Believe Me (Hearts for Ransom Book 3)

by Evans, Georgia A

  As she scanned the faces of her coworkers and new friends, Claire realized there was only one face she really wanted to see. Mason’s. She knew she was being irrational. It was a Wednesday evening so they wouldn’t have been able to spend much time together anyway. Just because he had eaten dinner with them every day since being released from the hospital didn’t mean they had to spend every waking moment together.

  “Are you okay?” Judy looked concerned. “Do you want me to run home and pick up Zoey? I can bring her here with us.”

  Would having her daughter there help lighten her mood? “No, thank you. I wouldn’t be able to hold her, anyway.” She took a deep breath and sat straighter. “I’m great. Which gift should I open first?”

  Judy laughed. “Don’t look at me. That’s one of the games they’re playing. Remember you drew a number?”

  Claire nodded.

  “Well, I’m the only one who knows what it is. When you open the present that corresponds to the number, whoever the gift is from wins the prize.”

  “Oh.” Claire understood. “So, if I drew a five, the person who gave me the fifth gift I open will win.”

  Judy grinned at her. “I found it in a book I checked out from the library.”

  “Thank you for doing this for me.” Claire knew Judy worked hard to throw her the best shower she could.

  “I’ll start with this one,” she announced loudly enough for her guests to hear. She picked up the brightly wrapped package. When she opened the card, she discovered it was from Annie, one of the women who waitressed at Butlers. Claire handed the card to Judy and unwrapped the gift. It was a matching set of his and hers towels in a beautiful shade of blue.

  “Thank you, Annie.” Claire was touched. If anybody knew how hard Annie worked for the money she’d spent to buy that gift, it was Claire.

  Just as Claire reached for the next gift, a ruckus erupted in the back of the room.

  “You can’t go in there,” the hostess who was on duty at Butlers was telling somebody. ”It’s a private party.”

  “The guest of honor will want this guy in there, I promise.” Claire heard a familiar male voice.

  Emily stood up from where she was sitting and turned around. “Logan! What do you think you’re doing?”

  “See?” he demanded from the hostess. “It’s okay for us to go in there.” He called to his wife, “Isn’t it, Em?”

  There was another jumble of voices and sound before a group of men walked into the room. Claire saw Mason in the middle of them.

  Abby stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Brody Michael Gaines, you’d better have an important reason for crashing Claire’s shower.”

  “I do!” Bo yelled, laughing. “The groom was having a miserable time at his own bachelor party.”

  Mason felt his face warm. He hoped he hadn’t embarrassed Claire or ruined her party. He probably should have thought this through better. It was Bo’s idea, after all.

  Claire’s heart felt lighter immediately. She looked at Judy, who smiled happily at her. “Is it okay with you if Mason stays and helps me open my gifts?”

  Judy rose to her feet and yelled. “If everybody will stand up and move around a little, there are plenty of chairs. Let’s let the men sit with their wives while Mason helps Claire open presents.”

  As a sort of controlled chaos ensued, Mason walked up to Claire.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to ruin your shower.”

  She stood up and put her arms around his neck. “You didn’t ruin it,” she murmured. “I’ve been miserable here without you.”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her soundly. They both forgot where they were until several throats being cleared and giggles broke through the haze. They reluctantly ended their kiss.

  “It’s okay, folks,” Bo announced. “They’re just practicing.”

  Amidst the laughter and small talk of their friends, Mason stood and accepted discarded wrapping paper while Claire opened all sorts of gifts ranging from a new set of pots and pans from Louise Dyer to a nightgown Mason couldn’t wait to see—in this case—through on Claire. Everybody was soon sitting and talking, the women eating pieces of cake and drinking cups of punch while the men enjoyed mugs of beer Logan ordered from the bar.

  “I’m sorry if I ruined the party you threw for Claire,” Mason told Judy, as soon as he had a chance to speak to her alone.

  The pleasant woman blushed as she shook her head. “You didn’t ruin it at all. I think this turned out to be the best combination bridal shower–bachelor party ever thrown.”

  “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

  “Mason, did you know that Mr. Simpson and his wife are going to have a baby?” Claire called from a few feet away, where she stood, talking to Troy Simpson, who had good-naturedly come along for the fun of it.

  “Please call me Troy,” he told Claire.

  “Congratulations.” Mason shook his hand.

  “Mason and I have a daughter,” Claire proudly told him.

  Troy’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?” He looked from Claire to Mason, who couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

  “Her name is Zoey,” Mason said. “We have a son, too—Spencer. He’ll be sixteen in June.”

  “Well, Willow and I are just getting started with our family,” Troy told them, “but I hope we’re as happy as you two seem to be.”

  For perhaps the first time in her life, Claire found herself feeling completely content. And it was only going to get better.

  Crazy Fridays at Butlers like the one Claire was experiencing were just about enough to make her go job hunting. She often wondered what it would be like to have a job like Joni Rennard, managing a clothing store…or even working at a clothing store. She’d lose her tips, but maybe once she and Mason were married and caught up on his bills, they would be able to afford for her to find a better, if lower-paying, job. That would have to wait a while, though. Even though he never talked about it, she knew Mason had to be having some financial difficulties.

