Pretend for Me

33. Matthew

33

MATTHEW

“ Y ou always did look handsome in a suit. You wear it well.” Cassie giggled, straightening my tie, giving me a once-over.

I leaned into her, giving her a peck on the lips. Her support meant so much to me. She’d never know just how appreciative I was of having her by my side. These last few days had been troubling with the new information coming to light, and she hadn’t gloated by saying “I told you so.” No, instead, Cassie jumped in to help in any way she could. Tonight would mark new beginnings and the end of another chapter in my life.

During my meeting with Silas, we discussed strategies to ensure our plan to take down Wyatt was ironclad. With everything ready, I knew the final pieces I needed to put into motion.

“Thank you for not asking me to join you tonight,” Cassie blurted, brushing the dog hair off my suit collar.

“If everything goes as planned, it’ll be better if you’re not there,” I assured her, caressing her cheek.

Cassie knew the plan, and while she was nervous about how it was all going to unravel, she knew she needed to trust me and the seemingly good team of people I’d gathered.

Cassie walked with me to the elevator. I had insisted on her staying the night, stating how much Rocky would miss her after this past week together. She smiled when I said it, knowing that Rocky probably wasn’t the only one who would miss her.

Audrey was on her way over to keep Cassie company, and I ordered takeout to be delivered for their girls’ night in.

They had a lot to catch up on since Cassie had been staying at my place, and Audrey finally felt a little lighter from her past. Their lives appeared to be going in the direction they’d always dreamed of.

“Wish me luck,” I said with a cocky grin. It was takedown time.

“Good luck, but please be careful. I worry about you. I just got you back.” Cassie sighed, tenderly.

Pulling her into a bear hug reminiscent of the ones I used to give her when we were kids, I lifted her face to mine. “I love you. Please don’t worry. You have me.” I bent down to give her a kiss.

Cassie leaned into the kiss, and when she tore herself away, she nodded. “Okay,” she muttered as I got into the elevator.

As the doors began to close, she gave me a smile and a wave, and I tried to match it with one of my own even though I felt like I’d left my heart behind.

I climbed the stairs carefully, wanting to handle the next part sans interruptions. After I knocked at the door, I waited a moment before I heard a soft “come in.” Entering the room quietly and quickly, I closed the door behind me.

Standing in the doorway, I took a moment to really look at Liz. She was frail—the thinnest she’d ever been—the dark circles under her eyes indicated her lack of sleep, and the biggest giveaway of her decline was the oxygen tube threaded in her nose.

“Hello, honey, could you be a dear and help me clasp this?” she asked, a bracelet hanging from her shaking hand.

I nodded solemnly. While I was angry at Wyatt for his illegal business dealings, I didn’t know Liz’s part in any of this. Until I found out the depth of her involvement, and maybe even after, she held a special spot in my heart.

Taking the bracelet from my adoptive mother, I wrapped it around her wrist and fastened the clasp.

“Ma, I have something I’d like to talk to you about,” I started. I just wanted to know the truth.

Now it was Liz’s turn to nod solemnly. “I figured this time would come soon. It was inevitable,” she muttered, tears filling her eyes.

“You know?” A gasp fell from my lips as I was struck dumbfounded. I crouched down to be eye level with where she sat in her wheelchair.

“Know?” Liz admonished, fiddling with her cashmere cardigan. ”It was my idea. An insurance policy. What a joke that was.” Liz laughed, bitterly.

My eyes widened, my jaw hanging slack. Her idea. These people were ruthless. Just when I thought I had one redeemable “parent.” I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to make sense of it all.

Liz took a deep breath and started, “You have to understand, when the company had its first dip in stocks, not long after its inception, investors started pulling out. It almost crippled us. We weren’t sure if we would be able to pay the rent, let alone the employees and take a salary as well.”

