Chapter 7
RYAN
Maggie ran. I couldn’t say I was surprised.
Given the way she’d been acting at the bridal shower and ever since we’d arrived here in San Diego, I’d seen it coming. Frankly, the only thing that surprised me about this situation was that no one else seemed to have suspected a thing.
At least the guests were finally leaving. Soon enough, the Pembrokes and the Hawthornes would be able to process all this in private, which seemed like a good thing considering the way they were dissolving into chaos in the ballroom.
Another silver lining was that I’d managed to convince Bride Magazine that Maggie had suffered a medical emergency and that the wedding was merely postponed. The words tasted like acid, and for some reason, my insides felt that way, too.
I hated that she’d been put in that position and I definitely hated that she’d believed running was her only option.
Maggie was tough. No one who wasn’t wouldn’t bite through someone else’s finger simply because they’d had the audacity to find her, but the girl I’d seen today hadn’t been tough. She’d been terrified.
The look in her eyes when she’d been hiding under that table had reminded me of the scared little girl I’d found when we were kids.
She deserved better than that. Better than being put into this position that took away her agency even as an adult to such an extent that physically hiding became her go-to response.
Any therapist worth their salt would probably have a field day with that. Fight or flight? Nah, I’d sooner crawl under the nearest table.
It was absurd.
I shook my head where I stood at the edge of the ballroom, turning to face the families once I’d watched the last of the guests disappear from the deck beyond the windows.
The Pembrokes and Hawthornes were two old money families that had been allies for generations, but it looked like they were now five minutes away from becoming enemies.
It was almost like I could see the rift forming between them because of Maggie’s departure. As the only one who knew the full truth, I probably should’ve just told them what’d happened, but I felt an intense urge to protect her from these people who thought they knew what was best.
“You probably orchestrated the entire thing to humiliate us!” Daniel’s father was shouting at Cliff. “The girl couldn’t have gotten away with it if you didn’t know what she was planning.”
Cliff’s green eyes flashed, his chin held high despite the fact that he also had an arm around his sobbing wife. “That’s not—”
“Someone took her!” Adelaide, Maggie’s mother, interjected tearfully. “That’s the only explanation. Someone must’ve taken her against her will. She’s been kidnapped! Help us find her. Please.”
Cliff turned his head and murmured quietly against her ear, but I doubted she was able to hear him over Daniel’s mother’s furious accusations.
“Oh, nonsense. You did this. All of you. I hope you’re enjoying this laugh at the Hawthornes’ expense because we will be the last ones laughing. I guarantee it.”
She even stomped her foot at the end, throwing her hand out toward her son, who was standing by the bar, the only person involved who was keeping his cool so far. “Do you have any idea what this is going to do to my Daniel’s reputation? What people are going to say about him?”
I glanced at the man in question, but if I was being honest, he didn’t seem particularly concerned about his reputation right now. Maybe he was just letting his mother do his venting for him, but he seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.
He just finished his drink, shaking his head at his parents before he set the glass down and walked out. As I watched him go, my mother did too, a teary whimper escaping her before she started crying too.
Meanwhile, Maggie’s mother was still pleading with anyone within earshot to help them find her daughter. “Someone has to know where she is. We have to go looking for her. Call the police! She wouldn’t just leave.”
Oh, she wouldn’t? Wow. Have you not been paying attention to her, like, at all?
Naturally, I didn’t say it, but I almost couldn’t believe that I’d heard those words coming out of her mouth. Daniel’s father was still arguing with Maggie’s, his mother backing up her husband’s every word.
My mother was now crying into a tissue, her eyes a little glazed over.
As soon as I saw her narrow shoulders hunched and that look in her eyes, I’d had enough.
That picture just reminded me way too much of what she’d looked like in those early days after my father’s arrest, so frail and meek even when we could get her out of bed that it was like she was trying to just… shrink into not existing at all.
Yeah. This has gone far enough.
I cleared my throat, but nobody was listening, all too busy talking and shouting over each other that I finally just spoke up. “She obviously left on her own.”
Instantly, the room went so quiet that I would have been able to hear a pin drop. I looked around at each of the parents in turn, my head shaking when every last one of them looked back at me, apparently completely flabbergasted that I’d say anything at all.
“That’s kind of her thing,” I said incredulously. “This is her usual MO, people. She’s probably just hiding under a table somewhere.”
My mother blinked at me. “Then go find her.”
Adelaide immediately nodded her agreement. “For God’s sake, Ryan. Go find her. You’ve done it before. Just do it again.”
Obviously, I already knew I wouldn’t find her. I’d seen her run outside, but I nodded anyway, leaving the ballroom and ducking into an empty sunroom in the first hallway I found. Silence. Thank God.
Shutting the door quietly behind me, I closed my eyes and let out a long exhale, finally able to hear my thoughts. What a mess.
This really had become a clusterfuck of epic proportions and both families were going to have a hell of a time managing the press, but personally, I was almost proud of Maggie.
In the end, she’d done what nobody else had been willing to do—she’d said no. Well, okay, she didn’t so much say it as leave the message that she was saying it, but still.
She hadn’t wanted this and she’d done something about it. I wonder if Daniel is relieved, too.
He sure hadn’t seemed broken up about it, at least. But even so, I’d been around enough arranged marriages to know how rarely someone ran from one.
Usually, people played their part. They smiled for the cameras, got married, and then figured out the rest behind closed doors.
While it wasn’t exactly romantic, it’d been working for families like ours for centuries.
Maggie, however, had just blown the entire system apart, and if this wedding didn’t happen eventually, people were going to talk. Loudly.
