Delirious (11 page)

“Dara, I did lie to try to cover it up. Why? Because I love you, and I didn’t want you to be hurt.”

“What hurts, Stone, is to know that the one person on this planet who’s supposed to care about me looked me straight in the eyes and lied. Obviously, you lied about using the money for our
house. What isn’t so obvious is whether you used the money to pay off my father or to pay a private investigator.”

I wrapped my fingers around her arms, holding her still, hoping she could sense my sincerity.
“I just admitted the extent of my lies, and yeah, maybe I screwed up by not telling you the truth to begin with. But I promised to make you happy, Dara.”

She yanked out of my grasp.
“And you think keeping me away from my father will make me happy?” she shrieked.

“Yeah, I do.”

“I thought you were on my side, Stone. You have both of your parents. Why should you care whether I have both of mine?” She dug keys from her purse. “I’m driving my father’s car home.”

I looked at the only car besides my own in the parking lot. “That car belongs to your father?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

“I called him a cab and sent him to my house.”

“You sent him back to your house?
” I asked in disbelief. She hadn’t talked to the man in years, and she had sent him unaccompanied to her house?

“I did, and I’m going home.” Her heels clicked
against the asphalt as she began to walk to the car.

“Then I’m coming with you.”

She stopped and turned around, glaring at me. “No, you’re not.”

“But Dara….”

“You’re not afraid to go home to your father, and I’m not afraid to go home to mine. I know how much you hate him, so stay away.” She turned back around and walked to the car. I watched mutely, having no idea where I stood with her.

Part of me thought that I should go over there, regardless of whether she’d given me her permission, but I knew that having me and her father in the same vicinity would most likely end up with me going to jail.

And I assumed that I still had a wedding to attend, or did I?

When I arrived home, my parents were both sitting in the living room, presumably waiting on me.

My mother’s dark hair was neatly pulled back into a ponytail. A hint of a smile touched her lips when I entered the room, but I could tell it was forced. Her eyes were the same shade of blue as my own, and they were opened wider than normal as she waited to hear my report of the evening’s events.

“Well, who said the
Hamiltons couldn’t throw a memorable dinner party?” I joked.

“How’s Dara?” my mother asked, smoothing her hand over her ponytail.

“I assume she’s bonding with her father as we speak.”

“He can’t be there, Stone. He can’t be at the wedding. I won’t have it.”

“Olivia,” Dad said sternly, “maybe this should wait until morning.”

“No,” my mother said forcefully, scooting to the edge of the couch. “The wedding’s in two days. Stone, you know I love Dara, but if that man goes to the wedding, then I won’t be there. I can’t be there.”

“Olivia!”

“
It’s okay, Dad. Hell, I don’t even know if there will be a wedding. Apparently, my future wife doesn’t believe anything I have to say. While I realize I did lie about some things, I would’ve thought once I explained it that she would understand that I was doing what I thought was best for her.”

I raked my hands through my hair. “I don’t know. Maybe this is happening for a reason.”

“What are you saying?” Dad asked.

“I’m saying…I’m saying that if Dara chooses to believe her drunken father, a man who has never been there for her, a man who…killed my brother, over me,
then maybe we shouldn’t be married.”

“Stone, you don’t mean that,” my mother said softly.

“Yeah, actually, I think I do.”

Chapter 11

Stone

What was that annoying noise?

Finally finding the strength to open my eyes and acclimate myself to my surroundings, I realized it was my phone.

Bright sunlight filtered through the blinds
, and I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, wondering if it was Dara.

I’d had trouble falling asleep last night, and while based on the amount of light spilling into my room I knew it wasn’t overly early, I still wasn’t sure what time it actually was.

Our wedding was tomorrow, and I was still irked that she’d taken up for her father.

When my eyes focused on the number, I knew it wasn’t Dara, but I had
a pretty good idea who it was. That alone nearly guaranteed that this was going to be an interesting conversation. I answered the call and hit the
record
button on my phone.

“Hello,” I said angrily, my temper already flaring.

“Good morning.” He sounded too perky, and I wanted to ram my hands through the phone and pull him into my room.

“What do you want?”

“Money, of course.”

“And what makes you think I would give you more money?”

“Now that I made an appearance at the dinner, you know I’m not bluffing when I tell you that I
will
show up at the wedding. I’m just asking for another ten thousand dollars. You deliver it to me today, and I slip out tonight, leave a nice, little note for Dara, never to be heard from again.”

“Yeah
, you were supposed to disappear the last time. The deal never included involving her.”

