“That is the truth,” he insisted.
“If you don’t, I will,” Bianca told him, one brow raised.
“What’s going on, Son?” Jacob asked, stepping up next to Blythe.
“I…” He looked at Bianca and then his father and then back to Blythe. His eyes fell to the ground, no words coming out of his mouth.
“Say it,” Blythe demanded, already piecing together the truth but not wanting to believe it.
“Blythe, I—”
“Say it!”
When the answer came, it wasn’t from Asher, but from Bianca. Her voice took the entire room by surprise. “You were the girl he mugged, weren’t you?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Blythe ran through the church, holding the bottom of her dress up to keep from tripping, though it didn’t seem to help as she stumbled for a second time. She hurried down the stairs, her makeup running, hair a frazzled mess. She had to get out of there. Had to get as far away as possible.
How could she have been so stupid? How could she have trusted a man who’d hurt her so badly? She carried her mother’s necklace with a firm grasp. She’d never let go of it again if she had anything to say about it.
Stopping dead in her tracks as she stepped out of the large double doors, she let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a cry.
As fast as his legs would carry him through the parking lot across from the church, Finn ran toward her. His hair flopped with each step, his mouth open as he sucked in deep breaths. The tux he’d worn was disheveled from the exertion, but nothing else mattered. He’d come for her. He was running to her. He’d chosen to fight at the very last moment it could matter. As his eyes met hers, a sorrowful look on his face, he froze. “Please…tell me…you…haven’t married him,” he said, huffing out breaths as he bent over his knees.
“I thought you weren’t coming?” she asked softly, walking toward him.
“I couldn’t let you do it, Blythe. Can’t. Tell me…tell me you didn’t.”
She shook her head, reaching him finally. His eyes grew serious as he seemed to notice her tears. “I didn’t marry him,” she confirmed.
“You’re crying. What’s the matter?” he asked, taking her in his arms. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she admitted, her voice cracking. “Can we just…go somewhere? Anywhere?”
“Where would you like to go?” he asked.
“Literally anywhere but here.”
He walked around the car, pulling open the car door without another word and helping her climb inside. Once they were on the road, he looked at her again.
“What did he do?” he asked.
She bit her lip. How much was she ready to talk about? Truth be told, with anyone else, she would’ve said nothing. But this was Finn. Finn, who seemed to pull the truth out of her even when she wasn’t ready to admit it to herself.
“Asher’s the man who mugged me on the day we met.” She picked at a piece of skin around her fingernail as she said the words.
He let out a soft growl that caused her to look up. Much to her surprise, he didn’t look shocked.
“You knew?”
He shook his head, lowering his brow. “No, of course not. But I should have.” His lips formed a tight, thin line as his fingers rolled over the steering wheel as if his grip was around Asher’s neck instead.
“What are you talking about? How could you have known?”
“Is that necklace special to you?” he asked.
“It’s all I have left of my mother,” she said, running her fingers over the jewels. She could picture the many nights she’d spent waiting for the day it would get handed down to her, and the night it finally had, just before prom. “It was in my bag…it was the most important thing in my bag.”
“Asher’s always been a thief,” Finn said frankly. “When we were kids, it was just petty stuff. Candy, magazines, whatever. But as we got older, it became more serious. He stole a car once. At least once that I know of, anyway. He’d dine and dash all the time. Steal expensive gifts for his girlfriends.”
“But…I don’t understand. He’s rich. Why would he need to steal?”
He shrugged. “It’s like…I don’t know, a rush for him. A high without a needle. He’d have a bad day, and it was his way of blowing off steam. He wanted to have something of his own. His own money, his own stuff. Truth be told, that’s probably why he didn’t want to date you exclusively. He wants to collect whatever he can. He wants everything.”
“But random muggings? Really?”
“I guess he’s upped his game. Around the time I went away, he’d gotten into some trouble for beating this kid in a parking lot over his wallet. The wallet had less than one hundred dollars in it. I tried to convince Asher to get help then. Rehab. Something. But…he just kept getting worse. Jack would always get him out of trouble, so he never had to face his own consequences.”
“That’s what he was talking about, then,” she said, seeing it all come together. “Jack said he’d chosen Asher over you. Is that because he saved him from his crimes but couldn’t help you?”
Finn shook his head. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“But why would Asher want to date me? Marry me, even. Do you think he recognized me?”
“Honestly, Blythe, I have no idea. I don’t see the point in that, but I don’t know him anymore. He was a brother to me a long time ago, but he’s practically a stranger to me now. I have no idea what’s going on in his mind.”
“If I hadn’t seen this necklace, I’d be married right now. To someone who’d spent our entire relationship lying to me. I can’t…” She took a deep breath, clutching her chest. “I can’t believe how well he hid that part of himself from me. Am I just a complete idiot? Bianca knew. His father knew. You knew.” She shook her head, her eyes wild.
