A Simple Twist of Fate (23 page)

She shook her head and went to stand in front of Beck. “And you?”

“Not now, Mom.” He put up a hand and turned away.

She was having none of that. “Beckett Lane Hanover, you love that woman. You go after her right now and apologize.”

A new emotion finally crossed his face. He’d gone from confused to angry to blank. Now his gaze narrowed. “Me?”

But Beck didn’t deny the love part. Callen hated that. Looked like the responsibility fell on his shoulders to clean up the mess. Sophie did the snooping but he handled the aftermath. He did it for the right reasons—because Beck couldn’t and shouldn’t have to—and Beck wasn’t ready to step in yet.

That meant Callen was still up. Someone had to make this right for Beck and Callen vowed to do that. “Why him?”

His mom’s eyes widened. “She is his girlfriend—”

“Was.” Callen hoped to hell that was true.

“—and he didn’t stick up for her. He didn’t give her a chance to talk or explain.”

As far as Callen was concerned Sophie had numerous chances and blew them all. “That woman is a damn liar.”

“If you two didn’t see the look on her face, if you really didn’t get how hurt she was, then I did do something wrong raising you.”

No, Callen wouldn’t take on that one and couldn’t let Beck go there. Not even for a second. “Beck, this is better. I know you wanted her to be, but she wasn’t the right one for you.”

But Beck wasn’t listening. He headed for the door, knocking into the rocking chair and almost missing the doorway as he went. “I’m going out.”

Callen had to follow the guy to make sure he didn’t fall down the steps while in his stupor. “I’ll be right behind you.”

His mother stepped in front of him right when he would have gone after Beck. “Stop.”

“Why?”

“I have a few things to say to you.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Beck stood on the second-floor landing and tried to work all the pieces out. Sophie had lied and spun stories about the jewelry when she really planned to go after Callen. How could that be? It didn’t make any sense, not in light of her being with him. If she wanted to work some angle on Callen, she should have gone straight for Callen.

Beck couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Sophie, the woman who came alive in bed and smiled at him with those sexy eyes, playing some elaborate con. His steps stumbled and he leaned against the bannister. He would not go after her.

He repeated those words as he ran down the stairs and pushed the front door open. Sunlight fell over the front yard and warm air hit his face.

He ignored everything except the woman standing with her head bowed and her hand balanced against the driver’s side of her car. He vowed not to be taken in. He wouldn’t let the way her shoulders slumped in defeat win him over. Not again. He already fell for her act once. Now he needed to know why she even bothered to play the game.

With a few long steps, he reached her. She turned with a look of open-mouthed surprise right as he reached her. “Just tell me Cal was wrong. That you weren’t in his room.”

It was the last thing he meant to say. He intended to go in strong, not give her an out. Instead, he walked her to the edge of an excuse and now she’d take it.

“I was.”

The brutal honesty sent a punch of pain to his throat. He swallowed hard to talk over the aching from his head to his stomach. “For God’s sake, why?”

“You texted about the run-in with Kristin Accord and I thought Cal was out of the house.”

Those things had nothing to do with each other. Beck tried to tie them together in his mind so he could see her point, but the words didn’t make sense. “You think that makes it okay?”

“Of course not. I’m just trying to explain the pieces.”

He rested a palm against the car by her shoulder. “I don’t understand. What you’re doing, what you’re saying. I don’t get any of it.”

“I went to grab a box and I screwed up.” The words rushed out of her as her gaze bounced to her feet, to her hands and then to his face. “The envelope was right there and I picked it up. That’s it.”

She did not just say that.
His mind rebelled. She knew what secrets did to him. She knew how big a deal the envelope was and how it ripped him apart not to have it open and the information out and handled. She knew because he spilled it all. He told her. And yet she passed it off now like none of it mattered.

The ache spread throughout his body. “
That’s it
? That’s your answer.”

“No, I mean—”

He couldn’t listen to another dismissal. “You weren’t even supposed to be on that floor. That means you went looking for the envelope.”

“No, not true.” She rested her hand against his stomach as she shook her head. “That part happened in this weird rush. I touched the envelope right as the door slammed open. Then Callen stood there and started yelling. Everything runs together after that.”

Those facts didn’t make any sense either. She’d have no reason to be in that room unless she went for the envelope.

Doubts crashed over Beck. This turned out to be one more time when people promised him one thing and delivered another. He lived with that vicious cycle for so long. Like most other shitty things in his life, all thanks to Charlie.

