Chloe was rubbing her horse down and laughing at something Daniel had just said when she heard footsteps approaching the stables. The smile was still on her face when she looked up and saw Miles in the doorway, but it soon died away as she saw the expression in his eyes. He was angry. Furiously, undeniably angry. So much so that he barely even acknowledged his sister or his nephew, who both looked nervously between him and Chloe before making their goodbyes and heading up to the house.
“Is something wrong?” Chloe asked, her fingers clutching tight around the currycomb in her hand as if her life depended on it.
“Who are you? Really?” Miles demanded.
Waves of rage billowed off him, and Chloe swallowed against the knot of fear that now constricted her throat.
“I... I’m Chloe Fitzgerald. Just like I always told you. I never lied about who I am.”
“Chloe Fitzgerald. Daughter of Loretta and John Fitzgerald of Royal, Texas.”
Her legs began to shake. He knew? How? What had happened?
“Miles, please. I was going to tell you. I wanted to tell you so many times.”
“Really? We’ve been virtually glued at the hip for the past two and a half weeks. Living side by side, sleeping together, making love—”
His voice broke on the last two words, and Chloe felt her heart begin to shatter into a million tiny pieces. He dragged in a breath and continued.
“I trusted you. I brought you here. To my family home. And you—” His voice broke off and he shook his head. “I don’t even know what kind of agenda you had. Can you imagine how it felt to have someone else inform me as to your true identity? You violated every level of trust I placed in you. I can’t believe I was that blind. Did it give you a good laugh to deceive me? And, tell me, our first meeting—it was a sham right from the start, wasn’t it?”
“Miles, I’m sorry—”
He put up a hand, halting her in whatever she’d been about to say next.
“Don’t. Just don’t bother lying to me anymore. I want you out of here. I’ve arranged a car for you to the airport and a charter flight to get you home. After that, you’re on your own.”
He turned to leave and she shot across the short distance that separated them and grabbed hold of his arm.
“And you’re just dumping me like that? Without hearing me out? Without trying to understand any of this from my point of view?”
“Sure looks that way,” he said harshly, and shook off her hand.
“Miles, I love you.”
“Oh, don’t go making this any worse than it already is. I think we’ve already established you’re a liar.”
“But I haven’t lied to you. I might have omitted to tell you everything about my family’s background, but I haven’t lied.”
“So you’re saying our meeting was a coincidence?”
“No.” She
shook her head. “I’m not. I did force our meeting. I had this ridiculous idea that I could somehow insert myself into your life and learn what I could about your family with a view to using what I learned to somehow help my mom get her life back on track. She’s lived with the misery of knowing your father’s actions drove my father to suicide all these years. She wanted some kind of payback. And me? Well, I wanted my mom back.”
“Payback? Why not call it what it is. Revenge.” His voice was cold, and the expression on his face told her it tasted as bad in his mouth as admitting it to him had tasted in hers. “I can’t believe I was so stupid as to fall for you.”
She felt each word as if it was a stab to her heart.
“Miles, I never expected to fall in love with you, either.”
“Oh, so that makes what you did better? I don’t think so. You’ve not only betrayed me, you’ve betrayed my whole family. I’ve said my piece. The car will be here in fifteen minutes. Make sure you’re in it when it leaves.”
He started to walk away from her again, and she knew she had only one last chance to try and make this right.
“You have no idea what it’s like. To see your father crumble from the strong and healthy man who loved and supported you to someone who just sat in a chair and wept constantly. I was eight years old. Eight! It terrified me. And when he decided it was easier to take his life than to face rebuilding it with my mom and me, I was the one who found him. It was...horrifying.
“And then my mom fell apart. She’d held it together through the worst of the company stuff, but after he died she lost it. She still hasn’t recovered. Yes, she’s bitter and, yes, that bitterness transferred to me. Have I spent every day since my father killed himself wondering if one day I’d come home and discover my mom had done the same thing? Of course, I have.”