Not The Billionaire

by Noorman, Krista

  “Yeah.” It was all she could say at the moment.

  Skylar entered the room and closed the door behind her, glancing around the large office. “You sure you want to leave all this?”

  Genevieve nodded and continued putting a few more things in the box.

  “You can tell me what you really think of me,” Skylar said. “I can take it.”

  Genevieve looked up at her then. “I feel very betrayed. By all of you. And I have to go because I don’t think I can trust you. Any of you.”

  “May I tell you a story before you go?” She raised her eyebrows questioningly. “I think it will help you to understand.”

  Her chest was tight, as if she might cry again, and she did not want to do that in front of Sebastian’s sister, a woman who she had thought was her friend.

  Skylar took a seat in the chair across the desk, and Genevieve sat down in her desk chair.

  “Bash has earned a reputation of being distant and cold for a reason. He’s kept people at arm’s length, especially women, because he’s been burned in the past. More than once. When he loves, he loves with his whole heart, as I’m sure you know.”

  Genevieve felt her cheeks warm. She did know.

  “About six years ago, he thought he’d met the one. He fell hard and fast, and Serena seemed perfect for him. We all thought so. He even proposed.”

  “He proposed?” It came out in a whisper. “He was engaged?”

  Skylar nodded. “And that’s when everything started coming to light. She was a very good actress, making us all believe she was in love with him, planning their wedding. She kept asking for money for deposits for this or that, insisting on handling it all herself rather than our family hiring someone to do it for her.”

  “Don’t the parents of the bride usually pay for the wedding?” Genevieve cut in.

  “She said she was an orphan.” Skylar laughed as if that was ridiculous. “She was not.”

  “Oh my gosh.”

  “And the deposits weren’t used to book things for the wedding. She needed the money to pay off a debt her boyfriend back in Detroit had racked up with a bookie.”

  Genevieve’s mouth fell open.

  “Bash was crushed. Serena knew exactly who he was before she came into his life, acting like she’d never heard of him, putting on the sweet and innocent act. And this was on the heels of Macy, another girl he dated, who seemed more interested in his money than him. After that, he put up walls because he thought he couldn’t trust women anymore, and he hasn’t dated anyone since.”

  “That’s awful.”

  Skylar nodded. “It’s a shame, really, because my brother has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, and he is so capable of love.”

  A tear slipped down Genevieve’s cheek. “How long were he and Serena together?”

  “Over a year.”

  “A year?”

  “Yeah, it was a long con.” Skylar sat forward in the chair and lay her hands on the edge of Genevieve’s desk. “So, when he met you and you seemed to not know who he was—”

  “He didn’t want me to know he had money.” She was starting to understand.

  “Exactly. He wanted you to get to know him, Genevieve. Without the money or his status getting in the way. And he wanted to make sure you actually didn’t know who he was and weren’t playing him like Serena had. Can you understand that?”

  She took in a slow breath and let it out. “Yes, but when we started getting closer, why didn’t he tell me? Why did he keep letting me believe the lie?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that when he realized you were for real, he didn’t want things to change. And I’m sure he was afraid of how you’d react, and he didn’t want to lose you.”

  Genevieve groaned. “This is so frustrating, because he did it to make sure I was being honest with him, but he was lying to me the whole time.”

  “If he’d told you sooner, would you have gotten as close as you are?”

  “Were,” Genevieve corrected her.

  Skylar gave her a disbelieving look. “Would you have?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure how I would’ve reacted, because he didn’t tell me. I had to find out on the most important day of my career.”

  “I know.”

  Genevieve didn’t know what else to say. She needed to think about all of this.

  “I hope you’ll talk to him. Because I know he wants to talk to you.”

  “Why hasn’t he?”

  “You told him to leave you alone.”

  She had told him that.

  “He’s dying inside, Genevieve.”

  Her heart clenched, hearing that. But what could she say or do?

  “I’m really sorry for my part in all this,” Skylar said. “I’m sorry for lying to you.”

  “I appreciate you saying that.”

  “I wish you’d stay. This place won’t be the same without you.”

  Genevieve hated the thought of leaving this job she’d come to love. “At my last job, I was kept in the dark about a lot of things, and once the truth came to light, I left in hopes of finding a trustworthy company to work for. And I thought I’d found that here.” Her throat tightened as she fought back tears.

  “You did,” Skylar assured her.

  “I trusted all of you. Yet once again, I was in the dark.”

  “Genevieve.”

  “I guess I must be pretty gullible since people keep doing this to me.”

  “You’re not gullible, Genevieve.” Skylar’s voice was filled with sympathy.

  “It feels like I am.” Genevieve paused to collect her thoughts. “But that was different. Before. That was about a job. This is even worse, because it’s personal. And that’s why I can’t stay.”

  Leaving the office felt like the end of something huge, and she was so torn up about it that she didn’t go to her apartment. She drove straight to the farm. When she arrived, she went to the barn, walking down to the horse stalls, where Charisma immediately stuck her head over the door as soon as she saw Genevieve.

