A Simple Twist of Fate

by HelenKay Dimon

  “I found Beck’s girlfriend going through my things,” Callen said, answering his mother and the shock in her voice. “Seems she wanted to get into this envelope.”

  Beck’s gaze shot to Sophie. “What?”

  She could read and hear his stunned confusion. The promise she made to stop searching. The concerns he spelled out for her. She had to get the words out before his focus shifted and he teamed up against her with Callen. “I can explain.”

  Callen paced the small area in front of his bed. “I’m surprised you waited until today. You’ve had a month to handle this.”

  From Callen’s jerky movements and the sudden frown on their mom’s face Sophie knew she’d lost their trust, violated it. But Beck would understand this was something blown up to feel like something bigger than it was. He knew about the jewelry. He knew this wasn’t an anti-Hanover thing.

  She tried to breathe in and fill her head with oxygen but her words stumbled. She reached for Beck’s hand but it lay limp in hers. “Listen to me.”

  “Let go of him,” Callen shouted.

  Their mother blinked and pulled her oldest back when he would break Sophie’s hold on Beck. “Callen, stop.”

  “Why were you up here? You’re not supposed to be here.” A certain hollowness rang in Beck’s voice as his gaze traveled around the room. It landed on his mother and brother, even the envelope. It glanced over Sophie then skipped away.

  He sided with Callen.

  A sob hiccupped in her chest. Everything she cared about slipped out of her grasp. The powerful surge of relief she’d experienced just a few minutes ago ebbed and she was desperate to mentally hold on.

  “I just needed . . .” Words failed her. Every way she put the sentence together damned her. She was in this room. She did resume her search, if only in a few boxes. She did touch the envelope.

  It all sounded so wrong even though she believed it to be innocent. Beck’s face, with his drawn cheeks and sunken eyes, showed a pain that had her closing her eyes.

  “Sophie, say something.” The words ground out of him on a harsh whisper.

  She stared at him again. He offered a way out but she didn’t know how to take it. Every explanation contained a “yes, but . . .” and there was no way Callen would give her the second to say everything she needed to say. Not that she even knew what those words were right now. Her brain went blank and her body numb.

  Callen let out another string of profanity. “You want to hear another lie from her? No thanks.”

  Beck took the envelope from Callen and held it in front of Sophie. “Did you touch this?”

  She glanced at Callen and his scowl all but dared her to say no. “Yes, but not how you think.”

  “You promised me.” Beck was the one cutting her off now. He leaned in closer, blocking out the room behind him. “We talked about this. I don’t understand. Why would you be near that envelope?”

  “It was a spur of the moment thing.” It sat there and she saw it. She’d never touched it before and never would have opened it now. But those were empty words when faced with the horror of Beck’s dead eyes. The spark had all but extinguished.

  “What kind of answer is that?” Beck was every bit the lawyer now, listening and ripping apart her responses before they could even form in her head.

  She swallowed back the hard ball of panic rising in her throat. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Nothing—”

  “That’s even worse, Sophie. Come on. I mean, are you really here for the envelope? Damn it.” Beck shook his head then turned away.

  The cut shredded her. Her heart that had been so full for him deflated. The pain mixed with the blankness inside her until the darkness closed in.

  Called stopped pacing right in front of her. “Your story is a moving target. But you were compelling, I’ll give you that. Most of the people screwing with us hide it. You walked right through the front door and did it.”

  “Okay.” Their mother walked into the middle of the fray. The color had leeched from her face. “We should go downstairs and calm down so we can talk this through.”

  “There is nothing else to say.” Callen kept his attention focused solely on Sophie. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

  His mother’s mouth dropped open. “Callen!”

  Beck said nothing and that told Sophie everything. The hope, the belief in him, died. The argument was silly and stupid, but with his family’s background and all the betrayals handed to them by Charlie, everything became magnified and open to question. The way she came into the house and getting caught in Callen’s room made her an understandable target. All those doubts spun and grew into this mass. It choked her and messed with Beck.

  He talked of separating parts of people’s lives. He saw things a certain way. And she may have blown her one chance to make him believe.

  But she couldn’t stand there. She had to get out. Think. Regroup. With one last glance at Beck, she wiped her hands on her jeans. “I’ll go. We can talk later.”

  A hand touched her arm and Beck pinned her with a blank expression. “Just make me understand.”

  “Don’t bother,” Callen said.

  This time he was probably right. “I’m sorry.”

  And now she knew what heartbreak felt like.

  ***

  Silence screamed through the room as soon as Sophie stepped into the hall and out of sight. Callen wanted to close his eyes and forget all of this. Really wanted to take that envelope and shred it before it caused one more minute of damage.

  Words and arguments formed in his head but jammed up when he saw Beck’s face. Callen shook his head. Damn it, he’d been right. Beck loved Sophie and now the fallout of her lying would be ugly and harsh.

  Callen knew he should say something but this shit was not his thing. He’d messed up with Declan and Leah and tried to stay out of Beck’s screwed-up sex life for as long as he could. Give a warning and then prepare to do some digging if he had to step in.

