Chapter 30
Saffron
Tyler was not home when I entered his apartment.
He had given me his key, and I still hadn’t gotten used to coming here without him being around.
He sent a text telling me he canceled dinner and to meet him at his place.
It was a curt text that gave me doubts, but there was nothing amiss in our life so far.
Now that the hotel was almost done, work was getting easier.
The final touches were all that remained, and I would soon finish working with Tyler.
I wondered if that was the reason for the sudden change in plans.
Had something gone awry at work? Nah. It had to be personal; otherwise, he wouldn’t have invited me to his place.
I took my overnight bag to the bedroom and unpacked my clothes.
I had left a few items the other times I’d stayed here.
Not deliberately, but because I’d practically become Tyler’s roommate.
Tyler liked dropping by Marble Row near or at the end of the day and driving me back to his apartment.
Malaya knew we were a thing but wasn’t saying anything.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that we were seeing each other, but people were polite enough not to say anything.
I had finished putting away my stuff when I heard Tyler enter.
A burst of warm, fuzzy feelings spread through me.
I rushed downstairs without giving it a second thought, and my lips widened when I saw him standing at the foot of the stairs.
Only he didn’t have the same look of joy or desire whenever he saw me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We need to talk.”
My heart skipped a beat. Tyler went to the living room. I followed him there and sat on the sofa opposite his. He placed a stack of documents I hadn’t noticed he was holding the entire time on the table between us.
“The material. I’ve finally got it.”
I gasped. “Who was blackmailing you?”
He rubbed his forehead, tendrils of his hair falling onto his fingers.
His shoulders were tense. “My private investigator found out that your aunt, Pamela, was the one who continued the scheme after your father died.” He leaned forward and flipped through the documents on the table.
“Your father must have left her this after he died.” Then he took out his laptop and placed it on top of the papers facing me.
“And that’s her, going to take the money I sent her. ”
I got up, stepping back as though jumping away from what he was showing me. It could not be true. He was probably mistaken. Yes. That had to be it. I shook my head. Tyler tapped a button, and another image popped up. The name on it made me pause. My name. I peered closer. It was a company document.
“That’s not me!”
“I know. She set up, or maybe your father did, a shell company in both of your names, but never told you.”
“Come on. Maybe because you’ve never met her, you think all of this is possible, but trust me, she’s an old-fashioned woman who likes to be pampered. She would never pull off something like this on her own.”
“Think about it. What does she do for a living?”
She worked at a finishing school. The money she got paid there was more than enough to pay for her current standard of living. If she had had any more money, I would have seen the signs. “She’s an etiquette teacher.”
Tyler cocked his eyebrow. “Are you sure? Because from what my man gathered, she’s been unemployed for years at this point.”
I shook my head, folding my arms. “No. He must have made a mistake. There has to be a mistake somewhere.”
Tyler got up and came over to my side. He wrapped his hands around me and made me sit back down on the couch.
Slowly he went through the investigation.
Each and every document he found, including the ones that were being used to blackmail Tyler.
Then he showed me evidence of the shell companies used to obfuscate the money.
Then he showed me images and bank statements of Aunt Pamela withdrawing money from the same bank, with the same account with her name on it.
It all added up. It was all there. Fuck.
“She lied to you,” Tyler said when he finished his story. The soothing motion of his hands rubbing my back was the only thing stopping me from pulling my hair out. How could she? I trusted her. She acted as though she had no idea.
“You’re saying she’s never worked at the finishing school?” I said in a small voice. How many times had she told me tales of her work? The people there. The spoiled rich kids. Did she make all of that up? Who the fuck was she?
“There’s no employment record of her ever having worked there.”
“I have to talk to her. Maybe she can explain. Maybe…” Tell me more lies? If she had lied all this time, she could lie again.
“I’ll come with you.”
◆◆◆
Aunt Pamela opened the door on the third ring.
Her face brightened when she saw me, only to go blank when she recognized Tyler.
Then she gave us a tight smile. “Saffron. When you said you were coming, I didn’t think you’d be bringing him here.
” She hovered at the door, only partially opening it so just a sliver of the apartment beyond was visible.
