Page 54 of My Dear Mr. Corporate

He shook his head. “I don’t want your money. I just want to know he’s okay.”

I thanked him again and he left. As soon as he was gone, I punched in the number for Gio’s restaurant. I would have called his phone, but I didn’t want him to know I was on to him. The person who picked up the phone confirmed he wasn’t at the restaurant and not coming in until later that night. I hung up and grabbed my car keys. Knowing Gio’s habits, if he wasn’t at the restaurant during the day he would be spending it at home in bed, so he could be alert for the restaurant later.

After briefing the temp on how to answer important calls, I rode the elevator to the ground floor. I marched by the other two employees who were in the elevator with me and left the building. I headed straight for my car and had it opened when I sensed someone behind me. I turned to see who it was and stared in shock at Rachel’s sister, Kristen. She looked more haggard than I remembered, her hair flat and dull as her eyes.

“Kristen?” I cried in disbelief. Seeing her like this, compassion bloomed where I had once hated her for the uproar she had caused, blaming me for Rachel and Kathleen’s deaths.

“Hello, Tate,” she greeted me, then pushed a strand of long blond hair from her face. Her hand badly shook with the movement.

“I can’t do this right now,” I murmured. I couldn’t take her anger and vitriol while I was so worried about Bryan. I could do very little about getting back our loved ones who had died but there was still a chance for Bryan.

“It will just take a few minutes,” she replied. “Rachel would have wanted that.”

I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. She always used Rachel as a noose to tighten around my neck.

“Look, Kristen, I’m sorry for what happened between Rachel and me,” I told her, running my fingers through my hair in frustration. “It was never my intention for her to leave or for our family life to be changed. I loved her and Kathy so goddamn much. I wish things had played out differently after I told her about my sexuality, but it can’t be changed. I have to move on and you should too or all this hatred and bitterness will drive you mad.”

She laughed, startling me. The laugh ended on a sob and tears filled her eyes and spilled down my cheeks. “You are right,” she answered. “That’s why I’m here. I came to apologize for all I did wrong, trying to exonerate myself from the accident being my fault by blaming you.”

I frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

She smiled, her mood shifting. “I met him,” she answered. “Did he tell you that? I saw him at the cemetery for the first time. I hated him at first but that was old Kristen, once again blaming someone and hating them for nothing they did wrong.”

My blood ran cold at the way she was speaking of herself. I remembered Bryan telling me about the woman he had run into at the cemetery then at the restaurant. He always said he didn’t believe in coincidences. I was starting to agree with him.

“You were stalking him?” I grounded out. Dear God, was she responsible for Bryan’s disappearance, and with her skewered reasoning, was he even still alive? She had never struck me as someone who always had her marbles together.

She cringed a little, her face turning red. “I wouldn’t call it stalking. I just wanted to see the man who was taking my sister’s place.”

“If this isn’t going anywhere, I have to go,” I told her, opening my car door.

“Please, let me finish.” She grabbed onto my arm. “It’s been killing me with guilt and I need to tell you. It was wrong of me to attack you when they died. It wasn’t your fault yet I blamed you and made it harder for you to deal with their deaths. There is no excuse for what I did except that I was grieving my best friend and I was responsible.”

“What do you mean you were responsible?” The more I spoke to her she had me even more befuddled.

“My last moments with Rachel on the phone,” she answered. “When she called me, she was hysterical about what you’d told her, that you were bisexual but as we talked, she calmed down and thought about returning. She insisted that she overreacted and was going to return. I-I didn’t understand it. I told her she was a fool for still being with you after what you told her. We got in an argument.” I stared at her in shock as tears flowed down her face, but her eyes were unfocused as though reliving the accident. “I could hear Kathleen in the background asking for you. I was still arguing with her when I heard the tires screech and her scream. Her scream haunts me, Tate.”

I had to cling to the car door to support myself. For years I had blamed myself, believing her accusations that if I hadn’t made Rachel mad she wouldn’t have driven off in a fit of rage which caused her to drive recklessly. All this time she knew what she had done and she never tried to make it right until now.

“Why?” I asked her. “Why did you drag my name in the mud with every reporter you spoke to? I was grieving them and you took that away from me by thrusting me in a web of lies and accusation!”

She placed a hand over her mouth and her next words came out muffled. “I know and I’m sorry. I couldn’t live with it anymore and when I glimpsed you that day at the cemetery, hearing the things you said to Rachel about being sorry, I had to talk to you. I hope someday you can find it in your heart to forgive me for all the pain I caused you.”

Bryan. My thoughts returned to Bryan. He had to be my focus right now. It no longer mattered what had happened two years ago. I had to focus on finding Bryan and bringing him home.

“I need to go,” I told her and entered my car, slamming the door shut. I started the ignition and she knocked on the window. I rolled it down. “Kristen, go home.”

“She gave me a message for you before she died.” She sobbed then sniffed. “She was crying but somehow she hadn’t let go of the phone in the crash. She told me Kathy was gone and that I should tell you she loves you so much. She said she was sorry for being mad at you for not telling her earlier, but she would have come back to you.”

I drove away before she could say anything else. If she had told me all this at the time Kathleen and Rachel had died it would have made things so much better. I wasn’t even aware that I was crying until I reached the first stop light. I wiped my eyes and refocused but feeling like a massive weight had been removed from my shoulders. Rachel hadn’t blamed me. She had wanted to come back. Now all I had to do was to find Bryan before it was too late. I’d almost asked him to marry me the night we’d made love after he had decided to sleep in the guest room.

I drove the short distance to Gio’s house, putting Kristen’s visit to the back of my mind for now. I had to find out if what Jeremy had said to me would lead me to Bryan’s rescue. If Gio and Keith were behind his disappearance, there would be hell to pay.

Where had I gone wrong with Gio? Was there anything I should have done differently between us that would have brought a different outcome? On one hand I didn’t want the information to check out, so he could be in the clear. In the other, I would be relieved if the trail ended here and Bryan was found. Each day he went missing lessened our chances of finding him, and I intended to find him alive.

Once I was at his house, I left the car parked out front and ignored the doorbell to pound on the door. It worked better for me given the frustration I was feeling. Gio had lied to me. Now I knew why he had looked so freaked out when I had stopped by his restaurant yesterday. He thought Bryan had mentioned his meeting with Keith. I wished Bryan had told me, but given the way I blew off his suspicions of Gio no wonder he would be hesitant to inform me of the two meeting.

The door opened and Gio materialized. His face registered surprise at the same time I realized he was wearing nothing but a silk robe knotted at the waist. If he had been naked I would have grabbed him up by the skin. I grasped the collar of the robe and pushed him back while I entered the house, kicking the door shut behind me.

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