Nashville Secrets

by Sheri WhiteFeather

  “Do what?” Tommy asked.

  “Run a security check on Mary and find out more about her. I’ll email them tonight so they can get started on it. Then hopefully, by the time we get back to Nashville, I’ll have some answers.”

  “Maybe her past won’t be as traumatic as you think it’s going to be.”

  “There’s no point in speculating until I get the report.” But at least he was going to find out for himself. At least he would have some clarity amid the chaos of falling in love.

  * * *

  Brandon spent the next few days with Mary, engaging in ranch activities. But the security check he’d requested was never far from his mind.

  Then, on the day they arrived back in Nashville, he got word that the report was ready.

  He was still with Mary, dropping her off at her apartment, when the call came. Once he parked in front of her place, they sat in the car, saying their goodbyes.

  “I’m sorry I can’t take you home with me,” he said. “I have to go to my office today.”

  “It’s okay. I need to unpack and get settled back in. I need to see Alice, too. I haven’t spoken to my sister since I’ve been gone. We got in a fight right before I left.”

  He didn’t ask what the tiff had been about. He was already aware of how moody her sister was. “Then you need to patch things up.”

  “Yes, I do.” She smiled softly at him. “I had a wonderful time in Texas with you.”

  “It did turn out nice.” But that didn’t stop him from stressing about the choice he’d made to investigate her. If she knew what he was up to, would she be hurt or angry? Would she feel betrayed by him?

  “Is there something going on at your work?” she asked suddenly.

  He frowned. “What?”

  “You seem anxious about going to the office.”

  He answered the best he could. “There’s a report I need to tend to.” He frowned again. “I could have received it as an email, but I had them drop off a hard copy to my assistant instead. I didn’t want this information in an electronic file.” He wanted it waiting on his desk in a sealed envelope, where he could brace himself before he paged through it.

  “Is it something bad?”

  As evasive as Mary was about her past, he didn’t see how the report was going to contain something good. It was obvious that her problems stemmed from her parents, but to what extent, he couldn’t say. “I just need to read it.”

  “Then you better go do that,” she said.

  “Yeah, I guess I better.” He cupped her chin in both hands. As guilty as he felt for investigating her, he was still doing it for the right reasons. He needed to know who she was and what made her tick. He needed to come to terms with loving her, too. For now, it was like loving a stranger. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Okay.” She leaned forward, and they kissed.

  Her lips tasted fresh and minty beneath his. So soft, so enticing, so confusing.

  He ended the kiss, overwhelmed with the knowledge that he loved her. But as soon as he got his hands on the report, the puzzle that was Mary would be solved. He was overwhelmed by that, too. He wanted to help her get past her pain and whatever had caused it. But was he capable of restoring the damage, of making it better?

  “Let me help you with your luggage,” he said, and popped the trunk.

  They exited the car, and he lifted her bag and wheeled it to her door. They kissed one more time, on the stoop, holding each other unbearably close.

  He released her, wishing that she’d been comfortable confiding in him. It would’ve been so much easier than having her investigated.

  She tried the door, but it was locked. “I guess Alice isn’t home. School started this week, so she might have a class today.” Mary removed her keys from her purse.

  He stood back and watched her go inside. She glanced back and waved, and that was it. Their vacation together was officially over.

  He returned to his BMW and zoomed off to his office. Traffic was heavy, making his drive longer than usual.

  Finally, he arrived. He entered the building and went straight to his desk. He opened the envelope and settled into his chair to read.

  Within minutes, his chest twisted in pain, as if someone had stuck a knife clean through it.

  The woman he loved was a liar, a con, an emotional cheat. According to the document in his hand, she was the daughter of Catherine Lynn Birch, a woman he and his father had filed a restraining order against eight years prior. Hell and damnation. Her mom had harassed his dad.

  He kept reading, getting the rest of Mary’s history. Her parents had lived together but were never married and never owned a home. Her father, Joel David McKenzie, was a truck driver who’d died when Mary was seven and Alice was just a month shy of her first birthday. He was self-employed and didn’t have life insurance. The family moved to a smaller rental after he was gone and struggled even more to make ends meet.

  There was no domestic abuse that came up. Her dad wasn’t the villain in this story. It was her mother who couldn’t be trusted. Catherine, or Cathy as she preferred to be called, had died earlier this year, leaving two grieving daughters behind. Two young women, he thought, who were obviously plotting against his family. Why else would Mary have just happened to show up at the park on the day they’d met?

  Brandon considered her motives. Was it money? Was she more materialistic than she’d led him to believe? Was that the end game? Or was it something more sinister?

  He read further. Some of what Mary had told him about her past was true. Alice was a party girl who had lots of boyfriends, and Mary was a proper young woman who’d kept her nose to the grindstone and dated her coworker at the bakery in Oklahoma where she’d worked. But that wasn’t enough to make Brandon trust her. With the way she’d lured him into loving her, she was far more dangerous than her wild little sister.

