“I have to go.”
“Wait, Belle—”
I hung up.
“All finished, Belle?”
I hardly noticed Paris as I marched out and stormed into the living room.
Carter shared a couch with Nathan and Preston. The bastard kicked back watching the movie like nothing happened. His behavior on the bus came into sharp clarity. Smug and smirking as he complimented his soon-to-be bride.
“Carter, can I speak to you for a second?” I snatched his collar and dragged him off the couch. He didn’t gruff or fight me on the way to the courtyard. He’d been waiting for this.
I threw him against the wall. “What is wrong with you?” It was a struggle not to scream. “You told my parents you proposed. Now they’re expecting—”
“—you to marry me or they’ll cut you off,” he finished. “And those are your only two options. I won’t take it back, so if we don’t walk down that aisle, your parents will know it’s because you came here for a husband and tossed him away.”
“You’re not doing this.”
“No?” He cocked his head. “Why not? Because Evanston told you I won’t take a grudge this far? You really should learn how to whisper.”
“No.” Fire blazed beneath my skin, burning the last measure of restraint my guilt granted us. “You’re not doing this because I’m going to be an unending nightmare. The boogeyman beneath your bed. The harpy that drags you to hell.” Every word brought me closer to him. “By the time I’m done, you’d sooner toss Gam-Gam’s ring down the drain than put it on my finger.”
Carter hummed low in his throat. “You could do that,” he said. “Or we could end this right now and you admit to me, my parents, and everyone that you lied about that day in the woods.”
My lips quivered on the edge of giving in. Heaven knew I wanted to so many times.
But the truth won’t absolve me. It’d make you hate me more than you already do.
“I told the truth, Carter.” The grave dirt struck my face, piling on as I buried the last shred of morality I possessed. “It’s not my fault you won’t accept it and I’m done being punished for it. You won’t end this shit, but trust me, I will.”
Carter gazed at me, and as I spoke, the anger and frustration melted away. No, the emotion reflecting in those pale, blue eyes... was disappointment.
I spun away. I couldn’t bear that look.
I couldn’t marry him.
I couldn’t tell the truth.
All I could do was accept what Carter Knight and I would always be.
Enemies.
Chapter Nine
“Didn’t think I’d find you out here.”
Preston flicked the switch, flooding the porch with light.
“No,” I said. “Leave it off. The lights from the garden are enough.”
He turned them off, returning me to the gentle glow of the fairy lights draped over the bushes.
“I waited outside your room.” Preston sat and took my hand. “So we could have that talk.”
A dragonfly flitted drunkenly over the fountain. It lit on a stone frog’s head, decided taking a breath wasn’t for it, and took off again.
“Not a lot of dragonflies in Bracknell,” I said. “Our beaches aren’t warm and sandy either. It’s freezing water and pebbles. Beautiful in a different way.”
“Belle?” He gently grasped my chin, taking me from the dragonfly. “What’s wrong?”
I swallowed. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Preston. No one does. I’ve certainly never given one. Not to those who are owed. Not even to save someone,” I whispered. “I’ve always kept my silence. It’s not right of me to demand you give up yours.”
Preston stroked my cheek. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’d like to when you’re ready to tell me. Because I’m ready to give up mine. If you still want to hear it.”
I nodded.
Preston swept over the scene. “It’s fitting that we’re doing this here. This is where I was—eating breakfast with Mom and Dad—when they told me six years ago that I had to marry Delilah.”
“Six,” I repeated. “You were only thirteen.”
“Why wait? I’d have to find out eventually that August Winthrop was tearing apart our legacy and the way to save it was to marry his daughter.”
I dropped my feet to the floor, facing him properly. “What did he do?”
“The man made the word hostile in hostile takeover seem too tame.” I don’t know if he noticed his lips curling. “He acquired forty-eight percent of the shares in Desai Industries. The controlling fifty-two were split equally between my mom and her brother.
“At least they were until August discovered my cousin was in Shadow Grove... and why. Nondisclosure forms were signed. People were paid off. Darren was checked in under another name and then August came in and blew it up. He threatened to tell the world the Desais were raising a budding psychopath unless Gabriel gave up his twenty-six.”
“Did he?” I asked—though I knew the answer.
“He’s his son. He doesn’t look at Darren and see a monster. Gabriel couldn’t bear for everyone else to,” he said. “He gave August whatever he wanted and then that bastard had the ammo to level at my mother. The control of the company would return to a Desai, as long as that Desai was married to his daughter.” He flashed me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Lucky me, I’m an only child.”
I tossed my head, jaw working. “I— I don’t understand. He went through all of that just to force you to marry Delilah? What the hell? Why?”
“He wanted a suitable match for her and we were the perfect targets. A direct competitor with a secret they’ll do anything to keep buried? It was freakin’ Christmas for him.”
“But you’re a Du Pont as well as a Desai. Even if you lost the company, you’d still have—” I stopped, sighing. “And even as I’m saying that I realize it doesn’t matter. Your mom and uncle owe the Desais everything. They gave them a family and a new life. Rosalie couldn’t sit by while the legacy they left her was taken away.”
“You understand my mom pretty well,” he said. “Under normal circumstances, I think you two would get along.”
I laughed—a small exhalation of breath. “Funny enough, I do too.”
“You understand me too, and why I couldn’t let August do this to her or our family.”
“What about Delilah? Did she have a say in any of it?”
“No more than I did,” he replied. “She didn’t know the things he’d done behind the scenes to orchestrate it. The night they made us meet for the first time was the same night she found out I was going to be her husband. It was also the night she was told August would stick her in a boarding school until eighteen and then cut her off with nothing if she fought it.”
“Holy shit,” I cried. “Are we talking about her father or Beelzebub?”
“Pretty sure they’re the same person.” Preston was still holding my hand. He pulled us both up, leading me out into the garden. “He made sure none of us had a way out. He’d have gotten everything he wanted—except he didn’t factor one thing into his plans.”