The Moment We Began (A Fairhope New Adult Romance) (28 page)

“Stop it,” I shout. “Leave him
alone.”

Bernard ignores me and pushes past Mason. He leans
down and snatches my dress off the floor. “Get dressed,”
he says, tossing it toward me on the bed. He never looks directly at
me, but instead turns and stands between Mason and me, his legs
parted and his arms clasped behind him. As if I somehow need
protection from Mason.

Anger bolts through me.

How dare this guy push his way into our private
hotel room. I’m not a child. I don’t belong to anyone but
myself.

“You have no legal right to be in this
room,” I say. I yank the dress over my head and reach back to
try to zip it on my own. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“As far as your parents are concerned,
you’re a missing person,” he says. “They’ve
been looking for you for weeks.”

“I wasn’t missing.” I stand and
come around the bed. I go to the door and open it. “I left on
my own and told them not to follow me. I’m an adult, I have
every right to go where I want to go without my parents’
permission. I swear, if you don’t leave now, I’ll call
the police.”

Mason stands beside me. He rubs his jaw and eyes
Bernard with pure hatred. When Bernard doesn’t make a move to
leave, Mason steps toward him, but I put my arm out, stopping him.

The last thing we need is for him to punch Bernard
and end up going to jail for assault or something stupid. My parents
are very good at making legal matters turn in their favor.

“Your parents want you back in Fairhope
tonight,” Bernard says. “The jet is at the airport
waiting for you.”

I lift my chin. “I’m not going back.”

“That’s not something I’m being
paid to debate with you,” he says. “And I’m not
leaving without you. I don’t care if I have to drag you to the
airport kicking and screaming.”

Mason steps past me and gets in Bernard’s
face. “You lay a hand on her, and I swear to god I’ll
make you regret it.”

“Tripp Wright has been searching for his
daughter since the day she left. My job was to track her down and
bring her home, and that’s exactly what I plan to do. I’m
not about to let some punk like you stand in my way.”

Mason’s hand closes into a tight fist, but I
rush up and wrap my hands around it. “Don’t,” I
say. “It’ll only make things worse. They’ll make it
out like you assaulted him. You don’t want to give them any
more power than they already have.”

He slowly releases his fist, but his eyes are
still boring into Bernard. “She doesn’t have to go with
you,” he says. “And you can’t make her leave.”

“I think Penny has a right to decide for
herself,” Bernard says.

“I’ve already made my decision,”
I say.

Bernard casually steps toward the window and opens
the curtain a little, letting the light inside. “You don’t
have all the facts yet,” he says. “Once you find out
what’s really been going on in Fairhope since you left, you
might change your mind.”

Fear bubbles up inside me. “What do you
mean? Is everyone okay?”

Beside me, Mason’s shoulders tense and he
turns away.

Bernard stares at Mason, and I take a deep breath.
What’s going on here?

“About a week after you left, your father
started to suspect that a close business associate of your father’s
had been stealing money from the company for years,” he says.
“Two days ago, he got proof and arrested that man.”

But he’s not looking at me when he says it.
At first, I can’t figure it out. Why is he looking at Mason
when he says this?

I look to Mason to see if he has any idea what’s
going on, but instead of confusion, Mason’s staring down at the
floor, his shoulders hunched.

“Mason?” I suddenly feel sick to my
stomach. “What the hell is he talking about?”

Mason runs his hand through his hair and when he
looks up to meet my eyes, I understand with sudden clarity.

“Your father,” I say.

My muscles nearly give way and it’s hard to
stand. This is the secret he’s been keeping from me all this
time.

“You knew about this all along?” I
ask.

I want him to say no. That he’s just as
shocked to hear this news as I am. But I already know that’s
not true.

Mason takes a deep breath. “I knew,”
he says.

The words rip into my heart, and I can’t
speak. I move to sit on the edge of the bed, my vision blurring.

