Chapter 35
. . .
“I’d wanted to tell you about the trip, but things happened so fast…”
“So fast you couldn’t make a quick call? Send me an email? A text? Carrier pigeon?”
“Elopements are very sudden, last-minute things, Heath.”
People were staring, and Olivia was gently attempting to nudge him away from the crowd, but Heath was hardly concerned about the scene he was making. Embarrassment was the least Christian deserved for what he’d done.
“If you think that excuses you from not warning me I would spend six hours flying somewhere, only to discover I had no reservation once I’d arrived, I have news for you.”
Christian’s deep brown eyes darted around the room as he leaned closer. “Heath, you’re making a scene.”
“Of course I am! You showed me no consideration, so why should I show you any? Treating me like a human should be more important than your portfolio.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, come off it, Christian. The foundation bears your name.”
“Actually, it bears mine.”
Heath wheezed as Evan entered the chat.
He was here.
Was he really surprised? It wasn’t as though he hadn’t suspected Isabella and Olivia of plotting something. Yet, there he stood, mouth agape, staring at Evan as though he hadn’t already seen him naked. A lot.
Though dear God, had the months ever been kind to him. He looked healthy and focused, and sinfully delectable in a tux. He also—wait…
“What did you just say?”
Evan’s eyes didn’t so much as flit in his direction. They remained intensely focused on Christian with palpable animosity. Did they know each other? Oh, dear God. Of course they did. These damn tiny social circles.
He’d worried about this, but that worry had taken a backseat to all the other emotions he’d been wrestling with.
How had it not occurred to him they might both be at this shindig?
Probably because he’d gone from heartbroken to star-struck back to heartbroken in such rapid succession, his brain had caught fire and exploded.
Evan folded his arms across his chest, accentuating the breadth of his shoulders and bulk of his arms beneath the fine fabric swaddling them. “Flanagan was my last name before the adoption. Isn’t that right, Chris?”
Before the adoption? Heath looked to Christian, whose already pale skin had taken on a sickly, greenish hue.
Christian’s dark eyes bounced between Heath and Evan.
“When we met at school, I didn’t want it to be a big deal that I was Charles Westin’s son.
Everywhere I went, that’s how people knew me, and it gets so tiresome wondering whether someone is actually a friend or just keeping you around for favors.
I wanted a break. I wanted one place where I could just be myself without the accoutrements. So I borrowed a name.”
“Mine, Chris. You borrowed mine. The one I couldn’t keep if I wanted to be part of your fucking family, because Dad needed something to control me with. God forbid anything remind him of the woman he screwed over. God-fucking-forbid I get to keep anything that reminded me of her.”
Isabella stepped between them, her focus gentle, but firm. “Okay, this is where we take the conversation somewhere else.”
Heath thought he might be sick. They were brothers? All this time, and Christian… This was too much. Too unbelievably much.
“There’s an empty conference room we can use.” Olivia had a knack for showing up right when an intermediary would be helpful—or a psychiatrist. Convenient that she was both.
“I’m sorry I never told you the truth,” Christian said as they filed into a smaller room by the lobby and closed the door.
He was wearing his most contrite expression.
Heath had seen it a lot over the years. “I’d planned to.
If not before, then certainly after graduation, but by then it had been so long, and honestly, I liked the way things were between us. ”
Heath opened and closed his mouth, feeling like the biggest fool.
“We’ve been friends since undergrad. I’ve dated people in your circle and attended functions with them. How?”
Christian had the decency to look sheepish. “I’d asked them not to bring it up when you were around. I told them business talk bored you.”
Heath felt his eyelids spasm through a flurry of blinks. “You did what?”
“When I had to network, I kept my distance. Otherwise, I told those in our sphere to avoid the topic.”
“Because it bored me.”
Christian nodded, and Heath could feel the pounding of his blood in his temples. No wonder they’d treated him like vapid arm candy. They’d been told to, by the very man who’d then assured him he deserved so much better than these shallow, materialistic men.
Somehow worse was knowing that beneath the subterfuge, Christian was still the same person he’d always known.
He’d lied about his name for more than a decade, and made other people lie for him, at Heath’s expense, but even if he’d come clean, he would still be the sort of person who made promises he didn’t intend to keep, and then tried to buy his way out of it with gifts and grand gestures.
Heath had forgiven him repeatedly over the years.
