Colters' Daughter (Colters' Legacy #3)(53)

Max looked at her with death in his eyes. “It was true then. It’s not true now.”

Her stomach revolted. Pain crashed through her chest until she could barely breathe. How stupid was she? Once hadn’t been enough. She’d been gullible a second time. She’d made it so easy for Max. He’d torn her apart once already. And she’d let him back in with a whispered apology and words of love. Now her entire family was gathered to witness her shame. Her utter humiliation.

She took another step forward, her legs shaking so badly that it was a miracle she remained standing.

“You lied to me. You manipulated me. You abused your control over me. What were you going to do, Max, use my submission to get your way? Would you have commanded me to sign over my land? Or maybe when we got married you were going to take over everything. Little submissive Callie would never tell you no, right?”

“That’s a rotten thing to say,” Max snarled. “What we have is real, Callie. I’d never use my dominance to manipulate you.”

Behind her, the dads cursed. Her brothers stepped forward, but she held up her hand. There was nothing left for her to lose at this point. No secret left covered. Every little dirty detail of her life had been exposed. She’d never felt more betrayed in her life.

“Tell me you didn’t do this,” she said tearfully. “Tell me you didn’t set up our meeting in Europe. Tell me it was all one huge coincidence.”

“I can’t tell you that, dolcezza. I won’t lie to you. I did engineer the meeting. What I didn’t engineer was what happened afterward. The way I fell for you.”

“Oh God, stop. Just stop it.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks as her entire world shattered into tiny pieces and lay on the floor like jagged shards of glass.

Max moved swiftly to her and grasped her shoulders as he stared intently into her eyes. “Don’t do this, Callie. Listen to me. I love you.”

“Can you look me in the eye and tell me you never hoped to coerce me into giving you Callie’s Meadow? Can you do that?”

He was silent for a moment and in his eyes she saw the terrible truth. A sob welled in her throat and swelled outward until she physically couldn’t take a breath. The room blurred in front of her.

Around her, her family erupted into chaos. Her brothers were shouting. Her fathers pressed forward, angry accusations flying as they pushed in between her and Max.

She fell to her knees, her face in her hands as horrible, terrible sounds tore from her throat. Her mother knelt beside her and pulled her into her arms as she rocked back and forth.

But it was too much. Too painful. She couldn’t bear for her family to see her so utterly devastated.

She bolted to her feet and flew toward the door. Max’s anguished cry followed her.

“Callie!”

Covering her ears, she ran for her fathers’ Land Rover, praying the keys were in the ignition as they often were.

Ryan called after her. But she ignored her father and threw herself into the driver’s seat. She had to get away. Away from the pain. Away from Max and his betrayal. Away from the sympathy simmering in her family’s eyes.

She drove recklessly down the drive but when she reached the end, she slowed, determined not to add more stupidity to her list of crimes. She took in steadying breaths and then set off again down the winding switchbacks, no clear direction in mind.

Away. All she knew was that she had to be away.

Tears streamed silently down her cheeks, and then the glint of silver caught her eye and she stared numbly at the cuffs on her wrists.

She braked sharply and then buried her face against the steering wheel as she broke down and allowed the sobs to tear painfully from her chest.

“You were a bastard to do this to her,” Max snarled at her brother. “How could you have humiliated her like this? How could you have upset her so badly?”

Seth’s mouth gaped open and fury glinted in his eyes. “You’re the son of a bitch who used her, Wilder. And don’t give me that crap about how it started out that way but changed. You broke her heart once. You dumped her in Europe and then waited months before you came crawling back like a f**king cockroach.”

“You should have come to me!” Max roared as he jabbed a finger into his own chest. “You should have never hurt her by airing this in front of the people she loves the most. Do you have any idea how lucky you all are? All she ever talks about is how much she adores her family, how important you all are to her, how her dream is to build a home in her meadow so she can be close to you all. And yet you shit on her by dumping this on her without warning. This could have been handled so differently. You could have been man enough to approach me away from her. You could have talked to her privately if you felt you absolutely had to tell her yourself. I could have saved you a hell of a lot of trouble if you’d just come to me. I love that girl. I love her more than my promise to my family. I love her more than the legacy passed on to me by the man who raised me as his son. I love her enough that I was willing to move to this godforsaken town so she’d be happy. I would have done anything for her. Anything in the world but hurt her the way you’ve hurt her.”

Max felt like someone had knifed him right in the gut. He broke off from his impassioned speech just as Seth got into his face, his eyes shooting fire.

“The way I’ve hurt her? I didn’t lie to her, you son of a bitch. I’ve never lied to my sister. I didn’t use her. I didn’t manipulate her. I want to know what the f**k she’s talking about when she talks about your dominance and your control. Just what kind of hold do you have over her?”