Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
R upert
“Rupert … for fuck’s sake, you’ve made your point,” James roared as he pulled me off that motherfucker who’d kidnapped Veronica.
I couldn’t feel my body. I was only seeing red, wanting to fucking kill him for touching her. I kept pounding into him, turning his face into a giant pulp, hoping to knock every one of his teeth out. I’d lost control when I’d seen him there with the gun, and my vision had gone blurry with anger.
He pushed me off the guy and I crashed on the floor, breathing hard. Vincent wasn’t moving, and when I glanced at my fists, I felt sick to my stomach. I was covered in blood, but it wasn’t mine but belonged to the guy’s I’d nearly beaten to death. What the fuck was wrong with me?
Luckily for me, James had arrived in London earlier than expected, right after I’d gotten the phone call from that imbecile.
He wanted five million from me, transferred to some offshore account, or he was going to kill Veronica. Then he’d sent a video confirming he had her, and I’d nearly fucking broken my phone after watching it.
I told James what had happened. He’d called a few of his people, and we all drove to my site. The same one I’d had so many issues with lately. I suspected that the guy was somehow connected to what had been happening here lately with this project.
Apparently, James’s men had disabled the clowns who were scattered around the place. Each one of them was armed, but James was a fucking professional. He knew what he was doing. The bastard who’d kidnapped Veronica must have hired these men to keep an eye on the place while he waited for me to arrive. After that, we’d snuck inside.
James was pissed off. He’d insisted I needed to stay behind and let his team deal with it, saying I didn’t have enough training and was a liability. He gave me some spiel about safety and my health issues. We’d gotten into a fight because I’d refused to stay behind.
“Rupert, Rupert, are you all right?”
Veronica knelt beside me. I glanced at her, disoriented and suddenly exhausted. The smell of blood infused all my senses, and I told myself to breathe. My heart beat a hundred miles an hour. A few others—men who were part of James’s team—floated inside, several of them checking the whole site, two talking to my brother. We’d both agreed that it was for the best if the police weren’t involved before Veronica was brought to safety.
I glanced at her, wanting to bring her to my chest to make sure she was all right and not hurt. I’d just left my mother’s house when I’d received the text message from an unknown number. It was the video of an unconscious Veronica in some dark room. My conversation with Mum had made me furious, and then when I’d seen the video, I’d nearly had a fucking heart attack.
The guy who’d claimed to be her ex-boyfriend was asking for five million to be wired to a specific account, otherwise he’d kill her. Unable to think straight, I was ready to wire him the money then and there to make sure she was safe, so I’d gone straight to the office. My whole world had crashed down on me. My head had pounded when I got on the phone with my bank manager, but just then, James walked in. He’d immediately known something was wrong, so I told him everything.
“I’m fine, are you all right?” I asked her, finally catching up on all the things she’d told that fucking idiot. I didn’t want to believe it, I was still pretty much in shock, but she stared at me with so much pain and … was it guilt? … I wondered if she’d been telling him the truth. I didn’t want to believe in such a betrayal. I was so in love with her though that I was ready to forget about her confession. As long as she was safe, nothing else mattered.
But then my mother’s voice echoed through my mind, making me question myself again. My mother was right—Veronica had never been honest with me. It seemed she’d been playing with me all this time. She never loved me.
“Yes, fine. Don’t worry about me, Rupert. What are you going to do with Vincent?” she asked.
I rubbed her reddened wrists because I couldn’t stand that she was hurt, despite everything.
“He’s going to be handed to the authorities in due course,” I replied, standing.
“May I have a word with my brother?” James asked, kneeling next to us.
His usual expression didn’t reveal much at all. I had no idea what he was thinking, but what had happened in the past with Veronica didn’t make sense. I wanted to believe she was innocent.
“Sure,” Veronica said.
We both walked away from her.
“What do you want, James? I’m fine and lucid. I hope I didn’t kill that fucker,” I said, pointing at where the guy had lain just a second ago, but he wasn’t there anymore.
James patted me on the back.
“No, he’s going to survive, but you battered him up pretty badly,” he stated. “What about the girl? She’s a liability, like Spencer’s nanny. You’d better end this now before it escalates further.”
I didn’t remember how I responded before he walked away, but I was pissed off that he was right. Veronica had used me. I’d heard her loud and clear, admitting that this whole thing was about money. She’d actually planned all this, including the night in Greece, and I’d fallen right into her trap. I clenched my fists as I approached her. She had her arms around her waist, staring down at the floor. I had never felt more disappointed and defeated than I was at that moment.
“Tell me, so this whole thing with TikTok, was it still all staged? You knew who I was all along?” I questioned her. She had to tell me the truth, the whole truth.
She opened her mouth to explain, then closed it, as though mulling her answer. Our eyes met, and there was so much regret, sorrow, and pain in them. Fuck, I had been such a fucking idiot.
“Yes, it was all staged, Rupert,” she admitted, pausing for a moment.
I clenched my fists.
“I knew the video would go viral, but Laura had no idea. She’s the innocent one in all of this and she is truly a good person. I didn’t want her to get involved, but then she became useful to me, so I kept lying. I’m sorry, Rupert, but as much as I loved our travels together, none of what’s happened between us was ever for real. I’ve been lying to you all this time. This whole thing was about money for me.”