She wheeled herself to the opposite side of the room to grab her evening bag. “I told your father how we needed a safety net. This was right around the time our son, Drew, passed away. That’s when we created Nardini Industries. After skimming money off the top, we created quite the nest egg. We let it rest for a while as we attempted IVF. You know how well that went.”

I couldn’t believe my ears—Liz was the mastermind behind all of the illegal business dealings.

“Before we secured the IPO for Adams Point, we were audited. At that time, Parker decided to ask more questions because he had some concerns about the direction the company was going. In business, loose ends can unravel the whole plan, so we knew we needed a way to ensure his silence. Arthur had a connection in the tax department, and he reached out to them to help us quickly make any discrepancies go away, but we needed a fall guy. Who better than the disgruntled CFO.” Liz paused, struggling to maintain her breathing. She looked around for her inhaler.

I passed it to her from the vanity and gestured for her to continue explaining this convoluted web of lies. Blackmailing her brother-in-law because he actually had a moral code was a new low.

“We became a little bit paranoid after the audit, even though Arthur assured us everything would be fine. So we decided to adopt, figuring that was a positive thing we could show the public in case of a crisis. On top of the fact, your father needed a protégé since Parker could potentially go to jail. So we adopted you.” Liz wheeled herself closer to where I stood, shell-shocked, and grabbed my hand, looking me directly in the eyes.

“What I wasn’t anticipating was how much I would grow to love you or how I would want to protect you. Or ultimately how scared I was to lose you too. This leads me to my last indiscretion.” She dug around in her evening bag, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. It was tattered and discolored. Even a little shabby, I could make out my name written in Cassie’s familiar scrawl on the front—Cassie’s letter. “I only did what I thought was right. It turned out to all be for nothing. Look at me.” She waved her arm feebly along her broken body.

“How could you—” I started as I yanked my hand away from hers and plucked the letter from her hands. Disgust didn’t cover the magnitude of my emotions at the moment.

The door flew open with bang. “What the hell is going on in here?” Wyatt bellowed, tapping on his watch. “Nice of you to join us.” He turned to face me, rolling his eyes.

“Lizzie, do you need anything before we leave? Rowena has your bag packed with all your meds.” Wyatt went behind Liz to start pushing her wheelchair toward the door.

Liz shook her head, giving me a pointed look to put the letter I was clutching away.

Hastily, I tucked the paper into my suit pocket. Reading it would have to wait until later. Now I had a bastard to take down.

The trip to the Harrises’ mansion was a short car ride. In the limo, you could hear a pin drop. Nobody conversed, and I had an eerie feeling about it all.

The driveway was filled with spotlights and trapeze artists doing some kind of performance. I rolled my eyes. These parties really were ridiculous.

As we entered the opulent home, we were greeted with a mime doing tricks. I snorted and muttered to Rowena, who had accompanied Liz as a caretaker, “I guess this really is the circus.”

“Don’t forget that you have to introduce me on the podium,” Wyatt spat into my ear and rolled Liz off into the crowd of people chatting in the ballroom.

Once I passed the foyer, I set off on a mission to find Parker. I’d called him all week, without any response. Not even a text which was very unlike him. Even my aunt, Joy, sounded nervous when I phoned their house. She couldn’t get off the phone fast enough.

I found Parker speaking to Joy in a corner of the informal dining room.

“Well you know, Parker?—”

I tapped him on the shoulder to alert him of my presence.

“Oh, Matthew, hey.” Parker stammered and fiddled with the cell phone in his hand.

“Hi, Matthew,” Joy said meekly from behind Parker. I nodded a hello to my pseudo aunt.

I didn’t know how much I should include Joy in this conversation, so I asked Parker, “Can I speak to you for a second outside?” Liz was her dying sister after all.

“Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of Joy,” Parker said, narrowing his eyes.

He was acting out of sorts. Did he know he was being set up to take the fall?

I pursed my lips, looking between Parker and Joy. It didn’t appear that either one of them was going to budge, so I sighed and resigned myself to having to talk to them both. “Fine, but it still needs to be outside.”

