Her expression darkens. “What? Why? Did Hudson do something?”
I shake my head. “No. He didn’t do anything.”
She places her delicate hand over her chest. “I’m confused. You two seemed so happy together.”
“It’s a long story. Maybe Hudson can fill you in?” I peer out the window, but I can’t see the circle drive from this side of the house. I muster every last reserve of strength I have and pull the suitcase zipper the rest of the way shut before forcing a meek smile. “I probably shouldn’t keep the cab waiting. I’m sure the meter’s running.”
Yanking the suitcase off the bed, I wheel it to the door. I’m leaving several things here. Shoes, purses, Chanel dresses that have no business hanging in some closet in Orchard Hill, Nebraska …
“Sweetheart,” Helena says, following me. She places her hand on my back, but I can’t bear to turn around and look at her. “I have no idea what’s going on with you two, but whatever it is, it can be fixed. And if it can’t be fixed, well, we can always sweep it under the rug.” She chuckles softly. “Regardless, all I know is that you make my son happy. Happier than I’ve seen him in years. After Audrina broke his heart in college, I didn’t think he’d ever be the same after that. And he wasn’t. She ruined him. She broke his spirit. Until you.”
Turning to face her, I have to know. “Audrina … broke up with him?”
Helena nods. “Yes. They dated all through college. Very seriously. They were going to get married, until she cheated on him with one of his best friends. After that, he was hell bent on getting back at her any way he could. I have to admit, as shocked as I was when I found out he was marrying you, all I could think was that I was glad he wouldn’t be marrying her. I know she’s Cybil’s daughter and all, but she doesn’t deserve my son. Not after what she did to him.”
“Wait.” I can’t breathe. The room tilts and spins as I wrap my head around this. “So you never expected him to marry her?”
Her face twists in confusion. “What are you talking about, dear?”
He lied.
Hudson lied.
He lied to me from the very beginning.
There was no arranged marriage bullet he was trying to dodge.
He wanted revenge.
He wanted to hurt Audrina.
And he used me to do it.
My chest stings more than I thought it would. There may as well be an arrow piercing my heart. I liked him. I really did.
And to think, for a minute there, I almost believed this fake little arrangement was turning into something real.
Thirty
Hudson
* * *
“What’s this I hear about Mari leaving?” Cybil breaks the awkward silence at the lunch table. “That can’t be true. She’s been having a ball since she got here.”
No one answers.
The clink of glassware and silver fills the silence.
I stare at the steaming bowl of seafood chowder before me, unable to touch it, my fist clenched hard around my spoon.
“Is she okay?” Cybil won’t drop it, but I’m not surprised. She’s nosier than she is compassionate. “Did she have a family emergency?”
Audrina sighs. “Hudson found out that Alec knocked Mari up.”
A hush falls over the table.
Alec chokes on his ice water.
“Audrina,” Cybil scolds her with her name. “It’s not nice to make things up.”
“It’s the truth.” Audrina smirks. “I knew she was hiding something. Nobody would listen to me. You were all Maribel this and Maribel that, like she was the second coming of Christ.”
“Audrina.” Duke coughs her name. “That’s enough.”
“God, I’m so sick of you people and your delusions.” Her voice escalates. “And I’m tired of no one ever listening to me.”
“Hudson, is this true?” My mother bats her eyes at me, and the entire table stares in my direction.
I drop my spoon, pushing my chair away from the table and tossing my unused napkin over my untouched soup before bolting for the door.
I need air.
I need to get away from these people.
Slamming the sliding door behind me, I move to the corner of the deck farthest away from the dining room. Resting my hands on the railing, I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Mari left an hour ago, and I feel her absence in every part of me. More than I expected to. More than I thought I would.
The sound of the door sliding open and shut pulls me out of my moment.
“When are you going to realize I’m the only woman that’s ever going to be right for you?” Audrina’s voice is nails on a chalkboard. I refuse to look at her. “We were young back then, Hudson. We were just kids. I made a mistake. A horrible, selfish mistake. But I never stopped loving you. And you never stopped loving me.”
“Wrong,” I say, teeth gritting. “I stopped loving you the day I walked in on you fucking my best friend in our bed.”
“I’ve told you a million times, I wish I could go back and change that, but I can’t.” She whines like a demanding little toddler when she speaks, causing my grip to squeeze the railing harder.
“Go away, Audrina.”
“Not until you look at me.”
I shake my head once, jaw clenched as I watch the waves. Normally I find peace in them, but today they’re particularly tumultuous.
“Because of you,” I say, lock-jawed. “I haven’t been able to trust anyone else. I haven’t been able to love anyone else. I’ve spent almost an entire decade cheating myself out of the kind of happiness I deserved.” Finally, I face her. “Now get out of my fucking face, you avaricious little whore.”
Audrina freezes, jaw locked open.
“Go.” My voice booms, startling her into finally getting the fuck out of my face just as Alec comes outside. She pushes past him, running away in tears.
I don’t give a fuck.
“Hey, man.” Alec jams his hands into his pockets. “I just wanted to say, I had no idea. And I hope you guys didn’t break up because of me.”
I don’t say anything. It isn’t his fault. And I’m not upset with him.
I’m upset with the circumstances.
And I’m upset that I was so close to tasting love and the kind of emancipation my soul had been craving all these years … only to watch it disintegrate overnight.
“Don’t worry about us,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Our issues have nothing to do with you.”
At least not in a way he’d understand …
“You going to do the right thing? You going to take care of them?” I ask. Regardless of my frustration with the fact that she completely withheld the pregnancy from me, I do want to see to it that she’ll be properly cared for.
Alec chuckles. “I don’t want to be a father, are you kidding me?”
“You don’t have a choice. She’s having your child.”
He leans closer, like he’s going to tell me a secret. “Hud, I tried telling her to, you know, get rid of it earlier, and she flipped out on me. So then I just told her what she wanted to hear so she’d calm down.”