“I thought I saw your car pull in.” He took her hand as she stepped onto the marble floor. “You ended up making better time than I expected.”
“Yeah, traffic wasn’t so bad once I got off the highway.” She scanned the open foyer, catching glimpses of guests mingling through the living and dining rooms. None of them were the family member she was most eager to see. Disappointed, she returned her gaze to Aiden’s. “Is everyone here?”
His smile was apologetic. “Everyone but the man of honor. He came in, made his rounds and then returned to his house about five minutes ago.”
Disappointment leaped through every one of her nerves. “I’d like to go see him.” Maybe this way would be better. The two of them, alone, where she could finally have the opportunity to say all she’d wanted to for months.
“I’m not sure tonight is the best time. He made it clear he didn’t want company.” Aiden wove his left arm around her waist, ignoring her obvious need to see her uncle. “Besides, you need to focus on dazzling your father’s guests tonight. Especially since you’ll be working with most of them in a short while.”
“If I take the job,” she reminded him.
“If?” he balked as if the idea was absurd. “We both know you’re holding out for a bigger signing bonus. Don’t worry… if tonight goes well, you’ll have it.”
He led her forward and immediately her trained smile appeared when he introduced her to the new chief operations officer. From across the room, she caught her father’s attention just in time to see him nod his approval.
It took forty-five minutes for April to free herself from the main house and slip through the back doors. Her father had pulled Aiden away for some critical issue with the Phoenix plant and she wasn’t about to waste the opportunity.
The mother-in-law’s bungalow was located past the pool, the flagstone walkway curving around to give it maximum privacy.
April paused before taking the last two steps to the door. Each window was bright against the night sky, but only one in the kitchen had the blinds pulled up. She waited to see if Uncle Bradley would pass by, if she could get even a glimpse of him before their first face-to-face encounter in almost a year. But the kitchen stayed as empty as the vast granite countertops that looked freshly installed.
She drew in a breath and pressed the doorbell. This was her uncle. Her hero. The one person in her family who always understood her.
He ignored the first ring and the second. Finally on the third, the door swung inward. “What now?” he growled, and then startled with the same wide-mouthed shock she knew she wore. “April?”
“Sorry, I know you said you didn’t want to see anyone, but I’m here and I, um, couldn’t leave without us talking.” The words stumbled as she took in the disheveled man in front of her. His shirt was untucked and open at the collar, a white undershirt visible through the separation. Instead of slacks, he had on a faded pair of gray sweats, but his feet were still covered with black dress socks.
“Come in.” Backing up, her uncle widened the door, an offer for her to come through. She stepped inside, only to find the house matched the confused mix of his clothes. Elegant furnishing with carefully chosen greenery and artwork filled the space, but then an upturned glass figurine lay under the coffee table, and a plush cashmere blanket was balled and shoved into one of the bookshelves.
April didn’t even notice the painting that lay diagonal against the wall until Bradley reached out and straightened it. “Sorry. This is my mini rebellion. Messing up all the things your mother insists I keep in here.”
Bradley was twelve years her senior, but standing there, half dressed and awkward, he seemed younger than her somehow.
He extended a hand to the couch. “Wanna sit?”
“Um, okay.” She carefully stepped around a throw pillow and found a spot on the end of the settee. “So no party, huh?”
“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his already messy hair, reminding her a little of Ty. “I just couldn’t do it.”
She clutched her hands together, remaining silent as he eased down on the couch opposite her. “I feel like we need to talk about what happened. What role I played.”
“Stop.” There was a brokenness to her uncle she hadn’t expected, a weariness that made her heart crack. “You have nothing to explain.”
“Obviously I do. You haven’t returned my calls. I even came to see you at the rehabilitation center… twice.” She glanced down at her fingers, tears pooling in her eyes. “You sent me away.”
“I sent everyone away.”
“I know, but we’ve always been different.” Her voice caught. She’d thought her and Bradley had a special relationship. That he loved her in all the ways her parents had no capacity to.
“Ah April, don’t do that.” He scooted forward, taking her hand in his. “I didn’t want you to see me like that. I wanted to stay your hero, and I haven’t been worthy of that status in a very long time.” He jumped up and returned a second later with a tissue in his hand.
The gesture made her chest pulse with sad amusement. “And to think I came here to support you.”
He pulled her to stand and tugged her close, hugging her the way he always had when she was a little girl. “I’m mad at myself, not at you.”
“But it’s my fault.” She tucked her nose into his shoulder and inhaled, the ever so familiar smell of him tearing down the walls of time. “You hired Sean because of me and then he betrayed your trust.”
“Oh April.” He kissed her hair before letting go. “What happened is so much more complicated than that.”
“How?” She watched him retreat, noting the way he wouldn’t quite look her in the eyes. “Please, Uncle Bradley. Help me understand because for a year now I have been carrying around this guilt that I failed you.”
“I know you have and I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. Or Sean.” Bradley’s sigh was so heavy it felt like it could drop through the wood flooring. “Part of why I left tonight is because even after all this time, I’m not ready for this…” His finger moved between the two of them. “… confrontation.”
