21
Seth paced the perimeter of the dining room the next evening, his arms crossed and head down. He couldn’t look at Marie or Jack, who sat across one of the tables from her.
She leaned toward the old man, her hands outstretched and face pleading. “Jack, let me loan you the money. It’s the only way. And you can pay me back. It’ll just be an interest-free loan. I’ll be an investor or a partner or whatever you want me to be. Just let me give you the money.”
Seth had heard the same thing over and over all afternoon until it rang in his head like a mantra. It made him sick to his stomach. She wanted part ownership in the inn. She wanted to become an investor.
And she wanted to eventually take over everything that he and Jack had worked for.
She hadn’t said it in quite those terms, but that didn’t change the facts. It was too much like Reece. She was weaseling her way into the paperwork, adding her name to documents. All the things that had left him vulnerable to Reece’s schemes.
A flashing blue gaze caught his as Marie looked for help, but he shook his head. He couldn’t seem to separate the two women, so different yet so similar.
Jack covered her hands with his gnarled ones. “It’s not going to do any good. A couple thousand dollars isn’t going to be enough. The insurance company isn’t going to pay out for at least thirty days, and the check won’t cover the entire cost of the kitchen. By then it’ll be too little too late.”
“You’re not hearing me. I have money. Lots of it.”
Seth paused his march to stare at her. What was her game? What did she think she could gain through this charade? And why hadn’t he figured it out sooner?
She couldn’t have any money. She’d come to the house penniless. Jack had said she didn’t even have enough to buy a ferry ticket onto the island. So why claim to have a secret stash of money now?
“Jack, please hear me out. My mother left me a trust fund when she passed away. She came from a family of means in Boston, and when she died, she left all of her money to me. I have more than enough money to fix the kitchen. We can pay to have a crew fix it instead of breaking our backs to get it done in time for the grand opening.”
Her words jumbled together until he couldn’t make any sense of them.
Jack seemed to be struggling to understand too. “What do you mean?”
“You need help. You’re bleeding, and I have a cure.”
“It should come from family.” Bitterness laced the words Seth hadn’t even meant to speak.
She took a long breath through her nose and let it out slowly. “Then call me family. I want to help you open the Red Door. And I have money to loan you. I love this place, and I want others to love it too. If it doesn’t open, it’s a loss for the island. You deserve to see it open. For Rose.”
Okay, that was true. The inn needed to open. But the rest of it, the recurring bit about the money, didn’t compute.
“Seth, will you please tell him to just accept the money?”
“I’m not sure I can. We don’t know what strings might be attached.”
Her face jerked as though she’d been slapped, her eyes shining in the chandelier light. His arms reached for her, but he pushed his hands into his pockets. If what she said was true, she’d been lying to them all along. And if that was the case, he couldn’t believe anything she’d said or done.
The kindness in her eyes. The gentleness in her touch. The passion in her kiss.
If some of it was untrue, all of it was.
And he’d been duped again.
Like an idiot, he’d let down his guard and fallen for a pretty face. Again.
He resumed his journey around the room, glancing at her as he turned every corner. “So you’re saying that you’ve had loads of money the whole time you’ve been with us.”
“Well . . . yes.” Barely a whisper, her words hung in the air.
“And you didn’t bother to mention it. You just thought you’d take Jack’s charity.”
Her eyes sprang open. “No. I mean, I didn’t want his money or his charity. I wasn’t trying to take anything. I just needed a safe place to stay.”
“Why not use some of this money you claim to have to rent a room somewhere?”
She cowered under his glare, and he hated himself for doing it. But he couldn’t stop until he knew all of it, the entire terrible truth. This was the past she’d hidden so carefully. But there had to be a reason for all the secrecy.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she wiped them away without breaking eye contact. “I couldn’t get to it before.”
“So just in the nick of time, you suddenly have access to it? Very convenient.” He rubbed his temples, praying for relief from the pounding there. He wanted to believe her, but everything she’d said and done had been duplicitous. She was a con woman. An artist trying to stake a claim in Jack and Rose’s dream.
