“All this time, I thought you knew. They told me the three of you had talked it over and that you’d concurred it was for the best.” Worse than Ingram and Bunny’s cut-and-dried bribe, a disgusting bargain to affect two young hearts, was that they’d lied and told him Erin was in agreement. “How naive I was to take them at their word.” As a matter of fact, it was only yesterday, upon finally seeing Erin again, that he’d flashed on the possibility that there was more than one version of what had transpired. His hunch had been right.
“If I was in cahoots with them, why wouldn’t I have just broken up with you? Do you really think I would have agreed to a plan to buy you off?”
“I believed what they told me. I was a twenty-one-year-old kid,” Kento said, all of it still sinking in. “They said you didn’t love me.”
Anguish changed her face. “How could you have taken that as truth?” Her voice cracked. “Hadn’t you noticed? What we had was real for me. I never would have betrayed you. Give me a little more credit than that.” Kento had no idea what lengths Erin would have gone to at her parents’ behest. All he knew was that Ingram and Bunny had tight control over their daughter. And he hadn’t even told her all that was said that day with her parents.
“Let’s get some air.” Erin got up and mounted the four steps to the boat’s deck. Kento followed her as she made her way to the starboard side, wrapping her two hands around the railing and peering out into the distance. Kento took a stand right next to her. He’d been scorned and devastated, yet his gut was twisting that he had upset her. All this time, she’d thought he’d left her for reasons of his own. Because he didn’t love her. In fact, the Barclays had bent things around so much he never knew that Erin was unaware of their horrible plot to get rid of him.
The boat moved in between two smaller islands on the Sound, dense with trees. Erin started to speak and then stopped herself. He didn’t let it slide. “What were you going to say?”
She took in a slow inhale and let out an even slower exhale. Whatever she wanted to share wasn’t coming easy. “All of the time we were together, my parents tried to brainwash me into distrusting you. They told me that people like you were looking for connections. For the opportunities that aligning with a family like mine might bring. I told them you’d never do anything like that, but they tried to get me to doubt your sincerity in even being with me.”
As he took in her words, blood came to a boil through his veins. “How dare they tell you those kind of lies!” In another repeat from seven years ago, Kento was stunned at the lengths the Barclays would go to in order to maintain their private bubble. He’d never met people like that, who thought nothing of lying to and manipulating their own daughter. Kento slapped his hand against the railing, compelled to bang his anger out somewhere. Smacked it a second time.
“When you left for Tokyo, they assured me how right they were, that you only cared about me because I was a Barclay. And that once you figured out they weren’t going to usher you into their life of standing and privilege, you left. Further proof that you’d never loved me in the first place.”
Erin searched him, as confused as he was by all that had been said. Contemplating, trying to piece it together. Until she gasped. What had been teary eyes began to weep in earnest. Her cries carried off the boat deck, and the wails merged with the crashing of waves in the Sound.
“What is it?” he finally asked. “Why are you crying so hard?”
“I just got it,” she sobbed. “You took the bribe. That’s how you had the money to start your software company. No wonder you never reached out to me again after you got to Japan. NIRE was founded on my family’s money.”
* * *
Everything Erin had held on to for the past seven years turned to dust and scattered off the boat deck and into the waters of Puget Sound. This was Kento Yamamoto, a man so forthcoming and fair that he wouldn’t even accept the meal assistance some of his university scholarships included, letting the aid committees know that his parents could provide food for him. How could that same person pocket a payoff from her parents to get out of their lives, all the while knowing it would break her heart in the process?
Which was the real man and which was the facade? Anything was possible. Maybe she’d glorified him too much and never saw who he really was. Could her parents have been right? After all, he didn’t come to her, didn’t meet her at that bakery to demand an explanation.
“Erin!”
She didn’t turn her head, instead focusing her eyes on the waves.
“For heaven’s sake, Erin!” he exclaimed until he shocked her out of her trance. “I didn’t accept their attempted payout! Is that how little you think of me?”
“Oh, my gosh.” Erin put her hand over her mouth to muffle her tears.
“Do you really think I’d have taken it?”
“Look at it from my point of view. Someone who flees without a goodbye has surely done something wrong.” Even though she tried to sync her eyes to his, now it was he who wouldn’t look her in the face. He could be lying, but something deep in her soul assured her he wasn’t. And he was certainly more likely to be honest than her parents were. “But no. You wouldn’t have been part of a dirty deal like that. The possibility just popped into my mind. I shouldn’t have voiced it.”
“I built NIRE on nothing! My uncle Riku gave me an entry-level job after graduation. I started designing software at night and on the weekends, using every moment of my spare time to learn and develop. I’ll tell you anything you want to know about my company, but I’ll ask you not to make any assumptions.”
Erin noticed the boat turning to begin its return to the harbor. They had to get back to their duties at Christy and Lucas’s wedding. There was the ceremony rehearsal and then a rehearsal dinner. They had to get ready.
