Page 13 of Billionaire Unexplained: Kaleb

Kaleb reached out and felt around until he found my hand, and I clasped it like it was a lifeline.

“Fuck! I’m so damn sorry. It makes sense that you wanted to escape from that for a while,” he said in a raspy, agitated voice. “It’s hard enough to lose one parent. I can’t imagine losing both at one time, and not having any family there to support you. If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand, but I’m a very sympathetic ear right now if you do.”

“I want to,” I whispered as tears of sorrow and confusion started to roll down my cheeks.

Honestly, I needed to talk about it with someone other than a grief counselor. Kaleb had mentioned that he’d lost his father, so I was pretty sure he’d understand how I felt.

He was silent, but I knew he was waiting until I felt comfortable enough to speak.

“I was struggling with their deaths after it happened,” I confessed. “A murder/suicide just didn’t make sense to me. My parents adored each other, and I thought they were incredibly happy. They were both older when I was born, so they were blissfully retired in Newport Beach so they could stay reasonably close to me. They both loved the water. They went sailing every single day. I tortured myself with the knowledge that I was their only child, and I’d obviously missed the fact that my dad was depressed. He had the gun beside him, so everyone thought that he killed my mother and then shot himself. I was still trying to work through all that guilt about not seeing a single warning sign when a detective came to me two days before I left California. He told me that they were still investigating the case because the whole theory of how they died didn’t make sense to him, either. The murder/suicide explanation also didn’t match the forensic evidence. He thinks they were both murdered, Kaleb.”

I tried not to release the sob of anguish that had welled up in my throat, but I failed miserably.

The sound left my body like I was a wounded animal in pain.

Kaleb swiftly wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me to him, then wrapped his strong arms around my body in a protective embrace.

“Let it all go, Anna,” Kaleb said roughly against my hair as I sobbed my heart out. “If you keep it all inside, it will eat you alive.”

His words somehow allowed me to release all of the pain and sorrow that I’d been holding inside me for a very long time.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, him holding me, and me sobbing like my world was ending.

In some ways, my world had ended that horrible day I’d lost my parents.

Sometimes I felt so alone that I couldn’t bear the emptiness inside me.

Maybe I was well into adulthood, but I’d lost the only close family members I had, and the two people who’d loved me unconditionally simply because I was their daughter.

I hadn’t really cried like this since I’d first heard about my parents’ deaths. It was probably only possible for me to cry like this now because I’d instinctively trusted Kaleb since the very beginning.

And I wasn’t normally a very trusting soul.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a tremulous voice as I rested my head against his shoulder once the tsunami of sobs had finally stopped. “You really don’t need to be burdened with my personal business. I know we agreed to keep things kind of impersonal.”

“I’m making it my business, too,” he said gruffly. “What happened that sent you to Montana, Anna? Fuck knows I understand why you needed to get away, but why not right after it happened?”

He might think the whole story was a little weird. I still didn’t completely know the answer to that question myself.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I was depressed after it happened, but I was still functioning. It wasn’t until the detective told me that my parents were murdered that I had a total breakdown, Kaleb. It wasn’t an uncontrollable crying sort of meltdown like this one. I just…totally lost it. It was right after a work event. I’m not even sure how I made it through that event, but afterwards, I couldn’t even function. I couldn’t work anymore. I felt like I’d reached the limit of what I could handle emotionally. I can’t really explain what happened. I just had to get away somewhere quiet so I could think and work through this. I just wasn’t functional in the real world anymore.”

“What about your friends?” he asked gently.

“This might sound pathetic, but I don’t have a lot of real friends. I mostly have what could be called work colleagues. My best friend, Kim, owns a health and beauty salon in Los Angeles. She wanted to come with me to Montana, but I refused. She’s got her own life and a family in Los Angeles. She’s one of the two people who knows where I’m holed up right now. She’s going to be frantic because I haven’t called her, but my cell service is sketchy. I couldn’t get her on the phone.”

Kaleb stroked a comforting hand over my hair. “My cell phone coverage sucks, too, but I have a satellite phone. You can call her tomorrow.”

“Now you probably think I’m crazy,” I said hesitantly. “I used work as a distraction after it first happened, but learning that they were murdered put me over the edge. Work wasn’t distracting me anymore. I just stopped functioning rationally. I barely knew my own name.”

“I get it, and I don’t think you’re crazy,” Kaleb said in a low, soothing voice that calmed me. “I tried that whole distracting myself with work thing myself when my dad died. In some ways, I was in denial for a long time. I think it’s pretty normal to try to find something that stops those racing thoughts and the guilt that inevitably seems to come with it when someone we love dies suddenly like that. Who’s the other person who knows where you are right now?”

“The police detective who’s handling my mom and dad’s case. I need to know if they arrest someone. They aren’t telling me a lot because they’re still investigating. I wanted to help them, but I can’t think of anyone who truly disliked my mom and dad. None of this makes any sense. Why them? They don’t have any enemies,” I said solemnly.

“Don’t make yourself crazy trying to figure out who did it,” Kaleb advised gently. “That’s something the police need to handle. It’s their job.”

I let out a long sigh. “I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. We were pretty close. I was an only child. They always supported me a hundred percent. They shouldn’t have died that way. I keep wondering if they suffered. What their last moments were like. God, they were probably so scared. All of those things haunt me right now.”

“Also normal,” Kaleb informed me.

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