A Redo (The Sterling Shore Series #6) (27 page)

“He tried calling, you know? Me, I mean. Brin said he’s called her a hundred times to see if I’ve spoken to her or if you have. He’s been to the house. He’s been to the hospital—which he caused a major scene at, by the way. I don’t have the details, but from what I hear, it was pretty bad. Corbin’s father owns that place, and I heard he was calling him as he was leaving. It’s bad, Allie. I think he needs to talk to you.”

I groan while rubbing my hands over my face.

“He’ll find out Angel’s at his mom’s soon enough,” she goes on. “And he’ll start stalking her house to find you if you don’t call him. Would you rather that happen?”

I sniffle, wiping away my tears. Stupid damn tears.

“No,” I admit. “Fine. I’ll call him. I do want to be with him, but everything is chaos right now. But maybe we can figure it out… unless…”

My voice trails off, and Bella narrows her eyes at me. “Unless what?”

“Do you think he’s really still in love with Erica? They do have a lot of history. I know he told me he never loved her, but that can’t be true, can it?”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Allie. Wren doesn’t love her. He’s not staying with you out of fear of losing his daughter. That entire article was false. They were divorced before he knew about you. Seven months? It hasn’t been seven damn months; you haven’t even been in town that long. They were divorced before you even ran into him. It’s utter and complete bullshit mixed with enough truth to make it believable.”

Doubt nags me—doubt that wasn’t there before. Wren and Erica had something in order for him to stay that long. Years—that’s a long time. Marriage, that’s a big deal. What if I’m keeping him from what he wants out of obligation?

And was his image more important than me? He really should have talked to the reporters if I was more important.

I knew it was too good to be true. I’ve never been one to hope for anything the way I hoped for Wren. I should have known better. The first thing you learn when you’re put into the foster system—don’t get attached to anything you don’t know for sure that you can keep. People always come and go.

Chapter 32

WREN

“Calm the fuck down!” Tag barks, dodging the chair that breaks and scatters into pieces after I throw it.

“She’s running! I can’t fucking blame her. This is my fault. I thought I could have the shit taken down before she went into work. I had no idea how many social networks it had bled into. They fired her, Tag. She hit a woman. Allie doesn’t do that. That means she was attacked no matter what those sons of bitches say. And they fired Bella. She has nothing keeping her here.”

My chest heaves, and I’m standing in a room full of destruction made by my hands.

“She has you. And she has Angel. Angel won’t want to leave.”

My chest caves in on itself. What if I lose them both? Angel will hate me if her mother is hurt. She’s probably already hating me.

“Give her a second, Wren. It’s fresh. Let her digest it. We’ll find her. I doubt she’s driving around town, considering everyone is fucking crazy right now. That asshole needs to be shot.”

I snort. “I wanted to kill him, but Rye held me back. Billy must have called him to tell him where I was going. Did you read that shit? I thought it was bad when Rye was summarizing it. When I actually read it… I swear I thought I was going to kill him. But he’s gone. He’s nothing and no one now. They fired him and the chief editor who ran the story without evidence. A scorned ex and a never-included cousin don’t count as reliable sources.

“The entire paper is freaking out—and they should be. They’re printing a retraction story, but it’s not good enough. They’ve pulled it off the blogs, their website, and their social media sites, but that story has been shared so many times by individuals that it’s out there for good.”

I drop to the sofa, and he relaxes while sitting down beside me.

“We’ll get this worked out. You’re meeting Erica tomorrow, right? My assistant is going to be there with the camera. This shit will trump that story by far. Allie will be the victim instead of the villain. Just calm down.”

I nod slowly, trying to catch my breath. Where is she? Not at a hotel. I’ve checked. Not at any of my friends’ houses. I’ve checked. I drove door-to-door. Nothing.

My phone rings, and I almost drop it in my haste to answer. My heart thuds when I see Allie’s name flash across the screen.

