For Richer, For Poorer: The Titan Billionaire Brothers (Duet Book 2)

by A. J. Wynter

  “Chase. Things changed. I was just doing my job and then...”

  “Get out.” He put the truck in park and crossed his arms across his chest.

  I opened my mouth to speak again, “Ch—”

  “Get. The. Fuck. Out,” he boomed and pointed to the passenger door.

  He was upset. I got that, but he wasn’t even giving me the opportunity to explain myself. I rested my hand on the door handle. I didn’t want to get out. I wanted him to know the truth. “Emma, I need you to get out of this truck and never ever speak to me again.” I turned when I heard the quiver in his voice and saw there were tears streaming down his face, disappearing into his beard.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as I walked up the pathway to the house, Chase’s truck idling on the street. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. A part of me hoped that his hesitation and the fact that he was still parked on the street, meant that there was the possibility that he could burst out of the truck, run down the pathway and scoop me up, telling me that we were going to fix it and everything was going to be okay. I held my breath as I stepped onto the porch and punched the code into the door keypad. I paused and turned, he was still there and as soon as I stepped inside the house, the truck crept away, growling off into the distance, carrying its owner away from me forever. Of course, he was going to wait until I got inside the house. The gentleman stuff was so ingrained in the man, there was no way he couldn’t. He wasn’t debating whether or not to jump out and Hollywood-end our story. He was just doing what he was programmed to do... make sure his companion got into her house safely.

  I dropped my frayed messenger bag on the ground and shut the door behind me. I had let down the man who I had fallen in love with, and now that I was back in cell phone service range, I was going to have to tell my best friend that I had let her down too. I ran up the stairs, gasping as I choked on my tears, and fell into bed. I pulled off Chase’s flannel shirt, wound it up into a ball and clutched it to my chest. That’s when I let it all out. My body shook as I sobbed until the strength had left my body and I finally found sleep, curled around one of the only remnants of our relationship, exhausted.

  Chapter 19 – Emma

  THE SNOW IN THE CITY looked dirtier than I remembered it. The high-pressure system had parked itself over the city too, and the footsteps of its residents were frozen in place all over the sidewalks. Bumpy, icy, dirty sidewalks.

  The coffee shop was bustling and Christmas music was already playing, even though it was only mid-November. I spotted Sadie tucked in the back corner still wearing her hat and scarf.

  “Have you been waiting long?” I asked as I sat down across from her.

  “Just got here,” she smiled and unwrapped the giant scarf from her neck. She glanced around as she pulled off her hat. The paparazzi had calmed down, but they loved to get candid photos of her and as a result, she had turned into a bit of a recluse.

  I had spoken to Sadie on the phone, so she knew that things hadn’t gone well up in Windswan, but I had still been too upset to go into details. That was last week. I had packed up my things and gotten out of that town as fast as I could, hoping that putting some miles between Chase and I would ease my pain. I spent the rest of the week lying in bed, stuffing myself with ice cream and staring at the television. I couldn’t sleep. I kept replaying our last conversation, wishing that I hadn’t gotten out of the truck. Wishing that I had made him listen to me, refusing to leave until he could understand why I did what I did.

  And now there was no way of going back. I couldn’t even call the man.

  “How are you doing?” Sadie asked. “I got you a cappuccino.” She pointed to the cup in front of me.

  “Thanks.” I smiled as best as I could and took a sip. After Chase’s black stovetop espresso, this coffee tasted manufactured and complicated. “I’m hanging in there.”

  “Can you talk about it yet?” she asked.

  “I think so,” I replied. “It’s still pretty fresh, but you two need to know what you’re up against if you try to go get him on your own.”

  “What exactly happened out there?”

  “Sadie,” I sighed. “I messed up.” I fiddled with the handle of the mug. “No, screw that. I just plain fucked everything up.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  I looked up at my friend. The one who had been by my side for the past ten years as a friend and a colleague, the one who knew my dismal dating history.

  “Sadie, I fell in love.”

  “With who?” she asked and then set her mug down on the table, her eyes growing wide, “With Chase?” she leaned in a whispered.

