her eyes analyzing him in that subtle, ready-to-be-supportive way of hers. “I just came to see how things went at lunch,” she said. “From the looks of things, I’d say it didn’t go well.”
He carried a stack of shirts from the dresser to his suitcase and carefully tucked them inside, then headed back for more clothes before he finally answered her with a simple, “She didn’t sign.”
“She didn’t?” she repeated, sounding surprised. “I don’t understand. I talked to Chad this morning and he said that Cameron’s been ready for the divorce, looking forward to it, even.”
“Maybe Chad doesn’t know his sister as well as he thinks,” he said, moving one shoulder in a careless shrug. There was a touch of venom in his tone when he added, “Did you ever think of that?”
As if finally noticing that he was packing, she slid one hand in her back pocket and thrust her hip out in a forcefully casual stance. “Are you leaving town?”
“Does it matter?” he asked, fixing his icy gaze on her. “I think it’s time we look at things for what they are.”
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he said with a small sigh as he turned his attention back to packing. “That th
is has been fun, Sadie, it really has. But with all the drama lately, and now all these questions you want to ask, it’s just becoming a drag.”
He saw the stings of insult cross her face, saw her stubbornly blink back a tear or two, but he wouldn’t let it stir any emotions of his own. Today, he’d suffered a harsh blow—he’d been set back months, at least—and he needed to lash out somehow. Sadie made herself an easy target by showing up.
“You come with all this baggage, too,” he said, unable to stop himself. “I mean, did you really think I wouldn’t notice the feelings you have for Chad? How you’re always scanning the room, just in case we happen to run into him while we’re out? How you look for signs that I make him jealous? You can use someone else for that.”
“Whoa,” she said, moving forward with her hands out in a peacemaking gesture. “I was never using you.”
“But I was using you,” he said, the words coming out so cold, so brutally honest that they even surprised him.
Her brow furrowed in confusion and a braced look took over her green eyes. “What?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
He could see the hurt in her face so clearly that he had to look away. Turning back to his suitcase, he straightened the rows of clothes. “I came here for one reason and it wasn’t to find anybody new.”
“So why even bother me, then?” she asked, her voice cracking. “You asked me out, Julian. You came after me.”
He was starting to feel sorry for her now, and he couldn’t have that. Make it a clean break, he told himself, make it quick and brutal and get it over with. So he looked her dead in the eyes and put on his most callous show ever. “You were just a distraction.”
Her tear-filled eyes narrowed into a glare. Her lip was quivering so she clamped her teeth down hard on it and took a step back. “You know what? Chad was completely right about you.” She looked him up and down, and he could see she found him not good enough. “You are an arrogant, entitled asshole.”
“Looks like,” he said with a broad, sarcastic smile, then he waved her off, as if shooing away a fly.
Another Life: Another Life Series #1 Page 20