I peeked around the ballroom before exiting the door. Wyatt was having an intense hushed conversation with Arthur and an older gentleman I didn’t recognize. Liz was speaking to her society ladies. At least they were both distracted for the time being.

The three of us slipped out of the party, gathering around the fountain at the end of the driveway.

“What is it, Matthew?” Parker asked dumbly, taking a deep breath. Joy looked at her husband wide-eyed and slightly shook her head.

“Wyatt defrauded the company. Adams Point is in shambles. All the profits are going into a shell corporation called Nardini Industries, which if the name doesn’t tip you off, makes you the CEO. He’s framing you by embezzling any and all profits to smaller offshore accounts which then get funneled into Nardini Industries,” I rambled, my hands shaking, and I looked around nervously. I wouldn’t have been worried about myself if it weren’t for the fact that I had something to lose waiting for me at home. Cassie.

I turned to Joy and started again, “Apparently, it was your sister’s idea. They were so worried about not being rich that they needed a fallback plan.” I spat in disgust. “I mean, who does that? This is crazy.” I paced in front of the fountain, my mind reeling.

“Matthew,” Joy said lightly, touching my shoulder.

I shook my head and threaded my fingers through my hair, feeling like I was losing it. This must have been how Cassie felt all those times in this world. In over her head. I needed to tell Parker what he was up against. “I do have an attorney who is helping me, and we gathered enough information to tie this to Wyatt. All he’s waiting on is for me to give him the green light to call his friends at the SEC. You might want to get your lawyer on standby, since I’m sure the SEC will want to ask you a lot of questions during the investigation, but the evidence we’ve found is damning to Wyatt and all his wrongdoings. We’ve got him.” I finally breathed out in relief.

“Matthew.” Now it was Parker who spoke my name.

I looked at my uncle, waiting for him to speak. This was overwhelming information to take in when it wasn’t your freedom on the line. I could only imagine how difficult it was to be in Parker’s position.

“We’ve known about the shell corp for some time,” he muttered so softly I almost missed what he said.

“What? How? Then why is that bastard still running free?” I blurted, my eyes widened, and then my eyebrows furrowed, not understanding why they didn’t expose Wyatt and Liz for who they really were.

Joy took my hands in hers. “You have to understand. We only tried to do what’s right.” She sobbed, biting her bottom lip.

I snatched my hands away. “Do what? What did you both do?” I demanded, looking between them with wild eyes.

Parker hung his head. “We tried, Matthew. We really did. When Wyatt and Liz adopted you, we thought it was a good thing for them. Maybe it would humanize them a little. They had changed so much after coming into money and the loss of Drew. We wished for you to be the change they so desperately needed,” Joy explained, wiping her eyes, mascara running down her face.

Parker resumed speaking. “It gave us the idea that we would have liked to adopt and help a child. We tried conceiving years ago, and it didn’t work out.” He trailed off, looking at Joy and continued, “When we met Cassie, we fell in love with her. She was lovely, a breath of fresh air. Clearly she didn’t belong in this world, but we decided we wanted to adopt her anyway.”

“What?” My jaw went slack, and I felt like I had been punched in the gut. They wanted to adopt Cassie all those years ago? She could have had a family. A good one. Her life could have been so much different. Everything could have been different.

Parker looked at Joy nervously, taking in the way her body trembled, and he shrugged himself out of his suit jacket and wrapped his wife in it.

“I made the mistake of telling my sister about our plans, and I’m sure you know how that went. She told Wyatt, and that was when we found out about the shell corp.” Joy tried to continue, but I interrupted her.

I held my hand up. “Wait! How does the shell corp have anything to do with Cassie?” My head was spinning. This was even more complex than Silas presumed.

