Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Kat shakes her head, lips turned up in a dry smirk. “You haven’t even heard the craziest part yet. Alaine left a trust, which included her French winery, to Sylvie, but there was a clause that said if she died before she turned twenty-one, it would revert to Lionel and Rosemund. Lionel didn’t like that and wasn’t ready to give up that wealth or let his granddaughter be raised by Blackburns. So he tried to poison her.”
I’d been sipping my water as she said that last part and I immediately spew some of it, the rest going down into my lungs upon a sharp inhale. I cough and hack trying to get it up and grab my napkin to wipe my leaking eyes.
When I regain my composure, I focus on Kat with blurry eyes. “He tried to kill his own granddaughter?”
Mouth flattened in disgust, she nods. “And would have gotten away with it too but Gabe found evidence pointing to his dad and turned him into the police. He’s been charged with attempted murder and is on house arrest now.”
“No wonder you love the guy,” I murmur.
“That’s definitely a factor,” she chirps with a grin. “But he’s cut ties with his parents. Rosemund wasn’t involved but she’s sticking by Lionel. Gabe ousted his dad from the Mardraggon board of directors and now he’s running the company.”
“Just… wow.” My head swims with the major changes that have happened in just the past few months.
Kat nods, her expression thoughtful. “It’s been a lot, but we’re stronger for it.”
“And I still can’t get over you and Gabe.” I stir my water with my straw. “Secret romance in college, huh?”
Kat snickers, her eyes twinkling. “Could you imagine what my family would have done had they known Gabe and I were seeing each other?”
Oh, I have some idea. Probably the same shock and possibly condemnation if they’d found out about me and Trey eleven years ago. It’s not lost on me that Kat and I had clandestine first loves that fell apart. The only difference is that she had a second chance with Gabe that worked out.
I want nothing to do with Trey.
Well, that’s not exactly true. I let him give me two orgasms this morning, so that’s something.
I’m more than eaten up with curiosity though. “You didn’t say why you two broke up originally.”
Kat’s expression shutters slightly but she shrugs it off. “He wouldn’t let us tell our families. Didn’t have the courage. And then when one of his cousins was bullying me, he let it happen. I broke it off with him even though he wanted to keep seeing me.”
I nod in understanding. I know all about betrayal. “And yet you forgave him for it?”
She pauses to reflect, gaze going out the window. When she brings those ferny Blackburn eyes back to me, she says, “He’s a different person now. He’s changed. Grown up. Gotten wiser. He made a horrible mistake and he genuinely apologized for it. I chose to believe he meant it and gave it another go, and as I sit here and think about it, I know I made the right decision. The way I figure it, it just wasn’t our time all those years ago. Our time is now.”
I’m stunned by Kat’s practicality as well as her open-mindedness on forgiving Gabe. Trey has apologized to me, but I can’t accept it. Granted, he’s asked for me to sit down and listen to him because he has more to say. Is he going to give me the same line that Gabe gave Kat? That he’s truly a changed man now?
How could I ever believe him?
Maybe the same way Kat believes Gabe.
For a split second, I consider telling Kat about my own secret past with Trey. Of all the people who would understand, it would be her. She lived it too. But the words catch in my throat because I’m not sure I want to hear her advice. I expect after the initial shock, she’d push me to give her brother another chance. Mostly though, the shame of having given in to Trey earlier is too fresh, too raw. I violated my own values by having sex with a man I don’t trust and mostly despise, merely because I wanted to get back at him. I wanted revenge and I was going to get it by letting him have me once, and then shutting the door on him forever.
Instead, I agreed to see him again, in secret, and I’m right back to where it all started.
“Holland,” Kat says, and I jerk at my name, lost in my mixed emotions. “I have to ask… why did you really leave? I mean, you were such a big part of our lives, and then you just vanished. It’s hard to believe it was because you got busy.”