Page 110 of The Sound of Temptation

“My father wanted sons. He had Phil, then Bethany, then me. Phil spat in his face and disappeared. Bethany was his…whole world. I was just a spare. I’m all he has left and he made it so I couldn’t leave.”

“What do you mean? Like he kidnapped you?” I ask in horror.

She shakes her head. “Not in the way you mean. But I was completely at his mercy. I worked for him. I lived in his house. And no one wants to make an enemy of him. So, Duke and I came up with a plan that would get us both out of here.”

“A plan?” I repeat dumbly.

She purses her lips and then blows out a sharp breath. “I have an inheritance. It’s a lot. We’re going to split it. We have a contract. If I break it, I’ll owe him what he would have gotten.”

The horror that’s filling me must show on my face. Her expression turns bleak. “I tried to leave on my own. This was plan B -I saw a way out in a moment where my back was against a wall and I took it.”

I shake my head. “What was plan A?”

She tells me about her ten-year quest for the New York position and how her father snatched it away so cruelly.

My blood has run cold by the time she’s done. “Why would he do that?”

“Because I’m all he has left, and he wants heirs. Wolfe Construction has been in his family for almost a hundred years. And it’s always had a Wolfe at the helm. That’s what Bethany would have done. And she went so quickly, no one knew what to do next.”

“What happened to her?”

She walks over to the piano bench and sits down. “She had a brain tumor. It wasn’t a great prognosis, but my dad took her to MD Anderson, and she had the best doctors. They were able to remove it. She started chemo that she was supposed to do for six months or something…” She shakes her head sadly. “It’s all such a blur, I don’t remember. But three weeks later, she collapsed. They did an X-ray and the doctor told us that the tumor was back and double the size. She never woke up. By the time I got to Houston, she was gone. On our birthday.”

I sit next to her, rest my elbows on my knees and gaze at her in wonder at all she’s been through. “Oh God. I’m sorry.”

She shudders. “Yeah. It was hell. But my dad made it so much worse. He used to look at me like I was his enemy. And I just wanted to make him happy. But what does a seventeen-year-old girl know about that?”

I can imagine that young version of Beth, alone, guilty, and scared.

And it makes me hate her father instantly. He’s the monster everyone has called him. That she’s survived him and isn’t bitter and fucked up is a miracle.

“So, you were going to marry Duke to get away from him?”

“Yes. I am.” She emphasizes the last word, but she didn’t need to. I heard the distinction loud and clear.

“No.You can’t be with him now. Not when you’re with me.” That she’d even think I’d be okay with it, is upsetting. I stand up.

She looks at me sharply. “Do you have fifty million dollars to pay Duke Tremaine? Cause if you don’t, then I have no choice.”

My eyes bulge out of my head. “Fifty million dollars? That’s how much you would have inherited?”

Her chuckle is humorless. “No Carter, that’s his half.”

I gape at her in disbelief. My family had money, but nothing like that. “There has to be another way.”

She grabs my arm to stop me from pacing and looks pleadingly up at me. “It’s not a real marriage, Carter. We won’t be intimate.”

“Beth—”

She stands and presses a finger to my lips. “If there’s a way out, that won’t mean we’re in debt to him for the rest of our lives, I’ll take it. But short of that, I don’t know what else to do.”

I search for what to say. But my mind is dark with anger. I don’t understand how they can treat her like she’s an object, to be bartered, traded, coerced.

“Will you play something for me?” Her voice is tight. She wraps her fingers around mine and squeezes convulsively. Like she’s trying to make sure I’m real.

“Yes, baby. Why don’t you lay down and try to get some sleep.”

She nods and lets me her over to the chaise where she sits to draw. She lays down and and closes her eyes. I watch her for a minute. She’s not resting. Her face is tight, even in the low light, I can see the small furrow between her brows.

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