Parker chanced a glance back at the Harrises’ house, and once satisfied that no one was coming, he explained, “After Liz went to Wyatt, we still tried to file paperwork to adopt Cassie. There was no reason she shouldn’t have a home. A few days after completing the application, Wyatt called me into his office and presented me with the shell corp, stating if we went through with it, he would frame me as CEO of all these defaulted companies and the embezzlement of Adams Point. When I wasn’t scared enough at his threat about myself, he presented me with his backup plan.” Parker gulped, rubbing the hairs on his chin.

“Tell me. No more secrets,” I demanded, practically shouting in the open space.

“You. He would frame you too,” Parker whispered into the darkness. “If I didn’t comply, he was waiting for you to join the company, and years down the line, he would frame you as the greedy adopted son,” he admitted. He pulled Joy, who was still sobbing, into a hug.

My fists balled at my sides. This was sick even for Wyatt and Liz. I couldn’t believe how I chose them and thought their intentions were pure. I felt like such a fool.

“So you stayed,” I concluded, “to keep me safe.”

Parker nodded, shrugging his shoulders.

“Matthew, you must tread very lightly. I know you think you know what you’re doing, trying to bring all this into the light, but I don’t think you understand the lengths to which these people will go to protect their secrets,” Joy warned, and she motioned behind me.

I brushed her off, thinking how different my life would have been if Parker and Joy were successful in their attempts to adopt Cassie.

Before I could say anything further, I noticed we had company coming toward us. I peered around the fountain to see Marie, the Harrises’ housekeeper, running down the drive.

“Mr. Matthew, your father is looking for you. He needs you to introduce him to the crowd,” she said, out of breath.

I huffed out a breath and turned to head toward the house.

Marie called out behind me, “Your mother went home, Matthew. She wasn’t feeling well.”

I didn’t even bother acknowledging any of those comments. I was fuming. I didn’t want to even look at the man, let alone announce him and his bullshit company. Wyatt had ruined so many lives. I was determined not to let him ruin any others.

I stalked up the drive, my arms waving to Parker and Joy to follow me. As I motioned to them, my eyes fixated on my watch. The watch Wyatt gave me when I agreed to join the fucking company. The watch he gave me after ruining Cassie’s life. The watch he gave me after making Parker a fucking slave to his company. The watch that represented all the lies and bullshit I’d listened to throughout the years.

I quickly sent a text to Silas, alerting him it was go time. Now or never. Wyatt’s time had run out.

I walked through the Harrises’ house in silence. Everything around me was a blur. I couldn’t spot a single soul until I placed Wyatt, who was standing on the platform stage waiting for me to join him beside the podium. I eyed Wyatt’s smug face. He wouldn’t get away with this. He couldn’t. All I saw was red. I saw visions of Cassie happy, content with family. I saw her going to college, getting her first car, birthday parties, and holidays. Not misery and fear and constant worrying and taking care of others. I saw us going the distance and not breaking up, having no time apart. I saw the life that Wyatt had ripped away from me. From her. And now Wyatt was going to pay.

I climbed the stairs and sucked my teeth, without a glance at the audience. I wordlessly stomped over to Wyatt and punched him square in the jaw. The sound of Wyatt’s body hitting the stage echoed in the large banquet hall as my hand pulled away.

The watch face splintered into a million tiny shards of glass as it hit the floor. Everything it once symbolized was as meaningless as it was now. It was ruined and so was any semblance of a relationship I would have with my so-called adoptive parents. This was the final nail in Wyatt’s and Liz’s coffins.

I crouched down next to Wyatt. He was trying to scramble off the floor and salvage part of his night as I grabbed his lapels, pulling him impossibly close.

“You son of bitch! Cassie could've had a family. A family. She deserved people who loved her, who stood by her, and you cheated her of that chance. The SEC has everything. All of your little games are finished. Done.” I barked into Wyatt’s ear. I pulled away, resisting the urge to clock him again. I stretched my fingers, my hand sore from the jab.

