Freed

by Phillips, Carly

  “Juliette–” Her father, who had been watching the exchange with satisfaction, spoke. “Come home with me, where nothing and no one can hurt you again.”

  She shook her head, holding up a hand. “Oh, no. I don’t want to hear one word you have to say. You lied to me about my family, you hired someone to keep an eye on me, and when none of that worked to get me back, you had your own daughter targeted and robbed. How could you?”

  He straightened his shoulders. “If you’d just called off this need to find a family, none of my steps would have been necessary. I’ll do anything to protect you,” he said without apology.

  “I’m twenty-six years old!” she shouted at him. “I’m an adult, not that you’ve ever treated me like one. And I’m finished with your manipulating me.”

  Just when she thought she’d gotten used to the fact that he’d lied, now she could add breaking and entering and manipulation to the crimes against his daughter. He wanted her with him not because he loved her but because he wanted to control her and prevent her from having a life outside of his apartment walls.

  “Leave,” she said to him, pointing to the exit.

  “But–” Shock laced his tone, his expression one of horror. He’d never thought she’d stand up to him, let alone turn her back on him. As much as it hurt to do it, she had no choice. She shook her head, striding over and opening the door. “Go home. And leave me alone.”

  He swallowed hard, looking older all of a sudden. To her surprise, he didn’t clutch at his chest or feign weakness to get his way. He must have seen her determination and knew now wasn’t the time.

  “I’ll talk to you when you’ve had time to calm down and see I only want what’s best for you,” he said, starting for the door, shoulders down, defeat in his posture.

  Her heart broke at the sight of him but she knew this stand was the best thing for her. Only she could decide what that was.

  And with her father gone, she turned to face Braden.

  “Juliette…”

  She shook her head. “Just answer my questions, okay?” She forced a calm she didn’t feel as she spoke to him. “Our first meeting. A setup?”

  He shoved his hands into his jeans pocket, looking humbled. “I got lucky. Recognized you at the coffee shop from the picture your father sent me.”

  Her heart beat faster in her chest. “Second meeting? You waiting outside work?”

  “Part of the job but I was already hooked. We had chemistry from the beginning, you know that. I liked spending time with you. And when I started to feel guilty because I’d gotten to know you, I tried to stay away. But I couldn’t because I wanted to be with you.”

  She swallowed hard, remembering those times when she’d thought he wasn’t interested in her, when he would disappear from her life. Then he’d return. Because he had a job to do? Or because he wanted to be with her?

  “You say you cared yet you kept lying,” she said.

  He met and held her gaze. “I was hired to do a job and I told myself as long as all I told your father was that you were okay, I wasn’t betraying you.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Then the longer the lie went on, the deeper into it I got. The money was going to help pay for my father’s care and things with him were spiraling. In the meantime, I was falling in love with you.” He spread his hands wide, imploring her to believe him. “I was torn up, and I made a mistake.”

  One that went on way too long. “Why did you try to tell me this morning?” she asked. “Why all of a sudden did you want to come clean?” Had his conscience finally gotten the best of him because he loved her and wanted to make things right?

  Her heart pounded inside her chest, and she wanted to believe in him. In them.

  He glanced away before meeting her gaze once more. “I called your father yesterday and told him I was returning his money. He was furious and said he’d come to bring you back home himself. I knew I had to tell you before he did.”

  Her stomach sank at the revelation that he felt cornered, forced into confessing. She held a hand over her chest. “If you’d just told me the truth, I could have had time to understand your side and forgive you. Instead you played me. You got cash for using me like my mother did, and you lied to me just like my father.”

  Raw pain rippled across his face. “Juliette, please. We started out for the wrong reasons, but everything about us, everything we felt and experienced, it was real.

  She swiped at a tear with her bare arm. “Just go,” she said, pointing at the door and waiting.

  He stared at her for a long while before finally resigning himself, blowing out a long breath, and heading for the door.

  Her legs trembled and she told herself to hang on until she was alone. That once he was gone, then she could fall apart. She couldn’t look into the eyes of the man she loved, the one who’d betrayed her, any longer.

  And she knew she loved him. The kind of love she read about in novels. All-consuming, passionate, emotional love. But this was her first relationship and she’d let herself be played. The most fundamental people in her life, her mother and her father, had lied and betrayed her.

  No matter how she tried to find a way to live with what she’d learned, Braden’s lie stood between them.

  How could she trust in anything now?

  Finally he pulled the door closed and it shut behind him with a loud, final click.

  * * *

  Braden phoned, texted, and stopped by Juliette’s apartment early the next day. She ignored his calls, his messages, and she wasn’t at home. Her car wasn’t parked in the lot, either. Which meant she’d chosen a sister to go to. He didn’t know which sibling she’d picked, and he was certain neither one would help him get in touch with her now.

  Another day passed with the same attempts and no results.

  He blamed himself. He should have been better prepared to field the questions about his behavior. He should have picked her up, carried her into her bedroom, and reiterated he loved her until she believed him. Instead he’d fucked up his life and hurt the person who mattered most to him. The woman with whom he’d wanted to share a future.