“Allie,” I say softly, trying to calm down so I don’t freak her out, “where are you? I’ve been looking—”

“I was afraid to be at the house. Bella doesn’t think anyone knows where we live, but I know my address is in records. After all, that’s how Roger found me. But I’m safe. And I’m still in Sterling Shore. Angel is with your mother if you want to go see her.”

I clutch the phone, biting my knuckle on my other hand to keep myself from exploding.

“I want to see both of you. But right now, it’s more important that I see you. Please. I can tell you’ve been crying. Let me come to you.”

She sniffles, and my chest tightens harder.

“You can’t. Wren, I… I was stupid to think this would be okay. I guess I wanted to live the fairytale while it lasted. But we… I think it’s best if we let things cool down for a while. Maybe revisit this later and see how we feel.”

Cold. Detached. She doesn’t sound like herself at all.

“Allie, what are you doing? This is ridiculous. I know I should have stopped this before it started, but I never fucking thought they’d print that complete made-up garbage. Let me come to you. I’ll fix this. I swear I’ve got something in the works. Tomorrow—”

“You kept taking Erica back,” she says suddenly, confusing the shit out of me.

“And? I told you it was stupid and shallow of me.”

She sighs long and hard, drawing in a breath as though she’s steeling her resolve.

“You and I have a daughter. It was risky for us to jump into such a serious relationship so soon. I… I’ve never done this. And I don’t trust many people, yet I trusted you.”

“But you don’t trust me now?”

She laughs under her breath. “I trust you, Wren. I really do. But I think you’re as confused as I am about us. I know what I want, but I don’t… I don’t know. This is a mess, isn’t it? I’m public enemy number one, and you’re the golden boy of Sterling Shore.”

The brokenness of her tone tears at me. Allie has felt dejected her entire life, and now the entire town is making her feel like the unwanted pest she’s always felt like. I want to fucking punch someone.

“Allie, let me come to you. I’m seriously not above begging. I’m close to tearing the city apart to look for you. Save me some trouble.”

She blows out a breath, and I hear Bella muttering something in the background. Please let her be on my side.

“I’ll call you tomorrow. We’ll talk about it then.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Then stay on the phone with me until then,” I say, not giving a damn about how pathetic I sound.

I almost feel her smile, and that gives me a little hope.

“Tomorrow, Wren. We’ll talk then, and there will be a lot of questions I need answered. And then we’ll figure out where we’re going.”

My entire body relaxes. “I’ll answer anything you want to know. But, Allie, I never gave a fuck about Erica. I just didn’t know how little I cared until I met you. It’s easy to accept something and settle when you don’t know there’s something better waiting.”

She sucks in a sharp breath, and all I want to do is find her and hold her to me.

“Tomorrow,” she whispers, and the phone goes dead before I can say another word.

Chapter 33

ALLIE

So, because I’m twisted and want to know why this woman is such a bitch to me, deliberately hurting my child in the process, I decide to look her up. Her Facebook, her twitter, and her Instagram. She doesn’t have her Facebook set to private, which means anyone can take a look. Surprise. Surprise.

I almost wish I’d denied the temptation when I see it. A picture of her and Wren is her profile picture. His smile isn’t the same one I see. The smile in the picture seems forced and posed. But no one smiles naturally for a camera.

Her background picture is from their wedding, and he’s standing next to Tag, laughing at something, while Erica is holding his arm. He seems distant toward her even in the pictures. But then again, I might just be seeing what I want to see.

But her status has me cringing when I read it:

ERICA PRIZE

Wren
and I are deeply warmed by the public outcry. However, we ask that you not target Allie Thrash because she could take his daughter away from us. The paternity test did indeed confirm she was his daughter. As her father, Wren has rights, and we will pursue them, but we need everyone to please calm down. That’s Angel’s home that was vandalized, and I’m thankful the windows weren’t broken.

