Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(77)

“I have to ask you some things. I want answers—calm answers. You lose your cool any more and I’m going to wonder what you’re hiding.”

He shook his head in frustration. “I know you’re right, but try to understand—she’s a pathological liar and she’s cost me in the past. When she showed up at Luke’s, my mother was horrified by the way I talked to her. She’d never heard me talk to another human being that way, much less a woman.”

“Were you actually together three years, not three months?” Erin asked. The shocked look on his face told her he wasn’t prepared for that question, or else he was a brilliant actor, better even than what he’d given Annalee credit for. “Have you been in touch all this time—you and your wife?” He couldn’t seem able to close his mouth. “Did you give her that big check so she’d get an abortion?”

“Abortion?” he asked in shock. “Erin. No. No to all of that!”

“Is she going to say everything you tell me is a lie? And are you going to say everything she tells me is a lie?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t even shake his head. He met her eyes steadily—green on green. He was done begging to be believed, she could see that.

“Answer this for me, Aiden. Please. When you found yourself married to this beautiful young woman, did you try to make it work? Did you hope you could make it work with her? The truth. Please.”

“Even though I hated her? Even though I’d been trapped by my affair with her? Even though every day with her was sheer hell while she abused me, stole from me, deceived me, cheated on me and had sex with other men in my bed? You really want the true answer to that? Because I don’t think it’ll help my case with you. I don’t think you’ll respect me for it. The truth is—yes, I tried. And I didn’t try for three years—it was three months. It was only three months because when I called my brothers and told them what had been going on since I hit land, Luke came right away. Then Sean, right behind him. They had her number in thirty seconds and wouldn’t allow it to go on. But yes, if I could’ve transformed her into a wife, I would have. Not because I cared about her. Because I took an oath. Because in our family it takes a lot to get a man to take those vows and when we do…Ask Sean. Ask Luke. Don’t take my word for it.”

She felt a slight smile reach her lips; very slight. “She suggested your brothers would lie for you.”

“I think that’s probably the single truth she told you,” he admitted with a nod. “Under most circumstances, they probably would. Lie for me, kill for me, risk their lives for me. I would for them. What she didn’t mention because she doesn’t understand—I’d never be in the kind of position that would require it. Neither would they. We tend to admit our mistakes and take our lumps.”

“Aiden,” she said. “This is so awful.”

“I know,” he said so softly she barely heard.

“Is there any way you can prove to me that she’s lying and you’re telling the truth?”

“I don’t know,” he said. Then something seemed to occur to him. “Did she tell you she wanted to reconcile?”

“Something like that, yes….”

“She said that in front of my family.” He frowned and shook his head. “I have no idea how this figures into her scheme, her plan. I assume it’s more money—signing new documents will carry a price tag, just like the last time….”

“Well, that’s easy. Don’t pay her,” Erin said.

“I want her to go away,” he said.

“If what you say about her is true, she’s probably counting on just that. Ron told you correctly—you don’t have to have permission to divorce her. It might take a little longer without her cooperation, but Ron knows how to deal with that—he deals with it all the time. Just move forward.”

“And us?” he asked. “Can we just move forward?”

Us? she thought. She wanted him so much; she wanted everything he said to be true. She wanted this insane, wild summer on a mountain to be the forever she thought was completely out of her reach. But she had to protect her flanks. And her heart. “I need something from you.”

“Anything.”

“I need you to give Ron Preston permission to share with me whatever information he finds about your case—about your last lawyer, Annalee, all the stuff that’s in dispute. I know he’ll have his paralegals researching in order to represent your interests and he can’t talk to me about a client without the client’s permission. Even though I’m a member of the firm.”

“Done,” he said.

“And I can’t sleep with you until at least most of this is resolved.”

“You don’t trust me,” he said, the pain in his voice obvious.

“Remember how you felt when you realized you’d been used, abused, deceived? I don’t want to feel that way. What I want is for Ron to work his magic, get some facts and prove to me that I was right about you from the start. That’s all I ask. And that’s not a lot.”

“Whatever you want,” he said. Then he got a familiar glint in his eye and said, “You’re not going to be able to make that stick, but as long as you tell me no, I’ll listen and obey. It’s just that you and me, together, is a little bigger than both of us.” He straightened his spine and drew in a deep breath, putting his hands in his pockets. “One way or another, we’ll get this done. I don’t have any other shadows that can ruin this for us. It’ll be terrible, not sleeping with you, holding you, loving you. But if that’s what you need, I can do that. When this is over,” he said, “I’m never letting you go.”