“What confrontation? I just wanted to see you.”
“I know you did.” He cradled his head and then furiously massaged his temples.
She looked closer at her uncle. Then at the open door to his exposed bedroom. His suitcase sat on his bed, spread wide and full. What had originally looked to be a mass of haphazard clothing now morphed into premeditation.
“You’re leaving?”
His hands dropped to his side. “Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve packed and unpacked that thing three times today.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m done with the parties and the false smiles. It was killing me. The pretense of it all.” His voice was shaky, the tug of war as real in him as it had been in her only weeks ago. “I know Claire wants me to go back to who I was, but I can’t, not without going back to everything.”
“Where would you go?”
He shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I have no money. No job. Claire took guardianship of the trust, so even that money is hers to control.” He fell back on the couch, only to sit up a second later and pull a shoe out from behind him. It flew across the room and landed near his bedroom. “All I’ve ever been good at is fitting into this family. And now that I don’t want to anymore?” He tossed his hands up. “I have no idea what’s left.”
“Bradley, you’re not the only one who’s been changed by what happened. We all have. And Dad and Mom… well, they’re trying. I mean, just look at the fact that I’m here tonight. Deep down, I know they only want what’s best for you.” She glanced through his living room window at the party encroaching on the back patio and rolled her eyes for sport. “Even if they don’t always make the right call.”
His gaze locked on hers and she felt a rush of heat under its scrutiny. “You really shouldn’t be so quick to defend them.” His expression changed, that earlier wash of guilt returning to his eye
s. “Or me either for that matter.”
She swallowed, having no idea how to even begin to help him in this state. Her uncle had always been a pillar of strength and confidence to her. “I don’t know how to make things right between us again.” Her voice was a plea for some kind of direction.
“You can’t. That’s just it.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m the one who’s a coward. The one who lied and compromised myself.” He picked up the remote on the coffee table so fast she thought he might throw it against the wall. He didn’t. Instead he pressed a button and unpaused the image on the wall mounted flat screen.
His ex-girlfriend’s face appeared, her words matching exactly what Chase had quoted in April’s office. Bradley paused the video again when she finished talking. “Everything Amanda said is true.”
A rush of heat moved through her. “I don’t care if it is. If she cared about you at all, she wouldn’t have talked about your weaknesses to a stranger.” April grabbed the remote and turned the TV to off, seeing firsthand that the woman’s words had wounded her uncle all over again. “How do you even have this?”
“I asked for it.” He shrugged. “I wanted to see what Chase had before I agreed to an exclusive interview.”
“What? Why? You know he’s just trying to make a quick buck at your expense.”
Bradley snorted. “Let me guess, Claire has already convinced you that talking about my addiction is only going to make the situation worse for me. That we have a chance for a new beginning, a united front as a family.” His voice rose as if giving a speech to thousands of soldiers, but April could hear the sarcasm in it. “Who cares that protecting our perfect image is what got me here?” Now his voice was thicker, angrier. “Who cares that you’re miserable? What does it matter as long as the Duncan name stays pristine and they remain in complete and absolute control?”
This time the remote did go flying across the room and April jumped when the plastic shattered against the wall.
“I’m so sorry, April.” He cradled his head, shaking it back and forth. “I thought I could do it. Go back to how it was, but then I got here. Saw the party and Aiden and I just felt so sick…” His voice cracked. “I swear I never wanted this for you.”
She rushed toward him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay. Everything is back to how it always should have been.”
“You don’t understand.” He pulled away, scooting to the other side of the couch. “I’ve been sitting here trying to find the right words only to realize there are none.” He stared at the floor, his body limp and full of contrition. “Sean saved my life and I let him suffer. Let you both suffer because they asked me to. Because I didn’t have the courage to defy them and lose you at the same time.”
He lifted his head, and in his tear-filled eyes she could see the torment behind every word. “I never intended for things to get so out of control. At first it was just a thousand dollars here or there to get me through until the next check from my trust would come in. If my accountant questioned the expenditures, I’d simply tell him to count it as overhead, and since I was notoriously bad at keeping receipts, he did it without much suspicion.
“But then your dad decided to do an internal audit and my books didn’t pass. Turns out a little here and there over eight years added up to a significant amount. They asked me about the money and of course, I denied it. Blamed my accountant for negligence and offered the guy a nice severance package to resign. Your father was relentless in his search to clear me from suspicion, and after a few weeks, I couldn’t stomach the guilt anymore. I told Claire what I did and threw out the pills, determined that I could get clean on my own.” He tore his eyes away. “She told me not to worry; that she would take care of it and to focus on feeling better. A week later, the money was returned, the audit closed and I was home free.” Red encircled his eyes when he looked at her again. “I only lasted a couple months before I fell right back into my old patterns. Only this time I knew I had to hide it better if I didn’t want to get caught again. That’s when I came up with the fake invoices and companies. I didn’t want another audit to come and not have a paper trail.”