This doesn’t give anyone the right to resort to violence. Please remember there is a small little girl involved, and she’s terrified right now. She doesn’t know what her mother has done.

You have to understand that Allie is slightly unstable and a little in love with the father of her daughter. I understand. It’s hard not to love Wren. But right now he’s trying to appease her so that she doesn’t run off with his child, and the public reaction is strongly hurting his attempts to keep her in Sterling Shore until we can legally attain custody.

Wren and I are seeing each other today before going to a lawyer. I can assure that we’ll handle this matter together. Like we’ve handled so many other obstacles in the past. As much as I appreciate your support, I can’t condone the violent actions some have taken. Thank you and I love you all for your prayers and concerns.

My gut twists at the mention of our home. Thank God Ray Capperton put in that security system. Five people were arrested, and no one was able to break through the windows. His security team stormed in and limited the damage.

More importantly, I’m glad Angel, Bella, and I weren’t there.

“She’s so full of shit,” Bella says, her head over my shoulder as she reads the same crap I just read. “Like he’s meeting up with her. Wren doesn’t want to be in the same room with her right now. He’d kill her if he was. And look at her trying to seem all sweet and shit, making it out like they’re in this together. She even had the audacity to tag him!”

I nod, but I’m confused as to why he didn’t respond and call her out on her bullshit, since she did in fact tag him. Maybe he hasn’t seen it yet.

“What time are you and Wren meeting up?”

“I sent a text to see if lunch at Melanie’s would be good, but he said he has something to do then. So we’re meeting around five instead.”

“What’s he got going on?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“I don’t know. I didn’t really think to ask. Besides, it’s not my business. This slam job has probably left him crazy busy with phone calls. He keeps swearing he’s going to make it right.”

She sighs while leaning up. “Well, I hope he gets it sorted soon. Someone is going to pay for fucking with our house. And we’ll need clothes, too.”

I nod, agreeing. It’s sad that our once incredibly safe home is now spray-painted with death threats and other malicious shit. And I just pray I don’t fall apart on Wren when I see him later.

Strong, Allie. Stay strong.

Chapter 34

WREN

“You’ve got it all set up?” Tag asks on the phone.

I look around the semi-empty restaurant. This place is usually a little more crowded, but there’s enough people to keep Tag’s assistant from being noticed. Her purse is placed on the table not too far from us. The view is unobstructed, and will remain that way, thanks to a generous donation to the staff.

If you look close enough, you can see the camera lens just barely visible in the small circle near the bottom of her purse. And a powerful wireless microphone is in the small floral centerpiece.

“Yeah. Has Ray called?” I ask him.

“Oh yeah. Remind me to never piss off Ray Capperton or his brother—Joey Drivel. They were on the net all night, finding and destroying the article everywhere. I don’t know how, but I seriously think they got them all. That’s scary, right? That they can hack into that many accounts and delete whatever they want to? And that quickly?”

Right now it’s more of a godsend than scary. “He said he had other family members he was enlisting to help out. Hacking is apparently a family trait. I really shouldn’t be talking about this here,” I whisper.

“Right. Sorry. You’re meeting Allie at five, though, right?”

“Right. Erica should be here any moment. And the feed will be streaming live all over the web. Did you read that shit she posted?” I whisper, barely holding my voice down.

“Yeah. And she tagged you—no pun intended,” Tag snorts. “But I think she’s freaking out since things escalated the way they did. Erica is a bitch, but she’s not psychotic. Ash said she called her, worrying about what to do because she’s worried she may have actually put Angel at risk. That’s why she posted that. But she’s so worried about people turning on her; she made sure to make everyone think you two are together. Ash told her to fuck off, of course. She said Erica swore she regrets it, and Ash told her to never call our house again.”

“She doesn’t know regret yet,” I mutter, glancing down at my phone and considering texting Allie.

“Does she know what you’re doing?” Tag asks, apparently reading my mind.