  Genevieve rested her head against Charisma’s and tears suddenly burned her eyes. Growing up, whenever she was down, she came here, just to be with her sweet horse. Sometimes she’d talk. Sometimes she wouldn’t. Sometimes she’d ride. Other times, she’d simply stand with her or brush her. Tonight, she stood.

  Charisma nudged closer, and Genevieve leaned against her, letting her move back and forth a little, as if the horse was trying to soothe her by swaying.

  “I can always count on you, can’t I, girl?” She let her tears fall and stayed there for a long time. “I wish I could say the same about … him.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “I can’t even say his name. It’s too hard. I want Kurtis back. But I can’t have him, can I? Because he doesn’t exist.”

  Genevieve was unsure of how much time had passed until a few lightning bugs flew in through the door. She gazed outside and watched them flit around in the sky, and she thought about that night on the beach. That perfect, wonderful night together. Lightning bugs were ruined for her forever now.

  She left the comfort of the barn and walked to the house.

  Mom was seated on the porch, reading a book.

  “Checking up on the horses?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I stopped by the barn for a while.”

  Mom laid her book down in her lap. “Are you all right?”

  Genevieve took a seat in one of the rocking chairs. The west-facing porch gave them a perfect view of the sun setting over the cornfields, and she spilled the entire story from beginning to end.

  She expected advice or some sort of counsel, but instead her mother sat in silence.

  “I don’t know what to do now, Mom. I left this job I loved and this man who I thought I loved. Everything’s falling apart.”

  Still nothing.

  “You’ve never been one to keep quiet when we needed advice. Or when we didn’t. Why aren’t you saying anything?”

  “I knew wh
o he was.” Ida looked completely guilty, avoiding eye contact.

  “Excuse me?” Had she heard her mother right? “You knew he was Sebastian Schultz?”

  Her mom nodded. “I saw an article about him and his siblings once. That day you brought him here, he looked familiar, and before you left, I told him I knew.”

  “Mom!” Genevieve stood from the chair and stared down at her. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  “I could see he meant something to you, and I wanted to see how things were going to play out.”

  “Play out? This is my life, Mother, not some game.”

  “I know.”

  “Everybody around me seems to be playing games these days.” She was fuming now. “But you’re my mom! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

  “I am on your side.”

  “Then please put yourself in my shoes for a minute. You meet a really nice guy at your new job. He seems wonderful and sweet and charming, and you fall hard for him. Only he isn’t who he says he is. He’s lying to you. And worse, everybody around you knows. Your coworkers, your friends … even your own mother. How would that make you feel?”

  “Angry,” Mom replied.

  “Darn right, I’m angry.”

  “He told me he had a good reason, that he’d had some bad past relationships, and that he wanted more time to tell you himself.”

  Genevieve shook her head. “And that’s all it took for you to keep something like this from me? Why would you go along with it?”

  “I could tell he was in love with you, and I felt he could be trusted.”

  “What if you’d been wrong? What if he was a crazed lunatic or something?”

  “He’s not, is he?” she asked with eyebrow raised.

  Genevieve didn’t reply.

  “When I realized who he was, I was relieved,” Ida told her.

  “Relieved? About what?”

  “That you’d finally found someone, and that you’d have a man who could afford to take care of you. Someone who could give you a happy, comfortable life.”

  “Pfft! I don’t need a rich man to have a happy life.”

  “I’m not saying you do, but it will sure make a lot of things easier for you.”

  She couldn’t believe what her mom was saying. “You know what, Mom … I don’t need a man at all to be happy. I’ve never been one who’s out searching for a husband and you know it. Even though, all my life you’ve been trying to make me look how you thought I needed to look to get one. Finding a man is not God’s sole purpose for my life. If I meet someone …” She thought she already had. “I would be happy to spend my life with a loving and honest man, but that is not Sebastian Schultz.”

  “I’m sorry, Genny. I really thought he would have told you sooner.”

  “Well, he didn’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared across the farmyard.

  “He was here, you know.”

  She looked at her mom again. “Here? When?”

  “He stopped by to talk to me a few days ago.”

  Her eyebrows narrowed in confusion. “What did he want?”

  “To apologize for lying about who he was.”

  Her heart stuttered in her chest. “He apologized to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you mention that earlier in this conversation?”

  “I wanted to hear the story from your perspective. He told me his reasons and that you found out the truth before he could tell you. He said he was more sorry than he could ever say, and he hoped I would forgive him for the deception.”

  Tears began to burn her eyes. She couldn’t believe he had come there.

  “Did you at least talk to him before you left?” Mom asked.

  Genevieve swallowed hard. “No.”

  “I think you should.”

  She walked to the edge of the porch, staring out at the bright orange sky. “Why should I?”

  “Because he loves you. And you love him.”

