Chapter 14 #2
She shrugs. I think the slip was intentional. “Please don’t say anything. Ash is the only other person we’ve told,” Quinn says. Her eyes tear up. “Oh, Belle, if anyone was born to be a dad, it’s him.”
“Under other circumstance, I wouldn’t argue with that,” I say, trawling through memories that have been plaguing me for weeks. “From the way he talked about his brothers, I got the impression he was their father figure, and I expect that only solidified after their dad died.”
“Oh, yes,” Quinn says with a wry smile.
I worry my lip. For all Ash’s good qualities, there are too many anomalies.
“Then why wasn’t he like that with Barrett?
Ash told me about his mom abandoning him, and I can understand why he grew up estranged from his half-brother, but I can’t help thinking that Barrett might have been a better person if Ash had taken him under his wing. ”
“Then you do recognize Barrett’s flaws?”
As I consider my reply, I cast a glance around the coffee shop and catch Jake stuffing a donut into his mouth. At any other time, I’d be delighted by the half-smile he gives me.
“We are having a few issues,” I admit. “He’s determined to slot me into the role of model wife, but it’s not like ours was ever…” I flush. Do I want to say this? Do I need to say it?
“A real marriage?” Quinn finishes for me. “We had worked that out.”
“Barrett was under pressure to marry Katarina, and that would have landed him back in the lap of the Russians. Me becoming Mrs. Emerson seemed like the easiest solution. I wasn’t sure at first, not if I’d have to go public and face Ash, but Barrett said you’d already figured out who I was.”
“I’d figured it out?” Quinn points a finger at her chest. “Me?”
The look of shock on Quinn’s face appears genuine, but she must misunderstand.
I spell it out. “Well, yes. Even Barrett wouldn’t have known Piper was Ash’s if you hadn’t told him your theory.
And after you and Reid got together, we knew it was only a matter of time before Ash found out too.
And he did find out,” I add. It’s pointless her denying it now.
“Ash swears he didn’t know about Piper until recently, and I believe him. ”
Quinn blinks a couple of times. “Oh, that part’s true.”
“It’s like I said before, you were always going to choose family over friendship. I wish you’d talked to me about it first, but what’s done is done. I don’t hold it against you, Quinn.”
The way she stares at me with her mouth open is unnerving.
I play with my coffee cup. The silence is uncomfortable, so I pick up where I left off.
“Marrying Barrett and having him adopt Piper seemed the obvious solution to both my problems and Barrett’s,” I continue.
“I didn’t have the means to fight Ash for custody, if it came to that.
” I dare to glance up. “I can see now that I was panicking, but over the years, I’d built this image of Ash as a looming threat I’d never be able to fight off.
And it wasn’t all in my imagination. Barrett was scared of him too. ”
“Oh, Barrett has every reason to be scared of Ash,” Quinn says with a bite to her words. “But not as scared as he should be of me because, as of now, I want to fucking kill him. He’s just lucky I’m pregnant.”
Quinn’s cheeks have pinked up and her nostrils flare as she inhales through her nose and out through her mouth. I can feel the anger radiating off her tensed body.
“Belle, I had no such conversation with Barrett about Piper,” she says through gritted teeth. “I didn’t even know about you and Ash until last month. It was only when Barrett insisted we let Ash know you two were married that Mace looked into your background, and we put everything together.”
“But Barrett…”
“Barrett lies,” Quinn hisses, and I’m surprised there isn’t steam blowing out of her nostrils. “And he manipulates. That bastard engineered the threat so you’d go through with the wedding. Barrett already knew Ash was Piper’s real dad.”
“No, that can’t be...” She must be wrong, but my voice is as weak as my conviction.
Quinn’s eyebrows lift. “Did you and Barrett meet up about two years ago by any chance?”
It takes a moment to think back. So much has happened in the last couple of years.
“Ethan had just lost his job, and our house was about to be repossessed,” I tell her, too numb with shock to consider what I should or shouldn’t be sharing.
“Barrett was negotiating the takeover of the old food processing factory, and said he’d get him a security job here. Why? What else happened?”
“Barrett managed to get a DNA sample from Piper around that time, and sent it to a lab to compare it with his mom’s DNA. He’s known for two years who she was,” Quinn says. “Do you see it now? Ash isn’t the threat, Belle.”