  He loved her. Eventually he’d have wanted to marry her. Have kids with her. He was in that deep.

  So deep he was willing to grovel, but because he’d gotten a call he could move his father into a home in two days, his father deserved all his focus until then.

  His own life, issues, love had to wait.

  * * *

  Juliette sat on the beach outside Halley’s house, feet in the water, her sister by her side. She wriggled her toes and sighed, feeling the sun beat down on her skin. She was sad, had spent the last few days wallowing at her sister’s, where she’d retreated in case Braden came looking for her. She’d wanted time to think things through, but she was no closer to understanding his choices than she’d been when she’d found out about him working for her father.

  Kane hadn’t minded her staying in the guest room, and she appreciated their patience while she sorted through her feelings.

  “You should forgive him, you know.” Halley nudged Juliette with her shoulder.

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “Always yours,” Halley assured her. “But you’re miserable, and I bet if I saw Braden, he’d be feeling the same way.”

  She bit down on her cheek and glanced over the water’s waves. “He lied to me for the entire time we were together, knowing how I felt about my father doing the same thing.”

  “Do you think maybe there were extenuating circumstances?”

  She turned to meet Halley’s gaze. “His father?” While considering this mess, she hadn’t stopped thinking about Jonathan and his illness. Or the pain and suffering both Braden and his father were going through.

  That, more than anything, had her softening toward Braden, though softening was a long way from being over it. “Just tell me how to trust him again.”

  Halley stared out at the water while she thought about her reply, then answered. “A while ago, I
was in your position, wondering how to trust Kane, and he wasn’t the one who’d betrayed me. Mom did.”

  Juliette looked at her sister’s profile, amazed she’d found her biological siblings after not knowing about them at all, and smiled. “But you managed.”

  “I realized what I’d be missing out on by letting the past control me. You need to think about those same things. If you let Braden back in, do you really think he’d betray or hurt you again?”

  She picked up some sand and sifted it through her fingers, thinking about Halley’s words. Did she think Braden, with his kind eyes and warm heart, would really hurt her again? “Not deliberately.”

  “Then maybe you already have your answer.”

  Juliette did nothing but think about her sister’s words and her own conclusions, and if she didn’t believe Braden would deliberately hurt her, then she needed to hear him out.

  And see what kind of future, if any, they could have.

  She wanted to look him in the eyes as they talked and gauge the depth of his feelings without the sudden revelation of his betrayal sitting between them.

  Later that day, she pulled up in front of Braden’s house, parked her car, and exited, walking up to the porch. Nerves pitched in her stomach as she rang the doorbell.

  “They’re not home,” Lucy called as she strode across the lawn, meeting Juliette on the front stairs.

  “Hi, Lucy.”

  “Juliette.” The other woman gave her a warm smile.

  “Do you know where they went?” As much as Juliette had come to see and talk to Braden, she’d hoped to visit with his father, too.

  Lucy pulled a light sweater over her shoulders. “Braden was moving Jonathan into an Alzheimer’s facility today.” Tears shone in the other woman’s compassionate gaze.

  The answer took Juliette off guard. She’d known the move was coming, but somehow she hadn’t let herself believe it was that imminent. And now Braden was dealing with losing his father at the same time he believed he’d lost Juliette.

  She gnawed on her lower lip. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” she murmured. “Do you know the name of the place Braden took Jonathan?”

  “Horizons. Luckily it’s just a twenty-minute drive from here so Braden can visit often.”

  Juliette nodded. “Do you have the address? I’d like to help him get his father settled.” She hated for Braden to be dealing with something this life-changing alone.

  They might have their unresolved issues, but she loved him and wanted to be there for him when he left his dad alone in the home for the first time.

  Lucy gave her the name of the town and she was able to put the place into her phone and get directions. Twenty minutes later, she pulled up to Horizons, parked, and headed to the front desk.

  She gave her name, asked to see Braden Clark, and waited for him to come to her.

  * * *

  Braden might have known this day was coming, but he never could have prepared for how difficult it had been. His father’s anger at being uprooted from his life and disappointment in Braden for doing it had come through loud and clear since he’d told him the news.

  Still, he’d packed up his father’s clothing and personal items, his toiletries and other odds and ends, and driven to Horizons early this morning. His dad hadn’t spoken to him on the ride, adding to Braden’s guilt. He vacillated between wondering if there was more he could have done to keep him home and knowing he was taking his father to a place he’d be cared for better than Braden could possibly do on his own.

  Getting Jonathan’s things unpacked and his personal items like photographs set up around the room went a long way toward acclimating him to his new home. The aides on the floor were cheerful and friendly, as they’d been on Braden’s initial visits when deciding on facilities.

  “Dad, do you want to play a game of cards?” Braden asked.

  His father ignored him, sitting in the recliner in the room and watching television.

  “Mr. Clark? There’s a visitor here to see you,” Gretchen, the main aide on the floor, said as she knocked on the open door.

