The Deception

by Nikki Sloane

  It was late when we’d climbed into bed, and Royce had fallen right to sleep, and although I was tired, there was a nagging at the back of my mind that would not be quiet. It told me if I didn’t draw the line now, I’d be setting myself up for more lies in the future.

  The disappointment that he hadn’t stayed truthful was hard to swallow, but what could I do? I wasn’t going to ask my sister to talk to Selene’s father about it. Emily wasn’t ready to reach out.

  That meant the only person who knew about it was Macalister. It was only eight-thirty at night in Cape Hill. I debated it for a long while, until the decision was made. I sat up, grabbed my phone off the nightstand, and went out through the sliding door onto the balcony.

  My feet were cold against the deck as I paced back and forth, trying to figure out how to word it. Once I’d finished typing, my finger hovered over the ‘send’ arrow. Was I opening Pandora’s Box by doing this? The need to know what Macalister knew was eating me from the inside.

  Me: Royce says he doesn’t know Dr. Galliat.

  I pictured Macalister on the other side of the ocean, checking his phone and the message bringing an evil smile to his face. This was my honeymoon, and here I was, secretly texting my father-in-law in the middle of the night.

  It was only seconds later that the gray bubble with the three dots popped up, and when the message came through, my blood ran cold.

  Macalister: He’s lying to you.

  Me: How do you know?

  There was no response.

  Not even a bubble, so he wasn’t typing.

  I sighed and leaned my forearms against the top of the balcony railing, looking out at the lights dotting the coast of Monaco while the ocean wind whipped through my hair. My gaze went to the now dark screen of the phone in my hands, and the two rings glinted back. One from Royce and one from Macalister. Which one was the liar?

  When the phone vibrated, I nearly dropped it to the deck below but managed to hang on. I unlocked the screen and blinked in confusion. What was I looking at? I rotated the phone to landscape and zoomed in. It was a $100,000 check issued to Dr. Brandon Galliat from RMH Industries, LLC—for consulting work, according to the memo field.

  I started typing a response to ask what I was looking at, but Macalister’s next reply rolled in.

  Macalister: RMH is one of the shell corporations Royce uses to buy stock.

  My stomach twisted in knots. Even before I read the next line, I knew he was telling the truth.

  Macalister: It’s his initials.

  It was fresh in my memory, since four days ago I had become Mrs. Royce Macalister Hale.

  I peered at the screen capture for a long time, willing the letters to change and make it untrue. I tried to make sense of it. What kind of consulting would Royce’s sham company need from a psychology professor from an all-women’s college?

  I threw open the sliding door so hard, it slammed against the track stop, and Royce stirred. He blinked his bleary eyes at me when I clicked on the overhead lights.

  “Wake up,” I snapped.

  He could tell by my tone something was seriously wrong, and he bolted upright, coming fully awake in an instant. The covers were gathered around his waist, and he pushed them down so he could stand, wearing just a pair of underwear. He gazed at me from the other side of the bed, taking in the short silk nightgown I wore and the cold fury burning on my face.

  “What’s wrong?” He couldn’t have sounded more worried if he’d tried.

  “Tell me again about Dr. Galliat and how you don’t have a relationship with him.”

  His shoulders pulled back, and his shields went up. “Marist, what on earth?”

  “Why did RMH Industries cut him a check for a hundred grand?”

  It took a moment for the gravity of my question to sink in, and it was like I’d shot him. Royce’s knees folded, and he sat at the edge of the bed, no longer able to look at me. He let out an enormous sigh. “I lied to you.”

  “No, fucking, shit. Tell me what the money was for.” I prayed I was wrong, that it was just a terrible coincidence.

  Royce leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. “I had to be sure. My dad had such a hard-on for me marrying Emily.” He scrubbed his face, turned his head, and gave me a devastating look. “I didn’t want her. I wanted you.”

  He wasn’t going to say it, so I did it for him. “You paid him to get her pregnant.”

  His guilty expression confirmed it. “Sophia found out who she was dating, and it wasn’t hard to convince him. If it worked, I promised him I’d look after her.”

  For a split second, I considered telling him his money had been wasted. Emily had confessed to me the night of the initiation she’d wanted to avoid the Hales so badly, she’d tried to get pregnant herself.

  But if I told Royce that, it would be like letting him off the hook, and he’d done a terrible thing. He was a true Olympian god now, meddling with the mortal world and not caring what havoc it caused.

  “You fucked with her life,” I cried. “Do you get that? You changed the course of it forever. And she almost fucking died. For what?”

  He rose and faced me directly, and his eyes were two cauldrons over the fires of war. “So you could be my wife!”

  I stared at him with total disbelief.

  His swift, deliberate footsteps brought him closer until we were chest to chest. “Everything I have done—every fucking move I made—was to bring us together. I’m sorry I lied to you. It’s not an excuse, but I was ashamed, and I knew if I told you, you’d look at me exactly the way you are right now.”

  He jammed a hand in his messy hair and stared off into the distance, trying to organize the thoughts in his head. “I warned you before this was all over, you might think I was worse than my father.”

