There had to be another way. He’d figure something out. He always did.
“Wade, are you still awake?”
“Yes.”
Tori rolled off his chest and looked at him. “What was this trip about, really?”
Wade frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The hotel, the food, the champagne—that’s a lot of effort just to make up for the whole job thing.”
He supposed it might seem that way, but he didn’t mind. Having money and powerful connections allowed him the luxury of doing things for people when he wanted to. “You’re worth the effort.”
“You are, too, you know.”
Wade had the sudden urge to climb out of bed and go get a drink, but Tori had her arms clasped around him like steel manacles. He swallowed hard. “You’re just supposed to say thank you.”
“Thank you.” Tori held him in place with her icy blue eyes. “What happened to you, Wade?”
He knew what she meant without her elaborating. He was surprised. Few people ever bothered to ask him about his life before the Edens, so he didn’t tell the story very often. Those who mattered in his life already knew. Except Tori. She mattered. More than he ever wanted or expected her to.
“A person doesn’t become such an overachiever, so driven to prove himself, without a reason,” she pressed. “You don’t have to do things to impress me. I don’t need ten-course French dinners and penthouses in Manhattan to want to spend time with you. What are you trying to prove? And to whom?”
With a sigh Wade let his head drop back against the pillows. If he had to talk about it, at least it was dark and he didn’t have to look at her. “For a long time I thought I was trying to be a good son for the Edens. To repay them for taking me in and helping me turn my life around. All the good it did me, since they wouldn’t accept my money when I tried to give it to them. Then I wondered if maybe I wasn’t trying to prove to…those who left…that I was worth keeping.”
“Like your mother?”
“Yes. And others. My mother was still in high school when she got pregnant. I wasn’t exactly part of her plans. So, after she had me, she played at being a mom for a while. When that didn’t work out, she took me over to her aunt’s house. What was supposed to be a couple hours of babysitting turned into seven years. She just never came back.”
Wade could hear Tori’s breath catch in her throat. He didn’t want her pity. That was why he never told anyone about this. He’d rather people saw him as the strong, powerful businessman. That was the point, wasn’t it? To keep this part hidden? And yet he wanted to tell her everything now that he’d started talking. He wanted to let Tori in.
“My aunt never married and wasn’t particularly interested in having children, but it wasn’t bad with her. I didn’t know any different. When she died of breast cancer and my mother was still off the grid, I ended up in the foster system. She had never terminated her parental rights, so I couldn’t be adopted even if someone had wanted to. I doubt anyone but the Edens would have. I bounced around a lot. I was an angry child. Rebellious. A trouble starter. I had a lot of crap to work through for a ten-year-old, but it was how I coped. I guess it was easier to push people away than to get close to someone who would eventually cast me aside. But the Edens didn’t fall for that game. They wouldn’t let me push them away. They believed in me. So I changed my tactic to be the best man I could possibly be.”
“And now you’re successful, powerful and have a family that loves you.”
“And you know what that got me?” he said, a bitter edge creeping into his voice.
“What?”
“A mother showing up on my doorstep with her hand out.”
“What did you do?”
“Well, as you said, I’m always out to prove myself, so I did what I felt I should. I gave her a lump sum of cash and bought her a house as far from New York as I could get—in San Diego. And I made her sign a contract agreeing to never contact me or anyone in my family again, or she’d have to repay me for everything.”
Tori’s grip on him tightened ever so slightly. “And she agreed to that?”
Wade had not been there for the contract negotiation, but his lawyer told him she couldn’t sign fast enough. There was a part of him that had hoped she wouldn’t. That she had changed and wanted to get to know the son she’d abandoned. He’d been a fool for even entertaining that fantasy. “Without hesitating. So in the end, my money and my success didn’t prove anything to anyone.”