I took a sharp inhale of breath, processing what she was saying to me. She might as well have stabbed my chest with a knife as she confessed the truth. My heart felt rotten, dead, and I wanted her to just put me out of my misery and walk away from me, so I’d never have to see her again.
“I love you,” I admitted, knowing that it was the truth, even if she’d just broken my heart. I never should have believed in our connection. I was right to be hesitant when we met the second time.
“I’m sorry. I never truly loved you. I was pretending.”
She gave me a small smile then walked away from me, and I didn’t stop her. I continued to stand there, wondering if this was truly happening or maybe it was only a bad dream. I knew how I felt, I knew this whole thing was too good to be true, but the truth was that I’d never experienced anything like it with anyone else before. Veronica was the first and the last.
“My team will deliver our guy here straight to the police, and he’s going to be arrested. I’ve already looked into his finances, and on top of kidnapping he would be charged with tax avoidance, extortion, possession of illegal drugs and weapons, and I could probably find a few more things to make sure he stays behind bars for a long while,” James explained when we were finally leaving the site.
I’d had so many plans for this place. But now I wouldn’t even bother.
“You know what the worst part of all of this is?” I asked my brother as we were getting into his car.
I was hoping to see a tic in his jaw or some kind of understanding in his eyes, anything that indicated James was actually a human being and not a robot, but his passive expression was carved into his features.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll enlighten me soon.”
“I have to fucking agree with our mother. She warned me about her after she told me she’d hired a private detective to look into her background,” I said and then laughed.
James narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn’t smile or even acknowledge my pathetic admission. Christ, no wonder the princess had fucked him over if he was always so unresponsive. I shook my head and glanced out the window, wishing that I could simply erase Veronica from my mind so I could never feel the way I felt now—empty and detached. It was hell, but it could never go away because I loved her so damn much, it hurt.
One month later
“Thank you all for coming. Unfortunately, we won’t be discussing the budget today but my private life,” my brother spoke, live on national news.
I stood in my parents’ house, watching his speech with the other members of my family.
“You all probably know Laura. She’s my daughter’s nanny, but unfortunately for her, this is her last day because I’m firing her, effective immediately.”
Mum gasped, and then she brought her hands to her mouth. Dad cleared his throat. I shook my head, ready to head home. I knew that the bastard was going to mess this up somehow.
“I’m a single father, and Maja’s mother was never in the picture and probably never will be. A few months ago, this woman…” he paused and smiled at Laura, who looked like she was just about to pass out, “showed up to my house. I mistook her for someone else, so we didn’t have the best start, so much that she absolutely hated my guts and told me that to my face, knowing that I could fire her anytime.”
“Spencer’s officially lost his mind,” James muttered.
“Anyway, I wanted to give her a chance because I was desperate for a nanny. My daughter had driven all her previous nannies away, and it was my fault. Then Laura stepped in, and things changed. Needless to say, I realised that I was falling for her. My position of power has not impressed her whatsoever, and frankly, I’m surprised she hasn’t run away because I’ve not treated her as well as I should have. I’ve upset and hurt her, so that’s why I’m standing in front of all of you today—trying to apologise. My heart belongs to her. I love this woman and I’m not ashamed to admit it. She’s the love of my life, and I never wish to be apart from her ever again.”
“And that’s how you win the love of your life, boys. Watch and learn,” Mum said, sounding like she was just about to cry while Dad started clapping.
He looked excited. I glanced at James who appeared completely frozen with his bottle of beer that still hovered right above his lips.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered as Spencer ended the press conference and the press went wild.
Two weeks ago, James had dropped a bomb at Spencer, claiming that Samantha was Laura’s biological sister. When I’d heard that, I’d nearly fallen off my chair, but now everything started to make perfect sense. I’d seen the resemblance before but had never connected the dots.
After that, Laura had supposedly betrayed Spencer. He’d told me she was working with Sam. He’d also said she was the one who’d leaked their photo from their time in Sicily to the press—apparently, he had proof. Spencer had been devastated. They’d ended up splitting up, and Maja had gone a little crazy. She’d bonded with Laura and wouldn’t talk to Spencer for weeks. However, later on, it turned out that Samantha was the one who’d arranged it all, and Spencer had to grovel so Laura would forgive him.
My brother claimed he’d tried everything, but she wasn’t ready to forgive him, obviously. Now I kind of understood why he’d called the press conference and handcuffed her to him. He’d done it because he couldn’t live without her.
“See, darling, true love does exist, and I think you might be next, Rupert. There’s a woman out there who’s waiting for you, darling,” my mother added.
I nearly threw up in my mouth.Finishing my beer, I excused myself. Several minutes later, I locked myself in the bathroom, trying to take several breaths, but the oxygen wasn’t flowing. I loosened up my tie, pressing my hands over the sink, sensing another panic attack coming.
Veronica and I were over, and we weren’t getting back together. I’d stayed away from the club, even though she didn’t work there anymore, but apparently she’d become quite active on her social media.
All of this didn’t change the fact that I couldn’t stop fucking thinking about her. She was in my head all the time, in my dreams, in my daily routine. Veronica was present everywhere I fucking went. She was still my whole life, and I would never be able to forget what we had because my love was slowly becoming a fucking cancer, making my heart rot in my chest.