What a mess they’d unearthed in less than twenty-four hours. Thanks to her parents, she’d spent seven years thinking it was so easy for Kento to leave. In turn, he’d spent that time believing she hadn’t loved him. It was a tragedy of misunderstanding. More tears began to form, ready to spill from her eyes. After the disaster with Harris, she was starting to genuinely realize that her parents’ prescription for her life wasn’t working out. She hadn’t married, hadn’t bred. They had failed at creating the next-gen socialite they wanted her to be. Hearing about their foul behavior years earlier was the icing on the cake.
And now she’d greatly offended Kento with her guess that he’d taken her parents’ dirty money. They needed a way to put this all behind them and get on with the day. She eked out, “Forgive me for even acknowledging the possibility.”
He was silent, and they both watched as the boat approached the dock.
“I think you might have to earn that forgiveness,” he answered finally. Why did the way he’d said that sound more flirty than angry?
“How would I do that?” she flicked back, grateful he was lightening the mood.
With one of his long fingers, he tapped his cheek, indicating that he wanted Erin to kiss it right there. The gesture was both silly and thrilling, making Erin’s spirit brighten, not to mention causing her stomach to tingle. Holding fast to his demand, he leaned down a bit, bringing his cheek closer to her. She lifted up on tiptoes and placed a prolonged but gentle kiss onto his cheek. His satisfied grin would have irked her if it wasn’t so adorable.
* * *
Back at the lodge after their breakfast cruise, Kento and Erin parted to get ready for the rehearsal. Trying to pull all the pieces of the morning together, she showered and put on her outfit for the day. A silky, fitted silver T-shirt went nicely with the full skirt, also silver, that came together with a black belt and black ballet flats. As she was slipping on some bangle bracelets, Christy called and asked her to come to the dressing room in the main lodge, because she was having second thoughts about her own ensemble.
Erin helped her sort through some options, all in
the vivid colors the bride gravitated toward. She settled on the blinding pink shantung dress originally bought for the occasion. Christy had just been having jitters.
The bridal party had been instructed to meet outside at the wedding canopy for the rehearsal. The weather was dreary but not raining as staff members arranged rows of cushioned white chairs for the ceremony. Erin and Christy arrived last, and Lucas called out, “Oh, wow,” at the sight of his intended in her bright pink dress. That it was the color of stomach medication didn’t stop him from bending his head to one side as he gazed adoringly at his bride. It was cute how smitten he was. Erin sincerely hoped their affection would last a lifetime.
Christy donned the practice veil she’d been handed, and Billy, the photographer, snapped some candid shots. Kento stood beside Lucas. The best man wore a fine charcoal suit with a white shirt and no tie, his hair in its sexy tangle. He looked so tall and stylish, Erin had a moment’s jealousy that it wasn’t her wedding to him that everyone had gathered for. A wish that the past hadn’t played out as it had. That, for once, her relationship was going right and the man she loved stood ready to declare his intention of eternal partnership, of staying rather than going.
True love was never going to happen for her—she wasn’t even open to it. Most especially not with Kento and all of the bad blood that had been spilled. He was the very person who had destroyed her hope of devotion. Even though she hadn’t known about her parents’ horrible behavior, she’d learned that he was capable of leaving her in a blink. If he could just disappear once, she could never trust him not to do it again. As their prickly boat ride this morning proved, there was still so much hurt and misunderstanding between them.
Although, for the first time she could ever recall, Erin pictured herself as a happy bride, mired in flower selections and reception menus, excited to begin matrimony with her groom. Seeing Kento again reminded her of all of the whimsical little daydreams she used to have about him. Imagining them as an already-married couple. Participating in all of the tiny moments that added up to a lifetime together. The stylish but unfussy house they’d live in. Trips they’d take. She’d gone as far as envisioning beautiful children who were not only bequeathed with their father’s good looks but with his brains and hardworking determination. No, she cautioned herself again. Those hallucinations were part of her history, and she needed to leave them there. What-ifs had no place between the two of them anymore. She was glad they’d cleared up some of her questions about the past, but there really didn’t need to be anything more than that.
“Mother of the bride—” Suni, the wedding planner, began organizing the decided-upon processional “—you’ll be the first to walk down the aisle and then take your seat. Mother and father of the groom will already be seated in the front row. Next are the bridesmaids and groomsmen in pairs down the aisle, and then the maid of honor and best man.”
Who would all part at the altar. Next was the flower girl. And last would be Uncle Vernon and Christy walking to the head of the aisle, where Lucas waited to meet his bride. As was traditional, Erin would hold Christy’s bouquet as needed during the ceremony. Kento would be in charge of the rings, as Christy had opted not to have a bearer. “Everyone will run through the ceremony twice with me to make sure the placements are correct.”
When it was their turn, Kento presented the crook of his arm for Erin to take as they began their promenade according to instructions. While they did, his revelations on the boat this morning came flooding back, angering her to the point of distraction. But the best man and maid of honor strolled in the slow step of a formal processional—one foot forward, the other one meeting it. Step, together, step, together.