  "Don’t you dare try to—”

  He was determined to finish. “I’m sorry your sister was part of my contingency plan, but I was desperate by then and out of options. I’m not proud of what I did, but—shit—I had to do it. It was win at all costs.” His hands were rough around my waist, hauling me up against him. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I had to, Marist. As long as I got you in the end.”

  My heart split in two. One half swelled at hearing his declaration, and the other wanted to stomp all over it. I pushed against his bare chest, but he didn’t move, and it made me stumble back a step.

  Was this why he’d been so attentive to Emily? He’d confessed to me once he didn’t care about my family. Had everything he’d done for my sister been out of guilt?

  My emotions made my throat raw and sapped the strength from my voice. “Stop telling me what you think I want to hear.”

  “I’m not. It’s the truth.”

  “How can I believe that? You said we wouldn’t lie to each other—but you did.”

  His frame hardened, and the muscle along his jaw ticked. It restrained his biting tone. “Because you’ve been nothing but honest with me, right?”

  Oh, no. My gaze plummeted to my toes like it was made of lead.

  “Yeah, I thought so.” He sighed. “He’s been dropping comments for months, hinting there was something you weren’t telling me. So, what is it?”

  I hugged my arms around myself. Part of me was relieved to finally get the truth out, but I dreaded it too. “Our first night in Aspen,” I said slowly, “when you went down on me. Your dad walked in on us, and . . . he watched.”

  I raised my tentative gaze back to Royce, not wanting to see his reaction but knowing I deserved whatever was waiting for me.

  His expression was blank. Too guarded for anything to leak out, but his stare was piercing. “He watched us have sex?”

  “No, it was only for a minute.” I shifted uncomfortably on my feet and frowned. “I’d been telling him for weeks I only wanted you, but he wouldn’t stop. So, when he came in, I foolishly thought I’d show him.”

  Displea
sure smeared across my husband’s face, but he didn’t appear that angry with me. Perhaps he was thinking unfortunately it wasn’t the first time his father had witnessed us together, or maybe the basic, competitive male drive inside him responded to it. He’d shown his father which Hale I’d chosen, who had won.

  “But it backfired.” My voice was empty. “He held it over my head and forced me into another deal.”

  That stopped Royce cold. “What’d you do?”

  “He made me watch Alice’s punishment and listen to her apology.” There was no soft or elegant way to say it. “And to punish her, she had to go down on him and then he came on her face.”

  “What?” It took forever for the words to sink it.

  “I didn’t want to be there, but he threatened everything would go back to how it was before. You know, after you’d sold me to him.”

  “You watched my dad get a blowjob?” He grimaced. “That’s fucked up, Marist.”

  It was, but he wasn’t being fair. I’d done it and worse so we could be together. My eyes went so wide with fury, they nearly burst from my head. “Not nearly as much as your family’s fucked up initiation, Royce.”

  Anger tightened his eyes to slits. “I’ve told you that’s the first thing I’m going to change when I’m chairman.”

  There was a meanness growing in me that was frightening, but I was powerless to stop it. Opening Macalister’s text message had been Pandora’s Box, and all the evils spilled out.

  “But why?” I mocked. “Is it because when Vance joins the board, you’ll already know what Jillian’s pussy tastes like?”

  He flinched. “Okay, first, that was years ago. And second, if you think I’d put anyone else through what we had to do, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

  I was, though. My seams tore open as I unraveled. Everything was falling apart.

  “You know what’s the worst part?” Tears welled in my eyes. “He told me he loved me, and you haven’t. I’m your wife, and you still haven’t.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I lifted my hand to stop him. “And if you said it now? How could I believe you?”

  His eyes trapped mine, refusing to let go. “You may not believe me, but paying off Emily’s professor is the only lie I’ve ever told you when it was just us. I swear.”

  He sounded so sincere, and I longed to believe him, but my mind refused. We’d begun as fiction and become real, but he’d let this lie live between us since the start. All the trust he’d built back up after the awful night he’d sold me to his father was shattered.

  Oh, God. What if everything Macalister had been telling me from the beginning was true, and everything from his son was a lie?

  “Where are you going?” he called, chasing after me as I hurried from the room and down the narrow hallway.

  “I’ll sleep on one of the couches in the living room.”

  “Fuck, no, you won’t. Come back to bed, and let’s talk about it.”

  I gave him a death glare. “I need to be alone right now.”

  He gave a sigh of frustration, and when he pinched the bridge of his nose, my focus landed on the wedding band. It hurt. That ring was the prize he’d wanted and gotten at my sister’s expense.

  “Fine. I’ll sleep out here,” he said. “You take the room.”

  I gave a short nod and headed back the way we’d just come, while he stood statue still. But I paused in the hallway with my back turned when he abruptly spoke.

  “This is what he wants,” he said. “Don’t let him do this to us.”

  My memory drifted back to the night he’d sold me and how I’d pleaded with him as he’d walked away. It had wounded me deeply how he hadn’t given me a response then, or even turned to look back at me, but now I had cruel insight as the roles were reversed.