And she’d waited until the most opportune moment. Out of money and out of options, Jack could hardly be blamed for considering the offer at this point. Seth was the only thing standing between him and the worst mistake of his life.
He wouldn’t let his uncle make the same mistake he had.
“What I meant—” Her voice trembled, so she cleared her throat and carried on. “What I mean is that I wasn’t ready to face the consequences of using that money.”
“And you are now?”
“Enough.” Jack held up a hand to him and patted Marie’s arm with the other. “Why on earth would you want to invest in a business that’s on its last leg before it’s even open?”
“I don’t. I want to give my money to you, and you can do whatever you like with it.”
Seth scoffed, but held his tongue as Jack raised his hand again.
“Why?”
Her gaze locked on Jack’s wrinkled face. She wore a mask of sincerity like she’d been born with it. “You took me in when I had nowhere to go. How can I sit back and let Rose’s legacy end like this? I’d do anything for you. I love you like I always wanted to love my own father.”
Every word sliced him like a knife. She played it all so true, so real. But no stage talent made it any less of an act.
Jack’s face broke, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. “I never wished for a daughter until I met you.”
“You’re not actually buying this line, are you, Jack?”
She looked at Seth, her face a mirror image of Jack’s. Except confusion etched into the lines of her forehead, hurt painting each of her features. “I don’t understand. I’m giving you everything you need to open the door.”
“At what cost?”
“No cost. No strings.” Her voice was jagged, aching. “I just want the Red Door to open. I want you to be happy here.”
Seth leaned into her, placing one hand on the table in front of her and one on the back of her chair. His breath stirred the long, chestnut strands of hair at her shoulder. This close, he could see the dark smudge across her cheek, a leftover from the garden. “I’ve been through this before.”
“Reece?” She blinked those sapphires at him, her lips parting on a sob, and his gut clenched.
She’d wiggled her way into his arms, dug herself a place in his heart. He’d held her, promising shelter from the world.
But he couldn’t stop the words from coming out. “You’re just like her.”
He’d never loathed himself more.
She licked her lips, swallowing several times before whispering, “I think I need to go.”
He couldn’t stop one final jab as she slithered out beneath his arm, scurrying for the door. “We don’t want your money and the conditions that go with it.”
Just inside the red door that she’d painted—in the exact spot where he’d hoped to be free to kiss her whenever he liked—she turned watery eyes on Jack. “Take it or leave it. I’ve already called the bank. More than enough money will be wired in your name to the credit union by the bakery tomorrow morning. Please, please, take it.”
“What about the consequences you mentioned?” Jack’s voice was gravel as he reached out to her across the room.
“It’s too late to worry about those. They’re in motion already.”
Marie couldn’t wipe away the tears as fast as they flooded her eyes, so she ran blindly to the only friend she could count on. With trembling hands, she banged on Caden’s door until it opened.
“Marie? What’s wrong? Is it something at the inn?”
She hiccupped, and biting her lip didn’t do much to stem the trembling there.
“Come on in.” Caden swung open the door and held out her arm toward the living room of her quaint bungalow. She guided Marie into a fluffy chair and plopped down on the couch across from her. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Marie rubbed her hands over her face, and they came away sticky with tears and streaks of leftover mud. She must look a mess.
Caden seemed to understand. “Why don’t you go wash up, and I’ll find us a snack. Something sweet.”
Nodding, Marie headed down the hall. In the little bathroom, she refused to look into the mirror. She didn’t need a firsthand view of her red, puffy eyes or mud-streaked cheeks. She scooped cool water into her hand and splashed it over her face, drops running down her neck, trailing the places that Seth had once touched with such tenderness.
Did he really think everything she’d done was an act? Or that she was anything like Reece?
As she wiped away the water, she tried to do the same to the memories. But they weren’t so easily dispatched. His caress. His embrace. His kiss. They swarmed in on her, surrounding her lungs until breathing became a distant memory. Dark spots danced in the corners of her eyes, and she sank to the floor, praying to be delivered. From what, she wasn’t quite sure.
