Cole had thought about telling Paige what Craig was up to and the sick game he was playing, but Cole hadn’t been certain she would believe him. It was so damned bizarre, even he had a hard time believing the extent of the jealousy that had driven Craig.
Looking back, his brother had always been that way toward him—even when they were small children. If Cole had something, it didn’t matter what it was, Craig wanted it. If Cole did or said anything that garnered any kind of praise—either from their father or in school—Craig did his best to take credit for it or diminish Cole’s accomplishment in some way.
Over the years, Cole had gotten used to Craig’s need to be the center of attention and always be the one who came out on top of every situation. For the most part, he had ignored the rivalry and one-upmanship his twin seemed to thrive on. But when Craig went after Paige as a way to taunt and torment Cole, his brother had crossed the line. That’s why Cole had cut Craig out of his life. And with the exception of having to see him at their father’s funeral, Cole hadn’t spoken to his twin in almost twelve years.
But why would Craig have started emailing him a couple of years ago just to dredge up events that had taken place all those years ago? Surely Craig had realized that Cole had moved on with his life.
The dread he had felt when he first saw his name on the file intensified. Craig never did anything without a reason and if it involved Cole, it was most likely a disturbing one.
As he stared at the list of documents, the last thing he wanted to do was read more of Craig’s boasting about how he had won Paige and what a loser Cole was. But if there was the slightest possibility that his brother had shown even a tiny bit of remorse for using her the way he had, Cole wanted to know about it. He wanted to find some indication that somewhere beneath all of the spite and cruelty there was a kernel of good in his brother.
Praying there was something in one of the documents that redeemed Craig, even in the smallest of ways, Cole forced himself to read the rest of the messages. When he finished the last one—dated the day before Craig had been killed—Cole’s gut burned with white-hot fury. The extent of Craig’s depravity was sickening.
The only reason Craig had emailed Cole the past couple of years was to gloat and tell him that he had never loved Paige and had been unfaithful practically from the day they had gotten married. He had explained that when their father had forced him to marry her, Craig had insisted they move to the Double R Ranch on the pretense of watching over their father. Then, while Craig went out of town to find his pleasure with more exciting women, Paige had been left at home with their dad. He had even mentioned purposely avoiding sex during her most fertile times of the month because a baby would have only tied him to her even tighter than their farce of a marriage already had. Craig had closed the last email by telling Cole that he was planning on leaving her for another woman and that Cole could have her now that Craig was done with her.
Sitting back in the chair, Cole shook his head. How could his brother have been so callous? How could he have treated a wonderful, caring woman like Paige with such disregard?
If he hadn’t known how Craig operated, he might have questioned why his brother had continued to send the messages when it was clear he wasn’t going to get a reaction from Cole or why he had kept a record of them.
But Craig had always been that way. It was as if he liked keeping something—a trophy of sorts—to remind him of his sick escapades. And he had probably figured that when he and Paige were divorced he would send the box to Cole—increasing the chance that Cole would find the memory device and eventually read the messages. Craig had also known Cole well enough to be reasonably sure that he wouldn’t tell Paige because he wouldn’t want to hurt her.
Cole wasn’t certain how long he sat there trying to come to terms with what he had learned. It didn’t matter. Nothing would ever change the facts of what Craig had done, nor the impact it would have on Paige if she ever discovered it.
That’s why Cole was going to do his best to see that she never found out what a snake she had been married to. He never wanted Paige to know that all of those out-of-town business trips Craig had taken over the years were nothing more than clandestine meetings with other women. Cole couldn’t stand the thought of her going through the kind of emotional pain that revelation would bring about and once again becoming the victim of his brother’s arrogance.
“Cole, are you all right?” Paige asked from the doorway.
“Uh, sure.” He quickly closed out the file on the laptop, pulled the memory device from the USB port and shoved it into the pocket of his gym shorts. “Why?”