Deceiving The Groom (13 page)

Mrs. Burke’s fingertips touched again. “Well, if we are going to be honest here, then I may as well tell you—I am convinced it is a matter of inadequate parental guidance. A child who has had a difficult experience being placed with someone who is simply unqualified and unequipped to deal with her.”

Claire’s fingernails scraped her palms and the headmistress continued.

“I was enormously relieved when I discovered that a woman had moved into the home. I mean, a man like Liam Channing expecting to know how to raise an eight-year-old girl—it’s just ridiculous!”

Breath puffed out of Claire’s nose and her voice turned to ice. “Actually, there’s been a woman in the home for quite some time. A nanny with twenty plus years of experience, but I guess that’s just not interesting enough for the gossip mongers to pick up on.” She rose to her feet. “You know what I find to be
inadequate
? That a child who is clearly traumatized, clearly experiencing distress in the classroom, is punished instead of supported.” Her chest heaved. Her finger pointed at the headmistress who leaned back in her seat, eyes fixed on the finger like it might leap off its hand and stab her. “But what I find truly
ridiculous
, is that the most dedicated, loving guardian I have ever witnessed is undermined because of ignorant sexists and completely unjustified stereotypes.”

She dropped her hand to her side and lowered her voice. “It takes a special kind of person to take in a child who is not their own and love them like they are. Believe me—no one knows that more than I do.”

Mrs. Burke’s hand rested on her throat, her eyes like a glazed fish. She didn’t wait for a response, just snatched up her bag and went to the door to comfort the other little girl who had managed to secure a slice of her heart.

Chapter Sixteen

Lexi scooped up a huge spoon of chocolate ice cream and swallowed it in one bite. She glanced at Claire from her bowl. “You know, I don’t think Uncle Liam would let me have ice cream when I’m sent home from school.”

Claire jabbed her straw repetitively into her iced mocha. “You’re not the one in trouble today, Lexi. Not with me anyway.”

Lexi curled her mouth to the side and scooped up another spoon full of the gooey brown mess.

“However, I do want to talk about what happened in class today.”

“I pulled Stephanie’s hair.” Lexi made the confession without any inflection  and devoured more ice cream.

“Why? I don’t think you’d do that for no reason. Can you tell me?”

“I don’t want to say.”

Claire took a long sip of her mocha and then leaned closer. “I promise I won’t say anything to anyone.”

Lexi’s gaze flicked up. “Not even Uncle Liam?”

“Not even him.”

Lexi tapped her spoon on the table. “Stephanie said she can’t play at my house because I have no mom. Just an uncle.”

Claire took a deep breath into her stomach. Ouch, poor kid. Looked like the judgment went further than the uptight headmistress. “It must just be that Stephanie doesn’t know how awesome your uncle is.”

Lexi shrugged, and tucked one hand under her chin.

“You know, Lexi, some people are just too silly to see it doesn’t matter what name you call someone, what matters is who they are too you. Liam loves you, and if anyone can’t see how great he is then that’s their problem.”

Lexi looked up, her eyes dewy. “Is that why you love him?”

The question wound a constricting vice around her heart.
Love
. The word she’d tried so hard to deny. Something that was obvious to an eight-year-old.

She bit her lip hard. “Yes, Lexi. That’s one of the reasons I love him.”

Some of the sadness washed out of Lexi’s expression and she finished her ice cream. Claire sat frozen. The ground seemed to no longer exist under her feet. Now acknowledged, she could never take those words back. They were true. She couldn’t lose him. Would never let anything hurt him—not even herself.

By the end of the day, Claire had called three of Lexi’s friend’s mothers over for coffee. Had wooed them with stories of Liam’s heroic rescue of her, his exceptional parenting, and organized several play dates including one for the next day.

Putting Lexi to bed had been the hardest part. Reading her stories and tucking her in, all the while reminded that Penny would take herself to bed without so much as a kiss goodnight.

Finally, she sat herself in front of the computer in Liam’s study and inserted the disc from Geoff’s safe. She clicked through folders, no energy left for anxiety. As suspected, the files were on her. Recordings of their telephone conversations, planning, backups of the emails. Worse—evidence of how he set it all up to pin everything on her if she backed out. Enough to give him the confidence to think he could get away with it. She ejected the disc from the computer. Of course he’d be confident. With her laptop still trapped at the B&B, he’d know any back-up emails were out of her grasp. If her laptop was even still there, she’d bet that one item would be thing to never turn up again. He held all the cards.

The one thing he hadn’t counted on—she’d take jail before she’d do another thing to Liam.

