Page 66 of Puck King
Or could I? Colton had fooled me, and I felt like an idiot. I’d thought that we had something special. I’d never felt that way with anyone before, and doubted I would ever feel that way again.
“Alison!” My mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Come down for lunch, sweetie. You need to eat something.”
I padded down the stairs in my two pairs of wool socks and the clothes I’d been wearing for the past two days since I’d been home. My mom pressed her lips together and her eyes shimmered when she saw me. I knew that I looked like shit.
Mom set the teapot on the table along with a tray of freshly baked scones.
“I thought these would be easy for you to get down.” She pushed the butter dish and the scones toward me and poured herself a cup of tea. “It’s warm out there today.” She looked to the window and then held my eyes.
“If fifty-six is warm, then yes, it’s warm.”
Mom nodded. “I know that you’re hurting, Ali. And I wish that there was something I could do to fix this for you.” She rested her hand on mine. “You’ll get through this divorce.”
I sighed. My mom thought I was moping over Brian. She didn’t watch TV or readTattle Town, so she had no idea that I’d been traipsing around Manhattan with the New York Thunder’s star player.
“I don’t have much faith in my lawyers.” I broke off a piece of scone and nibbled on it.
“Speaking of lawyers, this was delivered to the door today.” She slid a thick manila envelope across the table, but before I could open it, Stuart and Dad burst into the farmhouse.
“Ali. Susan.” My father’s voice boomed from the hallway. “Come quickly.”
We jumped up from the kitchen table and I clutched the envelope to my chest. Something this thick from the King Corporation couldn’t be good news.
“Is everything okay, Chester?” My mom tossed the tea towel onto the counter and made it to the door before me.
My father and Stuart were in their barn clothes, and both of their cheeks were red from the cold, with steam puffing from their mouths as they stood in the doorway. They looked like they had just run the hundred-yard dash. “What is it?” My mom’s voice had gone from a little concerned to very worried.
“Take a look.” My dad stepped out of the way and pointed to the barn.
“Chester, who is that?” My mom held onto my dad’s arm and shielded her eyes with her hand. There was a sleek black horse trailer in the driveway, hooked behind a very expensive looking pickup truck.
My father pulled an insulated canvas jacket from the hook beside the door and handed it to me. “Ali, get dressed. The horses are back.”
I took the jacket from my father’s hand, but stood frozen. “What do you mean the horses are back?”
“The farm that we sold them to – they called this morning to see if we wanted them back. For free.” My father was already walking across the front porch. “I was waiting to see if it was some kind of joke, but they’re here. They’re actually here.”
“For free?” Mom shouted after my father. “Something doesn’t feel right. Are they okay?” She took the jacket from my hands, shut the door, and followed my father down the laneway. I felt like I was moving in slow motion and sunk to the floor in disbelief. Wolfie was back.
I dug my finger into the corner of the envelope. While my family was celebrating the mysterious return of our horses, I had to find out what kind of new hell the Kings were about to put me through. But instead of a formal letter on the official gold-embossed letterhead that I’d been expecting, a handwritten note slipped out and landed in my lap.
I snorted air out my nose like a bull – another apology I wouldn’t accept. But when I opened the paper, it was covered in sentences with the most beautiful handwriting. It was from a King, but not Colton. When I first started reading the letter, my chest clenched in anger, but by the time I was finished, I could barely read the perfect penmanship through my tears.
The door burst open. “Alison. Come on,” Mom shouted. “We need your help.”
I swiped at the tears on my face and jumped to my feet, hoping that my mom hadn’t noticed my red eyes. The horses were only the first gift from Everleigh. The second was that her private investigator had found the offshore accounts where Brian had hidden our money.
As I ran to the barn, I tried to make sense of it all. She had called it a peace offering in her note, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out what the hell Everleigh King had up her sleeve. It had to be some kind of weird power move. All of this couldn’t have come from the bottom of her heart. Or could it?
Thirty-One
Colton
Everleigh knewshe’d made a mistake. A big one. But was it big enough for me to consider her ‘dead to me’? Yesterday I would’ve said yes, but after sleeping on it, it was now a solid maybe.
After spilling the details about the fake relationship to Hollie, she’d told me all about the trouble on Alison’s family farm. Together, we’d put the pieces together. Everleigh had forced Alison to make an impossible decision: choose me, or save her family. It only stung a little bit. I knew how much Alison cared for her family and their farm.
The part that stung like ten thousand bees was Everleigh’s betrayal. When Alison had chosen to save her family farm over being with me, Everleigh had seen ‘gold digger’, but only because she didn’t know the details. If she had, she might have behaved differently. Out of everyone, Everleigh respected family loyalty the most. But Everleigh’s claws had come out, and she’d lied to Alison about Brittany; lied about me. That’s why Alison wouldn’t speak to me. Hollie told me that once Alison had seen the Brittany tell-all interview confirming what Everleigh had said, she’d picked up and left the city.
