Page 131 of Forgotten Desires

Rowan scoffs. “At times. Right.”

Asher flips him off. “My point is that she’s probably afraid to come to us.”

“I never should’ve asked her to lie,” I admit, stopping the convo. “I did this. I brought this to her and now she’s going to be hurt because someone thought to use me to make money. I’m going to find out who it was. I’m going to stop the story from being published. My reason for telling you is that what may have started out as an agreement became more. Every day I spend with her, I fall harder. Everything I did for her was to make her happy. Because she’s what makes my life complete. Now, to think I could lose her . . .” My words crack at the end because it’s too fucking much.

Asher grips my shoulder. “Don’t think that way.”

Rowan moves to come beside me. “I respect you being honest and being willing to take the hits. I won’t lie, if we’d found this out another way, I wouldn’t be as calm as I am now. Mostly because, in the grand scheme of this, it’s fucking nothing compared to the fears we’re all facing.”

“She was never okay with lying,” I tell the three of them. “Never. She hated it and then . . . it stopped being a lie for us.” We’re all quiet for a moment and I clear my throat. “If you want to be angry at anyone, let it be me. Your sister isn’t at fault. I asked her to do this to save my daughter from her mother. I offered her a way to save her father and she took it, not to hurt anyone, but because she’s incapable of not helping others who need her. I’m the selfish one. I’m the asshole.”

Grady lets out a long sigh and stands in front of me, hand extended. “Any man who would come to us, tell us the truth, and explain is worthy of my sister.”

I get to my feet and take his hand in mine. “I’m not worthy yet, but I’m trying and I’m going to fix this, no matter what.”

* * *

“The doctor was able to find the bleed. They’re in now and I’ll be back as soon as we have another update, but it’ll be at least an hour,” the nurse explains and then rushes out.

“This is good,” Kimberly says as she rubs my back. “They found it.”

I nod because I’m not sure what I think right now.

My phone rings for the tenth time, Ford’s name appearing this round. Kimberly spoke with him the last call, she came back with her tight smile and said she took care of it. Clearly not.

I know that talking to him isn’t a good idea. There are some things that are becoming clearer as more time passes. I send him to voicemail and send an email to my security team and office manager, apprising them of a possibility they need to be aware of at the office.

Once again, Ford’s name comes up on my screen.

“I’ll go take this,” I tell Kimberly and head outside of the hospital where I can have some privacy.

“Is the deal done?” I ask, my voice clipped because I have a feeling this phone call is going to change everything.

“Crew, do you even understand the money they’re going to ask for? It’s not even anything in the realm of what it’s worth. Then you’re going to shut it down? Literally costing you hundreds of millions of dollars? You can’t do this.”

I push my tongue to the roof of my mouth so I don’t say something that ruins almost twenty-five years of friendship, and then decide I don’t really give a shit. “You know, I keep going over in my head who would know the most intimate details of my life. I’ve sat here, while my wife fights for her life, with nothing to think about besides this story.”

“What story?” he asks.

“The one I think you fucking sold. No one knew the details of North Carolina like you would. The story describes things we did on that trip, things that only you knew.” The anger builds because I tried to come up with another possibility and failed.

“Crew . . .”

“Was it you?”

There’s a pause and I don’t need him to confirm it, he just did. “You had Layla. I waited until you had Layla.”

“How could you ever betray me like this? After I bailed you out after your divorce? After I gave you a job you weren’t even fully qualified for? You were my best man in my goddamn wedding!”

If he was here, I’d fucking kill him. It’d be a good thing we were at the hospital because he’d need it.

“I’m sorry. I know you won’t understand, but you had custody. I didn’t think it would matter since I figured you were going to walk away from her. I needed to do it. I couldn’t hold them off anymore.”

“Who?”

“The people I owed money to.”

Unreal. “You sold me out. That matters. Your selfishness might cost me the woman I love. So spare me your reasons and lies. We’re done. You’re fired. Get the fuck out of my life.”

---