Take a Chance (Chance, #1; Rosemary Beach #7)(36)

I shot up off the sofa and walked away from everyone to the other side of the room. I couldn’t breathe. This wasn’t true. This was not true. It couldn’t be true. My grandmama would never lie to me. She wouldn’t do that. My mother was dead.

Grant was immediately beside me, his arm around my waist.

“I don’t believe you,” I said angrily, glaring at Dean. He was a liar. Why was he trying to hurt me like this?

“Holy shit,” Mase said, standing up and swinging his gaze from Dean to me. I could see it in his eyes. He believed Dean. Didn’t he know this was a lie?

“It’s time you saw her. I think you’re going to have to be the one to get him. He hates going on tour because he can’t see her when he wants to. She’s in the finest facility available in L.A. When we come to Vegas, he’s close enough to run back and check on her. We have to leave the States from here and hit the U.K. He doesn’t want to leave her. He’s gonna need you to get him. We can’t go without him, and seeing her only upsets him more.”

I jerked away from Grant’s arm. I didn’t want anyone to touch me. I needed space to breathe. Once I managed to force oxygen into my lungs, I put both of my hands on the wall and closed my eyes. Could this be true? Mase thought it was. He didn’t have to say anything—it was all over his face. And Grant wasn’t calling Dean a liar. He had been there to comfort me.

How could that be hidden from me all my life? Wouldn’t my grandmama want to visit her daughter? There was no way. This made no sense. I didn’t look at Dean. I didn’t look at anyone. I stared at the wall in front of me and took a deep breath. “This isn’t possible. I would have figured it out. My grandmama would have wanted to visit her only child.” I wanted to yell at him and throw things, but I balled my hands into fists and focused on calming down. Let him explain that. Let him tell me my grandmama had gone the rest of her life without visiting her only daughter.

“Texas, Harlow. Your grandmother took you to Texas to stay with Mase,” Dean said quietly. His words were gentle, yet it felt like he had slammed his fist into my gut.

She . . . she was going to see my mother. Oh my god. I doubled over from the pain. She had never stayed in Texas with me. How could she lie to me? Why? Why? Didn’t they want me to see her, too? She was my mother.

I heard Mase and Grant both say my name but I shook my head. I didn’t want them to try and soothe me. There was no way to ease this pain. I turned to see them both moving toward me, and a scream bubbling to the surface broke free. “NO!” I didn’t want them near me. I held out both hands to keep them back. They both froze. I didn’t focus on the pain in Grant’s eyes and the sadness in Mase’s. This wasn’t about them. This was mine to deal with. Alone.

“Where is she?” I asked Dean, looking back at him. The fury and betrayal building inside me were solely focused on that man at the moment. He was the only one around that I could lash out at. He had known, yet he had let them lie to me.

“The limo will take you to her. Your father took it to L.A. The driver knows where to go,” Dean said, dropping his head and letting out a sigh. He hadn’t wanted to tell me. I should be thankful he had. But right now I had no room for thankfulness in my heart.

Grant started to walk toward me and so did Mase. “Stop. Both of you. Don’t come near me. I need to be alone. I want to go alone. Just stay,” I demanded. I didn’t wait for their response. I turned and headed for the door.

I had to get to that limo. If this was true, then it changed everything. My father had lied to me my entire life, and my grandmama. How could I trust anyone?

How could they keep my mother from me?

Grant

Ihad never felt this helpless. The door slammed behind Harlow as she fled the suite. She didn’t want me with her. She didn’t want Mase. She was just going alone. How the f**k was she supposed to deal with this alone?

I glared back at Dean. “I can’t believe this shit!” I roared, wanting to throw something. “You just blurted out that her mother was alive and in a special home with no preparation? What the f**k were you thinking?”

“What he said,” Mase said in an angry growl.

Dean sank down onto the chair behind him. “What was I supposed to do? Kiro won’t leave. When it finally dawned on me where he might be, I called the place and sure enough he was there. He said he wasn’t going on tour. He wasn’t leaving her that long. She gets anxious and difficult if too many days go by and he doesn’t come to see her. The doctors say she expects it. If she doesn’t see him then she gets upset.”

Fuck me.

I walked over to the windows overlooking Vegas. How did he survive this? Seeing the woman he obviously still loved, knowing she would never talk to him again? It seemed almost worse than death.

“Someone should have told her before now. She’s twenty years old! She’s been robbed of knowing her mother her entire life!” Mase sounded as if he was ready to put his fist through a wall.

“Kiro was afraid seeing her like that would upset Harlow, and Harlow would, in return, upset her mother. He does everything he can to protect Emily. The media have never gotten ahold of this story. No one knows about her but us. To everyone else, she’s simply dead. Kiro loves Harlow, but when it comes to protecting her mother he will do anything and everything. No matter the cost. Even denying Harlow the opportunity to see her. But you’re right. It’s past time someone told her. Kiro should have told her.”