“He wanted to see you. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure. Sure.” She opened the door wider and let us in.
I clasped Tyler’s hand for comfort as we ventured into the apartment.
Stuff I hadn’t noted before became more apparent.
For starters, the furniture. Sofa set by Bentley Home.
Thermador appliances. I’d always assumed that since she loved living in luxury, she got the best her money could buy. But now I was not so sure.
“Oh!” Pamela reddened when my gaze landed on the Chanel bag on the couch. “I was just coming from an after-work shopping spree,” she said, hauling the bags and taking them to the kitchen, where she put them behind the counter. “We were paid early, you see,” she said when she came back.
“Is that so?” I said.
“I’ve never met people at your workplace. How is it there?”
She chuckled nervously, her shifty eyes darting to Tyler. “You know how students are. It can get hectic sometimes, but it’s fine.”
“That’s funny. I just called there to ask if I could speak to you, and they said you’ve never worked there.”
She balked. Caught in the trap. “What? You must have been confused. Did you call Rosmere Finishing Institute and not Rosmere Institution? Many people confuse the finishing school with the investment bank.”
“I called the finishing school.” My voice was dead, my hackles rising.
“That’s odd. Maybe someone is playing a prank on me.”
Tyler’s grip tightened around my hand. “Give it up, Pamela. We know you’ve been the one blackmailing me.”
“Black—blackmail? What are you talking about? Why would I blackmail somebody!” She chuckled nervously. “Let alone you!”
“We know you withdrew the money Tyler sent you recently. The money you probably used to buy those Chanel shoes you threw in the kitchen.”
She guffawed, making her best attempt at appearing surprised, but she was an awful actress. “Mind you, if you must know, I got that as a gift. I don’t have any money, unlike you with your billionaire husband.”
I ignored the jab. “But I thought you said you bought it yourself?”
“We know the money I sent went into your pockets,” Tyler said calmly. “I have proof of your shell accounts. Your bank statements, everything. And if you check your safe, you’ll see that the pathetic documents you were holding on to are gone.”
Her eyes widened. She shot up and went to her bedroom. I heard a scream and then, a few moments later, she came back in a rage. “How dare you! Did you break into my place without my consent? That’s a crime! I am calling the police!”
Tyler smirked. “And tell them what? That the information you’ve been using to blackmail someone else is gone?”
Her eyes narrowed as she focused on me. “You did this.” She pointed a finger at me. “You gave it to him, you stupid bitch.”
“So it is true.” This was the ultimate confirmation. I didn’t expect it to hit so hard. For years she’d been pretending to be afflicted by her lack of funds when she had a money tap and didn’t need to work at all. “How could you?”
“Oh, grow up. Your husband didn’t miss that money. It belonged to us anyway. You didn’t want to use it, so I did. You’ve always valued working like a workhorse instead of enjoying the life you deserve as a Channing. Well, I am not like you.”
“I can’t believe this.” My chest was hot. The room shrank. I took deep breaths to calm myself down. Noises dimmed, but I heard a faint laugh. Pamela. Was she laughing at me? I looked up to see her shaking her head.
“Pathetic,” she said.
“I’ve seen enough,” I said to Tyler. “Let’s go.”
Tyler rubbed his hand behind my back. “Are you okay?”
I nodded.
He helped me up. “Pity,” he said to Pamela, “if you had simply asked, I would have helped you, but your family only knows how to do things the wrong way.”
“Spare me,” she spat. “You’re a Hawthorne. Your family is dirtier than mine.”
We left her place soon after. I don’t know how I made it downstairs and into Tyler’s car and back at his place. It was all a haze. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was just like my father. She acted as though she were different, but she was just like my father.
“At least she didn’t sell you at an auction,” Tyler replied, and I realized I had said the last word out loud.
We were back in his apartment, and I simply sat on the same couch where he had shown me the papers. My flesh was weak, and my bones were weary. When I got up, I stumbled, and Tyler caught me before I could fall. “Let me get you upstairs.”
He carried me to his bedroom, where I fell into a deep stupor.
