Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(25)

I lower my hands, even though my ears keep ringing. “I think that’s plenty I should’ve known a long, long time ago.”

He looks at me, frowning. “Don’t tell me it was all new? Some, probably, but you’re telling me...fuck, everything?”

I nod, my neck feeling like a noodle.

“I didn’t know any of it.” I shake my head. “My mother’s parents, the prenup, the...the custody agreement.”

For some reason, I’m not the only one who looks shell-shocked. His chiseled face is good at hiding what he’s thinking, but I know surprise when I see it. He’s wearing it in spades.

“Jonah always said you knew about the deal...”

“Well,” I croak, a lump plugging my throat. “I didn’t.”

His jaw goes tight, and I hear him inhale, filling his lungs to capacity, swelling his massive chest until it’s almost flush with the steering wheel.

But what comes out of him is quiet, strained, a succinct one-word summary of the mess ripping through me. “Fuck.”





6





Imposter Syndrome (Drake)





Goddammit, Jonah!

You said she knew everything. Why the fuck did you lie to me?

I know it’s not Bella lying her sweet little rear off. She’s not able to lie about anything.

Right now, her face is colorless. She’s gulping at the air like a fish out of water.

I’m not sure how we begin to fix this fuckery, but I know one thing – there’s no way I can drag her into the boardroom at North Earhart like this.

Stabbing at the brakes, I pull the truck to the side of the road, shifting into park. I grab a water bottle out of my cup holder. Old habit from overseas. I hardly go anywhere without water.

I screw off the cap and pass it over. “Drink.”

At first, she’s reluctant. But I hold it there, refusing to let go, until she cups it in her small hands and lifts it to her lips.

She takes a couple good swallows, then hands the bottle back. “Thanks.”

“Try and finish it before we get to the meeting,” I say, replacing the cap and setting the bottle in the cup holder next to her knee. “Look, I’m sorry. I honestly thought you knew most of this...or at least the most important part.”

A slow sigh hisses out her lips. “I didn’t, but don’t be sorry. You just kept these secrets; you didn’t make them. Honestly, shocked or not, I’m glad I know now.”

Guilt torches my stomach. Especially when I know I’m hanging onto a secret that dwarfs every fucked up thing her family ever did.

Hell, this is almost killing her. What would it be like if she found out about that fucking proxy marriage time bomb Jonah arranged?

“Very glad,” she whispers again. “I was feeling guilty about inheriting everything, thinking my parents should’ve gotten something. I was prepared to sit down and throw them a bone.”

She chuckles bitterly. I’m dead quiet, white-knuckling the steering wheel.

“Now, it makes sense. Now, I know why I had to call Gramps so many times...why they said I should tell him how crappy my academy was, even though it wasn’t. Why they said I should tell him how bad I wanted to move, even though I didn’t.” She nods then, more to herself than me. “They played me. Used me to get their hands on more money. I’ll never understand why he kept everything a secret, but...it’s no worse than what Mom and Dad did. And you know what? Keeping them from getting their hands on a single shred of North Earhart will be that much easier now.”

Inwardly, I smile. I love how determined she sounds. Nothing like betrayal to give a person a good, swift kick in the ass and point them in the right direction.

I just wish we only had her psycho parents to worry about.

I wish like hell Molly and Gary Reed were the only ones trying to get their hands on the company.

I’m not going to be the one to tell her that, though. Not right now.

“Let’s go, Drake,” she says, staring straight ahead through the windshield. “I’m fine. More than fine. I’m ready to get this done.”

However ready she says she is, I stop and look her over.

I’ve seen enough action to know when another human being’s in shock. That’s Bella Reed right now.

Tunnel vision talking. Bruised pride in the driver’s seat, mistakes guaranteed, however justified.

Talking her down won’t be easy.

If I go against her, she’ll get pissed real fast.

Shifting the truck into gear, I check for traffic, then pull onto the highway. The corporate headquarters building is on the far side of Dallas, but I doubt she’ll come around in the fifteen minutes it’ll take us to get there. When we reach the edge of town, I turn left, taking the slow way to buy us some time.

“Hey, this isn’t the way to the office, is it?” she shoots me a glare.

Shit. I assumed she didn’t know her way around town that well.

“I thought we’d drop the papers off at Sheridan’s office first. It’ll only take a second,” I say.

At least she doesn’t fight me.

I’m still pissed at Jonah. Might be for some time, even after this entire fiasco is history.

I can’t understand why the old man left me to pull the family’s skeletons out of the closet and drop them in her lap. Fuck.