“No. I don’t want her to think I chose Erica over her. She asked to meet me at lunch, and I told her I had something to do. I was worried she’d hear Erica’s name and that would be enough to get her to go cold on me. This is thin ice territory right now. I’ll explain it all to her later.”

Erica’s BMW pulls up, parking next to my Audi, and I watch through the window as she approaches. I slide into the seat across from where I was, putting my back to the window. No way do I want anyone seeing my face, and now I don’t have to watch for her.

“She’s here. I’ll call you later. Watch the feed and text if anything happens. I’ll keep my phone on the table in case you text with any problems.”

I hang up, watching as Erica approaches with fearful eyes. “Wren, I swear this went way out of control,” she says as she sits down across from me.

This is going to be easier than I thought.

“What did you think would happen if you told that bullshit to the media? You made Allie and my daughter a target.”

Calm down. Don’t get too angry. She’ll run and you’ll lose your proof.

“I thought they’d make fun of her, call her a few names, then it would blow over. I never expected this. This is crazy. They’re acting like you’re a prince that was just wronged. And I didn’t say half the shit they printed. Keith made it sound worse than it actually was. Not me. I swear he went off script.”

Way easier. This is almost anticlimactic.

“And that shit you wrote this morning?” I prod. “What the fuck was that supposed to be?”

A waitress comes over, but I send her away. I want answers, not food.

“I was trying to quiet the psychos out there that attacked her house. I know I messed up, but I’d never intentionally provoke that sort of craziness, Wren. You know that. I love you, and I want you back. I hate the way you are with her. Ash says you’re in love. Is that true? Because you loved me, Wren. We have so much history between us.”

Leaning up, I glare at her. “Keyword—
history
. That’s what it is—the past. And I’m not sure what was there, but it wasn’t love Erica. Never was. You and I were friends. And we could have stayed that way, but…”

I let my voice trail off. If I start telling her how much I feel for Allie, she’s going to get jealous, and I could end up pushing her toward the door before she spills all this bullshit.

“But what?” she demands, already defensive.

“But you hurt me,” I lie. Billy hurt me. She didn’t.

“I worked so hard to be with you, Wren. I just wanted you to love me as much as I love you. I kept trying to provoke you into action, into proving you’d go to hell and back for me.”

Maybe I should feel bad, but after what she’s done to my daughter, Allie, and Bella, I can’t bring myself to have an ounce of sympathy.

“Erica, I shouldn’t have stayed with you. I didn’t realize you were hurting. But I never went public with the fact you cheated on me before the wedding. I never went public with the fact you tried to bully me into having a child—as if I’m that weak to lay over and give in. I never went public with a thousand things that could have ruined you in the public eye. Yet you destroyed Allie out of jealousy.”

I intentionally left Billy’s name out of that. He’s a stupid asshole, but he’s also my brother. And he’s helped me out with this crisis like a brother would. I’ll save his ass by not bringing his name into this.

“The same thing happened to Ash,” she says quickly. “And nothing of this magnitude happened. It blew over quickly. Then the same thing happened with Raya, and again, it blew over quickly. How was I supposed to know things would spiral out of control like this? It was just supposed to be a snarky article in the gossip section. It wasn’t supposed to be front page news or go viral on the web, Wren.”

Time to get her to spill everything.

“Tell me what all you told the reporter. Then tell me what my lying bastard of a cousin said.”

“This is your fault,” she says instead.

Apparently this won’t be as easy as I thought.

“It’s my fault you flew into a jealous rage and ruined my daughter’s life based on your selfish actions?”

She has the gall to look hurt.

“All you had to do was choose me. I never would have felt threatened if you’d fought for me. I never wanted to get divorced. I just wanted you to worry about losing me when I threatened it. You acted like it was a present I gave you and you ran to your lawyer to get the papers drawn up.”

I swallow down everything I’d love to say, and repeat, “Tell me what you said so I can try to save my daughter.”