  Braden glanced up. “Someone’s here to see my father already?”

  She shook her head. “No, they asked for you. A… Juliette Collins,” Gretchen said, reading off a sheet of paper in her hand.

  “What?” He couldn’t believe he’d heard her right.

  “Juliette Collins is downstairs waiting for you. I can send her up if you’d like,” she offered.

  He shook his head, stunned. “No, thank you. I’ll go down and get her myself.”

  Juliette was here? He couldn’t believe it. He thought she was finished with him. And how had she found out about his father’s move today?

  “Dad, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Braden said, heading out the door into the carpeted hallway.

  He headed downstairs and caught sight of Juliette waiting by the front desk. Wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, her hair falling around her shoulders and with dark circles beneath her eyes, looking every bit as tired as he felt, she was still a welcome sight.

  “Hi,” he said, coming up to her. “How did you know where to find me?”

  “Hi.” She folded her arms across her chest, her gaze warm on his. “I went by your house and Lucy told me. I didn’t think you should have to deal with something like this alone.”

  He nodded. “So you decided to come? I have to say I’m surprised. Grateful but surprised.”

  He studied her expression, noting she didn’t look angry anymore … and she was here, both of which he took as positive signs.

  “Thank you. Today has been difficult, to say the least. My father is angry and resentful, and I’m not looking forward to the moment when I have to walk out the door for the night.” Because he’d be back to visit tomorrow.

  He’d come often, especially during this adjustment period, when a familiar face would help his father acclimate while he met new people. Over time Braden expected to fall into a routine both he and his dad could count on. For as long as his father remembered him, he thought sadly.

  “Hey.” Juliette reached out and touched his arm, breaking into his morose thoughts. “Do you want to get back to him? I can go. I just didn’t want you to think you were alone.”

  “Not just yet. And I think he’d like to see you.” He tipped his head to the side, studying her. “But before we go up, you came to see me not knowing I was getting him settled here. What did you want?” he asked, his heart beating harder in his chest.

  He recognized the emotion flowing through him as one he hadn’t had much of the last couple of days.

  Hope.

  Hope that she was no longer furious or betrayed. Hope that she wanted more than to talk and be friends. Hope for the future.

  “I thought it was time we talk. Not a rehash of everything,” she rushed to say. “I think I’ve had enough of the facts. I wanted to talk about where we go from here. But not now. Let’s go up to your father. We can talk later.”

  He hated waiting but he agreed. For now he’d just celebrate the fact that she’d come to him on this most difficult day in his life and reassure himself that her presence had to mean something.

  Later, close to dinnertime, they left his father as someone came to escort him to the dining hall. Braden’s heart was in his throat as he watched his father walk off, shoulders back, holding on to his pride.

  “Love you, Dad,” Braden said, repeating himself for good measure.

  * * *

  Juliette followed Braden’s car back to his house. Her heart ached for him, and watching him with his father, every emotion she felt for him had come rushing back. The admiration, affection, and love for this strong man flowed over her, the anger having already dissipated as she’d realized he hadn’t intentionally hurt her. That his decisions had been tied up with his father’s situation, and in the end, he’d given up her father’s money, which would have helped with Jonathan’s care, as a gesture of love for Juliette.

  They settled
into the family room, side by side on the couch. “I’m thinking of selling this place,” Braden said, taking her by surprise.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because it’s my dad’s house, and with him gone, I need to be in a place of my own.”

  She nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “I forgive you.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, both of them speaking at the same time.

  She laughed.

  “Ladies first,” he said with a grin.

  “I may not understand why you waited so long to tell me, but I get that it was complicated. And I forgive you. I want to move on,” she said, telling him the things she’d finally come to realize.

  Regret flashed across his handsome face. “I’ve been beating myself up over it for a long time. And I know you said you don’t want to get into it again, so let me just say thank you for your understanding. Now I need to know what moving on means for you. Because I can tell you what it means for me.”

  And she definitely wanted to hear it from his lips. “Tell me.”

  He reached out and took her hand. “I’ll start with the most important thing. I love you,” he said. “I fell hard and fast for you the minute you poured coffee into my lap, then tried to mop up the mess.”

  She flushed at the memory. “Not my finest moment.”

  “I beg to differ,” he said, grinning. “You’ve been there for me from the beginning, understanding what I needed and accepting whatever I could give you. I want to be that person for you. I want to be there for the good times and the bad. I want to take whatever you’ll give me and make the most of every day. And I want to share your joy in the simple things in life. Toes in the sand, skinny-dipping day or night.”

  Her eyes grew damp, and with every word he uttered, her heart filled with more and more love for this special man. “In some ways we’re just beginning, and in other ways I feel like we’re just meant to be.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, and soon he was kissing her, his lips hard on hers, welcoming her back into his life.

  He slid between her parted lips, tongues tangled, and her heart soared as her world righted itself again. She’d come to Rosewood Bay seeking her family, and she’d gotten so much more than she’d ever hoped for.