Protector: A Billionaire Step-Brother Romance

“Oh, yeah? Is that what happened? It’s never your fault, is it, Dad?” Cole said scathingly.

“You’ve been in our lives not one whole month and you’ve already poisoned your sister against me!” Todd accused, slurring his words. “And Julie… whining about how she misses her kid. Tell me, son, what’s the point of having a hot wife if she’s too depressed to sleep with me?”

“Excuse me?”

We all turned at the sound of a new voice, sweet and tearful. My heart dropped. My mother stood in the hallway, still clutching her bouquet in both hands. I immediately broke free of Cole’s embrace and ran to her, flinging my arms around her with a little sob I couldn’t hold back. She stroked my hair, still staring at Todd, who had gone utterly pale.

It was a few moments before my mother broke the silence. “What is going on?” Her voice didn’t shake this time. I looked up into her face to see her eyes still brimming with tears, but her mouth hardened

into a line. I had only seen this look a few times before, and it was usually when I was under some kind of duress. She steeled herself for Todd’s weak explanation.

His tone was placating. “Now, Julie, don’t give me that look. You know I didn’t do anything. And what I said… honey, you know I didn’t mean it. You’re entitled to your emotions, sweetie. I’m just a little tipsy, you know—”

“He’s staggering drunk, is what he is!” Cole barked, pointing at Todd.

Mom put up one hand to silence them both. “Shut up. Both of you. I want to talk to my daughter for a minute, and I don’t want to hear a word from either of you.”

“Sweetheart, please—” Todd began, but my mom shushed him and turned to me.

Taking a deep breath, I told her, “Mom, I’m so sorry, but… Todd made a move on me.”

“Bullshit!” Todd spat. Mom let go of me and stomped toward him with fire in her eyes.

Stopping short right in front of him so that he nearly cowered, she enunciated stiffly, “Not a single damn word, Todd.” He gulped visibly and hung his head, knowing it was all over. Mom walked over to me and put her arm around my shoulders.

“Honey, there’s no need for you to be sorry. You did nothing wrong.” She paused to shake her head sadly. “I should have seen this coming. It was all too good to be true. You know, all my friends warned me, but you know me, Kenzie. I wanted to believe. I’m hopeless like that.”

“In your defense, he’s a really shitty guy but he’s a pretty good actor,” Cole interjected quietly. My mom turned on her heel to glare at him for a second, and then her face softened as the realization swept over her.

“So, you believe me?” I asked meekly. Mom kissed me again on the forehead and nodded.

Stretching out her hand to Cole, she told me that she’d been suspicious about the whole situation after the disastrous dinner, that she’d had second thoughts… and third thoughts… and so on.

“I almost called off the wedding,” she admitted. “But I was too scared.”

Todd had slumped onto the stairs, holding his head in his hands.

My mom turned to give him another glare, and said, “Mr. Van der Hausen, I know the timing’s not great for this, but I think you and I both know we’re not getting past this. You and I are over.”

“Before we even began,” Todd muttered.

“And whose fault is that?” Cole retorted.

“And now,” Mom said carefully, “you’re gonna go out there, and you’re gonna tell all those wedding guests that it’s time to go home. Tell the media we’re tired and ready to relax as a family. Tell the staff to start cleaning up all those beautiful decorations, and then you send them all home to their families for the night. As for you, I don’t wanna see your face, not even for one more second. And then, after everyone is gone, you’re gonna find yourself a crappy hotel, and you’re gonna check in and sleep by yourself and think about everything you just lost. I want you to lie in some cheap room and think about how you could have been in your wedding bed with a beautiful woman who loves you. And tomorrow, you’re gonna come home to an empty mansion, and you’re gonna know there ain’t nobody else to blame but yourself.”

All three of us stood in stunned silence for a minute. Cole was wide-eyed, gazing at my mom with his mouth hanging open, one corner of his lips twitched up in gleeful amazement. “You go, Mom,” I murmured quietly, in awe. She squeezed me tight, smiling through her tears.

“Thanks,” she laughed. Then she snapped her fingers several times. “You! Get off your butt and get moving. You got work to do. I’m gonna spend some quality time with my daughter and… my son,” she said, with a wink at me. Oh god, I thought with a blush, she knew.

Todd jumped to his feet and wobbled away down the hall, presumably to do exactly as he was told. Somehow I knew he wasn’t going to be any trouble anymore—at least not for us. I remembered now why my mom had always been my hero. Sure, she was reduced to tears by negative reviews of her acting roles and she was more than a little bit prone to dramatics, but when it came down to it, Julie Mason was one tough broad.

The rest of the night we spent sitting up talking and eating leftover gourmet wedding food, just the three of us. Turned out, my mom had figured out that Cole and I were involved, and instead of being hurt or disgusted, she was simply relieved that I had been in the custody of someone who truly looked out for me. Todd did, in fact, check into a hotel, and true to my mother’s word, we were all gone when he returned in the morning.

Exactly two months later, I sat in a doctor’s office with Cole holding one of my hands, and my mom holding the other. Things had moved pretty quickly after the wedding frenzy died down. Mom had served Todd with annulment papers and he didn’t hesitate to sign them. But that wasn’t all—in exchange for our not pressing charges for assault and for not leaking the true reason for the breakup to the media, Todd granted Mom a hefty settlement. It was more money than she had ever made, even at the height of her career, and she planned to use the fortune to travel the world and donate to charities. Sure, she was single now, but there was a spring in her step and I could tell she was happier than she’d been in a long, long time.

Of course, part of that may have had something to do with the very reason the three of us were now in a doctor’s office. The technician came in and asked, “Are you all ready?”

I looked at Cole, who was gazing at me with absolute adoration in his beautiful green eyes, and squeezed his hand. He lifted it and pressed a kiss into my hand, then nodded. I turned back to the technician, my heart pounding.