“But you didn’t.” And that was the crux of the matter.
Her voice dropped. “No. I didn’t.”
“I can understand keeping your identity a secret when you arrived. You didn’t know anything about me. But once we were close, continuing to deceive me is beyond comprehension. And after I told you about Sylvia, continuing to deceive me is unforgivable.”
“I know that now. But then...”
“So...what? This was a test? I had to prove myself worthy of knowing the truth? Worthy of being in a relationship with you?”
“That’s not what I meant. I had been wrong before and didn’t trust myself to be right about another man.”
“Well, regardless of what you meant to do, that’s what you did. I opened myself up to you. I shared my thoughts and feelings with you in a way I hadn’t with anyone else before. And you were lying to me the entire time. I can’t forgive that. Now, if there’s nothing else, I need to get going before all the freshest seafood is gone. I still have a restaurant to run.”
She shook her head, blinking rapidly. “Doesn’t anything I say make a difference?”
“No.” He turned around and left, forcing himself not to look back.
He had to consign Arden to a past he wouldn’t revisit.
* * *
“What are you doing here?” Brandon sneered as he got out of his truck in the restaurant parking lot. The last people in the world he wanted to see were Arden’s brothers. Wasn’t dealing with one Wexford enough for today? He huffed out an impatient breath, then slammed his truck door.
“We want to talk.” Blake Wexford was the elder and had the reputation of being the more controlled of the two. And wasn’t Brandon annoyed with himself for knowing that and anything else about the Wexfords? He’d berated himself most of the night for not recognizing Arden. It didn’t matter that no one else had known who she was, either. Unable to sleep, he’d spent hours last night searching the internet for information about her. Impossible as it might seem, there wasn’t a single picture of her anywhere. There was barely a mention of her name. That must have cost big bucks. When you were as wealthy as the Wexfords anything was possible, but there had been plenty of information about her brothers and he’d read it all.
“I’ve spoken to my quota of Wexfords for the day.”
“You talked to Arden?” Jax, the more annoying one, butted in. Brandon hadn’t needed to read an article about Jax to know that. He’d reached that conclusion at the restaurant last night. And since that question didn’t warrant an answer, Brandon didn’t give him one.
“We only want a minute of your time,” Blake said.
“I’m working.” He pushed past them and opened the tailgate of his truck. They followed.
Jax looked at the crates of fresh food with undisguised disdain and then back at him. “This won’t take long. Then you can get back to whatever you were doing.”
That pissed him off. Did this guy ever utter a word that wasn’t condescending? Brandon might not be the CEO of a major corporation, but no one disrespected him. He closed the hatch and leaned against the bumper, arms crossed over his chest. “I’ll tell you what. How about I barge into your office at Wexford Industries sometime when it’s convenient for me and you stop whatever you’re doing. Then we’ll talk.”
“You might have enough time on your hands to do that sooner than you think,” Jax said.
Brandon pushed off the bumper and closed the distance between himself and the other man. He wasn’t violent by nature, but he was angry enough to make an exception. “Just what are you saying?”
“I’m saying stay away from my sister or you’ll wish you had.”
He already wished he had, but there was no way he would admit it to this arrogant jerk. “Who I see or don’t see is my business.”
“And Arden is ours. She’s always had guys trying to use her for her money. She doesn’t need another one.”
“I know it must be hard for you to believe, but I don’t want Arden’s money. I never did. Maybe if you actually took the time to get to know your sister, you’d see that she is enough of a prize on her own. She doesn’t need money to get or hold on to a man.”
The brothers exchanged a look Brandon couldn’t decipher. “I’ve got to go. If you want more of my time, make an appointment.”
Jax blocked his path. “You expect me to believe her trust fund doesn’t matter. You would be the first.”
“You don’t have to believe it. I don’t care. The truth is, I no longer want Arden.” Brandon grabbed a crate of fruit and pushed past Arden’s brothers.
But as Brandon walked away, he realized what he’d just said was as far away from the truth as he could get.
Chapter Sixteen
Arden pulled into the circular drive in front of her parents’ Baltimore home. Her Beetle drove like new since John’s repairs, but she couldn’t drive it without thinking of Brandon and Sweet Briar, so she drove the Mercedes that usually sat in her garage.
The past week without Brandon had been so lonely. Even now her heart ached as she thought of the last time she’d seen him at the fish market. That morning she’d managed to keep her tears from falling until he was no longer in sight. How could something so wonderful have turned into heartbreak so fast?
Maybe they weren’t meant to be. Given his past, it might not have mattered to Brandon when she told the truth. Once she’d given a false name, she had poisoned their relationship and made it easy for him to say goodbye. She should have known him well enough to understand that he wouldn’t change his mind about her.
There had been no point in her staying in Sweet Briar, so she’d driven straight from the markets and out of town that very day, not stopping to say goodbye to anyone. The friends she’d made had been friends of Brandon and Joni, so they probably didn’t care that she’d left.