After what felt like an hour on the cold tile floor, a soft knock at the door was followed by Caden’s voice. “Are you all right? Can I get you something?”
Marie snatched at whatever breath she could find. “Yes. I’ll be right there.” With all the strength she could muster, she pulled herself up by the lip of the sink onto shaking legs. After a long minute, she managed a shaky breath and a tentative step. As she slipped back into the hall to the smell of chocolate and peanut butter, her stomach rolled.
The chair and couch seemed to fill the entire living room, but Caden had made a small dinner tray appear and set two steaming mugs of tea and a plate of brownies on the server.
She smiled up from her seat on the couch, hugging a pillow close to her chest. “Feeling better?”
“A little.”
Caden motioned to the heaping dessert plate. “These are my specialty. Peanut butter fudge brownies. Have one. And then tell me what happened.”
With rolling insides, Marie didn’t really want it, but she couldn’t refuse. She broke off a corner and put it in her mouth, the moist treat melting on her tongue and shooting sugar to her whole system.
“You should make these sometime for the Red Door. For an afternoon snack on the buffet.”
“All right. I will.” Hugging the pillow again, Caden leaned forward. “Tell me what happened today.”
The backs of her eyelids felt like sandpaper as she blinked, but she had to fight off the burning behind her eyes. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Then start at the beginning.”
Wise words. Painful memories. But she nodded.
She hadn’t told a soul about Derek except her therapist and her dad. And that hadn’t turned out as well as she’d hoped. But it was time to be honest. If she ever hoped to be free of it, she had to speak the truth. “I was in Boston on New Year’s Eve. I was working at my father’s real estate company and had been traveling for the job. But my dad was after me to be home for the holidays. He was hosting a big party, and he wanted me to be there. And you know how we are with our dads. Always angling for their approval.”
Caden nodded, her eyes never leaving Marie’s face as she sipped her tea.
“The company’s New Year’s Eve party was an exclusive event for their friends and clients at a swanky hotel. I was introduced around, and I saw a man that I had gone to high school with. Derek and I hadn’t exactly run in the same crowds, but it was good to see a familiar face. He and his dad were business associates, and my dad encouraged me to dance with Derek. We did. It was harmless.
“And then he invited me up to his room. I wanted to see the city lights from the penthouse, see the partiers in the streets, and watch the midnight fireworks. So I went.” She stared at her hands, swallowing the urge to change topics or gloss over the facts.
“But we didn’t look at the lights. He threw me on his bed, held me down, and took what he wanted.” Her throat ached and her stomach burned. She pressed her hands over her face, wishing she could hide from the truth of the memories. “He took everything.”
Tears streamed down Caden’s cheeks. “I am so sorry.” She seemed to know there was nothing else she could say. There weren’t words deep enough for one woman to say to another when she’d been broken like that.
But somehow it hurt a little less to know she wasn’t crying alone.
“It took me a week to tell my dad.” She hiccupped on a sob but pushed forward. “And he told me not to tell anyone. He said it wouldn’t do any good, and it would hurt me more to have to testify. I let him talk me into staying silent for almost two months before I overheard him on the phone with Derek’s dad. My father threatened to have me swear out a warrant against Derek if his dad didn’t sell some land.”
“So you left?”
“I couldn’t be a pawn in a deal like that. I couldn’t let him use what had happened to me for his profit.”
When Marie didn’t pick back up with the story, Caden filled in a few holes. “And that’s when you met Jack, who took you to the Red Door and gave you a home.”
“And a family. I didn’t even know I didn’t have one until I met them.” She took a deep breath, the last vestiges of the bonds around her lungs that had given her countless panic attacks falling away.
“Today I offered Jack the money from my trust fund.”
“Your what?”
She picked up the lukewarm mug of tea, sipping it more for something to do than because she wanted to drink it. “My mother left me money when she passed away. Not enough to put me in with the Boston elite on my own, but more than enough to fix the kitchen and get the inn open on time.”
“What did Jack say?”
Marie shrugged. “It wasn’t what Jack said, it was what Seth did. He accused me of trying to worm my way in so that I could steal the inn. He said I was lying to them and had waited until they needed my money to offer it so I’d have the upper hand.”
