Exposed - Chapter 15
Sunday
Matt
Tanner tried to call me again as I walked down the long hallway. I’d texted him and told him to meet me at James’ place in an hour. Nigel too. They were both assholes. All my friends were. And I needed to get rid of the anger coursing through my veins.
I just had one stop to make before I yelled at all of them. I reached Mr. Pruitt’s door and pounded my fist against it. “Open up, you piece of shit!” I yelled.
Part of me didn’t expect him to answer.
I hit the door louder this time. “Mr. Pruitt! Open the fucking door!”
One of his bodyguards opened the door. The one that had opened the door the day I was told Brooklyn was dead. I remembered the tears on his face. He believed Mr. Pruitt’s lies too. Or else he was a great actor.
“Where is he?” I said.
“We both know I can’t let you in when you’re acting like this.”
Acting like what? I cracked my neck to the side. I wasn’t acting. I was about to beat the shit out of this guy.
“It’s fine,” Mr. Pruitt said, as he joined his henchman at the door. “I was thinking you might be paying me a visit soon. It certainly took you long enough.”
My hands were around his throat in two seconds flat. I shoved his back against the wall. Mr. Pruitt looked neither shocked nor scared that I was about to kill him.
“Enough,” the bodyguard said and pulled me back.
I shoved him off of me. He wasn’t that much bigger than me. But I knew he probably had training that I didn’t. I wasn’t trying to die. I just wanted to kill Brooklyn’s ass of a father.
My chest rose and fell as I stared at him.
It looked like I wasn’t the only one who wanted to hurt him.
There were bruises fading in the corners of his eyes.
Someone had tried to break his nose. I was going to finish the job.
“Seriously, Mr. Pruitt? You couldn’t have told me via text that Brooklyn was alive? ”
“I thought it would be better in person.” He straightened his tie. “And you didn’t seem all that interested.”
“I wasn’t interested in talking to you because I thought you murdered my fiancée!”
“She gave me the kidney willingly. Why does everyone keep making it sound so terrible?”
“You saw me at the funeral. You saw me at all those stupid functions. You knew how hard I was taking it. Why the hell wouldn’t you tell me?”
“As I said…you didn’t seem that interested in what I had to say, or you would have texted me back. And honestly, I never thought you were a good fit for my daughter. I was always trying to encourage her to date your brother instead.”
Was he fucking joking? “So that’s why you lied to her and told her I asked for her ring back? And told her that I didn’t speak at her funeral? You were trying to make her hate me. How could you do that? How could you manipulate her that way?”
“I did what I thought was best. And you weren’t the best fit for her.”
“You seriously thought one of your trained dogs was a better fit?”
“Watch it,” his bodyguard said. “Miller was my friend.”
“Miller was highly trained to protect my daughter,” Mr. Pruitt said. “And she needed protection. If I recall correctly, half the time you were together you were dating her in secret. You weren’t exactly at the top of my list of contenders to keep her safe.”
“We were engaged. She was living with me. I was keeping her safe.”
“And yet…she died during that time.” He put ‘died’ in air quotes. “So really, you didn’t keep her safe at all.”
“You’re the one that did that, you fucking maniac!”
“No, I stepped up and protected my daughter. Because I love her.”
“If you wanted to protect Brooklyn you should have locked Isabella up in a psych ward!”
“I did. For a time. I thought she was better. Even James agreed she was better.”
“James was high out of his mind when he married Isabella.”
Mr. Pruitt shrugged. “That’s not really any of my concern. Speaking of marriage. Does your intrusion mean your engagement to Poppy is in fact all a ruse?”
“She’s as crazy as Isabella. Of course it’s a ruse.”
“Interesting. I expected as much. Blackmail, I presume?”
“She’s threatening James’ daughter. She wants to take over the family business. She thought you were worried about her lack of finance skills. And apparently dating me would help that. Not that I’d ever touch your dirty money.”
“I never wanted you to be a part of my business. Another one of the reasons I wanted Brooklyn to be with someone else.”
“Fuck you.”
“Watch your language. My property. My rules.”
I wasn’t here to be reprimanded. “Here’s what’s going to happen.
You’re going to give your business to Poppy.
Because she actually wants it, unlike Brooklyn.
And you’re going to get her to sign the contract I sent over, which just agrees that she’ll never hurt anyone in my life.
