Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Parker
My limbs didn’t move as quickly as they normally did, like I was stepping through syrup or wading through treacle. I opened my bedroom door and came face-to-face with Sutton.
We both hung up the phone. She’d dropped everything and come over, arriving before I’d finished telling her the whole sorry tale.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner about the money and the rose?” Sutton shuddered. “It’s so creepy. You know I never liked that guy.” She dropped her rucksack on the floor and enveloped me in a hug.
“My father will make sure he goes to prison. According to him, there’s a clear plan.
It’s just about how they make it all happen because Tristan hacked into his computer, so technically, we shouldn’t know any of this.
Dad says it’s just about moving pieces around a chess board.
He’s got him under surveillance and the security here is even tighter than normal.
I know I’m safe and it’s over . . . It’s just been a lot. ”
She released me and plonked herself in the beanbag on the floor. I lay on my bed.
“I can’t imagine. And what about Tristan? Have you come here because it’s safer? Why isn’t he here?”
Wasn’t it obvious? “I told you my dad has known about the fake marriage and asked Tristan not to say anything?”
“Yeah, but you and Tristan hardly knew each other then. You were proposing to defraud your father of twenty-five million pounds.”
I groaned and rolled onto my back. “Don’t say it like that. It was always meant to be my money. And anyway, my dad knew about it all along.”
“You can’t hold that against Tristan. I won’t allow it.” She glanced around the room. “Do you have any snacks?”
“It’s not just that. The whole stuff with Mike . . . Tristan was monitoring my emails and hadn’t told me. My emails are like my diary. They’re private and personal and him going through them like that? It’s a huge betrayal.
“How am I supposed to trust anyone after everything that’s happened? Mike was going to kidnap me so he could get my father to pay a ransom. This is a man I was supposed to marry. I’d known him nearly two years when we split up. I’ve known Tristan four months. It wasn’t like we were really married.”
“I hate to disagree with you, but you were really married. You are really married. And it’s not like you haven’t fucked his brains out.
We need wine and snacks.” She stood, grabbed her rucksack, and pulled out two mini bottles of red wine, a packet of almonds, and two KitKats.
“If you eat the almonds in between bites of the chocolate, the calories in the KitKat don’t count. ”
I sat up and she handed me a chocolate bar.
“Our marriage is just a formality. We never gave each other any guarantees after ninety days and Tristan is a committed bachelor.”
She handed me a bottle of wine and pulled her legs up under her chin. “Didn’t seem like that at your wedding. I’d say he’s turned over a new leaf.”
“How do you know? It’s not like I’ve had a camera on him the whole time. Besides, I don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to picking men.”
“You haven’t been picking anyone since Mike. And I get it, it’s difficult to trust anyone when you’ve been violated like that, but Tristan seemed to genuinely care about you.”
I’d thought so too. “He’s lied to me from the start. And he has no issue invading my privacy. I can’t trust anyone.”
“Come on,” Sutton said. “You know that’s not true. Your father was right when he said that Tristan was in an impossible position.”
“I can get my head around that. Just. But there’s been plenty of time since the beginning that he could have told me. When should his loyalty have shifted from my father to me?”
“He was probably just waiting . . .” She grimaced like she didn’t have a good explanation for Tristan not telling me what my father knew.
“For what?”
“I don’t know, a good time to say something? You need to talk to him about it. Ask him why he didn’t mention it at some point.”
“If he’d had a good reason, he would have told me. And I don’t want to talk to him now I know he’s been monitoring me. It feels weird—creepy—like I’m in a stalker special on Netflix.”
“Maybe he just didn’t see it as important. He was trying to protect you, I think. How have you left it with him?”
My stomach rolled once, then twice, then three times. “Tomorrow is ninety days. I get access to my trust fund the day after.”
“Ninety days doesn’t mean anything.”
“Tristan agreed on ninety days and no more. He’s a man of his word. As far as he’s concerned, he’s fulfilled his end of the bargain.”
“But he hasn’t said any of that. You need to talk to him. Figure stuff out with him. I’m sure you two can work through this.”
“I’ve not spoken to him since I left.”
“So call him. Or ask him to come over.”
I picked up the A4 brown envelope from the coffee table that had been delivered earlier and handed it to her.
She took it from me, her eyes not leaving mine as she opened it. “Postnup? And divorce papers?”
“We had them all drawn up before getting married. We were both given copies. Never got round to signing the postnup. I guess he decided he’d do both at the same time.” I tapped on the back page where Tristan had signed the divorce papers.
“So, you’re divorced now?”
“We have to wait a year. But I don’t have to see him again.”
“You think he’s just trying to make life easier for you, or do you think he’s sending you a message that he’s out?”
I let out a bitter half-laugh. “I’m not sure we need to make a distinction. He’s done.”
“But maybe he just thinks you’re done.”
“I am.” I took the papers from her and shoved them back into the envelope. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry,” Sutton said.
“It doesn’t matter. Four months ago, I’d never even laid eyes on the guy.
This will pass.” As I said it, my heart banged in my ribcage, shouting Don’t be so sure about that.
“I just wish . . . I feel like at the first opportunity to run, off he went. I was hurt—I am hurt by the fact that he knew my father knew our wedding was a ploy to get hold of my trust fund. But I wanted to get over it. I wanted him to say he was sorry and prove that since then things have changed. I wanted to know his loyalty was with me now. I wanted to get over it and then bam, the email monitoring? It puts him in a completely different light . . . I really liked him.” My voice began to crack.
I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the tears.
“I thought he was different to who he turned out to be.”
Sutton took my hand and pulled it into her lap. “This is awful. But I don’t think he was just looking for a way out and he took the first exit he was offered. I don’t know him that well, but he came across as a guy who just wanted to make you happy.”
“You have another explanation for divorce papers?”
“What if he thought that’s what you wanted? Maybe you should go round and see him? Can you use the excuse of going to collect your stuff?”
I sighed. “I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to be with a man who pretends to be one thing—honest and trustworthy and focused on me and what will make me happy, like you said—when in fact he’s monitoring me without telling me and reading my private messages.
Mike wasn’t the man I thought he was. Tristan wasn’t the man I thought he was.
I clearly can’t be trusted to see what’s right in front of me.
” I needed to go back to my life before Tristan.
I’d been perfectly happy and I would be again. I hoped.