Page 220 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

Small things, but small things I had been so looking forward to which I would no longer have.

That hurt, and it hurt even more that she would also be denied those things.

But, again, I couldn’t keep her here and force her to do those things, souring them for her.

I stepped aside.

Megyn marched out the door, storming down the ramp.

At the bottom of the ramp, she pivoted on her heel and came back. I watched her progression, not daring to hope. She’d probably forgotten something.

Megyn looked up at me and said in as cold a voice as I had ever heard from her, “I need a ride home.”

Oh, right.

“Let me at least put some pants on,” I said. I turned away. Before I went back into the house, I couldn’t help saying one final thing. “If it wasn’t for everything that happened, from start to finish, we never would have had such an amazing night. I think it’s fate. Please, don’t be mad at Maggie. Don’t be mad at me, for wanting to know about the woman who’s stealing my heart.”

CHAPTER22

MEGYN

Isat in the couch in my tiny living room, listening to my father’s breathing on the other end of the line. A moment of silence passed, then two.

“Megyn?”

“I’m here,” I said. I didn’t feel as if I was there, not at all. I felt dull, numb around the edges, like I’d taken a sleeping pill or had too much to drink.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“It’s okay.”

Dad cleared his throat softly and spoke lower, as if trying not to be heard. “It’s not and I know it, but it was an unexpected thing and we didn’t have service on the islands.”

“No, no. It’s okay,” I repeated. “I bet a lot of parents go on vacations, dropping off the face of the planet, without telling their daughters about their plans.”

To think that, all this time, while I fretted about not hearing from my father, he had been off on a tropical Thailand vacation. But why was I so surprised? No one seemed to care much about anything at all except for me.

“Megyn, I’m sorry, okay? It was Crystal’s idea. The tickets were cheap and—”

“I don’t have time to talk about Crystal,” I interrupted. “I’m going out soon. Just, I’ve been waiting all this time to hear a response from you, so could I at least have that?”

Dad paused, then spoke slower. “You wanted to know if I’d like those boxes you found in the closet.”

“The cassettes. The pictures,” I prompted. I flicked a glance at the clock on the wall, ticking away its steady measure even though my heart was pounding from a dreadful mixture of aggravation and anxiety. I tasted bile in the back of my throat.

“I’m not sure Crystal would like having them around. They would just take up space.”

“I didn’t ask what Crystal wants. They aren’t hers.”

“A marriage is a partnership,” Dad reminded me.

“That means you can’t have even one thing to yourself?” I got up from the couch and paced around the living room. “Daddy, there’s so many tapes. If you don’t want them, I understand, but you can’t decide to give up on them just because of Crystal. And the photographs. You left them. You can’t… You can’t want to pretend Mom never existed, can you?”

In the background of the call, I heard Crystal. “Who’s on the phone, honey?”

“Just Megyn,” Dad remarked to her, muffled. He spoke clearer again, addressing me. “Just hold onto the boxes, okay?”

Just hold onto the memories, because I’m the only one who will.

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