Beneath This Mask (Beneath, #1)(70)

I swallowed. The time had finally come for absolute honesty. “I thought about it.” A flash of anguish arced across his features, but I pushed on. “I probably should have. It probably would have been better for you in the long run never to see me again.”

He laughed humorlessly and gripped the back of his neck with one hand. He looked skyward. “Don’t do me any favors, Charlie.”

“Trust me, I’m not. I don’t see the upside for you in this. I pretty much see nothing but downsides on your end. Being with me is a bad deal. The secret’s out, and unless I run and hide and become someone else again, everyone will know who I am—the daughter of a thief, and a liar in my own right. That’s who I’m going to be for the rest of my life. Anyone who stands by me is going to be ruined by it.” I took a deep breath and cut to the heart of the matter. “But it turns out I’m not strong enough to walk away from you again. This time, you’re going to have to tell me to go. Because otherwise, I’m not leaving.”

At some point during my speech, Simon had moved closer to the gate. He gripped one bar in a white-knuckle hold. The muscle in his jaw ticked, and I braced myself, hoping like hell I hadn’t said too much. Hoping like hell I hadn’t finally convinced him that I wasn’t worth it.

“I’ve spent all day trying to figure out what I was going to do if you’d decided to run. How I was going to deal with the fact you might not be coming back.”

A shaft of pain lanced through me. Had he already started trying to figure out how to cut me out of his life? “Simon—”

“No. You’ve said your piece. It’s my turn.” He reached a hand through the fence and toyed with a lock of my hair. “Because there’s still one thing you don’t seem to get: I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you’re Charlie or Charlotte or Lee, or anyone else. Because all that matters is that you’re mine. I wasn’t going to let you go without a fight. If you’d run, I would’ve chased you. Just like I have since the beginning.”

“But—”

He cupped my face with his hand and ran his thumb over my lips to silence me. “If you’re going to tell me one more time how bad you are for me, I don’t want to hear it. The only thing I want to hear coming out of your mouth is you telling me that you love me.”

His thumb moved away from my lips, and the words tumbled out. “I love you.”

Simon leaned against the fence and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. A smile stretched across his face, and his eyes met mine.

“Welcome home, Charlie. I missed you.”

He pulled his hand back through the bars and reached for a button to open the gate. As soon as there was enough room, I left my bags on the sidewalk, slid through the gap, and launched myself at him.

Simon’s strong arms caught me and lifted me off my feet. I wrapped myself around him. This man was mine, and I was never letting him go again. He pressed his lips to my hair, and whispered, “Missed you so f*cking much. Not letting you out of my sight for a goddamn year.” My only response was to hold on tighter.

When he finally set me down, the lightheartedness left me, and my expression turned serious. “How’s your mom? Is she going to be okay?”

Simon’s smile didn’t fade. “She’s going to be fine. A lot of therapy, but she’s going to be just fine.”

“And your decision not to campaign … was that because of me? Because I—”

Simon cut me off. “No. I’d already decided that before the Fourth of July. You just didn’t stick around long enough for me to tell you about it.”

Heat flared up my cheeks. “I knew if I wanted a chance with you, I had to make things right.” I looked down at the ground and the toes of my ratty Chucks. “It just didn’t exactly work out like I’d planned.”


“If Ivers had gotten to you before—”

This time I cut him off. “It wouldn’t have made a difference. It needed to happen this way. I definitely could have lived without setting foot in Rikers, but at least people are getting back what they lost.”

Simon scowled. “Like I said. Not letting you out of my sight.”

The front door swung open, and we both turned toward the sound.

Simon’s father stood behind his mother’s wheelchair. She smiled, her face still slightly askew, but she lifted a hand and waved. Mr. Duchesne called out, “Welcome home, Charlie. Maggie would like to invite you to lunch. Nothing fancy. Just family.”

I smiled as a lump rose in my throat. Just family. Their easy acceptance humbled me. And I knew I was truly home.

“I’d love to.”

Simon pressed another kiss to my hair, and whispered, “I love you.”

I threaded my fingers through his, and we walked hand in hand toward the house.





I parked across the street from Harriet’s and turned to Charlie.

“When I said I wasn’t letting you out of my sight, I wasn’t kidding. If this is where you want to stay tonight, you’d better be ready for some company.” I hoped she realized how serious I was. After more than six weeks apart with nothing but questions and unknowns between us, I wanted us on the same page when it came to our future. I knew what I wanted—Charlie in my bed every night, with my ring on her finger. My store of patience had run dry. After facing the possibility of losing her, I wasn’t going to rest until I’d locked down forever with this woman.