“He what?” Caden’s quiet vehemence filled the room as she slammed her mug on the tray, warming Marie from the inside out. Family got indignant for each other.
She couldn’t help the half smile that worked its way across her face. “I don’t want to take the inn. I just want to see it open.”
“I know. And so would any man with half a brain.”
Seth’s words repeated in her mind, striking a blow with each replay. “He’s been hurt before, and he thinks I set out to do the same.”
Caden mumbled something behind her mug about men who don’t know how to treat a lady. It was true. And some women didn’t treat men well.
Seth had been hurt just enough to leave him too wounded to try again. Marie had been hurt too. One too many times.
It was better for everyone if she left. It would save both her and Seth from wondering if they could try again.
She’d face her dad, and then she’d find a new home.
Finding a new family, though . . . That would be more difficult.
“Aretha’s hinted that Jack’s been having money trouble for a while. She’d never tell us something he said in confidence, but she’s been worried about him. Why did you wait until now to offer him the money?”
“Because Derek’s dad is refusing to sell the land that my father wants. And my father’s name is on my bank account. Accessing that money meant revealing my location.”
Caden’s jaw dropped. “How long until he’s here?”
“Knowing my dad, I’d say tomorrow.”
For the first time in six weeks, Marie knocked on the red door. The morning sun had nearly crested, but the paint was cool and clean beneath her knuckles. Pride swelled within her. She’d done a good job on this home.
And she’d done a good thing giving Jack the money.
Butterflies assaulted her stomach, diving and swooping as she waited for someone to answer the door. She couldn’t tell if they anticipated Seth’s greeting or her father’s imminent arrival. Either way, she’d be thankful when they were gone and she could move on.
The footfalls on the other side of the door didn’t belong to Seth, and she let out a quick sigh.
Jack’s face registered surprise and then a glowing smile. “Marie, girl. Come in. You don’t have to knock.”
She stepped inside and he closed the door behind her. “Thank you.”
His smile faded as he reached for her hands and squeezed them. “I’m so sorry about the other day. Seth shouldn’t have said any of those things. He feels awful. And he doesn’t really believe any of what he said.”
She looked down and to the side. “Yes, he does. But that’s all right. I didn’t come here looking for an apology.”
“He cares for you. I know he does.” The wrinkles around his mouth grew more pronounced as he frowned. “He’s scared.”
Bitterness rose in her throat like a wave of bile, but she pushed it down, refusing to cling to past memories. This day was about facing her present and figuring out her future. She couldn’t do that and be angry at what Seth had said.
“It could never work between us.”
“Why not? It’s not too late.”
“Because he can’t ever see past my lie. I’ll always be another Reece to him. Just someone else who lied to him.” The truth sat like a stone in the pit of her stomach, but she ignored the pain. She squeezed his hands, giving him a tremulous smile. “Now. Did you go to the bank? Did you get your check?”
The corners of his eyes angled down. “It’s too much. Fifty thousand. I can’t accept it.”
“It’s enough to get your doors open, and I have more left over.”
“Leaving the island?”
A memory from the first time she met Caden popped into her mind. “Caden warned me that the island gets under your skin so that you never want to leave. I don’t know where I’m going yet. But I hope not far. I can’t imagine never coming back here.”
“Don’t go. You could stay. You have a job here as long as you want it.”
“I appreciate that, but I just came back to pick up a few things I left in the basement. I’m staying with Caden for a few days.”
“Won’t leave before the grand opening party, will you?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. I’ll stay at least that long.”
Three sharp taps sounded on the door, followed immediately by the pathetic thunk of the doorbell. Her stomach dropped to her toes.
“Who could that be? Haven’t had so many visitors in months.”
He twisted the handle of the door and opened it to reveal a fit man in his fifties. A Burberry leather jacket matched his stylishly cut brown hair and blazing blue eyes.
Marie pinched her eyes closed, squared her shoulders, and asked for some sort of help from above. “Hello, Dad.”