  In the wake of finishing the report, he wanted to scream at himself for being stupid. He’d brought Mary to Tommy’s mansion to see the baby. He’d taken her to Matt’s wedding. He’d welcomed her into his family, giving her carte blanche in their carefully protected lives. He’d even allowed her access to his home, anytime she wanted it.

  He picked up his phone and called security at his loft, instructing them to change the code and keys. He never should’ve given them to Mary to begin with.

  Brandon shook his head. He’d stepped out of his social circle and look what happened. He’d gotten swindled by the daughter of one of his dad’s old stalkers.

  Never again, he thought. No more supposedly innocent women. He was so raging mad, so hurt, so frustrated, he wanted to take legal action. But at this point, Mary hadn’t actually committed a crime. The judgment had been against her mother, not her. And since Cathy had never violated the terms of the restraining order, she’d more or less been forgotten.

  Nonetheless, he was going to confront Mary in a big way. But he wasn’t going to return to her apartment. A public place wouldn’t do, either. He didn’t need any distractions. He decided he would do it here, in the privacy of his office. He didn’t want her to suspect that she was under scrutiny, though. He intended to blindside her, just as she’d done to him.

  * * *

  Mary received a text from Brandon, asking her if she would come to his office around two. He said that he had a surprise for her.

  She couldn’t imagine why he wanted to see her so soon after dropping her off at her apartment, or what his surprise entailed, but she was excited about seeing him again. He’d even included little hearts and flowers emoticons in his message, leading her to believe this was going to be a romantic encounter.

  Had he lied about rushing off to read a report? Had he dashed over to his office to set up her surprise?

  Since Alice wasn’t home yet, Mary had the bathroom to herself. She freshened up, adding a bit more lipstick and fluff
ing her hair. She was still wearing her traveling clothes. But if things got sexy with Brandon, he would probably divest her of them, anyway.

  A niggle of fear and guilt crept in. Now that their trip was over, she’d promised herself that she would tell him the truth. But she couldn’t do it today, not in the middle of his surprise.

  She took a deep breath and left the house. A short time later, she arrived at his office, which was located in a charming old building near the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. His suite was on the top floor.

  His assistant, a young man with a beard and a trendy haircut, greeted her in the lobby. She hadn’t expected anyone else to be there except Brandon.

  The assistant called Brandon and let him know that his two o’ clock appointment had arrived. Butterflies rushed to her stomach. It all seemed so formal.

  “Mr. Talbot will see you now,” the assistant said, gesturing down the hallway. “His office is the second door on the left. You don’t need to knock. You can go right in.”

  “Thank you.” She made her way to the designated door and opened it.

  Brandon sat at his shiny black desk, with a colorful view of downtown Nashville behind him. He wasn’t looking particularly romantic. In fact, he looked cool and detached.

  Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

  “Close the door and have a seat,” he said.

  She did as he asked, shutting them in together, then perched on the edge of a leather chair that was positioned across from his desk.

  “How does it feel to be brought here under false pretenses?” he asked, his blue eyes narrowing in on hers.

  The hearts and flowers in his text had been a ruse, she realized. But even more disturbing was the folder that was sitting on his desk with her name typed across the front of it.

  He pushed it toward her, but she didn’t open it. She didn’t need to know what it said. She already knew. He’d uncovered her identity.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, wishing she could go back in time and erase everything she’d done. “I was going to tell you everything. Honestly, I was.”

  “Really? How convenient for you now that you got caught.” He leaned back in his chair, with a dark and lawyerly air. “Do you know why I had you investigated? Because I cared about you and wanted to help you get past whatever was going on in your life. Hell, I was even fancying myself in love with you.”

  She nearly pitched forward. Now the room felt as it were spinning. She’d begun to assume that he loved her, but she’d never expected to hear it like this. “I fell in love with you, too.”

  “And I’m supposed to believe that? You’ve been conning me from the start. Admit it, Mary. This was a scam from day one.”

  “I do love you. I swear I do.” She needed to make that clear, whether he believed it or not. “And yes, you’re right, I conned you. But let me explain.”

  “Fine. Be my guest.” He swept his hand across the report. “Explain away.”

  She started at the beginning, telling him how her mother had come to Nashville to sell her songs. She also detailed how she’d gotten duped by his dad. “She wasn’t a stalker. She was only trying to get him to make good on his promise. But he filed a restraining order against her instead, with you as his attorney.” Mary paused, hoping for some empathy, but his expression remained hard and unyielding. “Mama fell apart after that. She was never the same. Her depression was so bad that she was barely parenting us anymore, and since Alice was so much younger than me, I tried to help raise her. But I was never able to influence my sister to stop hating Kirby for what he’d done to Mama. She was consumed with it. I got consumed, as well, with the pain he’d caused. I hated him, too.”

  Brandon lifted his eyebrows. “So you took your pain out on me?”

  “At first we tried to cook up ways to get back at your dad, but none of them panned out. Then Alice devised a scheme for me to draw you in. She saw some posts on your social media pages that your friends were encouraging you to find a nice girl, so she suggested that I should present myself to you in that way. She kept saying that I was a good girl, anyway. That it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for me.”

