Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter
Fifty-Six
Jasper
Secrets were lies in their own right. One couldn’t keep a secret without a lie. And we revered someone who could keep a secret yet scorned those who lied. It was the same. They all melded together.
Stone had been like my brother since we were kids. Both raised by parents who neglected us. He was beaten regularly by his father, while mine never laid a hand on me. Other than that, we were the same. We existed in the same world. He was expected to run a company he was to inherit. To carry on an empire that had never been his dream. Marry well. It didn’t matter if we didn’t love our wives. We’d be expected to have affairs. This was our world.
It had been. It’s what I had finally accepted. Then Beulah walked into my life and changed me. She made me want something real. Gave me a reason to smile. Parties meant to entertain me were no longer needed. The lost boy had been found.
Immediately after I found her and fell in love with her, she was taken permanently, leaving me with nothing—no hope, no chance at a future with her in it, not even as a friend. It had ended abruptly.
Glancing up at the building in front of me, I felt guilt for this. Stone’s secrets had always been like my own. I’d thought that I would take them to the grave. But he’d stolen her so easily without guilt or remorse. He’d facilitated the end of all contact I had with her. My fucking shattered heart was of no consequence to him. He’d said he was protecting her.
From me? I adored her. I would stand in front of a motherfucking bullet for the woman. I didn’t care that we were related. I would have moved away with her. Changed my name and given up my fortune if I could have her by my side. The blood in our veins didn’t make me love her less. Nothing ever would.
She thought she knew Stone. She thought she was in love with him. Stone had his own set of secrets. A past that made him not worthy of Beulah. He hated his father, but he had reason. He wasn’t the man Beulah believed him to be. He’d exposed the secrets that would keep her from me. I was only returning the favor.
The pictures in my hand felt heavy with regret. I had fought doing this for weeks, not wanting to expose him. Even after he’d taken Beulah, I didn’t want to do it, but I would because she deserved to know. She needed to know.
The walk up the stairs to his apartment was a blur as I battled internally. She’d never be mine. I knew that. Our bloodlines would keep her from ever accepting us. But she wouldn’t stay here with him after she knew. If I couldn’t have her, she should be with someone worthy of her. Stone’s past would be back to haunt him. He knew it just as well as I did.
I rang the bell and waited. He wasn’t here yet. But he would be soon. My time was limited. It wouldn’t take long. She would see it and know. His secret would be one she wouldn’t be able to forgive him for. I wasn’t sure he would ever forgive himself for it either.
The door opened slowly, and Beulah stood there staring at me nervously. She’d have looked to see who it was on the other side. She’d have known it was me before she opened the door. She trusted me. She didn’t want to, but she knew I was innocent of my parents’ deceit.
“I need to show you something,” I told her.
“What?” she asked, her voice shaky. She hadn’t sent me away. She didn’t refuse. She had read my text. She knew why I was here, and she had answered the door anyway.
“This,” I handed her the photos. Without words, she would be able to tell who it was. What she didn’t know. But the explanation of where that little boy was now would be unforgivable. I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be able to accept it. Or understand it. I did. I would have done the same as Stone had it been me. But it wasn’t my moral code in question. It was his.
Stone had come into her life because of me. He had exposed lies I hadn’t even known and then taken her from me. I was only being fair, and I had done nothing wrong. But Stone had.
“Who is this?” she shook her head, looking at the photos.
“You can look at him and tell who he is,” I replied. “Who he belongs to.”
She paled and lifted her eyes to meet mine. “No. I don’t believe you.”
But she did. I saw the doubt there. “Ask him, Beulah. See what he says.”
She looked at the photos in her hand. “No. This, it isn’t real. Why are you doing this? Why would you show this to me?”
I started to explain that I wanted her to know the truth. That she deserved to know, and that Stone wasn’t free of sin. He wasn’t better than me. But before I could the door at the entrance of the building slammed shut, and the ground shook from its force. Stone was home. He knew I was here. He’d seen my car. This was the beginning of their end. Soon, she’d be gone. Free to start a life without our darkness and lies. After all, how could she forgive a man who ignores his own son and allows the boy to grow up with the same monster of a father who had abused him?