Fake Marriage (Contemporary Romance Box Set)

“Then you’re going to give that money back to Mo, or I’ll ruin you. I hope you like having a shit factory as a neighbor.”

“Get off my property,” my father said in a low, menacing voice as he pointed out toward the road.

“No problem.” She sniffed. “The company here stinks, anyway.”

She walked to her car, giving me a hateful glare as she got into the driver’s seat and drove away. I felt sick. My whole body was shaking as I realized the ramifications of my father’s decision.

I stood and started inside.

“Where are you going, Brooke?” my father asked. “It better not be back to that pervert.”

There was no use in talking to him, so I ignored him and went to my room. I was going to pack, but then I remembered that I hadn’t packed to come home, so there was nothing I needed to pack to go back to Mo’s. I sank on my bed, wondering if he’d even want me back. He must think I abandoned him. God, if he thought like Sinclair did, that this whole thing was a plot to simply get his money and ruin him…

“You’re not going back,” my father said from the doorway.

“I’m going to talk to him, and if he’ll have me, I will go back.”

My father’s jaw tightened. “No, you won’t.”

“Chances are, he won’t forgive me, but I’ll fulfill the year so that he doesn’t have to pay back the trust.”

“He knew what he was doing, Brooke.”

I shot up. “He trusted you.”

“And I trusted him,” my father bellowed back.

I shook my head. “Why won’t you listen to me when I say I love him? I wanted him.”

“You’re only twenty-two years old. You don’t know what you want.”

God, I was so tired of all this. “I’m the same age mom was when you married her.”

“Yes, and I was her age, not old enough to be her father.”

I shook my head. “If you cared anything about me, you’d—”

“I’m protecting you, Brooke. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I am.”

There was no reason to be in my room since I wasn’t packing, so I started out. “You’re not protecting me. I’m a grown woman who can make my own decisions.”

“Don’t you walk out on me. I promise you, I’ll ruin him if you do.”

“Then you’ll ruin me, too. And don’t underestimate Sinclair. She will make you look just as bad, and I won’t stop her.” I stopped for a minute and studied the man who raised me with good morals. He taught me about love and loyalty. Where was that now? “Mo saved us. At the very least, I have to make sure he doesn’t lose everything because he loved you enough to risk everything. If you do that, Dad, I won’t ever respect you again.”

His eyes widened in surprise.

“A man with honor and integrity wouldn’t do to Mo what you’re threatening. Not under these circumstances.” I turned and headed back up the hall to the front door.

“If you walk out of here, don’t expect to come back when it turns out he was just using you.”

I stopped at the door but didn’t turn. “Mo might not want me anymore, but he’d never abandon me. Not like you.” Tears were streaming down my face. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to drive, but I was going to leave, even if I had to walk along the highway back to Mo’s.

I was by my car when the front door slammed shut. So that was it. My father was so pigheaded that he’d let me go? I could understand how he’d feel betrayed, and even that it was weird, maybe even creepy, that Mo and I had been together. But if he loved us, wouldn’t he try to see things our way? As I’d learned, the answer was no.

I drove over to Mo’s house and waited for him to come home. And waited. And waited. I checked my watch at seven and wondered what had happened to him. Was he okay? Had he left town? I looked in my purse for my phone before remembering my father had taken it, and I didn’t get it back before I left.

With no sign of Mo, and nowhere else to go, I drove to town. I parked at the inn and hoped that Tucker would take me in. God, he was going to regret having moved here after all the drama I was putting him through.