“I had to up the ante.”

“Well, too late. You’ve done the damage now. I have no interest in striking any further deals with you.”

“Think how embarrassed your parents will be in front of all t
heir highfalutin friends. You could cancel the wedding, but you and I both know that would cost you more than a mere ten thousand dollars.”

That was a true enough statement.

“She loves you, you know.”

“Yeah, well we both know the kid’s better off without me.”

“I’ll have to see what I can do.”

“Don’t be getting any funny ideas. I won’t talk to you unless I know where
Dara is. If you tell her about this, I’ll give her some information.”

“What do you mean you’ll give her information?”

There was no answer. I looked at my phone and realized that he’d hung up.

I exhaled loudly. Would it never end?
And what information did he have on me? I couldn’t think of anything that should concern me. He’d only been out of jail a month. Had he had someone else following our relationship? Did he have something on my parents?

I tossed my phone on my bed, and my hands curled into fists. It took every drop of willpower I possessed not to storm over there and drag him out of the house.

Yet another quandary. I replayed the conversation, and the quality of the recording was perfect. I now had enough proof to back my version of events. But at what cost? Was he bluffing, or did he really have something about me or my family that I wouldn’t want Dara to know?

I showered, hoping the steam would help clear my head. Dylan was the only family member manning the office today while the rest of us made sure everything was ready for the wedding.
I thought about what I’d said to my parents last night. I wanted nothing more than to marry Dara, but before I did, I wanted to know that she trusted me. We’d been together for a long time, and I intended for our relationship to last a lifetime. But it bothered me deeply that even after I’d explained everything, she still hadn’t believed me.

The hours before the wedding were counting down. I needed to know whether Dara was going to believe in me as her husband, and if that weren’t enough to worry about the day before one’s wedding, I also needed to know what I should do about her father’s request.

I threw on jeans and a tee shirt. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

I called Dara, and she answered on the first ring. “Is your father still there?”

“Of course. Where else would he be?”

“Can you meet me at Quail Mountain Park in ten minutes? Don’t tell him you’re meeting me.”

“Okay.”

Ten mi
nutes later, I watched a car pull into the parking lot. As it approached me, I realized it was Dara driving her father’s vehicle. It was almost noon, and I needed to get things figured out before the bank closed. The only plus was that it was Friday, so closing time was a little later than normal.

She parked and walked toward me where I stood beside my motorcycle.
Her glossy, blond hair brushed across her shoulders as it billowed in a gust of wind.

“Hey,” she said, coming to a stop in front of me.

“Why are you driving his car?”

“It had my car blocked in.”

“How’s it going with your dad?” I was curious what her impression of him was now that she’d spent time with him.

“Good. He made me breakfast this morning.”

“So have y’all done a lot of talking?”

“
A little. He was asleep on the couch last night by the time I got home, so I just went to my room. But we talked some this morning. He mostly talked about Granny.”

“Did he say anything about why he showed up at dinner last night?” Th
e recording on my phone begged to be played. Part of me wanted to pull it out and play it for her right now, but I thought it might be better to wait and see what her impression of her father was now that she’d spent some one-on-one time with him.

“Why can’t you be happy for me that my Dad wants to walk his only daughter down the aisle?”
She didn’t sound angry. She sounded sad. In a perfect world, her doting father would be participating in all of the wedding festivities and giving away his baby girl, but this world, her world, was anything but perfect, at least where her father was concerned.

“How long have we been together, Dara? Surely you know that I would love nothing more than for you to have the ideal father.”

“Is there really such a thing as an ideal father, Stone? I’ve heard you and your dad get into some pretty bad arguments. No one’s perfect.”

“Did you really just lump my father and your father into the same category?
Really? You do realize that your father killed my brother, don’t you? If he shows up at the church tomorrow….”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I really needed to do a better job of thinking before I spouted out hurtful words.

“What? If he shows up tomorrow, what?”

I remained silent, wishing I could take back my words.

“What, Stone? If he shows up tomorrow, there won’t be a wedding?”

The hurt on her f
ace squeezed my heart like it had been tightened in a vice. “It would be devastating for my parents if your father was at the wedding.”

Her mouth pursed, and she glared at me. “I’ve done everything your parents wanted as far as the wedding’s concerned.
They would deny me having my father at my own wedding?”

“He’s not who you think he is, Dara.” And that was saying something because even the man she thought he was left much to be desired.

