Stella’s words ring loudly because, at the time, I thought she was referring to me, but in reality, she was referring to herself.
“You fell in love with him?” I ask even though I know the answer. “But you couldn’t get past him being poor. So you ridiculed him so no one would suspect you had feelings for him.”
I wrap my arms around my middle, shaking my head in disbelief. “I’m just like you,” I whisper, tears filling my eyes. “But I saw past the superficial shit and loved Cayden for him, not his social standing. I didn’t care what his surname was.”
“It was different for me,” Stella cries, emotion filling her for the first time. “I would have been disinherited. A laughing stock. My parents would have disowned me. Where would that have left me?”
“So money was more important than happiness?” I question, unable to understand.
“You rarely can have both, Peyton,” she says regrettably, but I disagree.
Will is sick of standing on the sidelines as he rushes toward Stella, gripping her biceps and shaking her like a rag doll. “I loved you, but you used me. All I was, was someone to make you feel good. To tell you how pretty you were. How special you were. And you were, until you tore out my fucking heart!”
“You knew what we had. It never could have been anything more,” Stella says, and it’s hard to believe these two felt an iota of love for each other.
“You turned me into the man I am today.” Will shoves her backward.
She’s unsteady on her feet but soon recovers. “Don’t you dare pin that on me. The choices you made were yours alone. I never forced you to turn into the sick individual you are!”
He narrows his eyes. “You just fed the beast, Star. All of this is your fault.”
It’s evident Stella hurt Will beyond repair, resulting in Cayden and me paying the price. “You left this place and forgot about me, but I never forgot.” Will points the gun at Stella, and kudos to her, she doesn’t flinch. “Your daughter falling in love with my son was poetic justice. But she looked so much like you…”
I gulp as his faraway tone reveals he’s transported back to another time.
“And it turns out she was exactly like you. A tease.” He turns slowly, training the pistol on me. I could cower, but I don’t. I stand unbending, refusing to show weakness.
“Leave her out of this,” Stella pleads, which stuns me. It’s still hard to accept her as anything but the ruthless bitch I’ve come to believe she is. But seeing her this way…I don’t know what to think. “I’ve done what you wanted. For ten long years, I was a prisoner…to you.”
“What?” There must be some mistake. She knew he was alive this entire time? “What’s going on?” I manage to spit out.
Stella sighs as she unburdens her soul. “Will told me what you’d done.” I blink once, the walls closing in on me. “He said he was going to the police. There was only one way I could stop him,” she confesses wretchedly.
I cover my mouth, sickened. “No.”
“Oh, yes,” Will declares with a grin. “And she loved it…every single time. She gave up what you wouldn’t.”
“You bastard!” I launch forward, intent on killing him with my bare hands, but he waves the gun, stopping me dead in my tracks.
“Once he got what he wanted, I thought he’d go away. That was the agreement,” Stella says, glowering at Will. “I was to…sleep with him, and he would leave you alone. But it wasn’t enough.”
“You owed me, Star. Money was so important to you, more important than what we had. So it was time I took it away from you.”
I watch on in disbelief.
“So I paid him a lot of money to stay dead. But I didn’t doubt for a second, that he wouldn’t go back on his word, which is why I had to pay Cayden to keep you safe. If you stayed far away from here, there was no way he would find you. You would be safe. You’d never have to pay for my mistakes ever again,” she confesses, her eyes filling with tears.
The sight is too much, and I curl in on myself, heartbroken. “All this time, you were protecting me from Will and not Cayden?”
“Yes.”
What a fool I’ve been.
Everything falls into place, and even with amnesia, one thing is clear. “Cayden isn’t his father. He’s a good man. But he was a reminder of the past. One you wanted to forget.”
“I couldn’t trust Will wouldn’t come back. I had to keep you apart. I make no excuses for wanting to keep you safe. But I never knew you came back here over the years. If I had, I would have told you the truth. Will told me Cayden used you out of spite for what I did. Which is why I was so opposed to you being together. I thought he was just like his father. But I’m beginning to think I was wrong.”
Pieces of the puzzle are forming a picture, but there are still so many questions.
“If you got, what I imagine, was a hefty sum of money, why did you come back?” I ask Will, hating I can now see the visual similarities between him and Cayden because Cayden is nothing like him.
Will appears thrilled to finally be the center of attention. “Because Star is right. Money can’t buy happiness. For a few years, having all the money at my disposal kept the demons at bay. But I grew bored. Idle hands and all that,” he says casually while I shake my head at his flippant attitude.
“I decided to pay my son and daughter a visit, but I never intended on seeing you. I was certain you’d moved on, just like your mom, but there you were, just as much in love with him like when you were kids, and that fucking…pissed me off. You all had moved on, happy to have me gone. And well, that didn’t seem fair.”
I stare at him, stunned at how pathetic he sounds.
Wetting my lips, I squash down my nerves because I have to know. “Did you…run me off the road?”
Stella inhales sharply while I dare not breathe.
“I couldn’t let you leave. You were the only way I could make sure Star would come back here.”
“You’re sick,” I gasp, horrified. “I was pregnant, pregnant with your grandchild,” I reveal, tears stinging my eyes.
His mouth parts, and just when I think I’ll see a sliver of humanity, he shrugs. “An eye for an eye. You killed me. Well, you thought you did.”
A fierce anger spews from me, and I can’t stop myself as I storm forward, intent on slapping that grin from his cheeks. But he reminds me who’s in charge when he points the gun in my face. “I dare you, doll.”
At this moment, I don’t care, let him do his worst, but Stella is my voice of reason as she cries, “Peyton, no! Don’t. Just tell us what you want, Will.”
He inhales deeply, briefly closing his eyes in satisfaction at hearing her beg. “Always so impatient,” he tsks, smirking. This is clearly a joke to him. But I shouldn’t expect anything less. Cayden told me what he did to him growing up.
Will is a monster—a deranged, delusional monster who is back to settle old scores.
“I want everyone to know who you really are,” Will says, pinning Stella will a stone-cold glower. “I want all your country club friends to know about us.”
“What?” She gasps, taking a small step back. “Why? They don’t even know who you are.”