They’d explained so much to each other, yet she was still tormented. All of this happily-ever-after wedding business was just making her more and more incensed about her parents’ inconceivable bribe. About her falling for their cover-up. At Kento for not having enough confidence in her to know that there was a limit to her condoning of her parents’ behavior. That she wasn’t a monster like they were. She would never have participated in a plot so evil as to let them buy off Kento. But was that true? While they’d never done anything quite so reprehensible, she’d had no record of standing up to them.
In reality, she desperately wanted to break away from them, to go her own way. Kento was the one who had planted that seed in her long ago, encouraged her to think for herself. To question whether the attitudes held by her insulated parents, who’d never known toil and struggle, were accurate, fair, real. It was only now, being reunited with him, that brought those feelings back to the surface. Because when Kento left, it was as if he took the key to her cage with him, as if the gumption and fight he gave her flew out the door along with him. Not even realizing what she was doing, without Kento she’d walked right back into the prison of her parents’ life.
“You still haven’t explained why you didn’t come to me after my parents tried to pay you to go,” she blurted into his ear as they walked down the aisle, not censoring herself. “You believed them, believed that I would have gone along with their sickening scheme to get rid of you. Without even asking me. That’s what you thought of me?”
“A bit slower, please,” Suni called out. Kento adjusted his pace, and Erin followed suit.
“Is this really the time and place?”
“I don’t care anymore, Kento.” At this point, she didn’t.
“If you hadn’t known about what I’ve already told you, then you surely don’t know the rest of it,” he whispered.
“What are you talking about?” Step. Together. Step. Together. Smile.
“Your parents also informed me that I was lucky they were even offering me money. That if I didn’t take their generous graduation present and immediately go away and never contact you again, they had some other actions they were prepared to take.”
Erin’s head whipped to look at him while he managed to keep them at the processional pace. “They threatened you?”
“Your father said they had been looking at a property on 4934 Spruce Street in Tacoma.”
“Why would he say that?”
“You’ve been there. The address is the building where my parents’ grocery store occupied the ground floor. The shop they’d owned and operated for thirty years. Your father told me he was thinking of buying the building for a teardown. To build condos.” Step. Together. Step. Together. “After all that time there, my parents wouldn’t have been able to start over somewhere else.”
Erin felt light-headed, nauseous.
After a few breaths to collect her wits, she said, “I wish you’d never met me in that philosophy class.” Step. Together. Step. Together.
“I don’t feel that way. The year we had together was...”
“I mean,” she interjected, “if we had never met, my parents couldn’t have treated you so horribly.”
She was shocked, mortified. Embarrassed to even be the offspring of thugs who would go to such lengths. They thought it was all for her own good, for the good of the family. With their own laws to answer to. But it sickened her nonetheless, that they would have terrified this upstanding young man who’d already had doors slammed in his face, who’d been said no to countless times. How people so fortunate could be so heartless was baffling.
He tilted his head in resignation. “I suppose I should thank you for that sentiment?”
“Can you understand how much you destroyed me by leaving rather than coming to me with all of this?” Step. Together.
“I was just a kid!” His voice rose and then he corrected it. “I was being crushed myself. Regardless of how you felt about me, I assumed it wasn’t enough to make you defy them.”
Erin used her pinkie finger to dab at the corners of her eyes. Smile.
“Are you all right?” Billy inquired.
“Everything is just so beautiful,” Erin quickly fibbed. “I always cr
y at weddings.”
Billy snaked left, right and sideways.
Once the maid of honor and best man reached the altar, they parted. Erin joined the bridesmaids on Christy’s side of the aisle. It was agonizing to leave Kento’s side, Amber and the girls looking on. Kento slapping a fake smile across his face reminded Erin to do the same. He took his place beside the groomsmen, with Lucas standing proud as he watched his bride in her pink dress walk toward him on her father’s arm.
Of all the merciless and cutthroat things Erin knew her parents did in their business dealings, what they had done to Kento took the prize. The Barclays did as the Barclays saw fit. They were afraid of no one; their cold hearts kowtowed to no one.
Bunny and Ingram had decided their daughter’s future, and Kento had no place in it. That was that. A mutually beneficial marriage was key. A merging of dynasties, another business agreement. They hadn’t even given her a real place in the company. She’d thought she had a knack for finding interesting historic properties for sale and wished she could direct her energies toward that, but they had never allowed her in. It had already been formally documented that while she would eventually inherit Barclay Properties, she would not be put in charge of its operations. Gender roles still prevailed, even in her mother’s mind. Male cousins were being groomed for the key positions when the time came.
After Christy and Lucas took their places, everyone participated in a practice of the ceremony. Erin pretended to help the bride with the imaginary train of her gown. She took Christy’s bouquet to hold for her, today made of plastic flowers provided by the wedding planner. Suni stood in for the officiant and ad-libbed some vows. Kento mimed handing Lucas the wedding rings.
Once the rehearsal had been completed twice, the wedding party did their second recessional back down the aisle. Kento and Erin joined arms again. During the short intervals, she’d missed resting her hand around his rock-solid bicep.
Wedding Date with the Billionaire Page 6