  If I said anything or so much as looked at him, I’d break down completely. The only way to survive was to get the hell out of the room.

  So, I did.

  FIFTEEN

  Breakfast was served outside under the shade of the top deck, and although the view was spectacular, all I could see was Royce in his white polo shirt and jeans, picking at the fruit salad on his plate.

  I was sure the crew had noticed he’d slept on the couch last night and they had picked up on the tension running between us. Maybe they’d overheard some of our argument and were gossiping to each other. But they were professional and discreet, and because they were so good at their jobs, most of the time I forgot they were there.

  “I didn’t sleep last night,” I announced.

  Royce’s gaze turned to me, his voice going soft. “Yeah, me neither.”

  “The upside is it gave me some perspective. You’re right, I don’t want your father to come between us. We’re stronger together.” I put my elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Aspen. I’d stupidly thought if he just saw us, maybe he’d leave us alone. The thing with Alice . . . he manipulated me into staying, and I’m ashamed I let him.” I pulled my eyebrows together, struggling to put the words together. “What I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry I lied to you.”

  The way he looked at me was heartbreaking. “God, Marist. Me too. I’m sorry I lied, and I’m sorry for what I did to disrupt Emily’s life.”

  “You have to tell her,” I said. “She needs to know before she lets him back into her life. I mean, when he found out she was pregnant, he offered her five thousand dollars to get rid of the baby.”

  After Royce had paid him a hundred thousand dollars.

  A scowl swept over him. “I’d told him I’d take care of her, but Jesus.” He blinked and refocused. “Yeah. First thing when we get back, I’ll tell her.”

  “Good.” Anxiety tensed the muscles of my back, making my posture stiff. “I have another request, and you’re probably not going to like it.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’d like to go home, and when we get back to the house, I need to stay in my old room for a while.”

  I’d spent a lot of time last night thinking about this, and my anger had given me clarity, sharp and focused. Like an economist, I identified the problem, forecast scenarios with different variables, and considered the pros and cons of each outcome. I’d been dealing with each obstacle as Macalister had thrown them at me, never thinking two moves ahead like he did.

  That was going to change, starting now.

  Royce held my gaze for an impossibly long moment. “You’re right, I don’t like it. You want to leave our honeymoon? How are we supposed to be together if we—”

  “I love you, Royce, but I’m not very happy with you right now. You put yourself first in everything. You fucked with Emily’s life and my life, so you could get whatever you wanted. You’re even doing it now to Tate.”

  “What?” he scoffed. “Tate’s a big boy. He makes his own decisions.”

  “Right. So, if he suddenly decided he was happy at Ascension and didn’t want to blow the whistle, you wouldn’t do anything that would impact his life?”

  Frustration dragged a sigh from his lungs. “It’s not that simple.”

  “I’m asking for some time away from the orchestration of it all, so I can figure out how to move forward.”

  It was like every bone in his body hated this idea, and the spoiled rich boy who lay dormant in him slipped out. “You know how that’s going to look to him? Canceling our honeymoon and staying in separate rooms?”

  “It’ll look like he won,” I said. “But he hasn’t. I’m still your wife and your partner, and if you care about me, you’ll put my needs above your wants.”

  Both of our phones vibrated in a short burst on the tabletop, and when he flipped his over, we each saw the breaking alert. The Ascension board had voted unanimously to accept HBHC’s offer.

  It should have been a happy moment for him. He’d made a mountain’s worth of money and passed another checkpoint in his plan, which meant he had almost everything he wanted�
��but it wasn’t good enough.

  Resignation flagged in his eyes. “Fine. Let’s go home.”

  Macalister was out of the country when we slipped back into Cape Hill and returned to the house. We told people we’d cut our trip short due to the Ascension takeover, and everyone believed it except for my father-in-law. Adding to his delight, he discovered I’d moved a black pawn on the mythology chess set in the library, answering the opening move he’d made months ago.

  I want to play, Macalister.

  The next morning, I found he’d moved a second piece.

  The first few days back, Royce didn’t know what to do. His hands longed to reach for me, and I craved his touch, but I denied it. It was painfully awkward with my husband, but I reminded myself it was necessary. I had to stick to the plan I’d laid out. One wrong move would make the board change, and my chances of winning would dwindle.

  He made good on his promise. We took Emily out for lunch, and he confessed what he’d done to my sister, her eyes going wide while I bounced Selene on my knee. He’d been anxious about telling her, but she was quick to forgive like I thought she would be. He looked enormously relieved and yet stunned when she announced she’d gotten pregnant on purpose to avoid him.

  “You were such a dick,” she said with a flat smile.

  “Only because I didn’t want you to get attached. I was totally into your sister.”

  Emily’s gaze dropped to Royce’s hand covering mine on the table. “Well, you got her, and I got Selene, so it worked itself out, didn’t it?”

  We were newlyweds and out in public, which meant we had to keep up appearances. It was hard on me, but brutal for him. He didn’t like it or understand why I was keeping myself at such a distance, and I couldn’t tell him. If he knew what I was planning, he’d try to intervene or worse— put a stop to it.