I stood up and walked through the crowd of whispering people, calling out behind me, “Consider this my resignation.”

After things went to shit at the anniversary party, I blindly made my way back to my apartment. Everything was so fucked and I had no idea what the fallout of my rash decision was going to be. As the doors opened, I was met with darkness and an empty living room. Audrey must have left already, but it was still early so it was surprising that Cassie was already in bed. In that moment, the loneliness felt overwhelming. I punched the wall next to the elevator, letting loose expletives as the pain radiated up my already bruised knuckles. “Fuck,” I muttered as Rocky lingered at my feet.

Grabbing some ice from the freezer and wrapping it in a kitchen towel, I made my way over to the bar cart and poured myself some bourbon. I threw it back in one go, letting the alcohol burn its way down my throat. I refilled my glass as I loosened my tie, desperate to escape the chokehold this life had on me. I’d shucked off my suit jacket and was untucking my dress shirt from my pants when the bedroom door creaked open.

“Matty, what’s going on?” Cassie lingered in the doorway, drowning in one of my t-shirts, bare legs on display.

The sight of her, fresh-faced and disheveled, wearing my clothing and being marked as mine, calmed some of the turmoil inside me. The longer I let myself savor the fact that she was here, that she looked happy, the more rage I felt as I thought about all of this evening’s revelations. Being deceived by people who were supposed to love me stung, but what hurt the most was that Cassie could have had a family. I’d never be able to forgive them for that.

No matter how much I wished it were the case, I couldn’t rewrite the past. I just needed to find a way forward. She was here, mine and real. All we had was now and forever. I was ready to start living.

I stalked over to her, caging her body against the doorframe. I cupped her cheek, losing myself in the affection shining in her golden-brown eyes. I leaned down to suck her bottom lip between mine. The taste of her reignited a fire in me, and my hands slid down her body, dipping below the hem of the shirt to grab hold of her ass. I squeeze both cheeks, pulling her hips against my cock which had grown hard at the overwhelming sensations of having her in my arms. The urge to lose myself in her spurred on my actions and I hoisted her up, pressing her against the wall.

“Are you okay?” she asked after we broke apart for air. She brushed my overgrown bangs from my eyes, peering at me with concern.

I couldn’t put into words how not okay I was, so I just shook my head and covered her mouth with my own once more. I deepened the kiss, gliding my tongue against hers, drawing from her a deep moan. The kiss was passionate and full of need.

“I want you, Cass. I need to be inside you.” I spun her around so that her hands were pressed against the wall beside the bedroom. My mouth trailed down her neck as I spread her legs apart, letting my hands roam her body.

I peeled the shirt from her body, launching it somewhere in the room. I cupped her breasts in my hands, using my fingers to pluck at her nipples until they were sharp points. Slipping my hand down her torso and into her panties, I found her soaked. I rubbed my thumb along her clit, causing her to whimper. Giving her mound a light squeeze, I slid two fingers into her pussy, gliding them in and out of her shallowly. She continued to whimper and moan, grinding her hips back against my erection.

“I need you too.” Cassie whimpered, “More.”

I made quick work of undoing my pants and pushed my boxers down, releasing my length. Once I covered myself with a condom, I slid my cock along her slit before I thrust into her, burying myself to the hilt.

We groaned simultaneously at the feel of being connected in this way.

I set a frantic pace as I fucked her deeply. I threaded one of my hands with hers, intertwining our fingers. The other hand took hold of her hip, steadying her trembling legs.

“Harder,” she cried, as I sucked on her neck, marking her as mine.

I bucked wildly into her, giving her all I had. Claiming her. Loving her. Vowing silently to protect her. The sounds she made as I pounded into her spurred me on more and more. It didn’t take long for her to reach her peak, her pussy clenching around my cock spurring my orgasm. I rest my head against her back, trying to catch my breath.

I wasn’t okay, but so long as I had her, I knew I would be eventually.