  “Yes, I fell in love with Chase.”

  “Oh, no,” Sadie said. “Are you sure?”

  I laughed. “Unfortunately, yes. I’m sure. I fell one hundred percent head over heels in love with Chase Titan. And now he never wants to see me ever again.”

  I thought that I had cried all the tears out of my system but telling the story out loud to someone else instead of replaying it in my head, made it worse. By the time I finished telling Sadie the details about what transpired over those three days in the snowstorm, I was sobbing as if it had just happened.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she whispered. She helped me up out of my chair and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. As we exited the coffee shop, a Tesla pulled up and her driver, Hugo, stepped out and opened the door for us.

  “Where to, Mrs. Titan?” he asked.

  “Home,” she said. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders, and I turned my face into her neck and cried.

  “We’ll make this better, I promise.”

  I sat up. “Sadie, I’m the one who needs to make this better. I messed everything up for everyone. You, Liam, Chase, me...

  “We’ll figure something out.” But I heard the doubt in her voice.

  We spent the afternoon in Sadie and Liam’s loft. For a multi-billionaire, Liam’s loft was understated and by that, I mean worth under ten million dollars. It had an eclectic flair that only a top designer can create. I sat on the down sofa, sipping tea with Sadie while I told her everything.

  She listened intently and nodded every so often, but when I told her he asked me to come and live with him in the cabin, and that I was going to tell him, yes, her eyes nearly fell out of her head.

  “What do you mean, live there?” she asked, her mouth agape.

  “I mean, give up the lease on my apartment, pack up my things and move in with Chase, Prickles, and Dumpster.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “And who are Prickles and Dumpster?”

  “Oh,” I laughed. “His cat and dog.”

  “Let me guess...” Sadie tilted her head and smirked, “He named them after the places he found them.”

  “He did!” I was taken aback. How did she know?

  Sadie laughed and shook her head. We found a stray cat in the yard when he was ten and he named him Rosie because we found him in the rose bush. It’s too bad that Prickles and Dumpster were found in such unfortunate places...”

  “They’re much cuter than their names,” I agreed.

  “Would you really give up your life to live with him? I mean, you don’t really know him.” She kicked off her slippers and curled her feet up underneath her on the couch.

  “But I do,” I sighed. “It’s so weird, Sadie. I feel like I know that man better than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  Sadie rubbed her swelling baby bump. “I suppose I technically knew Liam for years...” She used air quotes around the word ‘knew’. “But I didn’t really get to know the real him until our trip to St. Thomas.”

  “I just wish I hadn’t waited to tell him. If I had come clean that night,” I looked into my tea which was rapidly cooling, “maybe things would be different.”

  “Do you really think so?” Sadie asked. “I mean, I haven’t seen him in years but from what I remember, Chase Titan was one of the most stubborn and hot-headed men out there. He probably would’ve just kicked you out in t
he middle of the night. It was smart of you to wait for the morning.”

  The massive door slid open and Tripper, Sadie and Liam’s dog, bounded into the loft. “Get back here.” I heard Liam shout. “Your paws are filthy.” Tripper rounded the corner into the sitting area and came over and checked me out. I patted his head as he sniffed my knee.

  “You heard him, Trips.” Sadie pointed to the door. “Go get your feet cleaned off.”

  Liam whistled and Tripper bounded back to the door, leaving a muddy set of footprints behind him.

  “Emma,” he said when he realized Sadie wasn’t alone.

  “Hi Liam,” I smiled. “I’m back.”

  “So, I heard,” he said. His voice was muffled as he wrestled with Tripper and a towel trying to dry off his paws. Liam hung the towel on a hook by the door, poured himself a sparkling water and came and sat down in the big club chair adjacent to the sofa.

  “She was just filling me in,” Sadie said. “I don’t think it’s a lost cause.”

  “You don’t?” Both Liam and I spoke at the same time.

  “No, you idiots.” She shook her head. “They fell in love.” She emphasized the word love. “Chase is pissed, but he’s going to want to see you.”

  “I don’t think so.” Liam and I echoed each other again.

