Falling for the Brother

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I want you to stay away from Mason.” Miriam’s tone didn’t carry the same anger Harper had read in her expression. It might have been there, but was veiled.

“I don’t…”

“Grace told me, when he was late coming back for her, that he said he had a meeting with you while she was with me. I thought he was waiting outside, or running an errand, or maybe having breakfast…”

With no idea where this was going and Brianna’s paternity heavy on her conscience, Harper didn’t respond.

“Bruce will be hurt all over again… Mason seeing you… I want you to stop.”

It was like a curtain of black gauze came down over Harper, a barrier, and yet offering no protection. The pain Miriam was inflicting came from within Harper.

“He’s investigating a case of abuse against you.” She chose her words carefully. “I’m the officer in charge of your protection.”

“Don’t try that one on me…” Miriam stopped and visibly gathered herself as her anger started to appear.

“Bruce has been in touch with me, too,” Harper added, to reassure her. “He called to let me know that he and Mason are working together to bring you home.”

“The boys are talking? Working together?” The light that suddenly appeared in Miriam’s eyes was a beautiful thing. Harper had loved Miriam deeply during her time in the family. There was no doubt in her mind that Miriam’s heart was good, that her entire life was dedicated to her family.

She nodded, as Miriam looked to her for confirmation, but didn’t say any more. The details of the case weren’t hers to divulge.

Disappointed that she hadn’t been called for a big revelation, she was nonetheless relieved that she’d been able to allay Miriam’s fears and started to rise, to get back to the work that was going to keep her sane over the coming weeks.

Mason was Brianna’s father…

“That’s even more of a reason. I’m begging you.” Miriam spoke again, and Harper settled back in her seat. “Leave Mason alone. I…” Miriam’s hand on Harper’s was weaker than she remembered. And a huge surprise. “Please, Harper, you’re a good mother to that sweet little girl, a good cop. Just…please…leave Mason alone. If you want to be part of our family, I will welcome you, but you belong with Bruce. He adores you.”

After her time with Mason in the alcove that morning, she was pretty sure he adored her, too. And knew she adored him. So what about him? Did he simply not matter because Bruce, who’d been unfaithful to her on many occasions, had met her first?

She’d slept with Mason before things had been fully resolved between her and Bruce. After she’d formally broken their engagement. And then she’d married Bruce anyway.

She’d made that choice.

“He told me about you and Mason.” Miriam’s tone was soft, but there was no disguising the anger brimming in it. “After you left…he told me.”

Harper had no words for that.

“I can understand how much it hurt you that he slept with that perp, but it’s acceptable, from a legal standpoint, for an undercover to have sex while undercover if he must do so to preserve his cover as long as it’s not entrapment, as in a prostitution case. While doing so as a married man carries other ethical concerns, at least he came right home and told you. But you—you who’d slept with his brother—couldn’t forgive him.”

Bruce had told Miriam about her and Mason?

Deflecting the blame from himself.

It was like Mason had said. Bruce used his own version of the truth, his own perspective, to keep himself in people’s favor. He hadn’t told Miriam about sleeping with Gwen, though.

“He said you’d always wanted Mason…” Oh, God. It was true. She hadn’t realized Bruce had known. She hadn’t even admitted the truth to herself until the past week.

Not with full consciousness.

“He told me how it happened, that you got drunk with Mason one night, and Mason took you to his place to sleep it off. How he gave you his room and took the couch. Then, when he was asleep, you went to him in the living room and threw yourself at him. When he didn’t call you the next day, you still wanted to marry Bruce. But it wasn’t like you thought it was going to be, was it? Being with Bruce wasn’t a way to stay close to Mason. To see him, when he shunned you. He never came around. You being there kept him from his brother, from his family, out of loyalty to Bruce because of what he’d done.”