Revel (Second Chance Romance #1)(34)

Charlotte was quiet now.

“My mother,” Declan said. “She is the hit and run driver that killed your mom. She got incredibly drunk at a party on Folly and tore through a red light in her Lincoln town car. She knew she’d hit someone but she was terrified to stop. She was scared that she’d be in trouble, which would mean she’d be in the papers. Which would inevitably sully my dad’s perfect f*cking reputation. And she assumed she hadn’t caused any damage. That’s how loaded she was. So she left the scene, Charlotte. She left your mother…”

“To die,” Charlotte finished. “Your mother. Left my mother. To die.”

Declan was crying now, “Yes. It was so wrong, Charlotte. It was really f*cked up and I told her that and I know it’s hard for you to believe it, but she knew it was f*cked. She had no idea she’d hit a woman and the woman had died until a couple days later when she saw it on the news.” Declan was clutching Charlotte now. “And as soon as she told me, I knew I had to tell you. But she begged me not to, Charlotte. She said if I told you, she’d kill herself. That she couldn’t be ruined now, that she couldn’t go to prison. That she couldn’t disappoint the DeGraff name.”

“Fuck her,” Charlotte said, pulling away. “And f*ck you for not telling me, Declan. You knew I needed to know. You knew I have needed to know that my whole life. And like your mother would have served one day of jail time. Not with the kind of people you all know.”

“Charlotte, I’m telling you that I know I was wrong,” he said. “I made the wrong decision.”

Charlotte was backing away now, backing away from this man she now realized she never really knew.

“And here you go,” she cried. “Breaking my heart again. I love you so much, but I also hate you so much.” She sobbed. “I wish I’d never come to Charleston. Then and now. I wish I’d never met you, Declan DeGraff.”

And with that, she turned around, went downstairs, and walked out.

This time, Charlotte would be doing the leaving.





Chapter Fourteen


Declan was a man destroyed.

The sound of his front door slamming shut might as well have been a death knell. It was the death of him and Charlotte for good, as he always knew it would be, once she knew the truth.

The silence around him rung in his ears. He preferred to hear her screaming at him. Because he deserved it. And at least it meant she was still there.

But now she was gone. He couldn’t get her back this time.

Being with her, loving her again, just reminded him how beautiful it had all really been. Over the years he’d tried his best to diminish what they’d had together. He’d tell himself it wasn’t as intense and amazing as he remembered, that his memory was playing a trick on him. No one could exist as perfect as her.

But now he knew-it had been just as passionate and fiery as he’d recollected. Which made tonight’s ending that much harder for him to take.

Declan had never been one to have suicidal thoughts. But now he understood what true anguish felt like, and why people couldn’t live with it. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done to make this different.

But just as Charlotte wished she’d never met him, in a way he wished the same. Because, at least then, he would never know what he’d missed. He’d never have to know this kind of pain, the pain that went straight to the marrow of his bones. The kind of pain that touched every piece of his shattered heart.

********

Charlotte had struggled to walk back to her house. Her sobs and wails pierced the sky. She looked up to see a blanket of stars, and how she wished she could be among them and away from this place of constant hurt.

For just a moment, she’d made herself believe everything could be okay. His touch was just as she remembered. It brought her to her knees. His love was like nothing she’d ever experienced. She had a hard time believing anyone in the world had ever felt the kind of intense sexual chemistry she and Declan shared. His body made her feel like she was home again. She’d cried while he made love to her because she’d forgotten how much she needed it at one time, and how unbearable it had been all these years without it.

She was ruined for anyone else. And she almost hated him for that.

As she stumbled through the front door and finally made it to her bedroom, she collapsed on the bed, finally free to let out the emotion she’d been struggling to hold in on the walk back. Her wails had turned to screams now, screams of anger at the universe for cursing them in this way. Hadn’t God taken enough from her? Hadn’t she fought for happiness and peace enough? Yet she could never find it, not here, not in Nashville.

Even now, she still loved him. She wasn’t sure she knew him, but what she knew she loved with such a force that was outside of her own will. If it had been anything else, she could have taken it. But this secret… Now she understood. It hadn’t ever been about her. It had been about protecting someone else, even if he tried to use her as a scapegoat. He’d been protecting the DeGraff name. It came before everything, even justice.

How could she ever get beyond that?





Six Weeks Earlier…


Charlotte had been treating Melanie Hopp for all eight months of her pregnancy. Melanie was a young, soon-to-be first time mother-newly married when she found out she was pregnant. She had resisted finding out the sex of the baby at her 20-week anatomy scan, but Melanie Hopp couldn’t wait any longer. Now that she was 33 weeks, she was tired of waiting on the surprise. She had to know. When Charlotte had informed her the baby was a boy, Melanie had about jumped out of her skin with joy.