Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
He was silent on the boat back to the main island. He spoke the bare minimum to her on the long flight to Aspen. In between making long phone calls, he kept his nose firmly in the book he’d started reading at the beginning of the trip. When they landed, Matthew marched across the tarmac leaving Rachel to handle her own bags. She was still struggling with the cases, when he stopped and came back to her. He snatched the handles of both suitcases from out of her hands before continuing on his bad-tempered trek to the airport exit.
A tearful, Rachel followed.
When she finally did find him in the parking lot, she barely had time to buckle up her seatbelt before he hit the gas and tore out of the airport. The only thing stopping her from screaming “Slow down, you lunatic!” was the fact that as soon as they reached the intersection with the main road which led into town, he had the good sense to actually drive like a normal person.
But if he thought that bought him any favors, he was dead wrong. He was clearly steaming with rage, but he had nothing against the fury which now coursed through Rachel’s veins. She’d been his guest for the wedding, and this morning he’d humiliated her in front of his entire family.
Camille had been right—someone needed to tear Mister Matthew Royal a new one and Rachel was just the woman for the job.
As soon as he pulled the Jeep up out front of the Green Tree lodge, Rachel flipped off her seatbelt and got out of the car. She slammed the door with all the power she could put into her arm.
“Why don’t you come back for the hinges, I’m not sure you broke them all,” he bellowed. He proceeded to slam his own door, before marching over to the Jeep’s trunk and grabbing his bags.
Rachel saw red.
She snatched the car keys from out of his hands, and got in the driver’s side, clicking the central locking as soon as the door closed. Matthew bashed his fist against the window, demanding she open it.
“No. I won’t. And if you think anything about your behavior today has been the least bit acceptable, then we are done.”
“My behavior, are you fucking serious?!”
The last thing she saw in the rear vision mirror as she drove out of the parking lot was Matthew shaking his hands in the air and screaming. “That’s my car!”
“And so it is,” said Rachel, as she tapped on the entertainment system and hit her favorite Spotify play list. With the familiar beat of a Dua Lipa tune pumping through the sound system, she headed back to town.
Two hours later, she pulled the Jeep SUV back into the parking lot of the Green Tree Resort and killed the engine. It had taken a lot of driving and a great deal of cursing for her to finally come to the realization that she had nowhere else to go.
Her first thoughts on leaving the lodge had been to drive back into town and go to her sister and brother-in-law’s house, throw herself on their mercy and ask to stay. But as she got closer to their place the red haze of anger slowly cleared and instead, she’d pulled over at a local coffee shop and treated her sore heart to the warm comfort of a large flat white.
I have no right to bring this battle to anyone else’s doorstep.
It was time to face the truth.
She glanced up at the door of the lodge, her heart sinking as Matthew appeared at the top of the steps and made his way down.
On the drive back from town, a cold, hard realization had finally settled in her mind. It wasn’t anger which had seen her refuse to stay and have things out with Matthew. It wasn’t rage that made her flee the resort.
It was fear.
The dread that somehow, someone had finally figured out her awful secret, and Matthew now knew.
This was always going to happen.
Climbing out of the car, she retrieved the rest of her bags, then gently tossed the keys to him. “I stole your car.”
“I was wondering when you would figure that bit out and decide to return it.”
“If the hotels in town didn’t charge a minimum of three hundred bucks a night, I would have checked in to one of them. Believe me I didn’t want to come back. Not with the awful way you’ve treated me all day.”
“The way I’ve treated you. You can talk,” he huffed .
This is just so awful. So unfair. I’m not the one who stole all that money.
“I thought we had something special, but maybe that was just the wedding. Or the moonlight.” She waved a hand in the air. “You know, people think themselves in love when others are. Last night on the beach when we worked on the new design, that moment was amazing. Then this morning, everything had changed.”
She was close to losing it, but she also determined to have her say. To defend her heart which was already cracking.
“I love you, Matt. Maybe that’s not enough in your world.”
He closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “It’s more than enough. I thought we had something real, maybe even a future. That was until I answered your phone this morning.”
Oh god. Here it comes.
He stalked closer. The edges of his dark brown eyes were ringed with black. Anger lurked within them. “Who is Scott Davilla, and why he is calling you from Ware State Prison, Georgia?”
Rachel swayed on her feet, her head feeling light. She could protest. Take him to task over having answered her private call, but he wasn’t a fool. This meant much more than just Matthew not observing the rules of good manners.
This was the end of everything.
That’s why he left the room. He went to check up on me. He knows.
“Scott Davilla is currently serving a five-year sentence for fraud. He stole over four‐million dollars from his clients. And he is my father. I legally changed my name to Rachel Little after the trial.”
It was hard to look at him. She didn’t want to see the anger or the pain on Matthew’s face.
“Go on. ”
He’s going to make me tell him every dirty detail.
She loved him, but right now she hated him too. “My father always lived beyond his means. At some point he decided that gambling would help him to get ahead. It didn’t. He stole from his clients to make up for his losses. His lies have cost my mother her home, her friends, everything.”
“What about you? Where do you fit into all of this?” He moved closer, taking her travel bag out of her hand. Rachel didn’t resist. There was no fight left in her.
“After they charged my father with fraud, I discovered he’d made me an officer of some of his companies. The authorities tried to come after me. They didn’t push ahead with the case, because I didn’t have anything to answer for, but you know how these things go, mud sticks.”
Her father’s clients had assumed Rachel had money and come knocking on her door for payment. Despite explaining that none of what Scott Davilla had done was connected to her, she’d had to close her design business. No one believed her. No one wanted to work with her. Even her fiancé had dumped her. It had become unbearable and impossible for her to stay in Atlanta.
“So why is your father calling you now? From what I understand he seems to think you can get money out of my family. Is that why you are with me, to shake me down for cash?”
He was calling her a liar. A scam artist. Someone who had stolen his love.
Rachel slowly shook her head. No matter what she said, he wouldn’t believe her. His anger. His silence. It all spoke to Matthew already having made up his mind. Her bottom lip quivered. Any second now she was going to completely lose it.
“I didn’t know who you were when we met. And after they sent us out here to work on the project, I tried to stay away from you. I suspected you wouldn’t understand how god awful this past year has been for me. You come from a world where money solves everything. Well I did too, until the money was all gone. My father has cost me everything. My business, my home, my reputation. And a year ago, it also cost me the man I was meant to marry.”
She reached for her travel bag, but he pulled away. “No. Not until you have told me why you didn’t tell me all of this weeks ago. We could have avoided so much pain.”
Mustering the last ounce of her pride, she met his gaze, through a sheen of tears. “My father is a convicted felon. My entire family is guilty by association. Your family is made up of a group of internationally respected billionaires. You can do the math.”
His brother had just married one of the most famous women on the planet. Rachel could just imagine what the press were going to say when they discovered that one of the members of Chloe’s new family was dating the daughter of a con artist.
“But if you succeeded in having me pay you the money, wouldn’t that mean getting your father out of prison? I can see that as a pretty big factor in wanting to share my bed.”
If he’d had his people check up on her, then he should know it all. Surely, he knew she’d stood up in court and testified against her father.
“I didn’t say anything to you about my father’s demands to send him money. Not just because his idea is repulsive and goes against everything I’ve ever stood for. I didn’t mention it until now because I never intended to act on it.”
“Where you ever going to tell me?”
Rachel nodded. “Yes. I was going to tell you everything once we got back here. You were right about it being important for us to have no more secrets between us. I’m telling you the truth when I say I never wanted your money, Matthew. I only ever wanted you. I still do.”
She reached for her bag one last time, and he finally let her take it. “Let’s just find a way to get this proposal approved by the Brocks and the planning committee. Once Royal Resorts have secured the purchase of the site, you won’t ever have to see me again. I’m sorry I lied to you. But when I say I love you, that’s the truth.”