Today, I’m going to take it easy. I’m even going to have a half day and head out to the spa around lunchtime.
I’ve been doing all sorts of things over the last few weeks in prep for my interview. I finished off my next serial, so I wouldn’t have to worry about deadlines over the next few weeks. Everything is scheduled to be on autopilot.
I head to my office, feeling lighter in my steps. After the spa, I’ll be good and ready to go to dinner with Knight later.
We’re going to this Japanese restaurant on Main that I haven’t been to before.
Things have changed between us again since we agreed we’d be staying together. With that tension gone, we feel like a married couple, and dare I say it… I’m truly happy.
I’m truly, truly happy, and so in love with him it feels unreal sometimes.
I love everything he does for me and how he goes out of his way to make sure I don’t have to worry.
The way he took down Nathan and dealt with the whole Rachel thing has lifted a massive burden from my shoulders in such a way that I feel like I’ve been given a new life.
As soon as Knight put a stop to her madness, I got a call from Montrose Magazine letting me know they’d reconsidered my application and wanted me to work for them.
I respectfully declined, and it felt good.
There was a time when I would have done backflips to receive such an offer. But I didn’t want to work for a company that didn’t value me after I’d worked so hard for them, and for so many years. The years I interned for them were some of the best in my life.
Now it’s time to fold over a new page and start afresh on the path to success.
I reach the corridor leading to my office, and my breath stills when I see that the door is wide open. As I’m the only person who would have gone in there between last night and today, it shouldn’t be.
Security wouldn’t have opened it without messaging me to let me know they had and why.
I think of Nathan, but he shouldn’t be here. He’s in prison.
But what if he got out and came back for me?
The cameras would have surely picked him up, and again, security would have alerted me or Knight.
So, who opened my door?
At first, I stop, then curiosity gets the better of me and I move forward like one of those naïve, unsuspecting characters in a horror film that the people watching scream at to run away because they know the killer is inside waiting.
By the time I reach the door, my nerves have tangled into double fisherman’s knots, but who I find inside sitting on my chair with their feet up on my desk freezes my skin colder than an arctic wind.
It’s Bastian Grayson. Knight’s brother.
His eyes, just like Knight’s, fix on me. It’s strange how all the Grayson men except their grandfather have those cold, uncaring azure-blue eyes designed to make you feel unhinged in every way.
But Bastian, when he stares at me, it’s with a soulless, heartless look that makes my skin feel like it might flee from my body.
What the hell is he doing here?
We’ve never spoken at all throughout this entire time, and I never needed to be told that I shouldn’t speak to him.
What does he want from me?
“Relax, poor girl. You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” His voice is feather soft but as cold as a tomb.
“It’s just that you and I have never spoken before. Obviously, I’m shocked to find you in my office.” He grins with a malevolence that turns my blood to ice water.
“Of course, it would be a shock. Do forgive me.” Although he says that, it’s clear it’s not something he means. Men like him only use words like forgive as props. “The guard let me in. I told him I was your brother-in-law, and I had some very important information I needed to tell you. Call it an emergency if you will.”
What the hell could he want to tell me?
I narrow my eyes at him and look him over from the neat blond faux hawk on top of his head to the brown leather Brogues on his feet.
“What sort of information do you have?”
“The truth about your dearly beloved.”
I smirk and shake my head, disgusted by whatever attempt this must be to tarnish Knight’s character. “I’m not interested in hearing anything about my husband from you.”
His smile becomes as wide as a football pitch, taking up most of his face. Then he flicks his feet off the desk and straightens, resting his arms on the top as if this is his office, and I’m the one who’s the unwanted guest.
“Believe me, you’ll want to know this, along with all the sordid details about your arranged marriage, the reasons your husband wanted Sunset Cove, and what he did to take it from you.”
“I’m fully aware of the details of my marriage and Sunset Cove.”
He makes a face feigning surprise, then shakes his head. “Oh no, no, no. The things you know are only what Knight has allowed you to know. He wouldn’t have told you how he blackmailed your father to usurp his power and steal your inheritance from you.”
My mouth goes bone dry, then the bitter taste of shock clogs my throat. “What are you talking about?”
“Why don’t you come closer and find out?”
I slink toward him, my legs suddenly a quivering mess, feeling like they don’t belong to me. I stop in front of my desk and see he has a big brown envelope resting in his lap.
That’s never a good sign.
Blackmail.
Bastian said Knight blackmailed my father.
Did he?
Is that what he really did?
Would he have done something like that?
Something always felt like it didn’t add up right from the start between Dad and Knight, but everything else was so bad that I couldn’t conceive what that something might be.
Could it be this?
“What do you think Knight blackmailed my father with? He paid my father’s debts in exchange for Sunset Cove. The only way he could get that is by marrying me.”
