Chapter 9 #2
Lifting her hands, she framed his face, expression sober. "We're going back in. I'm tired of running away."
His hands tightened on her arms. "Let me be there for you, please. Whatever it is, I promise I will still be here."
She smiled at that and realized that she believed him. She had raced from the problems facing her and randomly found herself in a small town with a multi-billionaire who had assigned himself as her protector and shield. She could not afford to stand behind him anymore. It was time to step forward.
"I know." She leaned forward and kissed him gently, stirring his blood. "I finally realize you would. Let's go back out."
Cupping her face in his hands, he took the kiss from her, his mouth lingering. He wanted to gobble her up in one large bite, but that would have to wait until they got back to her place.
"All right." Ending the kiss, he pressed his forehead on hers. "Let's go back out." He took her hand and unconsciously presented a united front as they made their way through the glass doors.
Both men rose immediately, but Kingsley was the one who spoke, after glancing at his son.
"I apologize for my lack of manners, my dear."
A smile touched her lips as she realized how different this man was from her father. Sylvan Copeland had believed that apologies were beneath him.
"No need." She squeezed Kenneth's hand to prevent him from speaking. "I overreacted. It's for a good reason, one I cannot talk about right now. But you had every right to be curious. Like you said, Kenneth is your son and what parent would not want to protect their own?"
She was unaware of the trace of bitterness in her lovely voice that had all the men tuning in and having a faint understanding. "Shall we finish the meal?"
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"You're very fortunate." She murmured, fingers trailing a path through his chest hairs. He had made love to her as soon as they shut the door, practically tearing at her clothing. Their lovemaking had been feverish and more than a little rough.
"I know. I have the proof right here."
She smiled and lifted her head to look at him. "I'm talking about your family. There's love there, an unbreakable bond. Your dinner table is filled with conversations instead of chilling silence. You should be grateful."
His green eyes met hers and he realized he was starting to notice patterns, ones that were making his heart break.
"Yours wasn't."
"No." She inhaled sharply. "It wasn't."
"If it's going to open up old wounds, I'm prepared to wait." He assured her swiftly.
"No." She shook her head. "It's time." Pulling away, she eased up on the pillows and tugged the sheets up to cover her nakedness. Turning on his side, he propped his head on one hand and gave her his attention, his body tensed.
The look on her face said it all and he wanted to beg her not to say anything, but he needed to know.
"My real name is Aria Lydia Copeland." She recited in a flat tone, the expression wiped clean. The only signs of her agitation was the way her fingers twisted up the sheets. "You can look me up. I believe the scandal is still alive and well."
She inhaled sharply. "Like I told you before, I was, am a corporate lawyer. It was a family business. My father was Sylvan Copeland and like his father and grandfather before him, he practiced law. They wanted a son to carry on the name."
She swallowed the lump in her throat and stared straight ahead. "I was a disappointment that they never recovered from." She would not cry, not yet. "I was five when I realized that something was wrong. There were no hugs, nothing."
"I was assigned a very competent nanny who was told what to do in terms of care.
I was to be educated even from that age.
There were no dolls, no toys, just books to ensure I was the brightest child at the private kindergarten, and I was.
I could read and write better than an elementary school child. "
"I wanted to please them, make them love me and spent almost all of my life trying for the impossible."
She shook her head when he rose and started to reach for her.
"Let me finish. Please. I need to get it out and if you touch me, I'm going to break."
When he subsided with great difficulty, she continued. "I was finally told while in high school, what's what. My father had wanted a son and my mother wanted what he desired. They were a unit. He was the master, and she was the woman behind the man, always."
"His needs were put first. I was just an inconvenience. They would do right by me by making sure I had the best education." Her eyes were dry as she stared at the bright blue wallpaper. "I refused to believe it, but the proof was right there."
"I became obsessed, trying to make up for the fact that I was not the son they had hoped for and ended up almost killing myself to prove that I could be better than any son. I excelled in all the sports, hockey, basketball, tennis, swimming. You name it, I was on the teams."
"I was the smartest girl in my classes and head of the debating team. I became an overachiever. I tried to be what they wanted me to be. I went on to Harvard and when I got accepted and was even offered a scholarship because of my GPA, I told myself that this time they would love me."
Her hands clenched and wrapped around the sheets as she tried for control. "When I told my father, he was in his study and I raced in, waving the envelope. He was on a call to a client, and I had to wait for him to finish."
"I recalled dancing from one foot to the next, impatient to share the good news. Not even when he reprimanded me for behaving unladylike, it did not matter. I marched forward and handed him the envelope."
She leaned back and closed her eyes tight. Kenneth was helpless to do anything. He wanted to tell her to stop, that it did not matter, that it was all in the past, but he knew he had to allow her to continue.
"He read the official letter, the glowing review and handed it back to me. 'Let's see if you can make it through law school. Now, you'll have to excuse me, I have clients waiting. Close the door on your way out.'"
Kenneth felt the rage building up and knew he had to fight it. What she had just revealed to him was abuse of the worst kind and he wanted to find them and do some damage. Taking a deep breath, he tried to steady himself.
"You don't have to--"
"I'm fine." She assured him tremulously. "I just need to get it all out." Her hands came up to grip her elbows at what he realized was a defensive method. She looked so shaken, so damned sad, he wanted to order her to stop.
"I knew I would not get much more from my mother, but I tried." Her smile was humorless. "She said the same thing to me. Except she went further. Letting me know that they had wanted a son and they got me. That no matter what I did, nothing would ever come close to being satisfactory."
She shrugged. "I was reeling and thinking that parents are supposed to love their kids. Protect them from hurt and pain. I went to law school and studied my ass off, just to prove something to myself and to them. It didn't matter that it wouldn't matter to them."
"I did it anyway. And took advantage of their generosity and traveled the world whenever I was on break."
She was silent for so long, he thought she was finished.
"Where are they now?" he asked quietly. He was holding on to his control by a shred.
Turning her head, she gazed at him in surprise. "Tierney, I know this is the back of almost nowhere, but surely in a town like this, you managed to get the scandalous news of the Copeland's tragedy?"
"What do you mean?" he searched his mind to come up with something attached to the name.
"Sylvan Copeland was found guilty of money laundering, stealing from clients to line his pockets and maintain his lavish lifestyle.
He was sentenced to twenty years without parole.
But someone, a friend, my godfather allegedly ordered his shanking weeks after he was behind bars.
Then my mother unable to bear the idea of living without him took her own life. "
Shock speared through him and for a few minutes, all he could do was stare at her. Of course, he had heard the news and read the papers. But they had been another set of perpetrators who had fallen in with greed and wanted it all.
That the man had been her father was beyond his comprehension. What she had been through, was still going through tore at his heart so much it felt as if he was being spiked. She had run away from all of it.
"Your name." he managed to murmur hoarsely.
"My middle name and mother's surname."
"You wanted a fresh start." Understanding flooded through him now.
No wonder she would not speak of her past. Now he was sorry he had pushed and prodded.
He had told her he could handle anything she told him, and he could, but somehow, he had no idea what to do about the information he had received.
How to take away the hurt and pain and make her start healing.
Reaching over, he plucked her up and cradled her. Arms wrapped around her tight.