Chapter 27 Macy
MACY
The drive to Cameron’s building takes longer than usual.
While traffic is at its worst, I also need time to wrap my head around all the confessions I’ve heard today.
Shockingly, it isn’t solely a rookie agent playing matchmaker.
This power play extends across the entire board, and it is as exhausting as it is confusing.
After a quick exhale to rid my body of nerves, I exit my car, enter Cameron’s building, and then ride the elevator to the fifth floor. I’m not sure what I’ll say once I reach her apartment. I only know that I won’t be leaving until the truth exits with me.
“Macy…” I balk. I don’t remember telling her my name. I didn’t even give her my alias, so how does she know it? “It’s early. Can this wait?”
Dark locks slap my cheeks when I wordlessly deny her request. Then I step inside before she can protest. “What I need to say can’t wait. It’s urgent.”
She hesitates, then moves aside, letting me pass. The apartment is dimly lit, but I still head for the coat I left yesterday, needing to shut down the surveillance so this can be a true woman-to-woman talk.
After disconnecting the brooch from the server, I turn to face Cameron. She butts her hip against a two-seater couch and nervously chews on her bottom lip.
“I finished your maternity portrait.” I start at the less impactful point of my visit, hoping it will move our conversation forward faster than Grayson can drive here.
If he’s awake, he’d be watching the feed, right?
There’s nothing to distract his thoughts, and no one else cruelly hogging his time.
He’d have to be making up for lost time, so I’d better make this quick.
I slide my sketchbook across the coffee table wedged between us.
Cameron glances at the drawing I worked on for hours, but doesn’t touch it.
It is an odd response for a mother-to-be.
They’re usually chomping at the bit to take in all the details of their growing baby bump.
I’ve even penciled mine a handful of times the past week.
After a beat, Cameron murmurs, “Thank you,” like those are the only words I’ll need to leave.
They’re not even close.
“Why did you pretend you didn’t know him? Why did you run when he called your name? He’s been looking for you for seventeen years, but instead of thanking him for his dedication, you’re acting as if he doesn’t exist.”
She stiffens as her eyes dart away. “I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”
“Stop lying, Cameron!”
“I don’t know who that is. I’m not Cameron. My name is—”
“Cameron. Your name is Cameron June.”
With a huff, she stands abruptly and then leaves the room.
I stand, too, but solely so I can block her path. As I flatten my back against her glossy front door, I bounce my wild eyes between an equally confused pair. “Grayson deserves to know the truth. He deserves better than how you’re treating him.”
“I didn’t do anything. I’m not Cameron.”
“Do you really think so little of yourself that you’d believe he’d just forget you?
That his life’s work wouldn’t be scouring every inch of this earth to find you?
He never stopped looking for you. Not a single day went by that you weren’t on his mind.
” When the pain in my tone finally chips at some of her armor, I hit her where it hurts.
“And I am sure it’s been the same for your sister. ”
Her eyes gloss with tears as they dance between mine. They make me want to harness my campaign, though they won’t entirely cease it.
“Don’t you want to give her some peace? Don’t you want to let her live her life to the fullest before she’s too old to enjoy it?” My words echo those I’ve heard multiple times. “Don’t steal that joy from her. Don’t make her a martyr for your choices.”
“I didn’t choose this! It wasn’t my choice.” Finally, her guard drops. “You don’t understand.”
I reach for her hand, desperate for her to open up to me. “Because you haven’t given me the chance.” The thud of her pulse rockets up my arm when I squeeze her hand. “You haven’t given him the chance. He loves you, Cameron.”
“It isn’t enough. Love isn’t enough.”
“It is for him. I know what it’s like to love someone so much it hurts.
What it is like to be afraid. But you don’t need to worry about that with Grayson.
He isn’t some random guy. He’s the man who will do anything for you.
” My heart breaks more with each word I speak, but I persist, determined to make things right.
“He’s the man who’s been living in hell since you vanished.
No one has been able to steal the light from you. You fill his every waking moment.”
