Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
HOLLIS
For a few brief moments, I forget about everything else but Candy. I’ve heard people discuss the glow of a woman when she’s pregnant. I have never borne witness to it, but it’s all over Candy.
She lights up the room and everything around her. The more distance she puts between herself and the clutches of Maxwell, the more that glow shines. He tried to smother it and take it for his own, but he wasn't worthy. I'm not either, if I'm honest with myself, but I'll spend my life trying to be.
I want to give Candy and these babies the life they deserve, and to do that, I first have to take out the trash.
It shouldn't be too difficult. Men like Maxwell aren't hard to bait and provoke. They are fueled by their narcissism. He does well to try and mask it, but if pushed far enough, he’ll snap.
That's my plan. I'm going to send him into a narcissistic rage. One that is of his own making. All the actions he has taken have led him to this point. I'm merely going to pull that trigger and do it in front of a room full of people. These are people whose opinions he cares about. Even if he doesn’t, they are people that matter. He’s already on thin ice after his insider trading shenanigans. His outburst will ruin him socially and financially. He’ll become the recluse that he was trying to make Candy.
I know all it’s going to take is Maxwell seeing both Candy and me happy, and her thriving in a way he tried to diminish.
Then, once I expose his lies, he will feel utter humiliation.
The walls are already closing in on him, and he doesn't know it. That’s the problem with people like Maxwell; they’re too cocky to even see that their demise is near.
"You know I’ll always keep you safe and protect you."
"I do," Candy says without hesitation.
"That's my precious girl." I lean down and kiss her. Her hands slip up my chest to wrap around my neck. Candy's baby bump presses into me.
"Gwendolyn!" I lift my mouth away from hers when I hear Maxwell call out her name. Candy's eyes widen. I pull her to stand next to me. The dance floor has started to fill with people, and he is pushing through them.
Candy's hold on my arm tightens, and she wraps herself around it, stepping partly behind me. I know it's not to shield herself but it’s her protective instincts for our babies.
"Maxwell." I greet him when he finally comes to a stop in front of me.
"I want a word with Gwendolyn." His eyes are on her.
"Hey." I snap my fingers in front of his face. "Eyes on me and off my fiancée." The snap was right next to him. Maxwell's jaw clenches. "Don't make more of a fool of yourself."
"I'm the fool? You're the one dumb enough to think you can take her from me. I own her. We have a contract. Those babies along with her are mine," he says, trying to keep his voice down, but he's not doing a very good job of it.
He flicks a glance around us to see who is watching. I provoke him again. This time I speak low too, not wanting anyone to hear it either.
"Yours? She didn't feel like she belonged to you when she was in my bed." I take a step closer, glaring down at him. "My babies are inside of her." I'm sure he knows by now we know the babies are both Candy's and mine. Why else would she have run to me?
"That's not what our contract says, nor Dr. Matthews. You have no standing in this." Maxwell's eyes flick back to Candy. "Don't do this. You have no idea who he is. There is a reason he left the city."
"I left the city because I was tired of playing with vultures. It was pointless." That is the truth. It was dirty and messy and a game I was wealthy enough to walk away from.
"You left the city because of me. You tried to come for me, and I came right back at you, only I was better at it." He smirks, but it doesn't meet his wild eyes. He is vibrating with anger.
“Stop this,” Candy hisses at him. “You should just leave. Walk away from all this before you—”
“Before I what?!” he snaps, louder this time. “I made you. You’d be nothing without me.”
"There you go, Maxwell. Show her who you really are.” He jerks back, trying to rein his temper back in.
Good, pull it back; keep bottling it up.
It will make for a better show once it blows.
Believe me, it’s only a matter of time. He’s a ticking time bomb, and I plan on pushing every button until he goes boom.
“Before you make an utter fool of yourself, dummy.”
“Dummy? Jesus fucking Christ, Gwendolyn. Grow the fuck up.” If he thinks he can provoke her into a person she is not, he’s dead wrong. Maxwell would get off on getting her to utter a curse word. There is nothing wrong with them, but that’s not who Candy is.
“It’s Candy! And If anyone needs to grow up, it’s you.
You think you’re so dang smart with your manipulation, but you’re not.
You’re nothing but a stupid fool. One that is going to end up alone and miserable for the rest of his life.
” Candy raises her chin. I want to pull her in for a kiss, but she’s on a roll.
“I’m the fool?” Maxwell throws back his head and laughs to be condescending, but the laugh is more hysterical than anything, drawing attention.
“Yes, a fool! First you think you can get away with all your crimes and—”
“Crimes? You have no idea what you’re speaking about.”
“If you didn’t cut me off, then maybe you’d actually hear what I’m speaking about.” Candy huffs out a loud, annoyed breath. “You got a doctor to lie and do things that are highly illegal and unethical, I’m sure.” Very illegal.
“You have no proof of that.” He really is a dumb fuck. He also isn’t denying it either.
“It doesn’t matter. I just want you out of my life and out of Hollis’s life.
I know what you did there too. You’re a horrible, pathetic human.
” My girl is on a roll. I thought I'd be the one provoking Maxwell, but she's doing a bang-up job on her own. She's really catching him off guard. He thought he'd be able to come in here and bully her back to the city. She’s proving that he didn’t know her at all. I’m loving every damn second of it.
“Again, no proof with these wild accusations.”
