Page 27 of Claiming His Property

I want to call him and interrogate him like a police officer, but I’m terrified of what he might say. He might deny it all, but can I even believe him? And what if he just flat-out admits to it? What then?

A knock at the door nearly gives me a heart attack.

“Not now, Dad!” I call out.

“Are you decent?”

“Yes,” I breathe out. “But I’m just not in the mood.”

“It’s kinda big news, puddin’. Can I come in?”

I sigh. “Okay, fine.”

Dad opens the door but stays standing in the hallway. “So, uh…I just got some pretty radical news from my sister.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” I ask, not giving one single shit about it.

“Well, apparently she just got engaged to one of her new groundskeeper guys.” The ice around my heart shatters, driving shards into the flesh of my chest. I rocket up in bed in shock.

“What!?”

“I know right?” my dad says, shaking his head and grinning in disbelief. “Apparently she’s selling her house and moving to California. She’s leaving tomorrow. So I guess we won’t be doing Sunday brunch anymore, but we will have to go visit her for the really big holidays–”

“Yeah, that’s great, Dad,” I say, cutting him off as I grab my cell. “Listen, I have to call Misty about work tomorrow. Do you mind?”

Dad quickly takes a step back and pulls on the door. “Sure, not at all, puddin’. Just wanted to let you know about Beatrice. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thanks.”

I force a smile as he backs out and instantly dial Cade.

But it doesn’t even ring. A strange message comes up saying the number has been disconnected.

“What the hell…?”

I try again, but the same thing happens.

Now I’m really sweating.

This can’t be happening, can it? Cade and Aunt Beatrice engaged? Here I was doing my best to try and find some kind of hole in the story and believe that Cade couldn’t have done what Beatrice said he had done, and now I’m hearing from Dad that she’s engaged to one of her workers and Cade’s phone is disconnected.

What reason would there be for phone being disconnected unless he had blocked me or gotten a new number so he could ghost me?

He really is a scumbag.

Terrifying sensations swell through my body. My limbs begin to tremble, and I collapse back onto the bed, letting my phone slip through my fingers onto the floor as tears spill from my eyes.

How could he lie to me like that?

What about the waterfall? I know when he looked at me–when he took me and laid me down beneath him and claimed me–that he loved me. I felt it in more ways than one.

It was something deep in my soul. It was a connection unlike anything I’d ever known. And it only grew stronger with every moment I spent with him.

He confessed so many things to me. He shared so much. And all I felt was truth. Honesty.

For it to all have been lies…it just doesn’t make any sense.

I watch as the teardrops fall from my eyes and darken the laminate at my feet. I try to stay quiet, but I can’t. Sobs choke their way from my throat and out through my lips, and it’s not long before I hear the sound of my dad’s footsteps returning from the other room.

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