  “Christ,” he muttered, tension in his voice. He wasn’t softening at all.

  “I was mixed up from the beginning and unsure of how far to take it. Mostly I just wanted to find out how responsible you were in what happened to Mama. And once I got close to you, I realized that you never would’ve hurt her purposely. But by then, I was already in too deep. I was already developing feelings for you.”

  “You never thought to contact me outright and discuss the stalking situation with your mom? To explain your side of it?”

  “No. We never thought of that. But we didn’t know if we could trust you. Alice is still convinced that you and your dad should pay for what he did to our mother. I know my sister is really messed up and I obviously was, too, for having done something like this. But I’ve been learning my lessons, and this is turning out to be the hardest one of all.” Facing the fact she’d hurt someone she loved, she thought. That she’d damaged him.

  He sat quietly for a moment, as if he was contemplating the whole ball of wax. Then he said, “If what you say is true and my father cheated your mother in a business deal and falsified the stalking charges, I’ll make sure that he fixes it.” He blew out a heavy sigh. “But I need to talk to him and get his side of the story. I can’t just take you and Alice at your word. I mean, really, Mary, how am I supposed to trust anything you say?”

  “You’re not, I guess.” She glanced down at her hands, twisting them on her lap. “But if I could take back what I did to you, I would.” She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I was never comfortable with it. That’s why I was always talking about breaking it off. At first I thought it would hurt you less for me to disappear and for you to never know the truth. But when we were in Texas and everything was going so beautifully with your family, I decided I was going to tell you the truth once we got back. I even thought that maybe we’d be able to stay together.”

  He looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “For all I know, this sorrowful act of yours is part of a new ploy to rein me in, to use me for my money or whatever it is you really want.”

  “It isn’t.” All she could do now was continue to tell him the truth and pray for him to understand. “Alice tried to convince me that I should marry you for your money. But I’m not interested in that. If I married you, it would be for love.”

  He scoffed at her response. “Sweet little Mary, ever the enchantress. Well, you know what? I was so bewitched by you I actually wondered what it would be like to make you my wife.” He shook his head. “But it worried me, how I was falling in love with a stranger, a woman who wouldn’t talk about her past.”

  “I’ll tell you anything now, anything you want to know.” Her heart hurt so badly, she feared it was going to shatter into a zillion pieces. Knowing that he’d considered marriage made it so much worse.

  “I’m not interested in anything else you have to say.” He stood and came around his desk, towering over her while she remained seated. “I’ll talk to my dad and get back to you. But it’ll be his version of the facts that I’ll be relying on, not yours.”

  “I understand. But as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing you or your dad need to make up for. What I did to you was just as hurtful as what he did to my mom. And I’m so sorry, Brandon. So incredibly sorry.”

  “Stop with the apologies. It’s not helping.” He leaned against the edge of his desk. “It’s too late for me to keep feeling something for you. It’s too late for everything.”

  She wanted to curl up and cry, but she couldn’t do that in front of him.

  “You can go now,” he said. “I trust you can see yourself out.”

  “Yes.” She stood, remembering every warm and romantic moment she’d spent with him. But it was over now. There was nothin
g left, except the ache that came with losing the man she loved.

  * * *

  Mary cried for hours, until there were no tears left. Still, Alice kept watching her as if she might burst out bawling again.

  They sat on their tiny patio with dusk blanketing the sky. Their apartment faced the street, and she could see cars going by.

  Mary’s breath hitched. Her face was swollen, and her eyes stung. But the real pain was in her heart. “If I would’ve told him sooner, if I would’ve come clean from the start, he wouldn’t hate me the way he does.”

  Alice frowned. “He has no right to hate you, not after the way his father trashed Mama.”

  “He said that he’s going to talk to Kirby and get his side of it. And if his dad confirms that it’s true, he’ll make sure that Kirby fixes it.”

  “If his dad confirms it? You know damned well that he’s going to lie and say that Mama was a stalker.”

  Mary thought about how sincere Kirby seemed at the wedding and how he kept saying he was trying to turn over a new leaf. “Maybe he’ll tell the truth. Maybe he’ll admit to what he did.”

  Alice shook her head. “That would take a miracle, and this isn’t feeling like a miracle-type situation to me. And on top of that, Brandon should have forgiven you. Isn’t that the way love is supposed to work?”

  “I don’t know enough about love to answer that question. But I was hoping and praying that he would forgive me.” She’d already forgiven his father. After what she’d done to Brandon, she was in no position to judge Kirby.

  Alice dragged a hand through her platinum hair. “So if by some unexpected chance Kirby does corroborate our story, what do you think Brandon meant by fixing it?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Do you think it would involve money?”

  “I don’t know.” Money was the least of her concerns.

  Her sister turned quiet. A fly buzzed by and she waved it away. Then she asked, “Do you still love him?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t deny the truth. “But I wish that I didn’t, with how it’s tearing me apart. You warned me that I was going to get hurt, and you were right.”