Now that she was home she had to try to put the pieces of her life back together. She wasn’t the same person who’d run away all those weeks ago. She never would be again.
She couldn’t think about how she’d run away from Michael-the-hairball without feeling ashamed. What had she been thinking? He had been the one in the wrong. And she was not going to let him get away with it. There was no way he should be in a position of power over anyone, but especially not innocent children. She intended to let the school board know just what kind of person they had running one of their middle schools.
She hated to admit it, but her brothers had been right. Adults not only didn’t play make-believe, they didn’t pretend they were ostriches, burying their heads in the sand in the hope that their problems would vanish. It was time for her to act like the adult she was.
Her decision to report Michael to the school board would impact more than just her. It would affect her family, as well. The meeting before the board would be private, but because of the nature of her allegations, it might attract the attention of the local papers. It wouldn’t make a ripple in the national press if her name really was Arden West. But as a Wexford, anything she did that was even slightly newsworthy would be a field day for the media. She’d always tried to live under the radar and go about her business like most people. She wouldn’t be able to maintain her low public profile once this story broke. And that was okay. Some things were worth the sacrifice.
She turned off the car and quickly mounted the stone stairs leading to the family mansion. Despite the fact that the house had twenty rooms and was situated on seven acres, it had always felt homey to her. She gave her parents credit for that. They may have been wealthy, but she and her brothers had been raised with middle-class values. Winston and Lorelei had never been overly concerned with maintaining a certain type of public image. She had no doubt her parents would support her, but she did feel they deserved advance notice so they wouldn’t be blindsided.
“Welcome home,” h
er mother said, pulling her into a warm, perfumed embrace the moment Arden stepped inside.
“I should be saying that to you,” Arden replied with a laugh. “You’re the one who just got back from vacation last night.”
“True. But I understand you had a bit of an adventure yourself.”
“I take it you spoke to one of my brothers.”
“Both. You know they can’t hold water.”
No. She was the one gifted with the ability to keep a secret. Now it seemed like a curse.
“Come on. Everyone is in the family room.”
Arden walked beside her mother around the central staircase to the room where her family usually gathered. She heard the murmur of jovial conversation as she and her mother stepped inside the room.
“Well, little girl, are you going to just stand there, or are you going to give your old dad a hug?”
Arden pretended to ponder the question for a moment, then rushed into her father’s arms. “I feel like it has been forever since I’ve seen you.”
“The feeling is mutual.” He tightened the embrace and held her for a moment longer. Arden inhaled the familiar scent of butterscotch candy. Winston Wexford had a sweet tooth he had passed down to her. She closed her eyes and recalled their many trips to the candy store after her Thursday-night dance lessons when she’d been in grade school. She hadn’t enjoyed ballet a bit, but she had loved the secret candy runs they had made on the way home. Her three-year dancing career had lasted two years longer than it would have but for those trips.
“So, what’s this I hear about you getting involved with a chef?”
Arden glanced at her brothers. Blake shrugged and Jax smirked. She was past caring. “I met a guy, but that’s over. I need to talk to all of you about something else altogether.”
“It sounds serious.”
“It is.” Arden looked around the room. Her family settled into comfortable chairs, then waited for her to start talking. “I don’t know where to start.”
“The beginning always worked for me,” her father said. He turned an affectionate glance toward her mother. “But your mother always preferred to start with the most shocking part and then move backward. Whatever works best for you. We’ve got all day, right, boys?”
Blake and Jax nodded, but Arden knew they would prefer the CliffsNotes version, which was good because she didn’t feel inclined to go into the dirty details.
“I’m going to the school board to try to get Michael Wallace removed from his position as principal at my school.” She waited for the explosion of questions but none came.
Her father simply nodded once. “I’m sure you have your reasons.”
“Yes.” No one spoke and she knew they wouldn’t. It was her story to tell at her pace. “He’s a jerk but, more, he can’t be trusted. Especially around kids. I’m telling you this because when the press finds out it might get ugly.
“I caught him hiding cameras in his bedroom so he could make a secret sex tape. With me. He thought he could blackmail me with it.” She felt her cheeks warming and suddenly found a spot on the wall incredibly interesting and stared at it.
Jax leaped to his feet. “I’m going to kill him.”
“I’m going to help,” Blake added, hurrying behind his brother.
“Stop right there.”
Blake and Jax froze at their father’s quiet voice.
“Come back and sit down.” He waited until they had returned to their chairs before continuing. “Since when do we use violence to solve our problems?”
“Since some jerk decided to hurt our sister,” Jax replied angrily. “You can’t mean to let him get away with this.”
“No one is saying he is getting away with anything. Let’s listen to Arden.”
“All she wants to do is have him fired,” Jax scoffed. “That’s not enough.”
