Chapter 26 #2
“My mother suffered from depression. It came in waves, the worst when my father’s mood would trigger it and far worse when his anger came out in force.
When she was well, she was the light in my world.
Just like you were. Her smile would take the sting away; her kisses removed the pain.
She loved this house and would sit on the beach, staring at the waves while Liv and I played.
Our days were filled with joy until they weren’t. ”
He tucked his hands into his pockets, his shoulders drooping, and I wondered at the weight they had carried for so long.
“The older I got, the more I noticed and the longer her lows lingered. My father’s aggression toward me, his verbal assaults on Liv, caused her to sink lower.
There were days she wouldn’t get out of bed.
It was like he had stolen the light from her, and no matter how hard Liv and I tried, we couldn’t bring it back.
And the further she sank, the worse he became.
He would blame us.” His hand raised, and he rubbed his cheek as if the sting of a hand still lingered.
Head leaning on the glass, he shuddered before saying, “I found her that day. My father was on a business trip, and she hadn’t come down when I’d come home from school.
Liv was home from college but had spent the day with her friends.
I was used to cooking my dinner and fending for myself, but something made me check on her.
Like this voice in my head that told me something was off. ”
I moved closer to him, my body rigid with emotion.
“She was on the bathroom floor, bottles of her medications spilled across the floor with a shattered glass of wine.”
My chest fractured for him, tears spilling.
“Suicide, they ruled it, but that wasn’t how I ruled it.
He had driven her to it. Ignoring her mental state, not seeing what his abuse of us was doing to her, never stopping to consider he was sending her to her grave.
His money, his company, his ambition were the only things he ever cared about.
And as I watched her casket lower into her grave, I vowed to avenge her death. ”
I sucked in a breath, knowing what was coming because I had seen the result in the complicated infrastructure of businesses he and his sister had acquired. In the unraveling of the financial stability of his father’s company.
“Years of strategizing, of investing our inheritance from our mother, of making bets that paid off led me to Jacksonville. It was the next step in my plan. He balked at my suggestion of moving to Florida. There was no reason other than the distance from him, but I made excuses, convincing him the experience would be beneficial to the company. That earning my stripes at various investment firms would give me the knowledge I needed. Staying under the radar of the press and building a resume that would make me worthy of the CFO position and eventually the company.”
Lifting his head, he kept his gaze out the window, but I moved closer, waiting for the answers I’d sought for six years, fearful of what I would hear.
“When we met, I had two years left before he expected me to return to New York and take the CFO position and three years more before my plans of revenge would be complete. Five years. That was all that stood between me and victory.” A jagged sigh scraped from his throat.
“I didn’t mean to fall in love with you, Tori.
But the day I walked into that room, and you lifted your eyes to me, I knew you were the one.
I tried to deny it, but you were too special.
Years of avoiding relationships, of keeping emotion from any interaction with women, knowing I had a goal, fell apart that day.
” He scraped his hand through his hair. “Liv and I made a pact that nothing would come between our revenge, including love. She broke it off with her college sweetheart the year she graduated. It was her statement to me that she was serious about our task. And I took that vow seriously until you.”
The pounding of blood as it rushed through my veins was so loud it threatened to drown his words out.
“I couldn’t stop myself from falling for you, and I knew you were the one I wanted to marry.
The one I would give it all up for. And I almost did.
Almost convinced myself I could leave it all behind, break my word to Liv and my vow to my mother.
But I couldn’t.” He let out a defeated sigh.
“My father set up a trust for me and Liv when we were young. By the time you and I met, it was worth billions. But there were conditions. We couldn’t marry until we reached the age of thirty-two.
Liv had to earn the COO position, and I had to earn the CFO position.
My father’s intent was always to have me take over as CEO, but he wanted me to work for it. ”
“You left me for money?”
He swiveled to me, his features so twisted in agony, it almost caused my knees to go out.
“No. I had intended to delay our wedding, to tell you the truth, and have us marry when I met the conditions. But then you were so excited, and I wanted you to remain that way. Making you wait five years seemed an impossible hurdle, and I wanted to be selfish and not wait that long.”
“Then why?”
His throat bobbed, and he dropped his eyes from mine. “There was another condition to Liv’s trust that I didn’t know about. She couldn’t touch her money until I met my conditions, and if I broke them not only would I lose my trust, but she would lose hers.”
I brought my hand to my mouth, hating the man who had done that to them. The obvious favoritism that must have badgered Liv her entire life, the weight that condition placed on Gabe.
“I was ready to give it all up,” he said, and my eyes grew large as that uncontrolled pounding returned.
“To sell the companies we’d acquired and be content to live off that money.
To have Liv hate me for the rest of our lives for robbing her of her inheritance.
To let my mother’s memory down, to break my promise to her and Liv.
” He turned from me, looking back out at the shore.
“But you didn’t,” I whispered.
“No, because my father knew. He had eyes on me. He always did. His men watched me, and when they reported seeing you with a wedding dress, he gave me an ultimatum.” He knocked his head against the glass.
“I’ve regretted answering his call since that day.
Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I pulled my car over a hundred times ready to turn around and go back to you.
” His voice cracked, and the swell of tears returned, leaking down my cheeks.
“What was the ultimatum?” My voice shook with emotion.
“He knew who you were. I hadn’t lied about your parents’ hotel. My mother loved it there, and my father promised her he would never buy it to build one of his resorts in its place.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he continued, “He knew about your mother’s remission.”
I stepped back, hating that he had brought my mother and her battle into this. It was an underhanded move that fortified my view of Gabe’s father.
“They were in debt, underwater from the medical bills, and he had a chance to buy them out.”
“No, I did their financials for them. They were in good shape.”
“The company was, but personally they were struggling. Your father took out a second mortgage on the house, and the debt was building. It was the kind of weak spot my father looked for. He would have made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and bulldozed the resort to build one of his in its place.
” Pausing, he tucked his hands back in his pockets.
“He threatened to do it if I didn’t leave you and return home.
I couldn’t let him do that to your parents or to you.
And to seal my compliance, he threatened to have you blocked from every firm.
To destroy your career before you could even get started.
He had the power, and he would have left you suffering in entry-level positions for the remains of your career. ”
My head was spinning, but within the cluster of information was the realization that Gabe had been protecting me and my family. That all the years I had hated him, thinking he had left me willingly and for another woman, he had been doing what he thought was necessary.
“I started packing the next day.” Memories of the fevered times he’d taken me repeatedly like he was getting his fill, like he would never touch me again, returned.
"I slipped a sleeping pill into your wine that night to ensure you wouldn't wake while I packed my stuff in my car." Emotion laced his words. “I’ve never been in so much pain. Knowing you would wake up confused and hurt, knowing you would think I left you because I didn’t love you, that I was running from you. It crushed me, and I’ve lived with that every day since.”
Tears were spilling down my cheeks as the grounds I’d built my hate for him on collapsed.
“You left me to protect me?” Syllables broken in fractured pieces.
He gazed over his shoulder, and I saw the broken man there, the one who had left me that night, severing both our hearts because circumstance had left him with no choice.
“Me, my family, your sister. God, Gabe, how long have you been carrying this?”
“Five years, ten months, and four days.”
Air rushed into my lungs. He’d counted the days since he’d left me, and that truth hurt me as much as his leaving had. He turned to me, pulling his wallet out.
“I told you, Tori. There has only ever been you. I’ve never even looked at another woman because you will always own me.”
“The tattoo?” I asked, remembering the half-moon on his shoulder blade.