Page 93 of Single Mom's Christmas Wish

“How about, ‘Enjoy tonight’s lobster dinner?’” I laugh. “Don’t worry, kid. You’ll find another gold digger to show off to Daddy. This one’s taken.”

Someone laughs. Callie tears up. Kyle scoffs and glides away from a most uncomfortable conversation. And I am tremendously satisfied by the conclusion. I see Callie’s hand come up out of the corner of my eye, and I stop it before she slaps me across the face. I give her wrist a painful squeeze until tears stream down her cheeks before pulling her away from the swelling crowd and into a narrow, dark walkway connecting the dining hall to the restrooms.

“Did you really think there wouldn’t be consequences for what you did to Dakota and to me?” I ask, keeping my tone low and cold.

“How fucking dare you? How the hell am I going to sort things out with Kyle?” she screeches, on the verge of hysteria.

“Sort what out? There’s no happy ending for you, Callie. It’s why I’m here. To make sure you understand and remember that actions have consequences.”

“Fuck you, Reed.”

I give her a hard, merciless look. “The only one who’s fucked around here is you. And you were fucked long before you ruined my wedding.” I push the stack of Michael’s letters against her chest. “Here. Proof that you’ve been lied to. Your whole life.”

“What are you talking about?”

Callie softens upon seeing her father’s name scrawled across the back of each envelope. It’s the moment I need to drive my sword right through her soul. “Your mother and your grandmother lied to you. Your father never wanted to leave you the way he did. He just didn’t have any other choice. He tried to stay in touch with you, but Katherine and your mother intercepted his letters. She cut off every attempt he ever made to reach out to you. She went as far as to blacklist him at every venue and in every place where she knew you’d be. It was methodical and deliberate, and it was meant to manipulate you.”

I say the words as she opens one letter with trembling fingers and briefly scans her father’s handwritten words. “Where did you get this?” she whispers.

“Dolores. Remember her? The hired help you and your precious grandmother fucked over? She saved some of the letters before Katherine could burn them. She thought you deserved to know the truth despite how you treated her and her family.”

The look of devastation on Callie’s face tells me I hit the bull’s-eye.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course, you don’t understand,” I say, unsympathetic and unyielding. I can’t find one shred of pity for this woman; I can only hope that the truth will hurt her deeply enough to awaken her so that she stops hurting other innocent people. “You never did because you were blinded as a child. Read the letters, Callie, so you can realize precisely how your own family manipulated you, how Katherine and your mother fooled you into hating a girl who never did anything to you.

“Dakota didn’t deserve any of the poison you flung at her. Unexpectedly, your grandmother had a change of heart toward the end of her life. She just couldn’t bring herself to implement it completely. All you had to do was be a decent human being and let Dakota get her inheritance like Katherine ultimately intended. But you couldn’t do that because you wanted your sister to be as miserable as you.”

“It’s not—”

“It is,” I cut her off. “That’s what this was about. Clearly, you were bagging that rich douche, Kyle, anyway. It wasn’t about the eighty million bucks at all. You simply didn’t want your sister to be happy because you were never happy. And you never will be until you understand precisely the shitty family that you sprung from. Your father knew better. It’s why he left. He tried to take you with him, but Katherine wouldn’t let him. And here we are, years later, family still hurting family. I hope you can live with yourself, Callie. Because no man in his right mind ever would.”

I leave her in the dark hallway, on the verge of tears. She is so stunned by the letters, by their mere existence, that she lacks the strength to come after me, to contradict me, to fight me in any way.

Nobody hurts my woman and gets away with it.

36

Maddox

Having the cops hot on Keith Ellis’ tail has helped me on my mission to find the fucker. Those breaking and entering charges worked like a charm. The BOLO brought me all the way down to San Diego, where this rat has been hiding since the wedding.

CCTV footage placed him at a couple of gas stops and a local mart. He bought a new phone from the latter, and with a generous cash donation, I managed to get his phone number. I’ve yet to notify the police that I’ve already found him, though.

Keith and I have some unfinished business.

As night falls over San Diego, I sit in my car, waiting. The traffic down this narrow road dwindles into the occasional cab darting by every once in a while. Across the street is the Sundown Motel. It’s a two-story building with moderately priced rooms and a Coca-Cola vending machine right outside the office.

I spot Keith’s car in the parking lot. The lights are on in his room. He’s bound to come down soon enough. He’s got to be getting hungry at some point.

A text comes in from Reed. Mission accomplished on his end. Good. I hope he rattled Callie to the bone. It’s a good thing he’s the one who went after her. I would’ve forgotten my manners and done a whole lot worse.

Archer is getting closer to finding Dakota; Chelsea finally reached out. I am riddled with muted anxiety over this entire situation. The clock is ticking. Christmas is in two days. Maybe there’s still a chance for Dakota.

If there isn’t, we’ll figure something else out. We have to.

The door to Keith’s room opens. He comes out, squirrely as ever.

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