And then you’re going to leave me and Brooklyn the hell alone.
And her son.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat at saying those words. She had a kid.
Mr. Pruitt smiled at me. “Done.”
Wait, what? “You’re going to step down?”
“I stepped down yesterday. As per my daughter’s request. She said I couldn’t be in her life or my grandson’s unless I wasn’t part of this business. So I am no longer part of this business.”
“You’re really done?”
“I am. Now back to that last thing you said. You, Brooklyn, and my grandson… Is that the future you see?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Brooklyn and my grandson are my only living heirs. Of course their future is my business. Are you planning on marrying her and adopting my grandson?”
“Of course I am.” I didn’t even hesitate to respond.
I wouldn’t be here telling him to fuck off if I wasn’t planning that.
And yeah, Brooklyn and I just had a fight.
But that’s what we did. We fought and made up.
And I hated that she had a kid with someone else.
But I didn’t hate that she had a child. I loved kids.
I’d always wanted a big family. He was a piece of her.
And that meant I was going to love him too.
“It just so happens that your relationship contract is still signed and sitting in my desk. So you have my agreement. I owe you an apology, though.”
“You think?”
“Not for faking Brooklyn’s death. More what happened leading up to it.
As I’ve said, I didn’t think you were a suitable match.
I knew I was going to fake her death all along.
I was just waiting to convince her to pull the trigger on my plan.
I never intended to let you marry my daughter.
Your parents were just trying to distance themselves from my good name. And I wasn’t going to allow it.”
“What the hell? You knew she was excited. You knew…”
“No, what I knew was that she was 16 years old. Which was too young to make a lifelong decision. And that she was mine to protect.”
“Brooklyn is not an object. She’s not yours .” I clenched my jaw. But wasn’t that how I thought of her too? As mine?
“I’ve said my apology. You can have her hand now, if you want.”
I just stared at him. “So she was too young to marry me? But you didn’t care that she was shacking up with Miller when she was the same age?”
“Yes, but as I said before…Miller could protect her. And even though I wasn’t 100 percent certain of his loyalties to me, I was 100 percent certain of his loyalties to her.
After all, Brooklyn wasn’t the only one who died 16 years ago.
Miller agreed to be dead too. He agreed to disappear for her.
They always had a bond. Since they spent so much time together here.
She slept more in his bed here than in hers. ”
I stared at him. Was he saying they slept together when Brooklyn lived here? In this apartment? “They were together before?”
“She used to sneak off to the servants’ floor when she first moved in. Probably during one of the times you were ignoring her existence in public.”
She’d told me she didn’t kiss him at the beach house.
She’d told me she was loyal to me. She… Fuck.
I remembered now. She’d told me she kissed someone else one of the times we fought in high school.
She’d tried to tell me and I cut her off.
I’d told her I didn’t want to know. But it was Miller.
She’d always liked Miller. But it didn’t change anything.
She’d felt alone here too. Isolated. She’d run to him because he made her feel safe. It was all so twisted and fucked up.
“Did you not know?”
I cleared my throat. “She told me.”
“Good, good. So…” his voice trailed off. “I guess you’ll be my son-in-law after all.”
I shook my head. “She wants nothing to do with you.”
“No, she told me that I couldn’t be in her life if I continued running my business. I gave it up. For her.”
I wasn’t sure that was going to be enough. But I was surprised he’d listened to her. He was used to controlling everything.
“And for what it’s worth,” he said. “I approve now. You have a good head on your shoulders, Matthew. You took over your father’s company. You’re an adult now.”
Condescending prick.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do. Welcome back to the family, Matthew.”
I hated everything about that sentence.
***
I knocked on James and Penny’s door.
Rob opened it. “Great, you came. We were just talking about what we should do for Penny’s birthday…” his voice trailed off. “Shit, you’re still mad, huh?”
“Of course I’m still mad.” I walked past him.
“Is that why you invited Tanner?”
I ignored Rob and walked into the great room.
All my friends were here. Plus Tyler, Hailey, Ian, and Jen.
They weren’t really part of this, but fuck it.
And it wasn’t exactly fair, but I was a little pissed at Jen right now too.
If Brooklyn hadn’t seen us in that pool…
I sighed. No, that definitely wasn’t fair.
But I was just really angry about everything.
And Tanner was right, apparently I was hot headed.
“Get over there,” I said to Rob.
“Why?”