The press would tear into the story with their razor sharp teeth and make a meal out of everyone involved. The families would issue statements. Everyone would speculate about what had happened between the Pembrokes and Hawthornes.
In short, it would be a PR nightmare and I’d seen one of those before.
My father’s scandal had turned our family into a spectacle.
Strangers had picked apart every move we’d ever made, and every person we’d ever trusted had turned on us.
I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I definitely didn’t want Maggie to have to endure anything even remotely as terrible as that.
Before I’d even begun to figure out what I would tell the families when I went back out there, the door opened and Marcus Pembroke stepped inside, closing the door quietly behind himself.
I sighed, but I’d known him most of my life and I already knew I’d tell him the truth.
As the eldest of the Pembroke brothers, he was the heir to the estate ahead of the rest of them and probably the only person in their family who’d be able to make them see reason right now. Hopefully.
“Maggie left,” I said, sparing him the trouble of having to ask. “I saw her leave. She gave me this.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring, taking a step forward to hand it over. Marcus glanced at it, groaned, and closed his fingers around it without saying a single thing.
For a beat, I considered telling him the rest of it, the full truth, but I bit my tongue. I still had that almost overwhelming urge to protect her and he knew the important part now. If she wanted him to know anything else, she could tell him herself. I wasn’t going to betray her.
What I would do, however, was warn him about their immediate future if they didn’t do something to fix it. “You know what’s going to happen if she doesn’t come back, right? Trust me. I’ve been there. Publicly, it’ll be a complete goddamn disaster.”
Marcus sighed, drifting toward a side table and leaning against the edge of it. He opened his hand with the ring, glanced at it again, then pocketed it before looking back up at me. “It goes deeper than that, Ryan.”
I frowned. “Deeper than the press eating your families alive?”
“Yeah.” He gripped the edge of the table, staring into my eyes for another beat before lifting his gaze to the windows behind me.
“Your mom is my mom’s oldest friend. She was thrilled when Nora actually answered the phone when she called to let her know that Maggie was engaged.
You’ve also helped a lot with this wedding, so I’ll tell you the truth, but this stays between us. ”
“That goes without saying.”
Marcus raked his fingers through his hair and brought his eyes back to mine.
“There are inheritance provisions that dictate Maggie won’t get a dime if she’s not married and committed to starting a family of her own.
It’s all about continuing the legacy. If you want your money, you’ve got to make sure the Pembroke name will live on. ”
Once again, I wasn’t surprised. “Yeah. I’ve heard of those clauses. I think a lot of the old trusts are set up that way.”
The California Westwoods, for example. Alex had told me once that his cousin, Sterling, and all his brothers had faced a similar provision.
Marcus nodded slowly. “The other part of it is that the Pembrokes and Hawthornes have been actively negotiating this marriage for the last three years. Our fathers have been talking about it for even longer.”
I exhaled. “Fuck. That’s why they’re acting this way. It took them that long to reach an agreement and she walked out.”
Marcus looked out the window again. “I’m not sure how much of this Maggie knows, but yeah. That’s pretty much the size of it. There were companies upon companies upon companies to be considered, so many lawyers involved it’d make your head spin.”
I ran my hand over my jaw. “Do you know where she would go? Your mom was right about the fact that someone needs to find her. If she doesn’t know all this stuff, she should be told by someone who’s actually going to listen to her in return.”
Marcus didn’t answer immediately, his lips pressing into a line as his chest rose on a deep inhale. He blew it back out again through his nostrils before he finally swiped his tongue across his lips. “This needs to stay between us.”
“Obviously,” I said. “I’ve already told you. That goes without saying.”
“No, but I really mean it.” He held my gaze. “Let’s shake on it. I need you to swear that you will never tell another soul.”
My eyebrows rose up, my heart doing this strange squeeze in my chest, but finally, I took a step forward and slid my palm against his outstretched hand. “Yeah. Okay, I swear, but this is getting kind of weird.”
He let out a dry chuckle as he released my hand. “It’s about to get even weirder.”
“I figured.”
“No one knows about this except Maggie and me, but our father’s father had a secret cottage in Deerfield Massachusetts.”
I blinked a few times in rapid succession. “A secret cottage? Why?”
He shrugged. “Maybe owning a few massive estates wasn’t enough or maybe he just wanted someplace he could get away to.
I honestly don’t know what drove him to buy it back in the day, but he did.
He was obsessed with the Revolutionary War.
He collected everything about it that he could get his hands on.
Books, maps, documents. You name it. He kept the entire collection in that cottage. ”
“So you think that’s where she went?” I asked, not really knowing if I believed that. “Why?”
“Because our grandfather took the secret to his grave. Maggie and I are the only people he ever told. Well, told is a strong word.”
“What do you mean?”
“It turned out that he left the place to me, but we never spoke about it. After he died, this strange messenger dude just showed up with the deed and Maggie happened to be in the room with me when it was delivered.”
“You never told anyone else?”
“Not a soul.” He pulled out his phone, and a moment later, mine buzzed. “I’ve sent you the address. That’s where she’ll be, Ryan.”
“Okay, but why tell me?” Unease slithered into my gut as I looked back at him. I didn’t like this even a little bit, but I had a feeling I knew where he was going with this. “I hardly even know her anymore, Marcus. You should go.”
“She won’t listen to me,” he said firmly, shoving a hand through his hair.
“Which is probably fair considering that I wasn’t listening to her properly before, but you’re the only one here who knew she’d run.
She left you the ring. If anyone has a shot at getting through to her at this point, it’s you. ”
Marcus pushed away from the table. “Go get her, and be quiet about it, Ryan. I’ll hold down the fort here, but I’m counting on you to bring my sister back.”