“You really believe it was as simple as that?” He quirks a hard brow and looks at me as if I’m so naïve I’d believe pink elephants are zooming across the sky right at this moment.
“What more is there?”
Bastian steeples his fingers on the desk and regards me with keen, observant eyes.
“Months ago, my grandfather announced he was retiring and splitting the main two branches of Grayson Inc. into two separate companies.” He pulls his fingers apart and sits back in my chair. “The flagship company would go to my father, and the other company on Park Avenue, which is just as good as the main, if not better, would be led by two of the three Grayson brothers. One would be CEO and take full leadership, the other would be chief financial officer. It’s an empire waiting to happen, and my grandfather, being the crafty man he is, made us compete for the role, when really he wanted Knight to take control.”
I’ve been completely kept out of all business matters, so this is surprising. I didn’t even know their grandfather was retiring. “Why didn’t your grandfather just give it to him?”
“No, not this time. Not with his precious legacy. He wanted us to earn it and impress him to get it. To impress him, he asked Knight to get Sunset Cove, and that’s what he did. Here’s where you come in, sweetheart. First, Knight got rid of the man set to marry you. Then he twisted your father into a corner so deep there was no way out other than for him to agree to whatever Knight wanted. Your father is your executor, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Here. It’s important that you read this first. It’s a grant of permission letter from your mother to your father in regard to Sunset Cove.” He reaches into the envelope and pulls out what looks like a printout of a handwritten letter then he holds it out for me to take.
I wasn’t aware that anything else existed outside of Mom’s will.
I take the letter from him and read.
It says:
Dearest William,
I am writing this letter to give you additional flexibility in handling the administration of Sunset Cove.
Certain situations may arise where I would prefer for you to handle them with the love and discretion of a parent, as opposed to the matter being decided in court.
This letter gives you full rights and permission to act on Aurora’s behalf in the event of any extenuating circumstances while you remain her executor.
This includes but is not limited to the permission to sell the property and any associated measures in relation to the ownership.
Everything else should remain as stated in the will.
I trust you will always make the right decisions for our daughter.
All my love,
Susana
I’m gripping the letter as if I want to hold on to what would have been part of my mother’s final words. The more I read and re-read, the more the words sink in, and I understand the power this gives my father.
With this letter, he could decide anything for me and bend the rules in extenuating circumstances. I’d say he took his debts to mean exactly that.
“Finished?” Bastian asks with a broken melody to his tone. It sounds like an off-key note on a piano.
“Yes.” My voice is barely audible over the drumming of my heart in my ears.
“Good, now here’s the first punch. Sunset Cove is a nice little investment, especially if you’re going to do it up and sell it to a Russian oligarch looking to spread his wings in the Hamptons.”
“Sell?” The word falls from my lips like a rock hitting the bottom of the ocean. “Knight wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, but he is,” Bastian answers and slides another document toward me. This one is an offer from Vladimir Markovich for the sale of Sunset Cove for three hundred million.
Fucking hell …
Three. Hundred. Million. I’ve never even seen that figure written down before in my life.
But, three hundred million for something I consider priceless?
Am I crazy to think that?
In the grand scheme of things, I have nothing, but realistically, it’s not like that money would be mine.
There at the bottom of the offer is Knight’s name and signature with the agreement that Sunset Cove will be sold seven months from the date of the offer, pending all the terms and conditions are met. There’s nothing mentioned about me. It’s like I don’t exist when it comes to this one asset that was so precious to my mother.
“How can he do this without my permission?” I can barely form the words as they scramble in my brain. “I still own ten percent.”
“Sorry, sweetheart, your ten percent means fuck all. With the provision of your mother’s letter, when your father agreed to Knight’s contract, he also gave authorization to act on your behalf in all circumstances. Meaning he could sell without your knowledge, but the sale wouldn’t be finalized until the six months of your marriage was up.”
My God.
How could Knight do this to me?
He would have known I would never agree to sell Sunset Cove for anything.
“Now, how about we get to all the ways Knight blackmailed your father into doing this?” Bastian proceeds to take out a wad of printouts from the envelope and spreads them out on the desk.
“This is evidence of your father stealing millions from his clients and the Italian mafia to save his company. But instead of using the money for the intended purposes, he gambled it away and drank himself to sickness. Rehab barely helped him get back on his feet.”
My stomach plummets to the earth, pulling my lungs inside out.
My head feels so light from the sudden loss of air that my knees give and I have to grab on to the edge of the desk to keep myself from falling over.
Dad …
No.
Dad? My father stealing millions from his clients.
And the mafia? Then getting addicted to gambling and alcohol?
Jesus.
“That can’t be true.”
With an I’m-taking-pleasure-in-your-misery smile on his fucking face, Bastian pulls out document after document after document from the envelope. All evidence of the bomb he just dropped on me.