“Mr. Trent embezzled over five million
dollars from your father’s real estate and corporate deals over
the course of the last ten years,” he says. “Your father
has suspected it for some time now, but it wasn’t until
recently that he was finally able to prove it. After your little
accident with Mason’s car, in fact. The title on that car led
to some pretty conclusive evidence that was enough to get an
indictment against Mr. Trent.”

I have a death grip on the white sheet draped
across the bed. I’m scared to move or react.

“How long have you known?” I ask
Mason.

He doesn’t answer at first. He paces the
floor at my feet.

“How long?” I look up and his eyes
flicker to mine, then away again.

“I figured it out over the course of a few
years,” he says. “I overheard a few conversations I
shouldn’t have here and there. I saw a few papers lying around
the house. It all started to add up.”

“Dammit, how long, Mason?” I ask.

I’m scared to hear what he has to say. But I
have to know. It’s important.

“About six years.”

His answer stuns me. Knocks me back. I stand up,
anger and shock turning to rage. “You’ve got to be
fucking kidding me,” I shout. “Six years? Mason, how
could you let it go on? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” he asks. “Hey,
by the way, my father is stealing from your father and I want him
arrested and put in jail, my family humiliated for the rest of our
lives? How could I do that? Who could possibly make that kind of
choice?”

I don’t want to believe this could be true.

A wave of dizziness crashes over me. I collapse
onto the edge of the bed, then slide down all the way to the floor.
How could he have known about this for six years and never once
mentioned it? How could he have continued to come to our house and
eat with us and act like everything was okay?

“And that’s really why you left town,
isn’t it? Because you knew after I wrecked the car that it was
only a matter of time before they found out.”

He looks down at me, his eyes haunted. His face
pale.

“I was going to tell you,” he says.
“But I could never bring myself to do it. I was too scared
you’d leave me, and once we got on the road, I knew I couldn’t
live without you.”

I let my head fall into my hands. “Your car.
Your money. That whole rich-boy act of paying for everyone’s
drinks and leaving outrageous tips,” I say, thinking back to
the way things were before we left. “That wasn’t even
your money to spend, and you knew it.”

He falls to his knees in front of me. “Penny,
I’m so sorry,” he says. “Can’t you see that
this is why I always kept you at arm’s length? Why I wanted you
to think I was bad for you? Because I am. The whole time you’ve
known me, I’ve been a complete fraud who didn’t deserve
you. I still don’t deserve you.”

“You lied to me,” I say, tears welling
up in my eyes. “I don’t care about the money. Regardless
of what your father did, you lied to me about why you were even
leaving. You weren’t interested in getting back to basics and
reconnecting with your past. I can’t even believe I bought that
fucking bullshit. You just wanted to get the hell out of town before
everything came crumbling down on your family. You left because you
were too chicken to stand and face it when everyone realized what
your dad was doing.”

He presses his lips together and they tremble
slightly. “How can you say that to me after all we’ve
been through? You know this trip has meant more to me than that,”
he says. “And you were the one who showed up begging me to
bring you along,” he says, standing. “It’s not like
I invited you to come with me.”

“No, you were just going to walk away
without an explanation. You were going to let Preston and me find out
the hard way while you skipped town on us. Why did you even agree to
let me come if you knew it was going to end like this?”

“I tried to tell you no, but the truth is, I
wanted you,” he says. “God, Pen, I have wanted to be with
you for so long. I mean, really be with you. Yes, I knew eventually
someone was going to find out about my dad and you would probably
hate me. After you totaled my car, I knew this whole thing was a
ticking time bomb. I thought it would be best for everyone if I just
disappeared. If I got out of your life once and for all so I couldn’t
hurt you any more than I already had. Then you showed up with your
bags and your shiny eyes, looking at me with such hope and love. How
was I supposed to resist you? How was I supposed to just walk away?
And yet you were the one who said you’d let me walk if we could
just have these few weeks together. If we weren’t in love by
the end of the this, we could walk away. Well, I’m still here.
And I love you.”