She stared at the disc. Now that she had proof, she’d need to find somewhere to hide it where Geoff would never get to it. She glanced around the room and spotted a picture of a smiling Liam and Lexi. She pried off the back of the frame and placed the disc behind the picture, then put it back together and set it back where she found it.

Then she picked up her phone and sent Geoff a text telling him she’d like to talk to him the next day. The phone rang before she could put it down.

Her heart jumped. “Hello?”

“Hi.”

She relaxed back into the chair. “Liam.”

“How was everything today?”

She sighed and gave Liam the abridged and censored version of the day’s events. The phone stayed silent for a long time.

“It’s my fault. I’m a bad role model.” Liam’s voice whispered down the line. “I don’t play nice. I don’t play fair. That’s what she sees.”

She pressed her hand over her eyes. Her heart thumped. He’d brought it up. The things he did that were so out of character to the guy she’d fallen for. She had to speak.
Had to.
Had to address the thing that made loving him so excruciating. “Why Liam? You’re such a great guy?”

“I never had the option of playing nice, Claire… You wouldn’t understand, it’s not in your nature to be ruthless.”

“Try me.”

The line crackled for so long she didn’t think he’d answer.

“After my father left, our mother got sick. I had to look after mom and Sarah, had to take care of everyone. I did what I needed to do, whatever I needed to do.” His breath shuddered. “Do you know what it’s like to do things you don’t want to do to protect your family? After a while, it just becomes normal.”

Tears flowed under the hand clamped over her eyes. “Yeah, I think I do understand.”

They weren’t so different. What she’d done wasn’t so different. She started this to protect Penny and didn’t care about the casualties because she’d rationalized he deserved it. But she couldn’t keep holding the past against him. Now there was nothing to protect her from how much this man made her feel.

“Do you?”

“Yes, I understand that you’re a man who would do anything for the people you love. You might not think so but we’re the same like that…” She took a breath. “And, I love you, Liam.”

A groan filled the line. Her heart dropped.

“Why did you have to say that over the phone, when all I want to do right now is touch you and look at you when I tell you I love you too.”

She gave a breathy laugh. “You love me? You’re not just saying it to be politely reciprocal?”

“Trust me, I don’t believe in polite reciprocation.”

Hot tears poured over her cheeks. “I have so much I need to tell you when you get home tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you.” His voice was a sensual growl that rolled over her skin.

“I love you too.”

She hung up the phone and stared up at the roof. She knew what she had to do.

Perhaps it was the nervous energy hyping her up like a ballistic drug, but after she’d dropped Lexi off at her play date, she scrubbed Liam’s house from top to bottom, baked two trays of cookies and a tray of muffins. She still hadn’t heard a thing from Geoff.

Claire went to her handbag and checked her phone for what felt like the billionth time.

The long loud drone of a car horn blazed outside. She abandoned her handbag and ran to the window. Geoff’s car parked out front. She tugged on her jacket and raced outside.

Geoff wound down his window as she approached. The look on his face told her everything.

Shit
.

He knew what she’d done.

“Get in.”

“I said I’d meet you at the office once Liam was home.”

Geoff’s face twisted. “I guess I couldn’t wait.”

She glanced up at the house. “Liam will be home in ten minutes. It’s better we don’t have this conversation here.”

“Fine. Get in, we’ll go to my office.”

“Now?”

“Yes, Claire. Get in the car now.”

She wrapped her jacket tighter and glanced around the street. “Alright but we are making it quick.”

“Fine by me.”

She climbed into the passenger seat and Geoff pulled out onto the street.

Liam stepped out of the taxi and looked up at the house. His gaze ran over the lawn, the trees, the tire swing he’d hung himself. Until Lexi came along, he’d never thought of himself as a picket fence kind of guy. He’d picked this place to make a home for his niece. Now when he looked at it he saw something more. He saw Lexi playing with other children. Golden haired kids with impossibly blue eyes. If he had anything to do with it there would be another child as well—Penny.

He couldn’t wait to tell Claire what he had done. He breathed in the scent of the roses that lined the front fence.

For a moment he had a picture of Claire standing there in the yard. A picture of a life and a family they could have.

He walked past Claire’s car to the front door and went inside. The scent of baked goods wafted over him. A tantalizing memory of his childhood. He went into the kitchen. Cookies and muffins lay on trays around the kitchen. He picked up a chocolate chip cookie and took a bite. The sugary taste burst on his taste buds.

He loosened his tie and tugged it off, then slid out of his jacket and draped them both over the chair. Where was she? He walked through the downstairs and then checked the back yard.

“Claire?”

The house and yard remained silent in response. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number. Her musical ringtone jingled and he followed it to the handbag in the kitchen. He opened the bag and pulled out her phone.