"Whatever! You lose. Hollis is the man you dream you could be but will never be able to, and you know what? Thank you for your crazy little plan because it led me here. To the man I love and adore. The father of my babies. To this town filled with the nicest, warmest, and most welcoming people I’ve ever met. ” Maxwell's face turns redder.
"Dream of being him!" he bellows. "Look at him. Who do you think sent him running from the city with his tail between his legs after he thought he could expose me to my family? I showed him what happens when you fuck with me. The evidence is on his face. I didn't lose shit."
A circle has started to form around us on the dance floor, everyone paying attention I'm sure because I'm also enjoying the show.
"You're a psychopath, you know that? A spoiled brat that can't live up to his family name even when everything is handed to them. You still can't hack it without lying, stealing, and trying to hurt others. You're disgusting."
Maxwell is about to blow. I pull Candy behind me as he tries to lunge forward. One hard punch stops him right in his tracks, flinging him backward onto his ass.
It's then he takes notice that the music has stopped and everyone has been watching and listening.
"It's lies, all of it," he sputters to say, sounding full of shit. "He's the monster; look at him."
"We're all looking at you, dumbfuck," Kindred says, making Maxwell's nose flare. Not only one woman but now two pushing back.
"Are these things true?" Mark Heath asks. He’s one of the many people I'd invited. I'd told them they'd likely want to be here tonight to bear witness to what was going to unfold for themselves. All of them have some sort of investment with the Holmberg family.
In our circles, not all press is good press. In fact, it's best to not have any press at all. Stock crumbles, and investors run for the hills. Banks start to yank loans of any kind. One thing is supreme in that world: money, and with money comes power.
“Of course not.” Maxwell struggles to get to his feet. When he does, Sheriff Hudson is right there along with two FBI agents. “What is this?”
Panic radiates from Maxwell.
“You’re under arrest,” one of the agents says.
“For what?”
“For starters, insider trading, wire fraud, and assault.”
“Assault?” Maxwell wipes his nose with the back of his hand, smearing the blood that is dripping.
“Fertility fraud, which will boil down to assault in the first degree. Premeditated.”
“No.” Maxwell is shaking his head.
“The doc already flipped on you,” I tell him. All the blood drains not only from his nose but also from his entire face.
It’s like pure fucking heaven watching him go down. I’ll make sure he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He’ll be lucky to ever see the light of day again.
“The charge sheet is long,” the sheriff tells Maxwell, holding up a folded stack of thick paper.
“Did you say fertility fraud?” Steven O’Tilli asks. I can already see the panic in his expression. I know his family are big investors in the medical area, and fertility is one of them.
They have invested in startups that have bloomed. They have been working on buying out smaller independent clinics to make a large national chain. It has been years in the making.
This will hit them hard if it doesn’t completely derail it. I know Maxwell has his fingers deep in this one. It is, after all, how he got Dr. Matthews pulled into his scheming. I don't sympathize with Steve. He was one I'd warned, and I'll actually enjoy the hit he'll take.
His greed has gotten the best of him, and greedy people always take from less fortunate people. The greedy never learn. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, and I'm more than happy to be the butcher tonight.
“Now, Hollis, don’t forget the attempted murder charge,” the sheriff adds.
A few curses can be heard in the crowd. I have no doubt they don’t belong to the locals.
All the people that turned a blind eye years ago because they didn’t want the rock the boat with the Holmberg family are now going to pay the piper.
“Don’t do this.” Maxwell starts to panic. “Candy, please.” He looks to her. She simply shakes her head at him in disappointment.
I get it to a degree. All that Maxwell has done is beyond fucked up, but I don’t think she nor I would change it. Not when it led us here. This is more than a silver lining.
Kindred steps forward. "She might not say it." She smirks. "But get fucked, bitch."
The crowd erupts into cheers and laughter. Maxwell is still pleading when he's pulled away by the two agents.
“It’s finally over.” Candy sighs, bringing my attention back to her.
“No, it’s just beginning.” I swoop her up into my arms. “Everyone, I’m taking my soon-to-be wife, who is having my twins.” Gasps ring out before people clap again. “Enjoy yourselves. Eat, drink, and be merry.”
Congratulations rain out as the music starts to softly play again. We’re almost to the door of the library when Candy makes an announcement of her own.
“And everyone is invited to the wedding!” I chuckle and carry her from the room up the stairs.
I can’t wait another second to make her mine in every way.
I kick the bedroom door closed behind me, taking my girl over to the bed and placing her down at the edge of it.
"I hope you're okay with a bigger wedding. "
"All I care about is you saying I do." Everything else is up to her. I'll be more than willing to help plan it, of course, but anything she picks I'll be happy with.
In fact, the idea of standing up in front of a crowd, everyone watching, doesn't irk me any longer. It's not only because I know the residents of New Hope don't only see my scars but also because Candy has made me feel more comfortable in my skin.
When I looked into the mirror, it could be jarring. Now my scars feel like a part of me. They belong there. It's the only way that she knows me, and I like what she sees every time her face lights up when her eyes meet mine.
My hands go to her face, tilting her head back.
“I love you, Candy.” I tell her the words I’ve been dying to say.
I’d been holding them back for a few days now.
I didn’t want to overwhelm her more, and Candy is so damn sweet that I didn’t want to guilt or pressure her into thinking she needed to return them.
I want them freely from her, and in true fashion, Candy gave herself to me. A gift I will forever be grateful for.