Page 37 of Exposed

“I’ve said my apology. You can have her hand now, if you want.”

I just stared at him. “So she was too young to marry me? But you didn’t care that she was shacking up with Miller when she was the same age?”

“Yes, but as I said before…Miller could protect her. And even though I wasn’t 100 percent certain of his loyalties to me, I was 100 percent certain of his loyalties to her. After all, Brooklyn wasn’t the only one who died 16 years ago. Miller agreed to be dead too. He agreed to disappear for her. They always had a bond. Since they spent so much time together here. She slept more in his bed here than in hers.”

I stared at him. Was he saying they slept together when Brooklyn lived here? In this apartment? “They were together before?”

“She used to sneak off to the servants’ floor when she first moved in. Probably during one of the times you were ignoring her existence in public.”

She’d told me she didn’t kiss him at the beach house. She’d told me she was loyal to me. She…Fuck.I remembered now. She’d told me she kissed someone else one of the times we fought in high school. She’d tried to tell me and I cut her off. I’d told her I didn’t want to know. But it was Miller. She’d always liked Miller. But it didn’t change anything. She’d felt alone here too. Isolated. She’d run to him because he made her feel safe. It was all so twisted and fucked up.

“Did you not know?”

I cleared my throat. “She told me.”

“Good, good. So…” his voice trailed off. “I guess you’ll be my son-in-law after all.”

I shook my head. “She wants nothing to do with you.”

“No, she told me that I couldn’t be in her life if I continued running my business. I gave it up. For her.”

I wasn’t sure that was going to be enough. But I was surprised he’d listened to her. He was used to controlling everything.

“And for what it’s worth,” he said. “I approve now. You have a good head on your shoulders, Matthew. You took over your father’s company. You’re an adult now.”

Condescending prick.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do. Welcome back to the family, Matthew.”

I hated everything about that sentence.

***

I knocked on James and Penny’s door.

Rob opened it. “Great, you came. We were just talking about what we should do for Penny’s birthday…” his voice trailed off. “Shit, you’re still mad, huh?”

“Of course I’m still mad.” I walked past him.

“Is that why you invited Tanner?”

I ignored Rob and walked into the great room. All my friends were here. Plus Tyler, Hailey, Ian, and Jen. They weren’t really part of this, but fuck it. And it wasn’t exactly fair, but I was a little pissed at Jen right now too. If Brooklyn hadn’t seen us in that pool… I sighed. No, that definitely wasn’t fair. But I was just really angry about everything. And Tanner was right, apparently I was hot headed.

“Get over there,” I said to Rob.

“Why?”

“Because we’re having a reverse intervention.” The kids must have been upstairs playing. Which was good. Because there was a good chance I was about to curse.

Rob shrugged and joined everyone else in the room. So that I was standing alone. I took a deep breath. Just one to try to calm down. It did not help. “What the hell is wrong with all of you?” I said. The four people who didn’t know what was going on all looked confused. But everyone else looked really guilty. Except for Tanner. He just shook his head like he’d known what was coming. Since he’d predicted it.

“Matt…” James started.

“You of all people, James. You took Brooklyn’s death almost as hard as me. Why would you lie to me about her being back? Why would any of you lie? You should have come to me right away. And maybe not blindsided me by playing that stupid fucking song at homecoming and making me feel like I was insane.”

“You’re right,” Nigel said. “It’s not a very good song. I prefer instrumental music.” He wandered over to my side of the room.

“Get back over there,” I said.

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