Where was she without her handbag and phone? She couldn’t be far. He opened the bag to return the phone, then froze.
His
name on an envelope caught his eye. Not his name, his
surname
. He tugged out the envelope and the cell phone clattered to the floor.

The letters printed on the envelope seemed to blur and reform as the blood pounded in his head.
Claire Channing
. The back of his neck prickled like insects plucked at the hairs. He tore open the letter. What the fuck was going on? A letter from the DMV for a replacement license —for Mrs. Claire Channing.

The room caved in on him. Piece-by-piece. An image resurfaced. An image he’d brushed aside as fantasy. Claire, beautiful but sad, in white. He smacked his palm against his forehead. The credit card bill.

They’d been drunk. People got drunk and did this in Vegas sometimes didn’t they? But why would she not say anything? And she had her name changed…

For three breaths he allowed himself to feel the agony tearing his cells apart, then shut it off. Shut it down, as he’d learnt to when his father left. He flexed his jaw. It felt like he’d bitten a metal rod. He pressed a button on his cell phone, a programmed number.

The cool cultured voice of his lawyer answered. “Peter, I need some information.”

              Chapter Seventeen             

The door slammed to Geoff’s office but Claire refused to flinch. He’d been so quiet in the car it’d scared her. He had turned motley—white and red patches spread his neck and his ears were crimson.

“You’re a sneaky little pixie aren’t you?”

Something wild and unhinged shined in Geoff’s eyes.

“What do you mean?”

He circled her, then rested his hand on the filing cabinet. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

Claire sighed. No use denying it even if he did have a meltdown. The power was hers now. “No. I knew you would, I just hoped I could confront you calmly about it.”

“Calm? You want me to be calm, you little thief?” He shoved the filing cabinet. It tipped crashing to the floor hard enough to vibrate the window.

Crap
. This was not going to go down without bloodshed of some kind.

“I did what I had to do to stop you, Geoff. After what I’ve seen, how can you even have the nerve to be angry at me? We had a deal, you promised you would undo it.”

Geoff kicked the fallen cabinet three times, hard. The bangs pounded through the room. His blonde hair stuck out wildly and sweat coated his forehead. “Yes we had a deal god-damn it! And you backed out.” He walked towards her. “Give me the disc, Claire.”

“No.”

His shoes bumped into hers and he stared her down. “What do you think you’re going to do anyway? Go to the police, turn me in, live happily ever after with Liam?”

“I’m not going to turn you in—even though you deserve it for what you did to the B&B.”

Geoff leaned back and some of the manic left his face. “Then what do you plan on doing, cousin?”

“I plan on giving you one last chance to drop this scheme against Liam. It won’t do you any good anyway because unless I cooperate, you can’t get anything out of it.” She lifted her chin. “There’s nothing you can threaten me with anymore that will make me help you.”

Geoff took snorting breaths through his nose and turned away. He walked to the window and leaned against the frame. He stood silent.

“Do you get it now, Geoff? It’s all over. I’m going to explain everything to Liam. Even if he doesn’t want to know, even if he hates me for it. Because it’s the right thing to do.”

Geoff turned back to her. “It appears you’ve won, Claire. But, I wonder if you’ll be able to live with the consequence of your noble decisions.”

A shudder ran through her. Yeah, there’d be consequences. But Liam loved her, she’d make him understand.

Claire stepped into Liam’s kitchen and her insides formed a solid rock. Broken cookies scattered the floor, muffins sprawled over the bench like an animal had gone feral in the house. She stood in the doorway afraid to step in. “Liam?”

She took a hesitant step inside and turned to the dining table. Her hand flew to her chest. Liam sat at the table, faxes strewn around him, his head resting in one hand while the fingers of his other thumped the table.

She rushed forward.

His head snapped up and his bloodshot eyes collided with hers. She stopped dead. As if his expression pinned her through the heart.

“Liam, I—”

He picked up a piece of paper and held it out to her. She took a step closer and tugged it from between his fingers. She stared down at the letter and her heart ruptured. Her new license from the DMV. How could she be so careless?

“I can explain—”

“Really?” Liam erupted out of his chair. His chest heaved and his voice lowered. “Because that’s what I’d hoped too.” He picked up another piece of paper and threw it. It floated down to her feet. “That was before I did a little digging.”

The image on the paper hit her with the force of a punch. It was one of those articles, one of those damn cruel articles she could never out run. She moaned and slid her fingers into her hair.

“So Claire, are you a professional con woman or am I just special?”

She shook her head wildly. “It’s not like that— just let me explain. I can explain.”