Every time Christian reneged, or flat out didn’t show up, he’d waved it off and sulked in private.
Or more honestly, he’d wailed to his friends about it over cocktails he couldn’t even enjoy.
This time, he didn’t feel the need to forgive, because it was time for him to move on.
“Heath, I’m so sorry.”
Heath stopped him from continuing with a shake of his head.
“I can appreciate things were difficult for you growing up.” Evan made a noise and Heath gave him a narrow-eyed look.
“I believed you when you’d tell me the pressure of work was immense and wearing on you.
Now that I know a bit more about your family, that belief is even stronger. ”
“Thank you.” Christian reached for his hands, dropping his arms awkwardly to his sides when Heath backed away.
“I believe you, but I don’t forgive you. I can’t do this anymore. The broken promises and plans. Convincing myself each time that it would be different, only to be disappointed yet again. Spending time with a friend shouldn’t be emotional roulette.”
“Heath…”
Evan edged forward, drawing Christian’s attention. “You heard him. He’s done.”
Heath gave Evan a look. “I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you. We have our own business.”
Christian’s forehead wrinkled as he looked between them. “You two know each other?”
“You mean Rich hasn’t already told you the story ten million times?”
“Rich and I don’t speak much. On purpose.”
Heath held up a hand. “I still have questions. The biggest being, why would you cancel the resort reservation and not the flights? That goes beyond normal thoughtlessness to actual cruelty.”
“That was my idea, actually.”
Every eye in the room turned to the doorway, where a stunning brunette with bright blue eyes stood watching. Heath blinked, wondering how she fit into the picture, until she sauntered over and slipped her arm around Christian’s waist.
Evan watched her move with widening eyes and an expression that warred between furious and dismayed. “Him? You left me for him?”
Christian covered his face with his hands when she shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“Party just started, so I’ve got nothin’ but time, sweetheart,” Evan snarked, crossing his arms and widening his stance.
So this was Lucy. She frowned at Evan’s tone, and Heath realized she reminded him a whole lot of Isabella. Isabella clearly agreed, if her blatant amusement was any sign.
“Your boy’s got a type,” she whispered, then mimed zipping her lips when the boy in question shot her a look.
“How long, Lucy?”
“Evan…”
“How. Fucking. Long?”
“It wasn’t intentional.”
“Not intentional? Did you trip and accidentally fall on his dick?”
She rolled her eyes and drew closer to… to her husband. Christian was her husband. The woman he’d run off with hadn’t been some stranger, it had been his brother’s fiancée. What in the Days of Our Lives was happening?
Christian stepped into Evan’s space, nudging Lucy behind him. “We met at a conference in Miami. It was years ago, and you two weren’t even together.”
Evan shot Lucy a look over his brother’s shoulder. “Do not even say ‘we were on a break’ to me, I swear to God.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you want to call it, you and I weren’t together, and Chris and I weren’t either. That only happened recently.”
“Define recently.”
Her frown was scathing. “If you’re worrying whether I was double dipping, you can relax. We’ve been friends for a very long time, but prior to recently, that’s all we were. We talked occasionally, mostly about business, but more personal things began to sneak in.”
“How have you two been friends without my knowing about it?”
She scoffed. “Did you seriously think I would tell you I was doing business with your family? Have you met yourself?”
Evan’s mouth snapped shut. He turned on his heel and paced to the other side of the room, and Heath couldn’t imagine the betrayal he must feel. How could she engage with his family at all, knowing how poorly they’d treated him?
“Evan, I only ever dealt with Chris.”
“You think that makes it okay?”
“It might if you knew anything about him.”
The two men shared a long look before Evan huffed, “Right.”
Heath cleared his throat. “You were saying? About the reservations?”
Though she smiled, Lucy’s direct attention was intense. Her eyes reminded him of Andres. Icy blue, to where they appeared silver at certain angles, and she had a powerful presence. He felt bad for the opposing counsel.
“Admittedly, it was a bit of a gamble, but I felt I knew Evan well enough to risk it.”
Evan bristled. “Meaning?”
Her attention shifted to the man she’d once planned to marry, and Heath saw the briefest softening of her gaze before it hardened back over. “Meaning I knew you’d take the trip without me, because your bent for petty revenge is rather legendary, darling.”
“Don’t call me that. You’ve lost cutesy pet name privileges.”