  “I do not love Sebastian.” With each roll of his name off her tongue, it was getting easier to associate Sebastian with the face of the man she’d come to know as Kurtis. She pictured his face then. His eyes staring into hers, the curve of his jawline, the feel of his lips against hers. Her stomach fluttered. Sebastian. It hurt to even think his name.

  At first, she kept picturing Gus’s face, because he was the one she had thought was Sebastian. That was part of the reason this was so confusing. Realizing that the man in the office that day, the man at dinner and at the club, the man who showed up drunk at the beach house—Sebastian’s family’s beach house—was actually Augustus.

  “Genevieve, you are the most forgiving person I know, and you have a huge heart. Bigger than the rest of us combined.”

  Her mother didn’t usually compliment her, and her words were both surprising and touching.

  “You should hear him out.”

  “I don’t know, Mom.” Yes, apologizing to her mom was a decent thing to do, but it didn’t make up for the many lies he’d told.

  “Maybe you won’t like what he has to say, but then you’ll know, and you can move on.”

  She hated the thought of moving on, but she hated being lied to more.

  Mom didn’t say anything more about that. She stood and walked up beside Genevieve, put her arm around her back, and drew her into her side. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel that you weren’t enough without a man. I was just very happy with your father, and I want the same happiness for my girls.”

  “I know, Mom. I know you want the best for us, but sometimes you go about it the wrong way.”

  “I’ll try to be better.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I love you, Genny.”

  “I love you too, Mom.” Genevieve turned into her mom and hugged her tight. She felt tears threatening again, but this time they weren’t because of Sebastian Schultz.

  Genevieve snuggled up on her couch under a fuzzy pink blanket, flipping through the channels but not actually watching. She had planned a perfectly good day of lying around and feeling sorry for herself. The job search was not going well so far. After a couple of interviews that had amounted to nothing, she’d expanded her search outside of the Grand Rapids area. She loved living here, but the idea of relocating didn’t bother her as much when she thought about escaping the memories. So far, though, she hadn’t gotten any nibbles on her résumé.

  As she was about to settle in and watch the local news at noon, her phone rang.

  “Hi, can I speak to Genevieve Willis?” the voice on the line said.

  “This is Genevieve.”

  “Hi, this is Cal from Kalispell Horse Rescue. Do you remember me?”

  She sat up quickly, dropping the television remote onto the floor. “Cal? Of course I remember you. It’s been a long time.”

  “Sure has. You were just a teenager last time I saw you.”

  “I know. That was such a great summer.”

  “You were such a help around here, especially with the horses,” he said.

  “How’s Ruby? I miss her home-cooked meals.”

  “She’s doing well. Still cooking. Still griping at me every day, but I love her.”

  Genevieve laughed, fondly remembering the owners and their propensity for bickering.

  “What ever happened to Roman?” she asked.

  “Roman? Oh, that was the summer you were here?”

  “Yeah. I’ve wondered about him from time to time.”

  “Why don’t you come on out and see for yourself?” Cal replied.

  “I’d love to come visit sometime.”

  “I got your résumé a while back,” he told her.

  “Yeah. I was looking for a fundraising coordinator job. That’s what I do now.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m calling.”

  “It is?” Her heart began to beat faster.

  “Yes. We have a position available.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Three days. That’s all the time i
t took to pack up her belongings and finalize arrangements to move to Kalispell, Montana. Mom and Rhonda had been beyond excited for her and sent her off with hugs and kisses. Above everyone else in Michigan, Charisma was the hardest to leave. She’d spent extra time saying goodbye to her, promising to come back and visit as often as she could until she could make arrangements to move her out to Montana too.

  Her drive across the country had been torture, because in the back of her mind was this little niggling longing to call Sebastian and tell him her good news. He would have been so excited for her, even with her moving to another state and away from him, because that’s who he was. Supportive and caring. At least, that’s who she thought he was, and it killed her that she questioned those qualities in him. She wanted to believe that not everything about him was a lie, but the deception had been too great. Hadn’t it?

  Settling in at the horse rescue in Kalispell was easy and comfortable. They had expanded over the years and made improvements to the existing building and barns, making it possible to help more horses than before. Cal and Ruby welcomed her in, taking her around to meet all the horses that were currently housed there as well as the staff who were working with them. She got to work right away on raising funds for new equipment to care for the horses, repairs to some of the fences, veterinarian services, and so much more. The needs were great to heal these horses that had been so horribly neglected and injured.

  As each day passed, she fell more and more in love with the work. Yet the empty space in her heart still remained.

  On a lovely morning in late August, Genevieve strolled along the horse paddock to the barn. The sun glowed warm from its place low in the sky, taking the chill out of the air and ridding the ground of the dew.

  “Morning, Genevieve,” Cal greeted her as he came from the barn.

  “Morning.”

  “I’d like you to ride along with me for a bit.” He motioned for her to follow him to his truck.