There are bank statements showing the debts owed by Wright Investments, bank statements from offshore accounts in Switzerland showing millions, then going down to zero in the space of a month, medical reports showing Dad’s stay at various clinics, and details of medications for depression and therapy bills. And there is a numerous amount of emails between Dad and men with Italian names.
There’s a lot to read through, but I’ve seen enough to get the picture of what happened.
I can’t even be mad at my father for anything because it was clear he was floundering, drowning in sorrow, debt, and grief. If anything, I feel awful I wasn’t there for him.
“Knight threatened to expose your father.” Bastian runs his fingers over the documents. “If he had, your father would have lost everything, but worst of all, the mafia would have killed him, and you too.”
My breath becomes staccato sips of air. I feel like such a fool.
This is pure evil, and I can’t believe we’re talking about the same man I fell for.
But once again, I’m the fool. I fell so deeply into the web of lies and deceit Knight set for me that I didn’t even know I was trapped.
Bastian places a hand over his heart as if he has one. “I’ve done some fucked-up things in my time, but damn, my brother takes the award for the world’s biggest asshole. And you know what’s worse? It was clear your father was a man who was deeply troubled, grieving the loss of his wife and doing what he could to keep his sanity. This all started when he lost everything to save your mother. If anybody should understand what it feels like to be in such a position, it’s Knight.” He switches his gaze behind me, looking at the door, and smiles the way you would expect a snake to. “Isn’t that right, brother?”
I look behind me, and my heart triple-beats when my gaze lands on Knight standing in the doorframe looking like death.
Although I’m looking at him with a million questions in my eyes, he’s not focusing on me. His gaze, filled with revulsion, is fixed on Bastian with that same soulless look.
“Nobody should have understood what it’s like to fight to save someone you love more than you.” Bastian keeps his gaze riveted to Knight. “Didn’t you give Giselle your left kidney so she could have a few more years of life? It didn’t work, but still, you did it.”
My God in Heaven.
Knight gave Giselle his kidney!
This news hits me almost harder than anything else and despite the truth I now know, my heart still goes out to him.
I think back to the conversation we had weeks ago about Giselle. Knight mentioned that the failure of her last treatment led to her death.
It was his kidney. He gave her his kidney. But it didn’t work.
I can’t begin to think of what he must have gone through.
But how could Knight go through something so similar to my father and treat him the way he did?
I stare at him and the rest of the puzzle surrounding Knight Grayson completes. I see him for who he is. A man who’s broken and deadly, heartless and desolate, callous and not who I believed him to be.
“This poor man was no different to you, and you took advantage,” Bastian continues. “But it’s so, so typical of you because you’re ruthless, Knight.”
Bastian is … right.
He’s actually right, even if I don’t want him to be.
Knight obviously loved Giselle enough to sacrifice a part of himself. I know if my father could have done that for my mother, he would.
Knight should have understood what my father went through, and if anything he ever said to me was true, then there were several moments over the last few months when he could have come clean and at the very least tell me he was planning to sell Sunset Cove.
But he wanted the empire more than me.
Bastian stands and points to the litter of documents on my desk. “There’s more where that came from, sweetheart. That’s just your copy. I’ll leave you two to talk.”
With that, he walks out, knocking his shoulder into Knight’s as he passes him. I’m sure if circumstances were different, Knight would have bodychecked him into the wall.
Knight finally looks at me, his face reflecting a myriad of emotions. He looks like a person who thought he already lost everything, then discovered there was more to lose.
He steps forward and even comes close enough that I catch that scent of musk, the forest, and him, but I put my hand up and shake my head.
I can’t do this.
I won’t.
It’s too much.
“Aurora…” His voice sounds as rusty as a pipe that hasn’t been used in a hundred years.
“No. Just no.” I shake my head with more vigor, trying to hold back my tears.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you? I don’t think you are. I think you’re sorry because you were exposed. How could you take such advantage of my father? How could you be so selfish? And Sunset Cove, Knight?” My breath hitches on the wave of emotion that cuts into me when I think of the lengths he went through to screw me over. “Look how much you have. What’s your net worth this week, Knight? What is it today? But you had to tie my father’s hands behind his back to take the one thing my mother left me. Then you made me beg to use her designs. Now I’m being told it’s up for sale. You knew I wouldn’t be okay with that. But congratulations, you got what you wanted, and it wasn’t me.”
“Aurora, please—”
“Leave me alone. Just leave me alone. Bastian is right, but you’re not just ruthless, you have no heart. I wish I’d never met you.”
I walk away before the tears come, and I’m glad he doesn’t follow.
My heart shatters with every step I take.
As my soul weeps, I curse the night I met Knight Grayson.
He truly was my destroyer.