“You aren’t an idiot, Blythe. There are two very different sides to Asher, and he does well at keeping them separate. It’s just like any other addiction, and he hid it from you because he didn’t want you to see the bad parts of himself.”
“Is that why you hid going to jail from me? To keep the version I see of you clean?”
He twisted his mouth in thought, turning the car onto a new street and sighing. “Blythe, I don’t want to lie to you.”
“So, don’t.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not innocent,” he said, placing his hand in the air. “I’m not. When Asher started stealing, I tried to get him to stop. But he was the rich kid and I was the one who grew up with nothing except what his parents could give me, so there were times when I joined in. He had all of this nice stuff to give to girls. I wanted that too. I never stole a car or anything that crazy, but I’m just saying…I’m not a white knight here.”
“I don’t expect you to—”
“Just…just listen, okay?” he said softly. “I need to get this out because what I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told another person. I’ve never spoken it out loud.”
“What is it?” she asked, sensing the seriousness of his tone.
“One night after school, we went to this bar using fake IDs that Asher had scored for us from some friend of his father’s. We thought we were hot shit, walking in there like we belonged.” He scoffed. “Later that night, he found me at the bar. He had two girls that he said we were going to party with. They were older. Twenties, I guess. He said we could go back to their apartment.” He rolled his eyes. “As we were leaving, Asher had the girls wait out front and told them we had to get something first. I thought he’d stolen from them and we were about to leave. He had been texting all night, but I didn’t think much of it until we got to the corner of the alley and his dealer was there.” He spoke slowly, contorting his mouth as she watched him attempt not to lose his composure. “He owed him some money, but he thought he could score something to hold him over. Asher wasn’t used to being told no.”
“But the Graces are rich. Why w
ouldn’t he just pay him?”
“Asher was too proud to ask his dad for money when things got tough. It’s why he doesn’t work for him. He benefited from their wealth, but he always wanted to do things his way. He didn’t work through most of college, so money was scarce. His parents paid his bills, but he blew through allowances as quickly as they came and wouldn’t ask for more.”
“So what happened?” she asked, her mouth open as she listened in disbelief to the nightmare Finn was laying out. “With the dealer?”
“I told Asher he was crazy. I told him we didn’t need anything and that we should call his dad and get it all paid off before anything had to happen. The dealer was furious. Asher had wasted his time coming there with no money and asking for more. I couldn’t let him do it.”
“That was the dealer that you killed? For Asher?”
He wouldn’t look at her as he went on. “I never killed him. I offered to pay him. I told him I’d borrow the money from Asher’s parents myself if I had to. I wanted to go warn the girls to leave, in case the guy got too mad. He wasn’t having it. Asher owed him a lot of money, and he said we weren’t leaving until we paid him what Asher owed. I knew Asher smoked weed and took a few pills now and again, but I had no idea what all he was into.”
“So, what happened?”
“He pulled a gun on me, told me to shut up or he’d kill me. Asher lunged at him—like an idiot—and the gun went off. His head hit the wall. Just like that and it was over.” He snapped his fingers. “I always thought death would be more dramatic but he was just…gone.”
“Asher killed him?”
He nodded. “Protecting me.”
“From a situation he caused. You shouldn’t have gone to jail for that.” She paused. “Wait a second, that’s what Jacob meant, isn’t it? He chose Asher over you.”
Finn sighed. “We didn’t have a choice. The gun went off and people were coming, so we ran. We ran like hell, and we made it away that night. But the girls told police that we’d been down that alley. When they came looking for us, wanting to know what had happened…Jack made me a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” she asked.
“I took the blame for everything. Said Asher wasn’t involved.”
“But why?”
“Because he promised to take care of my mom.”
“Your mom?” She swallowed, her throat tight. After all Jacob had said about Finn’s parents, why would Finn want to take care of them?
“Judging by that expression, you must know she was never parent-of-the-year material, but she tried, Blythe. She really did. When she was sober. When she wasn’t getting the crap beaten out of her by my old man.”
“So, you signed away your life to protect your parents? Just like that?”
“Not just like that. It took some convincing. But I was loyal to Asher. He’d saved my life. If it weren’t for him, I may not have even had a life to sign away.”
“If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.”
“Maybe so,” he admitted. “But it is what it is.”
“And Asher was okay with that? He just let you go away for what he’d done?”
“Jack hired the best possible lawyer. He fought for me. I don’t know what Asher knew. Jack told me he was going to send him out of state for college, that he’d tell him he was taking care of everything. He thought Asher may try to stop him if he knew the truth.”
“Do you think he would’ve?” At least there was a speck of goodness in the man she’d almost married.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I honestly don’t. I’d like to think so.”
“But…why wouldn’t you warn me about him? Why would you let me marry him?”
“I didn’t want you to think I was telling you not to be with him for selfish reasons. There was no way I could tell you to leave him, tell you any of this, and not have you thinking it was because I wanted you for myself. I wanted you to want to be with me because I was who you liked, not because I’d painted Asher in a bad light and aired out his secrets. And, besides, as far as I knew, Asher had turned his life around. I kept in contact with Jacob over the years. Getting out of New York was supposed to have really worked well for Asher. He’d been out of trouble all this time. I chose to believe that night changed him.”