Her voice cracks as a tear topples down her cheek. “Still? Even after all this time?”
I nod, fighting back my own tears.
After returning to the living room, Cameron collapses on the couch before cradling her head in her hands. For several long seconds, she doesn’t talk.
I sit beside her, silent, letting her gather herself.
I may also need a moment to find my bearings.
Several cracks splinter my heart when she looks up and whispers, “I wasn’t abducted.”
I freeze, certain I misheard her. Grayson’s recollection of the events paints the scene in horrifying detail. Someone kidnapped her, and her boyfriend, who fought like hell to protect her, was the only witness.
I’ve barely gotten over my first lot of shock when she slaps me again. “Grayson’s father forced me out of his life.”
“What?” Gone is the confident agent I’ve grown to become, replaced with a woman who struggles to string two words together.
“No. That can’t be right. Director Rogers would never…
” My words trail off when I recall the document Markwell shared with me earlier.
It explicitly verifies how far Director Rogers will go for his children.
He would go to the end of the world for them. “Why?”
The shock on my face jumps onto Cameron’s. She’s stunned I believe her. I’m just as perplexed. Something about her aura rubs me the wrong way, but I want to ensure I’m not judging her under an unfavorable light because I’m in love with her man.
“His family are law enforcement. It’s in their blood.
Mine… mine are criminals. His father was worried I was leading Grayson down the wrong path, that he would end up in juvie if he didn’t step in.
Or worse, jail.” She maintains eye contact as she steals the land beneath my feet.
“His father threatened to take down my family. The charges were long and mostly fabricated, but they rattled my father. He would never allow a puppy-love infatuation to ruin everything he had worked for, so he sacrificed me instead.” She wets her lips before her eyes lower to her hand knotted in her sleepwear.
“I was told to never come back, and to never look for Grayson, or I’d serve a long sentence for something I didn’t do.
” Her fingers are almost blue when she unravels them from the twisted mess.
“That’s why I can’t tell Grayson the truth. It is best this way.”
“No.” I refuse to even consider taking the easy way out. “Grayson would never allow you to take the fall for something you didn’t do. He loves you, and that comes with an automatic inclusion of protection.”
She laughs, the vibrations on my chest bitter and broken. “Love doesn’t matter when you’re up against the law. His father made it clear. If I ever came back, my family would pay—”
“So you’d rather lump the burden solely on Grayson’s shoulders?” I struggle with the urge to force her to understand the suffering she caused him, yet when I see the pain and guilt reflected in her eyes, it holds me back.
After a lengthy bout of silence, I murmur, “You don’t have to be with him. You just need to tell him the truth.”
Her hair slaps her red cheeks when she shakes her head. “I can’t. I won’t.”
She leaves the room, and my hands ball into fists. Guilt doesn’t weigh down her steps as it does mine and Grayson’s. She’s free, but we’re far from achieving the same level of freedom.
“Did you ever love him? Have you ever considered what this did to him?”
She whips back around and pins me in place with a rueful glare. “Of course I love him. It’s Grayson! He’s impossible not to love.” She stares at me like a priest preaching to his flock. “But I love my family more.”
While I appreciate her perspective, I am unable to make the same commitment. I love Kendall, and I will never stop looking for her, but I can’t sit by and watch Grayson’s heart break over and over again. That is above my caliber, and it leaves me with only one choice.
“Either you tell him the truth, Cameron, or I will.”
Cameron screws up her face, etching fear into every faint line. “If that is what you believe is best, you can do that. But I will deny every word we shared until I am blue in the face if he seeks confirmation of your accusation.”
Is she cautioning me that Grayson won’t believe me over her, or acknowledging it as a fact? If her smug expression is anything to go by, I think it is the latter.
As I stand, my resolve hardens. “I’m going to tell him. He deserves to know the truth.”
After snatching up my sketchbook, I leave her apartment with my heart heavy with worry. I know what I must do, but I’m terrified of what it will do to Grayson.
And perhaps what it will do to us.