  “A gentleman who wishes to speak to you is waiting in my office, Claire.” She turned and saw Mr. H.T. Butler himself. He always reminded Claire of Colonel Sanders.

  “I’m sorry?” Perhaps she misunderstood him.

  He smiled, but there was something odd in the usually jovial man’s eyes—like sympathy. “I’ve already told Alan to cover your tables. Please go on back to my office.”

  Claire walked to Mr. Butler’s office, her mind racing. It was only after she turned the corner when she realized he wasn’t behind her.

  Mr. Butler’s secretary, Wilma, was sitting behind her desk. “Go on in,” she directed Claire. Her smile looked strained. Claire had a sense of impending dread in her heart. What if something happened to one of her children? Or Mason? Would they call her to the office, to tell her in private? Her heart must have been going a mile a minute, and she had trouble breathing as she opened the door and walked into the room.

  A man, probably in his sixties, sat behind her boss’s desk. His gray hair was cut in what Claire knew was a style that hadn’t come from a barber shop, and his suit screamed money—even to somebody as unworldly as she.

  “Sit down, Miss Hadley.” His toneless voice matched the coldness in his dark eyes.

  Because she still feared something had happened to one of her loved ones, she sat on the chair across from him without question.

  “What…what’s this about?” she asked.

  He picked up a piece of paper from a small stack in front of him.

  “I’ll be brief, Miss Hadley. I’m here on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Wright. They are prepared to offer you a substantial amount of money to simply walk away from their son.” He was brisk and businesslike.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

  “You are engaged to be married to Mason Wright, are you not?”

  The room was shifting around her. ”Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? I need to get back to work.”r />
  He gave her an insincere smile. “You won’t have to work again.” He slid the paper across the desk. “As I told you before, Mr. and Mrs. Wright are prepared to pay you this amount of money to walk away from their son.”

  She glanced down at the paper. The number there represented more money than she would make in her lifetime.

  “I don’t understand,” she told him again, taking a firmer tone of voice. “You are going to have to explain yourself, or I am leaving this office.” Claire didn’t care what this beady-eyed businessman had to say to her. “In fact, I’m going to my station right now.” She started to stand up.

  “You will destroy any chance of success that Mason Wright has.” The man’s words stopped Claire cold. She sank back into the chair.

  “What? How can I destroy…how can I hurt Mason? What does this…?” She shook her head. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “I can see you’re going to have to hear the sordid details.” He looked gravely at her. “You, Miss Hadley, are engaged to a wealthy man, but he will soon be an extremely opulent man. I can see Mason has stuck to his usual pattern and failed to tell his latest…how should I put this…lady…of his parentage.”

  Claire’s heart had once again taken up a rapid rhythm. She wanted to put her hands over her ears.

  “His parents will be bestowing a very generous amount of money on Mason shortly. There are some conditions on this gift, however.”

  She sat, silently waiting…fighting the desire to stand up and run away.

  “You are but the latest in a string of his dalliances with…common women. It has become somewhat of a game to him, seeing how far he can push the envelope before his parents lay down the law. You didn’t think you were his first…fiancée, did you?”

  The walls of the office started closing in on her, and she was finding it more and more difficult to breathe.

  “Should he actually be brazen enough to go through with this marriage to an unwed mother of children from who knows what disgusting gene pool, they will disown him. He will not receive one penny.” He looked down his nose at her.

  She found her voice. “Why are you telling me all this? Why aren’t you talking to Mason?”

  The man smiled his phony little smile again. “I assure you he is well aware of the situation. He’s taken this game further than his past exploits. He fancies himself in love with you.”

  “He is,” she said, hoping the quiver in her voice wasn’t as noticeable as she feared..

  “But how long will that supposed love survive, once the reality of all he has given up settles in? He will not stay with you and your…children…any longer than it takes for him to receive his inheritance from his parents. It is not in his nature. You should ask one of his former fiancées. My employers merely want to keep their name from being dragged through the mud, and stop this travesty before it goes any further.”

  Claire’s mind was racing. Mason was wealthy? The Mason she knew wasn’t. As far as she knew, he worked for a living and liked his job.

  “I can see that you need some time to think about this. I’ll step out for a few minutes and give you some privacy.” He rose to a stunning five-two. Claire came to within wax paper’s thickness of saying Little man; big words. Flush you down like giant.... What was she thinking? She never even used that horrid rhyme in junior high, let alone right now. Still, if it made him quiet so she could think…

  Apparently unaware or unthreatened by Claire’s mental insult, the man kept talking. “Just remember, Mr. and Mrs. Wright are willing to make this worth your while.” He gestured toward the paper in front of her. “If you accept that and walk away from Mason, you’ll be set for life, and you won’t ruin his.” He walked past her and out of the door, closing it with a soft click.