When I woke up, it was the next day. Morning light was streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, warming my cheek.
The bed was empty, but there was a depression on Tyler’s side to show he had slept in the same bed.
I turned to the other side to see him coming from the bathroom.
He smiled at me as he stood a few feet away from the bed. He was shirtless except for his trunks.
“Did I sleep for that long?” My voice was groggy.
“Yeah.” He came to sit beside me on the bed. I sat up straight and noticed he must have put his t-shirt on me while I slept.
I reddened. “Did I sleep so deeply that I didn’t feel you taking my clothes off?”
“You were in shock. It happens sometimes.” He took hold of my hand. “I’ve been thinking that, since what happened yesterday, maybe you might want… I don’t know how to say this without seeming too forward.” He shot back up again. “You know what? Forget about it.”
“Now I want to know.”
He sighed. “Well, I was thinking maybe not now because it might be too much, and they’re too much. I was thinking that maybe you could come meet my family. Any time you want to do it. I want to introduce them to you. I think you’ll love them, especially if you like Ivy.”
His family. All this time we’ve been quasi-sneaking around, and I never thought he would want me to meet them. He was shocked when Ivy saw us together. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure if you’re sure. Unless…” he twisted his fingers. Was he nervous? How cute. “Unless you don’t want to and wish to keep this thing between us casual.” In a small voice, he said, “I don’t want it to be casual.”
“I don’t want it to be casual too. I want it to be serious.”
His eyes brightened. He took my hand in his again. “Right? It feels so… right.”
We both chuckled.
“We should do it,” I said. “But maybe not tomorrow.”
Tyler shook his head. “No. I want to spend today and tomorrow alone with you.” He claimed my lips and gave me a kiss so sweet, my insides turned to liquid.
When we broke apart, he brushed my hair and said, “I want to make love to you, but first, you need some food in your belly. Your stomach was growling the entire night.”
I clutched my tummy, embarrassed at the thought. “No way!”
He grinned and rushed out of the bedroom. I followed him and found him in the kitchen. He was already at the stove. “Wanna help me make breakfast?”
I nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
He lit two burners on the stove and went to the fridge. “Cut these into round slices while I shred this cheese.”
“Aye aye, chef.”
Tyler chortled. “I think you meant to say yes, chef.”
“Right. Yes, chef.” I got to the cutting, and when I was done, I stood beside him as he poured two eggs he had whisked into the pan and watched as the eggs circled the pan, filling every inch. Then he added the tomatoes, slices of salami, and shredded cheese before carefully blanketing the omelet.
“Grab that.”
I reached for the plate he was pointing to, gave it to him, and then he carefully laid the egg onto the plate and handed it back to me. “You do it so lovingly,” I said to him as I looked at the egg in awe. My stomach grumbled.
“See? I told you your girl was complaining.”
I went to the breakfast nook and sat down.
He soon followed with a plate in his hands and then with a tray with coffee and coffee items. We ate in comfortable silence.
I was enjoying the egg. It tasted better than anything I’ve eaten at all the restaurants he’s taken me to lately.
Maybe he was that good. Or maybe food tasted better when he made it and was eating it with me.
“Thank you,” I said.
He raised his head as he poured coffee into his mug. “You’re welcome.” His smile was so infectious.
“I meant this.” I gestured around us.
“You’re welcome.”
“I meant you. Being here and letting me into your life. I know at some point this is going to end, and I want to thank you now in case I forget later.”
Tyler put the coffee jug down and dropped his shoulders. “What if I do not want it to end?”
My heart slammed against my chest.
“What if we let it turn into what you and I want it to be?”
He was not saying what I thought he was saying. I was mistaken. “What do you mean?”
He reached for my hand. “I want you. I want us to be together for real. Forever if we can manage it.”
“F-forever.” If I had food in my mouth, I would have choked.
“If you want to.”
“I do. I like it a lot.”
We ate the rest of the eggs while chatting about what we were going to do for the rest of the day. All the while, I couldn’t believe what he had just asked me. I was so happy I wanted to pinch myself. It wasn’t a love confession, but it was close enough.