  “That was weird.” Sadie looked back and forth between the two of us.

  “Like you said, Sadie. He’s stubborn. I mean, he loved his family and he was able to stay away for years.”

  “Hold on a minute,” Liam leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “He didn’t love the family. You don’t know that whole story.” His voice was quieter, and he settled back into his chair.

  “Actually, I do. And I’m glad that you’re both here to hear it. I was waiting until I had both of you together to tell you.”

  Liam shook his head and muttered, “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Yes,” I said sharply. “You do. What I’m going to tell you is going to be hard to hear, but it will make you understand your brother and what he’s going through a whole lot better.”

  “Liam.” Sadie rested her hand on her husband’s. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

  Liam tightened his lips but then nodded his head. “Fine.”

  I ran my thumb up and down the handle of the coffee mug, trying to figure out the best way to tell Liam that he had two half brothers out there somewhere.

  Liam was trained in business and he was skilled at maintaining a poker face, but as I neared the part of the story with Chase and Bruce Titan’s confrontation, the twins, the Alfa Romeos, and even the punch, a scarlet red flush rose from the collar of his crisp white shirt like Mercury rising. His increasingly red face gave away the emotions that he was holding in. I just wasn’t sure whether they were rage, anger, or sadness. Probably a combination of the three, I guessed.

  “My dad hit Chase?”

  “He did,” I whispered. “When he threatened to tell you.”

  Liam stood up, dropping Sadie’s hand and ran his hands through his hair. He exhaled heavily and paced back and forth the length of the loft. “Sweetheart.” Sadie stood up and held out her hand to him. He stopped his caged animal pacing and took her hand, collapsing into his wife’s chest, burying his head in her neck.

  “I should go,” I whispered. I gathered up my bag and bypassed the two of them on my way to the door.

  “Wait.” Liam stood up tall, stepping out of his wife’s arms. “This doesn’t change anything. If Chase hadn’t been driving like Mario Andretti, everyone would be alive – both of our mothers.” Liam wrapped his arm around Sadie’s shoulders as if he suddenly realized that he wasn’t the only one hurt by Chase’s actions. To my surprise, tears were also running down Sadie’s face.”

  “Maybe my dad should be blamed too. But he’s not here, is he?”

  “No,” I whispered, holding onto the door handle.

  “Emma, we’re going back to find him, to get him to sign off on everything. You have to take us there. We need to be rid of my brother for once and for all.”

  I stiffened. I should’ve known that Liam Titan wouldn’t give up so easily. Now that he knew where Chase was living, he could put the pressure on him to sign away his shares of the company. The thought of going back to the cabin and seeing the hatred in Chase’s eyes made me feel like I was going to throw up. Liam and Sadie had walked to the door with me, hand in hand. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  Liam’s eyes flashed dark. He wasn’t the type of man used to hearing no.

  “You were hired to find him and bring him here. I think that you need to honor your part of the deal. You shook my hand, Emma. That means something to me.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to stop my stomach from expelling the muffin I’d eaten for breakfast all over their kitchen island. “I’ll take you there,” I whispered. “But I need some time.”

  “How much time?” Liam growled.

  Sadie rested her hand on his arm, her giant antique ring sparkling. “Liam, we have until the end of the year. How much time do you need, Em?”

  “I don’t know.” I couldn’t even imagine being in the same room as Chase again. The way that he looked at me when I left, had scarred my soul. “I just need to decompress and process everything that happened. I just got back last week and, and...” The tears were fat as they slipped off my lower lashes, missing my cheeks and torpedoing toward the concrete floor. “Just give me a few weeks and then I’ll show you.” I wiped away the tears. “On one condition,” I added.

  “What’s that?” Liam asked.

  “That I don’t have to face him.”

  “You won’t have to face him.” Sadie released Liam and pulled me in tightly. “I think that we all have a lot to think about right now.”

  I nodded and zipped up my coat. “Are you going to be okay?” Sadie held onto my arms and assessed my face.

  “I don’t know.” I had seen and felt the perfect life, and it had slipped through my fingertips. I cleared my throat. “I’ll be fine,” I lied.