“I know he’s far from perfect, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to get to know him. If I do, I may never get this chance again. Look how great it worked out with my mom. Maybe it could be like that with him, too.”

“I know that’s what you want, babe. And I get it. I do. But you do remember that he blackmailed me, right?”

“It doesn’t make sense why my father would do that.”

I clamped my jaw shut. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“How do I know you’re not telling me that, so that I’ll turn my back on him?”

“Is that what you think?” I thundered, taking a step toward her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know you love me, Stone, and I don’t believe that you would do that to me. I shouldn’t have said that. I just don’t know what to believe. I mean if my dad had twenty-five thousand dollars, why is he driving that old, ugly car? Why did he tell me that he had nowhere to go?”

My instinct was to tell her that her dad was a con artist, but I wasn’t ready to spring that on her
just yet.

“I can’t deal with this right now. Maybe we need to postpone the wedding until I can sort through all this.”

“That’s what you want? You want to postpone the wedding?”

“I don’t want to, Stone,” she yelled
, waving her hands, “but we’re obviously at an impasse. Your family can’t stand the thought of him at the wedding, and I can’t stand the thought of refusing to let him walk me down the aisle if that’s what he really wants. I’ve wanted him to love me my entire life, Stone. My entire life.”

My own anger diffused when I heard the sadness in her voice. I knew how much she’d missed having her parents when she was growing up.

“I can’t do this right now.” She turned and strode toward her father’s car.

“Where’re you going?” I called, hoping that she would come back.

“Home to spend time with my dad.”

So much for answers.
I had no idea how we were going to work all this shit out before our wedding tomorrow.

She screamed in frustration. At first, I thought she was just frustrated with the situation like I was, but when I saw her stoop beside the front
tire, I realized that she had a flat.

I walked toward her. “Pop the trunk, and I’ll put the spare on.”

She moved to the rear of the car while I stopped to examine the tire. As I was searching for a nail or other debris from the road, I heard her exclaim, “No! No, no, no.”

Concerned from the tone of her voice, I quickly strode toward her. “What’s wrong?”

She had opened the compartment that held the spare and found a small, black bag with the Hamilton Enterprises logo embroidered on it—the same bag that I had used to deliver the twenty-five thousand dollars.

Her hands shook as she picked the bag up and unzipped it. Stacks of money were immediately visible, and although it was clear from
a small pile of loose bills that he’d spent some of the money, most of it was still intact, fastened securely with the bands from the bank.

T
ears streamed down her face. “All he wanted was money, wasn’t it? It was never about me.”

I would have expected to feel vindicated, but I didn’t. The hellish torment on her face shredded my heart with its unrelenting pain and agony.
I wished a million times over that she’d never overheard the conversation about the wedding that led up to this moment, and I wished that her father had taken the money and left. This was what I had tried so hard to avoid. This was the reason that I had lied to her in the first place. This was the horrible reality from which I wanted to save her.

But I didn’t. And now
the love of my life would suffer the consequences of my failure. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it would remove her blinders where her father was concerned, and she could spend the rest of her life focusing on the people who loved her, not on someone who wasn’t capable of giving her the relationship that she deserved.

I had no words to soothe her. She dropped the bag like it had been filled with evil spirits. I just opened my arms and motioned for her to come to me, and she did. She clung to me, whispering over and over again how sorry she was that she didn’t see it sooner.
I kissed her temple and stroked her back, wishing that if I held her closely enough, I could soak in her pain and free her from her misery. I would gladly suffer it for her a thousand times over if I could keep her from feeling it even once. I loved her so damn much, and as if I didn’t already hate her father enough for what he had done to Luke, I hated him even more for what he was doing to Dara.

She pulled back and looked at me, her mascara smudged under her eyes. “Please, Stone, tell me that you still love me.
Please,” she begged, her heartrending sobs racking her body.

I lifted the silver heart from its resting place just below the hollow of her neck. It was the pendant from the
necklace that she always wore, the one I had given her to celebrate our one year engagement anniversary. I had to admit that I loved the fact that she felt it was special enough to keep on her person at all times. “What does this say?” I whispered.

“Stone and Dara.”

“Because it’s you and me for as long as I live.”

I lifted her fingers to the pendant. “What did I tell you about the shape of the heart?”

“That when I feel it, I know how much you love me.”

“That’s right.
Because I do love you, Dara. I will always love you. And I want to make you my wife tomorrow.”

She nodded and lifted her lips to mine. I kissed her slowly, tenderly, as my hands slid to her waist and gently squeezed her reassuringly. She was my world.