I pull my legs tight against my chest, a terrible
headache throbbing at my temples. Tears seem to come all the way from
my throat, traveling some invisible line of tension and anger and
sorrow from my neck to my eyes. They spill down my face like a
waterfall.

“I never expected to fall this hard,”
he says. He kneels down in front of me again and puts his hands on
mine. “I never expected to love you so much that the thought of
losing you would tear my insides out. I know it was wrong to keep
this from you for all this time, but I was going to tell you, I
swear. This is what I was talking about last night when I said there
was something I still needed to tell you. Was I stupid to believe
that you could love me enough to forgive me?”

Sobs shake my body and I can’t catch my
breath. I don’t know what to say to him, and I don’t
think I could speak right now if I tried.

He waits for me to calm down, but before either of
us speak, Bernard steps forward.

“There is already a warrant out for Mason’s
arrest,” he says. “He’s been named as an accessory
to his father’s embezzling scheme.”

I lift my head and Mason stands, his face pale and
scared.

“What are you talking about? I had nothing
to do with that.”

“You were a willing participant. You drove a
car you knew was purchased with stolen funds,” he says. “You
spent money from an account after you knew the money was stolen. You
might not have been the mastermind behind the scheme, but according
to the law, you were an accessory to your father’s crimes and
Mr. Wright intends to prosecute your entire family to the full extent
of the law.”

Mason closes his eyes, his jaw tight.

I am teetering on the edge, unable to process all
of this at once.

And that’s when Bernard drives the stake
into my heart.

“Penny, your father is waiting for my call.”
He makes a show of looking at his watch. “If he hasn’t
heard from me in the next fifteen minutes, he’s also pressing
charges against Mason for kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?” I stand up. “That’s
ridiculous.”

“If the two of you try to run, he’ll
also issue formal charges against you, Penny,” he says.

“Me? For what?”

Bernard raises one eyebrow. “A certain
stolen diamond bracelet that turned up in a pawn shop in Savannah.”

The room spins and my knees give out.

Mason runs to my side. “What’s wrong?”

I bite down on my lips until my vision stops
blurring. My head is spinning and nausea rolls through me.

“I know you wouldn’t want Penny to be
in jail in her condition,” Bernard says.

Mason’s head jerks up. “What
condition?”

“Don’t you know?” Bernard asks.

I suck in a breath as I look up at him.

No. Don’t.

I say the words in my head, but can’t do
anything to stop him before he opens his mouth again and my entire
world tilts sideways.

“Penny is pregnant.”

Mason looks at me, confusion and wonder in his
stormy green eyes.

He lets go of his hold on me and stands, backing
away. His mouth is open and he clutches his chest.

“I was going to tell you,” I say, my
breath shallow and rough.

“How…” He shakes his head.
“When?”

“I found out after the accident,” I
say. “When they took me to the hospital, they do routine blood
tests to check. The doctor told me early that morning.”

He swallows. “So you’ve known this
whole time?”

I nod, my eyes never leaving his face.

How did this all become such a mess? Such an
impossible, fucked-up mess?

“This isn’t how I wanted you to find
out,” I say. “I wanted to tell you when the time was
right. When I could say for sure that you loved me for me and not
just for our baby.”

“You have ten minutes to make a decision,
Penny. After that, you’re father files kidnapping charges,”
Bernard says. “I’m sure you don’t want the father
of your baby to spend several years in prison because of your
choices.”

My head snaps toward Bernard. I grind my teeth and
stand. “He can’t do that,” I say. “It isn’t
true. I came on my own. All I have to do is tell them that and
charges will be dropped.”

Bernard chuckles. “You should know better
than to think your father can’t make something like this
happen,” he says. “If your father wants Mason to go down
for this, he’ll do whatever it takes and you know it.”

I want to gouge his eyes out with my bare hands. I
rush toward him, wanting to hit him. To make him pay for coming here
and ruining what this could have been.

But Bernard grabs my wrists and holds me away from
him.

“You’re not in your right mind,”
he says. “I can testify to that if I have to. Besides, you’re
a thief and a liar. You’re unstable.”