  That had been the plan. Then his mom came to town and the focus shifted. Now Beck would pay the price for Callen not going with his instincts from the start.

  Their mom broke the silence. Her gaze traveled between her sons. “What is wrong with you two?”

  “I said what I needed to say. Sophie had to go and she’s gone.” Guilt smashed into him but Callen pushed it out of his head.

  She did this. Not him. She broke Beck’s heart, or whatever the hell was happening behind his fallen face. He stood there, staring at the wall and not saying anything. Callen couldn’t remember the last time Beck didn’t have a comment or an opinion.

  “Your behavior was appalling.” His mother grabbed Callen’s arm and turned him to face her. “Since when do you talk to women like that?”

  The smart-ass comment, always sitting right there ready, slipped out. “I guess you missed a few years. Maybe you don’t know me so well anymore. “

  She pulled back as if he’d slapped her. “Callen, you’ve got to—”

  “What?”

  She shook her head and went to stand in front of Beck. “And you?”

  “Not now, Mom.” He put up a hand and turned away.

  She was having none of that. “Beckett Lane Hanover, you love that woman. You go after her right now and apologize.”

  A new emotion finally crossed his face. He’d gone from confused to angry to blank. Now his gaze narrowed. “Me?”

  But Beck didn’t deny the love part. Callen hated that. Looked like the responsibility fell on his shoulders to clean up the mess. Sophie did the snooping but he handled the aftermath. He did it for the right reasons—because Beck couldn’t and shouldn’t have to—and Beck wasn’t ready to step in yet.

  That meant Callen was still up. Someone had to make this right for Beck and Callen vowed to do that. “Why him?”

  His mom’s eyes widened. “She
is his girlfriend—”

  “Was.” Callen hoped to hell that was true.

  “—and he didn’t stick up for her. He didn’t give her a chance to talk or explain.”

  As far as Callen was concerned Sophie had numerous chances and blew them all. “That woman is a damn liar.”

  “If you two didn’t see the look on her face, if you really didn’t get how hurt she was, then I did do something wrong raising you.”

  No, Callen wouldn’t take on that one and couldn’t let Beck go there. Not even for a second. “Beck, this is better. I know you wanted her to be, but she wasn’t the right one for you.”

  But Beck wasn’t listening. He headed for the door, knocking into the rocking chair and almost missing the doorway as he went. “I’m going out.”

  Callen had to follow the guy to make sure he didn’t fall down the steps while in his stupor. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  His mother stepped in front of him right when he would have gone after Beck. “Stop.”

  “Why?”

  “I have a few things to say to you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Beck stood on the second-floor landing and tried to work all the pieces out. Sophie had lied and spun stories about the jewelry when she really planned to go after Callen. How could that be? It didn’t make any sense, not in light of her being with him. If she wanted to work some angle on Callen, she should have gone straight for Callen.

  Beck couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Sophie, the woman who came alive in bed and smiled at him with those sexy eyes, playing some elaborate con. His steps stumbled and he leaned against the bannister. He would not go after her.

  He repeated those words as he ran down the stairs and pushed the front door open. Sunlight fell over the front yard and warm air hit his face.

  He ignored everything except the woman standing with her head bowed and her hand balanced against the driver’s side of her car. He vowed not to be taken in. He wouldn’t let the way her shoulders slumped in defeat win him over. Not again. He already fell for her act once. Now he needed to know why she even bothered to play the game.

  With a few long steps, he reached her. She turned with a look of open-mouthed surprise right as he reached her. “Just tell me Cal was wrong. That you weren’t in his room.”

  It was the last thing he meant to say. He intended to go in strong, not give her an out. Instead, he walked her to the edge of an excuse and now she’d take it.

  “I was.”

  The brutal honesty sent a punch of pain to his throat. He swallowed hard to talk over the aching from his head to his stomach. “For God’s sake, why?”

  “You texted about the run-in with Kristin Accord and I thought Cal was out of the house.”

  Those things had nothing to do with each other. Beck tried to tie them together in his mind so he could see her point, but the words didn’t make sense. “You think that makes it okay?”

  “Of course not. I’m just trying to explain the pieces.”

  He rested a palm against the car by her shoulder. “I don’t understand. What you’re doing, what you’re saying. I don’t get any of it.”

  “I went to grab a box and I screwed up.” The words rushed out of her as her gaze bounced to her feet, to her hands and then to his face. “The envelope was right there and I picked it up. That’s it.”

  She did not just say that. His mind rebelled. She knew what secrets did to him. She knew how big a deal the envelope was and how it ripped him apart not to have it open and the information out and handled. She knew because he spilled it all. He told her. And yet she passed it off now like none of it mattered.

  The ache spread throughout his body. “That’s it? That’s your answer.”

  “No, I mean—”

  He couldn’t listen to another dismissal. “You weren’t even supposed to be on that floor. That means you went looking for the envelope.”

  “No, not true.” She rested her hand against his stomach as she shook her head. “That part happened in this weird rush. I touched the envelope right as the door slammed open. Then Callen stood there and started yelling. Everything runs together after that.”