Beck tried to shove out the reality that she might be one more person to betray him. He’d always been able to look ahead and ignore the stares and the rumors, all the allegations and the very real panic he could be blamed for his father’s sins. Hell, he became a lawyer to help make sense of the nonsense. To play a role in finding solutions.

But nothing in his lifetime of fighting and taking hits compared to the hollow emptiness burrowing through him now. “Why are you lying to me?”

Her eyes widened. “I’m not. Please believe that.”

“You lied to me about searching. You sat on that swing and promised me you would stop.”

Her fingers clenched his T-shirt, balling it in her fist. “It was one box.”

He didn’t even know what she was talking about. “You say that like it makes sense.”

“Leah told me—”

“Stop.”
No, absolutely not
. Sophie had dragged enough of his family down. She would not touch Leah, too. “Do not blame her.”

“I’m not. I’m just trying to tell you Cal was getting rid of a box. I had to check it first.”

It sounded innocent but it was as if this one puzzle piece didn’t fit together with the rest. They’d been in contact and hadn’t gone long between texting check-ins since they started sleeping together.

She had every opportunity to come clean at any minute before he walked into Cal’s room and saw her there. She could have told him beforehand or when she walked into Cal’s room. She never tried. She got caught and now fumbled with talk about boxes and . . . “You searched instead of talking to me.”

Her body stiffened. “What?”

“We texted each other all fucking day but you didn’t think to touch the phone before you broke a promise. Hell, Sophie. If there was something urgent you could have told me. I would have helped you search if it was so important.”

“You were with your mom.”

Sophie didn’t even look at him while she said it. The voice pleaded but the words meant nothing.

“Jesus, Sophie. Stop.” He put his hand over hers and ripped his shirt out of her hand.

“No.” She grabbed on to his fingers instead. “Please listen to me.”

He stepped back, needing a few feet of space. Needed to establish a no-touch zone. Her pale face and dead eyes tugged at him. He’d never seen her so lifeless or her mouth so drawn.

But he didn’t trust his instincts when it came to her. Not anymore. He looked at her, even now, after everything, and still wanted to hold her. The words begging her to show him how this was some big mistake sat right there. He had to fight them back.

“Was it all a load of shit? I mean, did I fall for some sort of line?” That’s what he needed to know. Just how far from reality had he gone?

If possible, her face fell even further as her skin turned from white to gray. “What are you talking about?”

Birds sang and the leaves rustled as a breeze blew through. Beck only cared about one thing—finding some bit of truth in her story. “You kept saying you had one secret and it wasn’t even yours. Was that true?”

“Of course.”

“Because it sure as hell feels like hiding things is some sort of second job to you.” And he never saw it until now. He knew she had a secret and kept things from him at the beginning, but he never believed she was a danger. Now he knew she held a power over him and could drive him to his knees.

He’d been falling for her and she’d been busy working on something else.

It fucking sucked.

Her hands finally dropped to her sides. “You think I was doing something else in Cal’s room?”

God, he didn’t want to but he did. “Yes, Sophie. I do.”

“Like what?”

“You tell me. We were all over each other, and you tell me this huge thing that connects to Charlie and I do everything I can to hold my temper and not let it taint what we had.” Keeping his head on after that had been hard, but he’d done it. Now he regretted his control. “Then this.”

“This is nothing.”

After all this time, all the talks and things they shared, she still didn’t get him at all. “Lying to me is everything.”

Her teeth clenched as color rushed back into her cheeks. “Stop using that word.”

“Then tell me what else to say. Just spit it out. If nothing else is going on, why back out of your promise so soon after making it? You knew it was important to me. We . . .” He would not beg. He refused to beg but it was right there in his voice. “Make me understand.”

She shook her head. “It was about a box and not thinking. Nothing more. I made a simple mistake.”

The life drained right of him. All those stupid plans he’d started making about having Sweetwater be his home base and cutting down on the work travel so he could spend more time with her. It all vanished in a flash.

“Yeah, so did I.” Because he had to get out of there, he made his legs move.

“Where are you going?”

He couldn’t even look at her. “Back into my house. I’ll mail your final check.”

***

Callen stood in the middle of his bedroom and stared at the woman he’d tried so hard his entire life to impress but always fell short. She let him go and fell back on the excuse that it was what Charlie wanted. As if anything he said should have mattered on any subject.