Liam snarled and picked up another fax, this one tapping in his palm. “I asked myself why you would do this, I thought maybe it went deeper, maybe there was some meaningful reason for why you’d choose me. Why you’d want to hurt
me
so badly.”

He glanced down at the paper in his hand. “Foreclosure, Jones family farm. Almost ten years ago to the day. How could I have forgotten that name when you told me you were from Sheepton?” He stepped forward and pressed the paper into her palm, then curled her fingers around in gently. “It that was this is Claire, revenge?”

She bowed her head, her lips shaking. “It was, but I swear Liam it’s not anymore—”

Liam’s hands flew from hers hand he ran his palm over his mouth, his eyes wide.

“Please try to understand what happened to my family when you foreclosed.”

Liam’s hand fell away. “Oh, I know what happened; your father was too irresponsible to protect his family!”

Every tiny fiber in her body flexed in pain then burst in rage. “Is that what you think? Did you know the reason my father couldn’t make the repayments? My mother hemorrhaged and died giving birth to my sister. He couldn’t keep up with the work.” Claire’s eyes blurred. “Did you know that? Did you even ask why? Did you know my father had a heart attack after we lost the farm—did you know that?”

Her chest heaved, and tears trembled on her lips. For a moment, Liam’s eyes softened and he stepped towards her, then he stopped his features once more from contracting, but this time with a hurt that ripped out her insides.

“All this time you’ve hated me, blamed me for worsening your families situation. You want to know the truth? Your father was the only person I ever really tried to help.”

Liam stared at the fallen paper on the ground. “He borrowed money from the wrong people and I offered him enough to pay his debt and start again. And you know what he did?” His gaze snapped back up to Claire. “He tried to screw me, tried to make deals with my competitor and put me out of business.” He stepped forward. “So if you need to find someone to blame for your families misfortune, you are looking in the wrong place.”

Claire caught herself against the wall and sobs choked her.

“I want you gone before Lexi gets home.” He whispered before turning and vanishing up the stairs. She jumped at the impact of his study door slamming, then scooped up her handbag, and fled outside to her car.

Her key slipped at the ignition. The sobs raking her chest felt like they were tearing flesh with them. She’d only just discovered how much she needed this man and now she’d lost him. She’d lost
everything
. She wiped at her face and shoved in the key, then pulled her car into the street with a screech.

She rubbed the back of her neck, still stiff from spending the night on the store couch. Liam had arrived at his office an hour ago, but Claire remained trapped in her store, unable to go over. She hadn’t even opened up yet. She blinked, refusing to cry again, then took four long breaths before finally making the decision to cross the street.

Entering the reception, she waved to Jenifer, the receptionist, and approached Liam’s glass office. The blinds where all closed and the door shut. She knocked softly. The room remained silent and her heart sank. She knocked again and opened the door.

Liam sat in his chair, an arm draped over an armrest, staring vacantly into his computer. He snapped straight when he saw her. She closed the door behind her.

“You should go.”

“I need you to know that I don’t want anything from you.” She breathed in, her lungs felt half their size. “I’ll give you an annulment.”

Liam leaned forward, his elbows resting on the desk, his brown eyes were etched with darkness. “Yeah, you’ll give me an annulment. Beyond that, I want to be clear—I don’t want anything do with you. Don’t want to see you, don’t want to speak to you. Is that understood?”

Claire bit her lip, and barely felt the sting. “I really do love you, Liam. Please believe me, my feelings for you are real.”

Liam glared at his hands on the desk. “Spare me more lies.”

“It’s not lies—”

He skewered her with his gaze. “I don’t want to see you. Keep to your store. I don’t want to listen to another word.”

His venom lashed her. She backed out of his office and returned to her store. Deep down she knew this was coming, knew she would lose him and knew her heart wouldn’t survive it. In a way it was like she’d always just been waiting to be shaken out into broken pieces.

The only thing left was to prove to Liam that she meant what she said. She’d take nothing from him and respect his request. Even if it meant destroying everything she’d worked for.

Claire loaded the final box into the back of her full Nissan. She glanced at the two darkened storefronts. Geoff had disappeared two days ago without word. She still wasn’t sure what it meant but having him away from Hopetown was better for Liam.

She didn’t let herself look across the street. It’d taken a week to tie up loose ends and fulfill the last of her obligations. Not once had she seen Liam come or go. It was like he timed his movements to conflict with hers.

A part of her would always miss Hopetown, miss her store, miss Lexi, but with Liam it was more than just missing him. Still the decision to leave was easy. Part of the doing the right thing bit. Hopefully one day Liam would get that.

She slid into her car and shut the door. It was over. She’d never have to see Liam look at her with bitterness again.