  Those facts didn’t make any sense either. She’d have no reason to be in that room unless she went for the envelope.

  Doubts crashed over Beck. This turned out to be one more time when people promised him one thing and delivered another. He lived with that vicious cycle for so long. Like most other shitty things in his life, all thanks to Charlie.

  Beck tried to shove out the reality that she might be one more person to betray him. He’d always been able to look ahead and ignore the stares and the rumors, all the allegations and the very real panic he could be blamed for his father’s sins. Hell, he became a lawyer to help make sense of the nonsense. To play a role in finding solutions.

  But nothing in his lifetime of fighting and taking hits compared to the hollow emptiness burrowing through him now. “Why are you lying to me?”

  Her eyes widened. “I’m not. Please believe that.”

  “You lied to me about searching. You sat on that swing and promised me you would stop.”

  Her fingers clenched his T-shirt, balling it in her fist. “It was one box.”

  He didn’t even know what she was talking about. “You say that like it makes sense.”

  “Leah told me—”

  “Stop.” No, absolutely not. Sophie had dragged enough of his family down. She would not touch Leah, too. “Do not blame her.”

  “I’m not. I’m just trying to tell you Cal was getting rid of a box. I had to check it first.”

  It sounded innocent but it was as if this one puzzle piece didn’t fit together with the rest. They’d been in contact and hadn’t gone long between texting check-ins since they started sleeping together.

  She had every opportunity to come clean at any minute before he walked into Cal’s room and saw her there. She could have told him beforehand or when she walked into Cal’s room. She never tried. She got caught and now fumbled with talk about boxes and . . . “You searched instead of talking to me.”

  Her body stiffened. “What?”

  “We texted each other all fucking day but you didn’t think to touch the phone before you broke a promise. Hell, Sophie. If there was something urgent you could have told me. I would have helped you search if it was so important.”

  “You were with your mom.”

  Sophie didn’t even look at him while she said it. The voice pleaded but the words meant nothing.

  “Jesus, Sophie. Stop.” He put his hand over hers and ripped his shirt out of her hand.

  “No.” She grabbed on to his fingers instead. “Please listen to me.”

  He stepped back, needing a few feet of space. Needed to establish a no-touch zone. Her pale face and dead eyes tugged at him. He’d never seen her so lifeless or her mouth so drawn.

  But he didn’t trust his instincts when it came to her. Not anymore. He looked at her, even now, after everything, and still wanted to hold her. The words begging her to show him how this was some big mistake sat right there. He had to fight them back.

  “Was it all a load of shit? I mean, did I fall for some sort of line?” That’s what he needed to know. Just how far from reality had he gone?

  If possible, her face fell even further as her skin turned from white to gray. “What are you talking about?”

  Birds sang and the leaves rustled as a breeze blew through. Beck only cared about one thing—finding some bit of truth in her story. “You kept saying you had one secret and it wasn’t even yours. Was that true?”

  “Of course.”

  “Because it sure as hell feels like hiding things is some sort of second job to you.” And he never saw it until now. He knew she had a secret and kept things from him at the beginning, but he never believed she was a dan
ger. Now he knew she held a power over him and could drive him to his knees.

  He’d been falling for her and she’d been busy working on something else.

  It fucking sucked.

  Her hands finally dropped to her sides. “You think I was doing something else in Cal’s room?”

  God, he didn’t want to but he did. “Yes, Sophie. I do.”

  “Like what?”

  “You tell me. We were all over each other, and you tell me this huge thing that connects to Charlie and I do everything I can to hold my temper and not let it taint what we had.” Keeping his head on after that had been hard, but he’d done it. Now he regretted his control. “Then this.”

  “This is nothing.”

  After all this time, all the talks and things they shared, she still didn’t get him at all. “Lying to me is everything.”

  Her teeth clenched as color rushed back into her cheeks. “Stop using that word.”

  “Then tell me what else to say. Just spit it out. If nothing else is going on, why back out of your promise so soon after making it? You knew it was important to me. We . . .” He would not beg. He refused to beg but it was right there in his voice. “Make me understand.”

  She shook her head. “It was about a box and not thinking. Nothing more. I made a simple mistake.”

  The life drained right of him. All those stupid plans he’d started making about having Sweetwater be his home base and cutting down on the work travel so he could spend more time with her. It all vanished in a flash.

  “Yeah, so did I.” Because he had to get out of there, he made his legs move.

  “Where are you going?”

  He couldn’t even look at her. “Back into my house. I’ll mail your final check.”

  ***

  Callen stood in the middle of his bedroom and stared at the woman he’d tried so hard his entire life to impress but always fell short. She let him go and fell back on the excuse that it was what Charlie wanted. As if anything he said should have mattered on any subject.

  But it was time for every single secret to be out and explored. Callen was tired of the lying and sneaking around. He didn’t want to guess or hide. He’d finally found a home at Shadow Hill. The walls sometimes closed in and the constant stream of people made quiet tough to find, but he loved it and didn’t want anything tainting it.