Page 35 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

I probably should have already mentioned my past.

But just the thought of talking about my stupid mistakes with someone like Wyatt Durand turned me inside out, and it brought back every insecurity I’d been trying to hide for years.

I took a deep breath before I spoke. “The man who’s in a federal prison isn’t just a guy who hates me. He was also…my husband.”

Wyatt

Every muscle in my body was tense as I tried to absorb the information that Shelby had just blurted out.

Married? She’s fucking married?

“It would have helped if you’d shared the fact that you had a husband,” I said tightly.

“My ex-husband,” Shelby corrected, her normally upbeat, cheery voice more subdued and lifeless at the moment.

My muscles relaxed slowly as I realized that she was no longer married to a criminal.

Thank fuck!

Hell, I hadn’t really liked the idea that she was married toanyone, much less a goddamn felon.

“Tell me. It’s important that I know everything,” I encouraged in a softer tone because it was obvious that whatever happened was upsetting her.

“Justin and I were married for a little less than a year,” she continued flatly. “I filed for divorce as soon as I learned that he had a gambling addiction, and that he’d stolen the life savings from a lot of people, including some of my friends in Crystal Fork. God, at one time, I considered myself lucky that I’d married a man who was a successful financial advisor. A guy who supposedly helped other people secure their financial futures. I was working so many hours in my restaurant that I never knew what he was doing. The signs were probably all there, but I was too exhausted and too naïve to see them. I thought we’d have the perfect life. He took care of the money, and I worked hard for that happily ever after. It never happened, Wyatt. I was the stupidest woman on the planet. I let it happen. I trusted his integrity completely until the moment the authorities came and dragged him away in handcuffs. I was married to a man I never really knew at all. We met in Billings at my restaurant. He swept me off my feet with pretty words that had no meaning to him at all. And I was stupid enough to marry him.”

My gut ached as I saw the pain in her eyes and heard the vulnerability in her voice.

Christ!Maybe a sociopath had duped her, but she wouldn’t be the first highly intelligent person who had fallen for a con.

“You are not stupid,” I growled. “He was obviously a good con man.”

“Or maybe I was just easily duped,” she said wistfully. “He was considerate and kind before we were married, and he said all the right things. But once I had that ring on my finger, he flipped like a light switch. Nothing I did was right anymore, and he undermined my confidence little by little. He was subtle at first, with small digs about my appearance, but he got meaner the longer we were married. He didn’t get physical until the day he was arrested. He smacked me pretty hard before the police could get the handcuffs on because he thought I was the one who had turned him in. God, IwishI had been smart enough to realize what he was doing. I wish I had caught on sooner, but I didn’t.”

Anger coursed through my veins, a genuine fury like I hadn’t felt since my sister Tori had gotten kidnapped.

He fucking hit Shelby?

If the son of a bitch wasn’t in a prison where I couldn’t get to him, I’d probably take his fucking head off myself right now.

“Did Kaleb know?” I asked, my voice graveled and rough.

She shook her head. “That he smacked me? No. I felt like such an idiot that I didn’t tell anyone that he actually hit me during the arrest, but it came out during the trial. My family eventually knew everything, and all of Crystal Fork knew, too. His arrest and prosecution was always in the news. Every. Single. Day. Unfortunately, it was big news in Montana, and it tainted my family by association. Obviously, there was speculation by the public that I was involved, even though it was made clear that I wasn’t going to be charged, and that I was cooperating completely. Looking back at it now, I’m not sure how it took an arrest and almost eleven months to realize that I was being manipulated. Somehow, Justin knew exactly what to do and say to make me feel like everything was all my fault, so I kept on trying to fix things. In hindsight, I think the only reason he married me was to find a few more victims.

Son of a bitch!I suspected that she didn’t tell anyone that he’d hit her because Kaleb would have felt the same way I did. My buddy had probably wanted to hurt the bastard for everything he’d done to Shelby, and the hell he’d dragged her through.

In fact, I was certain that Kaleb and his brothers had needed to hold themselves back every damn time they saw Shelby’s tormentor in the courtroom.

“How is it possible that I never knew about any of this?” I questioned aloud, even though I probably already knew the answer to that question.

Kaleb and I were close, but we could sometimes go months without talking to each other because we were both busy, and Kaleb’s sense of family loyalty ran deep. It wasn’t likely that he’d share any of Shelby’s secrets with someone who was a stranger to her if he didn’t have to do it.

I’d heard the remorse in his voice for even mentioning her marriage to me because Shelby hadn’t told me about it herself. I could tell that he felt like shit for bringing it up without talking to her first.

Besides, there were things that Kaleb didn’t know about me, either, and we’d known each other a long time.

He had absolutely no idea that Last Hope existed, which was a big part of my life. He knew that Chase and the Montgomery brothers had a history in special forces now because I’d wanted him to feel better about Shelby staying here in San Diego. But he didn’t know about Last Hope. Not because I didn’t trust him, but because our existence just wasn’t shared with anyone who had no real ties to the organization.

“We didn’t talk about it outside of our family,” Shelby said, her voice sounding completely defeated. “My cousins and Aunt Millie were never particularly fond of Justin in the first place. All of them thought everything had moved too fast, and they were right. We got married at the courthouse, and there was never a real wedding. After he was arrested, I was already humiliated and beaten up emotionally, and it seemed like everyone in Montana was talking about it. It probably wasn’t big enough news for the rest of the country, but it dominated the news in Montana.”

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