But it was time for every single secret to be out and explored. Callen was tired of the lying and sneaking around. He didn’t want to guess or hide. He’d finally found a home at Shadow Hill. The walls sometimes closed in and the constant stream of people made quiet tough to find, but he loved it and didn’t want anything tainting it.

He held up the envelope. “What’s in here?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

He didn’t believe that any more than he believed Sophie’s claims of innocence. Leah called for his mom to come there. Callen had figured out that much, which meant the contents of the envelope related back to his mother in some way. “But whatever is in here made you rush to town though, right?”

“Yes.”

Her answers were all over the place. “Mom, that makes no sense.”

She reached down and gathered up the clothes Beck had knocked off the rocking chair in his rush to get out of there. She folded his shirt and laid it over her arm. “I don’t know what document or information is in there, but I know the subject matter. I know what Kristin Accord wants to tell you because I know who she is.”

“And that is?”

“Your mother’s best friend.”

The more she said, the less sense she made. “Since when do you talk about yourself in the third person?”

She lifted her chin in the direction of the envelope. “It’s about your mother and her past.”

Something that felt like relief smacked into him. If this was about a deep, dark family secret, he could handle that. Nothing could be worse than all Charlie had done. Whatever his mother did to get through didn’t matter. He didn’t want details but he’d never judge her for it. He knew what it took to survive. Charlie had taught him that lesson well.

Just like Leah’s father being Charlie’s partner didn’t mean anything to them and didn’t color how they saw Leah. Whatever happened in his mother’s past should stay there.

Callen just wondered what any of that had to do with him. “This is about something you did when you were a kid or when we were with Charlie, right? Why would I care about that?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I said
your
mother.”

It had been so long since he’d seen her cry. That day he slipped into her doorway when she didn’t know he was there. Beck had been a baby and she was on the phone begging Charlie for help, offering to do anything. Even as a young kid Callen had known how awful the moment was for her and what it took for her to get there.

Seeing the start of her tears again now punched his gut as hard now as it had back then. “What are you saying?”

“Some piece of paper in that envelope probably gives you the name of your birth mother, your father’s first wife. The one he kept a secret and hid.” Her voice had gone so soft that he had to strain to hear it. “I was wife number two.”

Callen could barely think over the rushing sound in his ears. “I don’t . . . What?”

“I couldn’t stop Charlie from taking you when you were ten because he reminded me every day, in every way, how I was your mother through circumstances of our marriage but not by birth. He told me I didn’t have a choice and would never win against him in court because you didn’t have a biological tie to me.” She rubbed a hand over her stomach. “He threatened to disappear with you and make sure I never saw you again. I thought if I placated him, he’d bring you back or at least let me see you.”

“What are you saying?”

She wiped at the tears streaking down her cheeks. “Please don’t make me say the words again.”

“You’re not my mother.” The reality rolled through Callen until it pounded in his brain. This couldn’t be happening . . . but it was. He’d thought about what secrets the envelope could hold and never imagined this sick answer.

“You were mine and he took you.”

“But you said—”

“I don’t care who gave birth to you.”

“Who is my mother?” It hurt to say the words. Actually burned a path up his throat. They were foreign and awful and he still couldn’t process the reality behind them.

“I am.” She stared, her blue eyes flashing with fire as she made the vow.

“You know what I’m asking.” And it killed him that she made him beg for information.

“I didn’t know your birth mother. She was gone by the time Charlie found me, but her name was Sylvia and Kristin was her best friend.”

The word snuck through the numbness falling over his body. “Was?”

“Charlie said she threatened to hurt you, that she was sick, so he had to take you and get custody. He had documents to back it all up, and I loved you the second I saw you, so—”

“Don’t say that. Not right now.”

“The records I found much later supported the illness and her signing over custody, though heaven only knows what part Charlie played in driving the poor woman mad.” She let out a long exhale. “Sylvia died a few years after Charlie and I got married and after we moved to Sweetwater. The three of us came here as a family and no one questioned it even though I was so young.”

None of it made sense. “But I’ve seen my birth certificate.”

“The one Charlie wanted you to see. It’s not real. Like everything else, it was part of the cover. Seeing how good he was at lying about it should have clued me in. I should have . . . ” She swallowed. “But I thought he was protecting you.”

Callen sat down hard on the mattress. It was as if his legs lost all feeling. He was only a half-brother to Declan and Beck. He didn’t share any of her DNA. There were days when he was a teen that thinking maybe he’d inherited something decent from her had been all that kept him going over the edge. Now he knew that to be a joke.