Page 113 of Counterfeit Connection

“Why isn’t she then?”

“You know why!” I yell. “Do you know what it was like to know I caused this? Who I am, who my father is, all this drama and bullshit. I brought this to her. She was so riddled with anxiety and shame; it made her sick. I did everything I could to reassure her. We literally tried to be normal and we couldn’t even leave these walls. What kind of life would this be for her?”

“One of her own choosing. You chose for her.” He leans forward and rests his forearms on his knees with his hands together, like in prayer, in front of him. “Let me ask you a question. Was this all part of your plan? Your contract?”

“Don’t you fucking dare accuse me of doing anything to hurt her on purpose. I’d rather throw myself into a pit of vipers before I’d hurt her on purpose.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing now?”

“Vipers are later. It will be alcohol until the snakes arrive.”

“I see you still have some sense of humor. Listen, you daft prick, she loves you. God knows why, but she still loves you. You can push her away because that’s what you think is best for her all you want, but in the end, it’s what’s hurting you both. Did you think she wasn’t strong enough?”

“She’s stronger than me.”

“You don’t have to tell me what I already know. Did you get cold feet?”

“I asked her to marry me, that’s hardly cold feet. They fucking recorded our most intimate moments for everyone to see.”

“Yes, they did. It was disgusting and horrible. There were things said that no human being deserves to have said about them. What you should have remembered is ‘the world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.’”

My brain freezes. At first, I think it’s the alcohol. Then Jason’s words start to roll around in my brain like a core memory. Jason’s voice becomes Joseph’s in a second. “Where did you hear that?”

“Lit Class, first year at Uni. It’s an Oxford thing. Stuck with me and it fits you like a glove… and me.”

“My brother used to tell me the same exact thing. Well, maybe not exactly. He was an Oxford man too.”

Jason slides forward in his chair, his forearms resting on his knees with his slightly bruised knuckles folded like a prayer in front of him. “I want you to know I’m taking care of her, even though she’s at the farm. I have a private detail that’s quietly surveying everything and keeping the loathsome arseholes out of the way. I’m also part of the team that’s suing the shit out of every organization that printed false stories or posted the photographs. That photographer…”

“What? What did you do?”

“It wasn’t one of my finer moments, but let’s leave it as he’s alive and he gave up his employer.”

“Who? Who was it? I want them prosecuted.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“They violated Kaitlyn. I want their balls in a jar on my desk.”

He leans in, lowering his voice. “It was your father’s right-hand man. The orders came from your father.”

I am able to process those words for about two seconds before I’m on my feet and heading toward the door. I barely get a few steps down the hallway before Jason grips the back of my shirt, halls my ass away from the door, and presses me against the wall again.

“Let me go!” I shout, fighting against him, but it’s messy and uncoordinated. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” he says, pushing me even harder into the slatted panels. “You’re too fucking drunk to go anywhere right now. I can’t let you kill him. It would kill Kaitlyn. Sit your ass down and listen to me. One thing at a damn time. All right?”

I’m shaking with anger. If I had my way, I’d drive to wherever my father is and beat him to within an inch of his life. I slide down the wall until my drunk ass does finally hit the tile floor. How fucking dare he do this to me? To Kaitlyn?

“All right,” I growl, anger still coursing beside the Crown flowing through my body.

Jason slides down the wall to sit at my side. “I spoke with Tobias and your mother at length before I came here.”

“Do they know what you just told me?”

“Yes.”

I sigh. “All I wanted to do was protect her. I couldn’t get that right.”

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