“I can’t believe this,” she said, the weight of the story hitting her. How on earth could anyone hide this much of who they were? How could Asher have held onto this secret for so long? She could see the weight Finn still carried—the guilt. “It’s not your fault, you know. He saved you because he put you in a horrible situation. He’s not a good person, Finn. He’s not. If not for him, think about how different your life could’ve been.”
“I don’t know,” he said, the slyness to his voice back. “I kind of like my life now. Besides, if not for him, I’d never have met you.”
She grimaced at the thought but looked down at the necklace. She couldn’t thank Asher for bringing Finn into her life, but she could thank her mother. Her mother who had led her to New York, had brought Finn into her life the day the necklace had been torn from her grasp, and her mother who, on the day she was set to make the biggest mistake of her life, had shown up one last time to reveal the truth. She raised the necklace to her chest, hugging it and wishing she could feel her mother’s arms around her neck once more. Thank you, Mama.
“Speaking of,” she said, going back to his last words, “were you just planning to hang around outside in case I changed my mind?”
“A guy can hope, can’t he?” He smiled sadly, reaching for her hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, his tone serious.
She felt a small tear trickle down her cheek. She wasn’t okay. Of course she wasn’t. The plan she had for her life just an hour ago, had been ripped to shreds in front of her eyes. But at least she knew the truth. At least she knew before it was too late. “I will be,” she promised. “Thanks to you.”
“Me?”
“My getaway driver,” she said with a half laugh. “And the man I can always seem to count on.”
“Hey, as long as I don’t have to ride in on a white horse or anything.”
She snorted, spying the wink he offered. “I think a black Hyundai works just as well.”
“Well, this is just a rental, so enjoy it while it lasts.”
She smirked, though everything that had happened was still darkening the corners of her mind. How would she ever survive this? Still, at seeing the hopeful grin on his face, she tried to make light of a horrible day. “Until the stroke of midnight. Sounds familiar.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Back in the city, the couple returned the car and headed back toward Blythe’s apartment. Before they arrived, Finn stopped on the sidewalk. He glanced around, looking up to the sky.
“Hey, I have an idea.”
“What kind of idea?” she asked.
“Do you want to do something crazy?”
“You mean besides running out on my wedding? I’m kind of crazy-ed out for the day.” She gestured toward her wedding dress, now brown on the bottom from the dirty streets.
“I know, I know. Just bear with me, okay? I promise it’ll be worth it.”
She looked down at her dress, sighing dramatically. “Okay, fine, but if we get weird looks, I blame you.”
“Why would we get weird looks?” he asked, pulling her across the street as the traffic broke.
“Because we look like we’ve just gotten married,” she said.
“So, let’s pretend we have.” He smiled back at her. “Might be fun, huh?”
She gawked at him. “Might be insane.”
He took the necklace from her hand, stopping on the crowded sidewalk to place it around her neck. She ran her fingers along the jewels as he moved back in front of her, his eyes locked with hers. “I don’t care what people think if you don’t,” he whispered, placing a finger under her chin.
“I don’t,” she agreed, her lips quiv
ering.
“Okay, then.”
He turned back around, continuing to lead her across busy streets and down crowded sidewalks. She followed along, only halfway paying attention to where they were headed. All she could think about was his hand in hers. When they reached their destination, the Empire State Building, she had to stop herself from letting out a laugh. “Are you serious?” she asked, balking at the suggestion.
“Have you done anything remotely touristy since you moved here?” he challenged.
“No,” she admitted.
“Exactly. Every New Yorker should go here at least once. It’s a rite of passage.”
She smiled as he led her into the building. Truth be told, the Empire State Building was always a place she’d dreamed of going, but she’d been too intimidated by the long lines and crowds around the entrance. It was obvious Finn had been there before as he purchased their tickets and pulled her into the line that had begun to dwindle. A few of the people waiting smiled at them dotingly as if they were puppies or newborns rather than full-grown adults.
Blythe smiled back, keeping one hand on her mother’s necklace around her neck. It felt good to have it back and amazing to be wearing it again. Oh, how she wished her mother could see her then.
As they reached the eighty-sixth floor, Blythe stepped out onto the observation deck, her jaw dropping. It was a place that was familiar to her only because of the many movies and TV shows she’d seen it on, and yet it felt like she’d been there not so long ago.
In every direction, the beautiful lights of the city could be seen, far above the hustle and bustle of the streets. Finn followed her lead, walking behind her as she took in the view. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It’s…amazing,” she said, feeling completely awestruck. The view gave a whole new meaning to breathtaking.
“There is so much of New York that I want to show you,” he said, leaning down so his mouth was near her ear as they both stared into their city’s views.
The Better Choice Page 14