“You’re not the injured party, Jackson, so the decision isn’t yours.”
Jax breathed loudly through his nose, reminding Arden of a bull. It touched her to see her brothers so ready to defend her. Thankfully, she was strong enough to defend herself now. “I appreciate that you guys want to take care of me. I’m strong enough now to handle it myself.”
“Is that the reason you ran away?”
Arden didn’t shy away from Blake’s words. She had run away rather than fight, so there was no reason to pretend she hadn’t. She lifted her chin. “Yes. I didn’t know what to do and I was too ashamed and embarrassed to come to any of you.”
“Why?” His tone was a mixture of confusion and what sounded like hurt.
“I knew nobody liked Michael. I’d made a bad choice.”
“You’re not alone there,” her father added. “We’ve all made mistakes.”
“I know that now.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I just want to take away Michael’s power as much as I can. I have evidence I recorded on my phone of him telling someone his plans. It’s all in the audio file. The school board can take it from there. If the police need a statement I’ll give them one. What happens after that won’t matter a bit to me. I am sorry if it makes the news, though.” She looked at Jax, who was still seething, his breathing loud.
“Is that really all you want?” Jax demanded. Clearly he didn’t agree with her decision, but he respected their father’s authority and wouldn’t go against him. And maybe her brother trusted that she knew what was best for her.
“It is.”
“Fine. If that makes you happy.”
“It will.” Or at least as happy as she could be, given her broken heart.
“We’re here if you need us,” her mother said, and her father nodded. “And we’re proud of you.”
“Thank you.”
After that, her father and brothers began to discuss business, and Arden and her mother left them to it. Lorelei wrapped her arm around Arden’s shoulder. “Tell me more about the man you met.”
“Oh, Mom. I messed up. I love him and I hurt him so badly.”
“How?”
Arden explained about Brandon’s past with his former fiancée. “And then I did the exact same thing she did.”
“So what are you going to do now? I understand why you felt the need to come home to straighten out things with the school board, but how are you going to make things right with Brandon?”
If only she could. “He’s done with me. He doesn’t love me anymore. I’m going to respect his feelings and stay out of his life.”
“If his love died that easily, it wasn’t real.”
“It was real, Mom,” Arden replied instantly. She knew that for sure.
“Then fight for it. Love is too precious to let slip through your fingers.”
“But what if he can’t forgive me?”
“Then you’ll know that you gave it all that you had. Don’t run away just because you’re afraid of getting hurt. The worst thing in the world would be to wake up next year and wonder what if. Do all that you can to set things right. Keep fighting for a second chance. If he loves you, it will work out in the end.”
“You’re right,” Arden said, giving her mother a big hug. “You’re absolutely right.” And for the first time since she’d returned home, Arden could breathe without the constant pain in her heart. She wasn’t happy, but if she could work things out with Brandon she would be. Somehow, some way, she was going to win him back. When the situation with the school board was settled, she was going to do some more running, this time toward something instead of away.
Chapter Seventeen
Brandon sampled the new shrimp appetizer he was creating, then dropped the fork on the counter with a loud clatter. Even though all the ingredients were mixed properly, the taste was off. In fact, nothing he had cooked the past two weeks tasted right. There was a bitter aftertaste that lingered e
ven after the meal had been eaten. No one else noticed. People continued to rave over their food. The problem was with him. His heart wasn’t in it. He’d never thought he’d see the day when he didn’t enjoy cooking, but that day had arrived when he’d found out the truth about Arden. He couldn’t believe he’d been such a fool again.
He’d always looked forward to Tuesdays so he could let his creative juices flow. That wasn’t happening today. He dumped the food into a plastic container and snapped the lid closed. There was enough for Joni to take for lunch and share with her friends.
“I thought I’d find you in here.”
He groaned. He loved his sister, but he couldn’t handle another dose of her sympathy or her subtle defense of Arden. Joni really liked Arden and had been willing to give her friend the benefit of the doubt. Joni hadn’t done anything overt to get him to change his mind, but she had let him know when Arden sent an enormous personal check for the youth center. Despite himself, he recalled how much fun he’d had with Arden volunteering at the center. The kids had really loved her enthusiasm. They had loved her.
He wiped a sponge across the counter and tossed it into the sink. “Actually, I’m on my way out.”
“Why are you running away from me?”
That question froze him. “I’m not. I have to get to the restaurant.”
“Sure.”
He pulled his sister into a quick hug. “I’m fine, Joni. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I hate that you’re angry at me.”
He reeled back in surprise. “Angry at you? Why would I be angry at you?”
“I encouraged you to date Arden and did everything I could to throw the two of you together. I even left town so you’d have some time alone. I’m sorry. I just thought she was a good person who could make you happy again. I was wrong and you got hurt. If I’d minded my own business you never would have gotten involved with her.”
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