  Her first instinct was to call Mason and tell him what was going on. Demand to know if all of this was true. But surely it had to be real. These people wouldn’t be offering that kind of money to her unless they really wanted her away from him. And if he was really going to receive the kind of money this man was referring to…who was the man she was engaged to?

  But Zoey. Then it hit her. Mason’s parents, or whoever they were, didn’t know Zoey was his daughter. An instinctive sense of preservation kicked in. They couldn’t find out about Zoey. With that kind of money, what would they be able to do if they decided they wanted her daughter?

  She didn’t want anything to do with these people or their money. Tears welled in her eyes, but she fought them back. This wasn’t the time or place to cry.

  Then, other words that the horrible man told her flashed into her mind, and she realized something crucial. He overplayed his hand.

  Claire stood. She would give Mason up, but it would be on her terms, and for her own reasons. The contract, or whatever it was, found its way into her hands without her being aware of it. When she turned to leave, it was in a pile of confetti on the desk.

  She didn’t see anybody other than Wilma on her way out of the office. It didn’t matter. There was one person that she had to talk to, and she had to talk to him now.

  Mason walked in the door of his apartment. He wouldn’t miss living there at all. They decided to live in Claire’s rental house until they found one to buy. He actually planned to build her a brand new one, but he had to tell her about his money first.

  He swallowed down his guilt. Mason told Emily he wasn’t going to keep it a secret from Claire—he would tell her when the time was right. It had just been that the time never seemed right. What was he supposed to do?

  “Can I have another slice of pizza? By the way, I have a large savings account, and I’m going to inherit a few million dollars in a year and a half. I love you.”

  No. Claire was too important for him to mess around and lose. He was going to sit down with her this evening and tell her the truth. Who his parents were, and about the money. Mason wasn’t the slightest bit worried that she would think he was something he wasn’t, but she might be upset he hadn’t already told her.

  He looked out the window and saw the new mini-van he bought. It was fresh out of the factory. He chose it partially because of the room and extras—it had drop-down DVD player equipped television screens for the middle seats—but mostly because of its safety. This particular model was ranked the highest in auto safety over all the mini-vans on the market.

  Remembering photos of his crashed car, he was determined to do all he could to make sure his family was safe. In fact, he told the salesman safety features were of utmost importance.

  A familiar car pulled in behind the van. What was Claire doing there at two o’clock in the afternoon? When he saw she was still wearing her uniform beneath her coat, he knew something was wrong. But the color of her skin and a grim expression on her face told him something was terribly wrong.

  “Hi.” He opened the door just as she reached it. “It’s nice to see you.” He leaned down to give her a kiss, but she stepped around him and walked into the apartment.

  “Claire?” He followed her into the living room. “What’s wrong?”

  She turned to face him. “When were you going to tell me?” She sounded defeated. “Or were you just going to wait until you got tired of playing house with the poor white trash, and pack up your daughter and leave?” That startling possibility occurred to her on her way there, and she nearly drove into the side of a building.

  He waited too long. Somehow she knew about the money. “Claire,” he said soothingly, “Let me explain.”

  “I mean, I should have realized something was wrong.” She went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “You’ve been off work all this time and managed to pay your bills and buy gifts—expensive gifts.” She looked at her engagement ring. “I see you’ve got another toy.” Claire gestured toward the window through which the new van was plainly visible.

  “I was going to tell you, I sw—”

  “I bet it’s been hard for you to be seen with me in my second-hand clothes, and run down used car. You even
had your friend’s wife fix me up with a fake discount, so I could buy some new clothes and wouldn’t embarrass you so much anymore, didn’t you?”

  He walked to her and tried to take her hands, but she pulled them away from him. “If you’ll just sit down and let me tell you about my parents,” he begged.

  Her eyes blazed. “I know enough about your mother . Some lawyer or something came to see me at work today and gave me some cockamamie story that you get engaged to podunk people like me just to see how far you can push your parents. They’re not going to give you your inheritance if you go far enough in your game to marry me. They even offered me a ridiculous amount of money to walk away from you.” She shook her head. “Your parents are fools. They didn’t bother checking you, or me, thoroughly enough, did they? If they had, they’d know there was no way I would believe you would ever be committed enough to anything to have former fiancées, or play those games you supposedly play. And they don’t know anything about me if they think I’m stupid enough to believe they would refuse to let you have your inheritance if they know you’ll come back to them anyway.”

  “What did my parents do?” He was suddenly furious. “They offered you money to do this? To break up with me?” He looked at her incredulously. “Did you take it?”

  She deflated before his very eyes. “Sure, Mason, I took it. Because you know how much more important things are to me than people I love, one of whom happens to be you.” She pulled off her ring and held it out to him. “Here. You can give this to somebody more suitable. You know, somebody you don’t have to be ashamed of, or embarrassed by.”

  “I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to ask you. I know you’d never do that.” He wouldn’t take her ring. He couldn’t take her ring. “I don’t want you to do this, Claire.” His mind searched for answers. “You said you love me. Give me a chance to make this right. Don’t let my parents do this to us.”