Page 87 of Stolen Moments

“I need to do this. For me, for you, for everyone. After, I promise it will only be us. I swear it. I just need you to trust me,” she babbles, confusing the fuck out of me.

“I trust you.”

She sniffles, and my stomach dips. I hate being so far away from her when she’s upset like this. She’s crying on the other end of the line, and there isn’t a fucking thing I can do about it.

After a minute, she takes a deep breath and clears her throat. “I have to go.”

“Okay.”

“Mason.” I can hear the words laced behind the sound of my name on her tongue. The words I’ve been dying to say too.

In the same tone, I reply, “Emery,” praying she understands the depth of my feelings for her.

Chapter twenty-nine

Emery

My hands sweat, andmy heart pounds in my chest as I scan the grounds searching for my parents. I lost track of them while I was playing Dutiful Daughter and making idle chit-chat with people I have nothing in common with.

I don’t know why I’m still bothering to do so. I know once I tell my parents the charade is over, I’ll be cut out of their lives forever. I press a hand to my stomach. I dread what my parents are going to say to me. I’m expecting the worst, but no matter what, it’s still going to hurt—they are my parents, and I love them.

But, I need to rip off the proverbial Band-Aid. I can’t live like this anymore. Now that I’ve tasted what real love feels like, holding onto some small thread of hope that my parents will love me is naïve. They are never going to change.

I think back to Papa. He tried to show me what love was all those years ago. I see that now, but then? I just wanted my parents to love me, and in some ways, I still do. I sought their love and affection any way I could, even if it meant crushing my individuality, crushing my soul in the process.

When Chris came out and they shipped him off to boarding school, I stopped trying so hard to earn their approval. For the last eight years, pretending to be a good daughter has been about survival. I had to survive for me, for my brother.

Not anymore. I don’t need them. I’m pretty sure I can cover the last semester of Chris’s tuition on my own. It’s time for me to move on. For the first time in my life, I have someone besides my brother who means more to me. This is my life, and I will not let my parents get in the way of my happiness. Cybil and Sinclair will not get in the way of me building a life with the man I love.

It kills me that I haven’t been able to tell Mason yet. When I do tell him, I don’t want the situation I’ve landed myself in to be hanging over our heads. I want to be free from the chains.

A round of laughter to my right pulls my attention. I scan the glistening, synthetically youthful faces of the “who’s who” here in Heaven’s Point.

Nope, not them.

Their disappearance is pretty suspect, seeing as they make themselves the center of attention at every party they throw.

Striding across the lawn, I head back to the main house. There’s only one other place they could be—my father’s office. I enter through the back door that leads to the kitchen.

The chef, in his pristine white coat, shouts as plates clatter and servers load their trays with tiny bites of pretentious food. The smell nauseates me as I hustle my way through the chaos, and I head towards the other wing of the house. Muffled voices become clear as I approach the door.

Is that Lex talking?

What the hell is he doing here? I didn’t see him at the party.

Lifting my hand to knock, the door swings open. Lex stands on the other side, his eyes widening at my appearance and his smile faltering.

Glancing over his shoulder, I see my father sitting at his desk, with my mother at his side. He files some papers into a manilla legal folder.

My eyes bounce back to Lex, who shifts side to side. My friend stands before me, wearing a suit like he just came from work instead of the classic chinos and white button-up he usually wears tothe Rhodes “red, white, and blue” party. As always, he looks good, but his blue eyes have lost their sparkle, and the dark circles that surround them are dark and deep like he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages.

“Emery, I-I wasn’t expecting to see you.” He runs a shaky hand through his hair and adjusts his tie.

The hair on the back of my neck stands. Something was off the last time I saw him, and the guilty look on his face makes my stomach churn as acid burns my throat. “Lex?”

“Emery, darling, come in. You’re just in time. We were discussing the announcement with Alexander. Everything is all set.”

My blood freezes at my mother’s elegant voice calling me from inside the room.

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