Page 31 of Second Chance Wedding
“Why is that?”
“Just do it, Cole.”
“Tell me why.”
“Because they need a scapegoat, and they blame you,” she said, walking backward. “Trust me, it’s for the best if you just walk away.”
ChapterEight
Cole watched Analise leave after her startling statement.
Why would her parents blame him for her pregnancy with another man? It made no sense.
He started to follow her, but something about her hurried steps toward the pier house gave him pause.
He’d felt the way she trembled against him when he’d held her, and he’d seen the pain in her expression even though she’d kept her eyes covered by her sunglasses the entire time.
Whatever had taken place back then with her parents and Ben’s father had hurt her. Savaged her. And despite the pain she’d inflicted on him with the breakup, that… was fifteen years ago and he’d moved on. Lived his life.
He hadn’t had to be a single parent raising a child without a support system knowing there were people out there who could help her but wouldn’t.
And why hadn’t they? It wasn’t like her parents weren’t well off. Ben’s dad might have been broke, but Ana’s parents could have and should have helped her.
Why hadn’t they?
It made him want to seek them out on her behalf.
His gaze followed her retreat to the path leading around the building and out of sight, but when he considered the anger sizzling in his veins, the only reasons for it that he could identify were those of protection.
Maybe she’d tossed him aside fifteen years ago when she’d broken things off, but from the sound of it, she’d been abandoned several times over afterward.
Their relationship might be over, but the man in him wanted to keep her safe from her son’s emotional abuse. And what had better never be physical abuse if Ben knew what was good for him.
Cole had lost his parents when he was sixteen, but he knew for a fact they’d never have abandoned him. Set him straight, sure. Punished him? Yeah. But had he been the one who’d fathered a child, they’d have supported him and helped him become the father the boy deserved.
Ana’s parents obviously hadn’t done that for her, and he had to think it was about appearances and her father’s political image.
They blamed him? He could handle that regardless of the falsehood. But Ana visibly wore the weight of her pain and devastation, and he hated seeing the toll it had taken.
“Cole?”
Cole turned at the sound of the voice and managed a smile at his year-younger brother, Dawson.
Dawson worked as a CEO/CFO for an older businesswoman who’d taken both Dawson and his newly wedded wife, Sophia, under her wings. Sophia worked the nonprofit ventures while Dawson killed it working the woman’s many million-dollar for-profit businesses.
According to family gossip, both were doing extremely well and thriving under the pressure. “Hey, I haven’t seen you two around much,” he said, leaning down when Sophia moved in for a hug and then giving his brother one.
“Working hard. You know how it goes,” Dawson said.
“Who was that you were talking to?” Sophia asked. “She was really pretty.”
A huff of sound left Cole’s chest that was part laugh and part groan.
“She’s the mother of the teen working for us.”
Cole glanced at Dawson and found his brother looking confused.
“That looked like Analise Taylor to me,” Dawson said, ruining everything.