Ash had said the same thing to me in the refuge. I shake my head, but it’s my world view that tilts. The threat comes from the one man I thought I could trust.
“Did Barrett marry me just to get back at Ash? Have I been dragged into the middle of their vendetta?”
“It’s what Ash thought, but now we’re not so sure,” Quinn says. “Did something happen in college between you and Barrett that could have made him fixate on you?”
My stomach churns. Fixate. I don’t like that word. It feels ominous.
“We had one single date,” I answer flatly. “I’d suggested a walk in the park, something casual, and he’d turned up with this huge picnic basket and flowers. It was over the top, and I felt sorry for how much effort he’d made. I wouldn’t have even kissed him, but he took me by surprise.”
I picture him lying on the picnic blanket, me sitting next to him. He’d put his arm around me and dipped me backwards. His lips were pressed to mine before I knew what was happening.
“There was no spark. Nothing.” My mouth twists. The kiss on our wedding day had been just as insipid. “I suspect he felt differently, but he took it well when I turned down a second date. He accepted a long time ago that we could only be friends.”
My words don’t ring as true as they had done before we were married. More recently, he’s been voicing his regrets that we can’t be more. Have I been fooling myself to think he’d settle for a platonic relationship now that I have his ring on my finger?
“What’s wrong? What are you remembering?” asks Quinn when she sees the color drain from my face.
“It’s not that,” I say. “It’s just… We have guests staying with us this weekend, and Barrett’s worried that we haven’t convinced the Barkovs that our marriage is genuine. We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms, and he doesn’t want that information to get out, so…”
Quinn features twist, a reflection of my feelings. “He’s trying to get you into his bed.”
“He said he’d sleep on the floor, but to be honest, I wasn’t going to make him. We’ve been snapping at each other so much lately, and I would have thought sharing a bed would be just as uncomfortable for him as it would be for me.”
Quinn chews her lip. “Barrett could be setting the whole thing up to take advantage of the forced proximity.”
“I don’t know. He’s not the predatory type,” I say. “That time he kissed me, he backed off immediately when I pushed him away.”
“You’re probably right. He’d much rather set himself up as some kind of savior in your eyes, waiting patiently for the day you fall madly in love with him,” Quinn says reluctantly. “But if I were you, I’d hold him to his offer of sleeping on the floor. None of us should underestimate him.”
Clearly, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, but as devious as he may be, Barrett’s always respected my boundaries. “I can manage Barrett.”
Quinn offers a weak smile. “If we had time, I’d show you some defense moves just in case,” she says. “But if he does force himself on you, threaten to scream the house down. That’s not going to go down well with his visitors.”
“I’ll bear it in mind,” I say, hoping it won’t come to that. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. “I should get back. I’ve been training the extra staff that arrived yesterday. Apparently, it’s to give me more time playing at being Mrs. Emerson.”
I’m grabbing my purse when I notice my hands are shaking. This conversation was meant to settle my nerves, but I’m more anxious than ever. I’m going to have to confront Barrett over his lies about Quinn. What kind of man have I married?
“I’m sorry if I’ve scared you,” Quinn says. “I just want you to question what you’re being told.”
“Right now, I’m questioning my own sanity.”
When we stand to hug each other, I don’t question why Jake stands too. Not until he marches straight towards us, a cell phone in his hand. “You need to take this.”
I wait for Quinn to take the call, but Jake offers the phone to me. As I recoil, I notice Reid jumping out of the SUV.
“Who is it?” I ask, as if I don’t already know.
“Ash.”
I look to Quinn, my heart hammering in my chest. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve no idea.” Quinn looks just as confused, which is only a tiny bit reassuring. If this is an ambush, I’m grateful at least that she isn’t party to it.
Reid’s suddenly by her side. He takes the phone from Jake and again, it’s forced on me. “Please, you need to speak to him. Barrett’s in the air now, and we haven’t got long. We know who your weekend visitors are.”
“Who?” I demand.
Reid holds my gaze. “Talk to Ash.”
I snatch the phone before I lose my nerve. “What do you want?”
“Katarina is on her way to you,” Ash says without preamble. “I presume you didn’t know.”
I think I’m going to be sick. “No, you’re wrong. Barrett wouldn’t do that.”
Quinn shifts from foot to foot. She’s close enough to hear the deep voice that travels to my very core.
“He would, and he is, Belle,” Ash says. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, but–”