“When did you hire Sean?” she somehow said through the nausea in her throat. Her uncle’s broken apology finally made sense. “Before or after you started stealing the money again?”
He pressed his forehead to her hand and squeezed. “You have to understand how messed up I was at that point. I had no conscience as to who got hurt in the process.”
Tears clogged her throat. “Before or after?”
He shook his head and moisture streamed over her fingers. “You’ve always loved me beyond reason. And I knew Sean loved you the same way. I hired him because I truly believed that even if he did stumble upon what I was doing, for your sake alone, he would stay quiet.”
A roar filled her head, loud enough to wake every nerve in her body. “How could you?” She tugged her trembling hand away, bile rising up her esophagus. “He was my fiancé and you put him in an impossible situation.” Despite her promise not to, she did see her uncle differently. Malicious. Underhanded. One of the many puppeteers in her life.
She somehow managed to stand, to breathe in and out despite the constriction in her lungs. Bradley had stolen before and not only had her family known, they’d actively covered it up. “How could she not get you help?”
“Because it was a whole lot easier to believe that I’d quit.” He shook his head. “Accepting my weakness would mean something in her life wasn’t perfect. And part of Claire’s strength is her uncanny ability to detach from anything that makes her feel out of control.”
April’s stomach twisted and she found herself wanting to do exactly as her mom had done and bury the truth before it exploded her entire world. “They wouldn’t even look at me. They made me think that I was responsible for Sean’s choice, when all along they knew.” She thought of the loneliness, the isolation, the absolute regret. “How could you let them do that to me? How could you send me away and not tell me the truth?”
“Because they said it was the only way to get you back. And that after all I’d done to hurt this family, it was the least I could do.” Guilt etched through each word, and she wanted to press her hands over her ears knowing she couldn’t take any more betrayal. “Claire and your father, they don’t make decisions on a whim. They play chess. They take their time and they move exactly when they need to.”
Like on her wedding day. When she was at her most vulnerable.
April retreated slowly, walking backward until she felt the wood against her palm. Cutting her off, ignoring her calls, it was all a power play. And she’d danced as foolishly as Pied Piper’s victims: Sean was out of her life, she was one signature away from working for her father’s company, and they’d managed to pair her with someone who was as talented as they were at keeping her in check.
“Andrew warned me that they were manipulating me, but to use my love for you…” She couldn’t even form the words.
“That look you’re giving me now is exactly why I ran from the party. Why I wanted to leave.” Tears stained her uncle’s cheeks, his expression that of absolute misery. “I don’t want to be this person anymore.”
Her instinct was to retaliate, to claw and scratch and hurt those who hurt her. And yet as she stared at the man she used to admire over any other in her life, she found herself fighting that side of her that would normally prevail. She didn’t want to be that person anymore, either. She didn’t want love to be based on lists and conditions and perfection. Not anymore. “If you really meant what you said about breaking free from mom and dad, call Andrew. He has a two-bedroom apartment in New Braunfels. And if anyone can help you start over, it’s him.”
Chapter 33
April returned to the party in a daze, her anger swirling until it formed a ball of lead in her stomach. A few guests had moved outside of the main house and the pool was now lit with twenty floating candles. Mood music played through hidden speake
rs, and the combination of rich food and expensive wine suddenly had people instinctively swaying to the rhythm.
Aiden stood by the open glass doors and his immediate smile when he noticed her only made the lead grow hotter.
She scanned the rest of the patrons, not even sure who she was seeking out until her mother came into view. She was in the center of two of her dad’s executives, both of them captivated by whatever story she was telling. She’d worn her hair slicked back and pulled into a bun at the nape of her neck, the mass of copper hair resting just off center to appear young and carefree. And why wouldn’t she be? She now had every loose end tied neatly in a bow.
Her mother’s smile grew, her amber eyes dancing with charisma. Clarity came to April where there had always been a haze. Those eyes were lifeless, empty. Just as hers had been only an hour ago.
“I won’t be you,” April said in a choked whisper. “Not anymore.”
“What was that?” The warm press of a hand on her waist nearly sent her into the pool. “Whoa. Careful.” Aiden’s grip grew tighter, pulling her in much more than was needed to keep her from stumbling. He nuzzled her temple with his nose and she could smell that whatever crisis he and her dad had solved, they’d celebrated it with some serious cognac. “I missed you. Where did you go?”
She pushed him away, her skin feeling as if his touch came with a million tiny insects. “Did you know?”
He blinked. “What?”
She eyed the swarm of people around them and grabbed Aiden’s hand, pulling him through the crowd and into the closest vacant room—her father’s study. It smelled of money and cigar smoke; a perfect den of deception.
The irony was too much.
Aiden didn’t seem to grasp her purpose. As soon as she closed the door, he trapped her against it, his lips trailing a line down her neck. “I never quite understood your propensity to sneak away from parties.” He grinned against her skin. “Until now.”
The Truth Between Us (Bentwood Book 2) Page 23