  Chapter 20 – Chase

  THE SNOW HADN’T STOPPED falling since that day two weeks ago. The day that I left Emma in town. The banks were now up over the porch and I spent hours every day clearing out the path to the driveway. It gave me something to do other than think about how close I’d come to making a terrible mistake, inviting that lying bitch into my home.

  I always thought that I was a good judge of character, I guess all it takes is a cute blonde with a great ass to mess with my intuition. The cabin did feel lonely without her though. I had gotten used to having another person in my space. One that wasn’t covered in fur and could actually talk back to me.

  I had spent hours tinkering on my snowmobile to no avail and the time had come to take it into town. The forestry road had been plowed this morning, but as we headed into the dark depths of winter, those clear roads would be a thing of that past. I rigged up an elaborate ratchet strap system and had the defiant beast loaded into my truck, ready to take to the mechanic. “Come on, Dumps.” I whistled, and he came running down the driveway and hopped into the truck and we headed into town.

  I dropped the pesky snowmobile off in Chance Rapids and stopped in at the trendy little café on Main Street. Walking in there felt like stepping onto a different planet. The place was bustling with all the tables full and blue-collar locals mixing with the skiers, the only thing distinguishing the two was the lack of duct tape on the jackets of the latter. I ordered myself a cappuccino and a pretty brunette took my order and stole glances at me as she steamed the milk.

  “Here you are, sir.” She slipped a cardboard sleeve onto the to-go cup and smiled at me. She gave me a quick glance up and down and then smiled again as I took the coffee from her hands. She was flirting with me, but it meant nothing. After Emma, I would never trust another woman again. Ever. Letting her in, trusting her, had been a terrible mistake.

  “Thanks,” I said and turned away without smil
ing back, but immediately felt guilty. I sighed and turned. “Have a good afternoon, Miss.”

  She blushed and I turned and left the café. When I first grew my beard, women hardly looked at me. Now it seemed that everyone in the café looked like a mountain man. The beard had gone from an old man accessory to something that was trendy. If it wasn’t for the cold, windy days ahead, I would shave the damn thing off, but I had mine for practical reasons. It protected my face. From the look of some of the men in the café, they had never picked up an ax in their life, nor had their plaid shirts ever seen a speck of sawdust in their life.

  I headed back east to Windswan at two p.m. and the sun had already started its trip down to the horizon in my rear-view mirror. December was only a few days away, and seven hours of daylight was soon going to be the norm. Before I headed back to the cabin, I decided to stop in at the library and check out some more books. I had avoided Marion’s Scottish highlander sex books, favoring the coldness of detective novels. I had felt way too many emotions lately and was doing my best to keep things bottled up deep inside.

  “Hi, Jack,” Marion smiled and leaned on the counter as I walked in. I shook the snow off my wool hat, “Hi, Marion. Is there a free computer?”

  “Sure is.” She pointed to the bank of empty computers. “You know where they are.”

  I thanked her and settled into one of the computer stations. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself and I typed in Emma Hunter. I spent the next two hours poring over the stories she had written, finding myself lost in the same worlds she had immersed herself in. They were mostly political and for such a dry subject, she had a flair for making it interesting. One of her most recent articles was titled, The Dog that Saved the Lake. I clicked on it and saw a picture of a brown lab, sitting on the shore of a small lake, a frisbee hanging from his mouth. Expecting a fluff piece, I settled in to read about this dog named Tripper. A few paragraphs in, my job dropped open. Tripper was my brother’s dog. “Fuck,” I muttered but continued reading. I thought that he had been rolling in piles of money like Scrooge McDuck, bedding models, and having underlings do all his work at the company, but it looked like my baby brother had finally grown up. That article went into detail about the new product line Titan had rolled out, an environmentally friendly line that would actually make the world a better place. From Emma’s article, I clicked over to some other business sites and saw that the changes my brother had made were making waves in the business world. This was the most I had looked into my family for years and seeing that Liam was doing good things with his money, great things actually, made me feel a sense of pride. He was turning the Titan name around.