I leave Allie’s name out, hoping it won’t provoke Erica. She breathes out hard, and then she starts speaking, this time laying it out in detail in front of the camera. Allie’s number flashes on my phone, but I swipe ignore. Erica sees it, and she smiles up at me like she’s grateful.

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. She can think she’s won some battle, but I can’t wait to tell her the truth.

***

ALLIE

“I need to get out, maybe go for a drive,” I say aloud as I stand and grab my keys.

Tria stands, her eyes darting outside. She stopped by an hour after Bella left. Bella called her to come babysit me like I’m in danger here. As if Tria can be a big muscle of help. She’s my size. And Bella might can pack a punch, but she’s no bigger. I don’t need them to babysit me.

“I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t have to,” I tell her as I head toward the door.

“I want to. They transferred Pete this morning, and I have a really bad feeling. I don’t know why, but I swear I’m getting that creepy feeling I used to get when he was loose. I just need to clear my head, and a drive sounds good. We’ll take my car.”

I nod, since she knows more about Sterling Shore than me, and her windows have a really dark tint, whereas mine don’t.

I follow her outside, and I relax in the passenger seat.

“Want to drive past the beach?” she asks.

“I want to drive beside the beach. Is there a road that just goes on for miles beside it without having to deal with traffic?”

She smiles as she nods, and she cranks the car. As she pulls out and drives through town, she turns on the music.

“Are you hungry? We can pick something up to eat while we tune out the rest of the world.”

“My stomach is not entertaining the thoughts of food right now. I’m a little stressed and I tend to not be able to eat when I’m stressed.”

“Care if I grab something?” she asks.

I shrug, and she drives on. But then I see Wren’s car parked in front of a restaurant as we’re passing. My heart speeds up because I know it’s his charcoal gray Audi. It’s his favorite. But what has my heart breaking is the BMW next to it.

“Pull over,” I say, and Tria does immediately, turning into the restaurant.

“Is that… You have to be kidding me,” she says, apparently seeing what I see.

She parks on the other side of Erica’s BMW, and we both look through the solid glass front of the almost empty restaurant. It’s not hard to spot them. Even though his back is turned, I know it’s him. I’ve memorized every feature on him from head to toe.

Erica is talking, he’s listening intently, and her hand is on the table as she leans forward. Then I see him lean forward, saying something to her that he apparently doesn’t want anyone else to hear. I can barely catch a glimpse of his profile from this angle.

“It can’t be what you’re thinking, Allie. I know my cousin. He hates Erica. Especially right now. Kode said Rye actually asked for his help because Wren went on a rampage. And Kode and Rye aren’t friends. At all. By the time he got there, Tag had kicked Rye out so that he could try to calm Wren down. He told Rye and Kode that Wren was better after you called. So this can’t be what it looks like.”

It looks like Erica wasn’t lying. But as Bella said, mixing truth with lies is the best way to tell a story. She was meeting him, but not for the reasons stated, surely. But Wren doesn’t look pissed right now. His body is relaxed as though he’s enjoying the conversation.

She looks contrite, not at all threatening or menacing the way I’ve pictured her. She demonized me, and he’s having a civil lunch with her.

“Allie, just call him. Ask him what he’s doing.”

“Then I’ll look like the stalker the paper said I was,” I grumble.

“No you won’t. Call him.”

I make no move to do so, and I watch as Wren leans in again, saying something to Erica that has her full attention. She’s not acting like a crazy person. She looks a little lost, and Wren seems to be gently conversing with her.

I knew he’d talk to her eventually, but I had pictured things being thrown, voices being raised, both of them on their feet and red-faced with fury. Not this. This looks… like they’re talking about the weather.

I want to run in and stab her in the heart with a fork. Now I sound like the crazy one.

Tria grabs my phone before I can stop her, and she punches in Wren’s number from my contacts. I don’t fight her. I just let her.

I watch, feeling as though I’m on a rollercoaster that is slowly climbing to the top, the anticipation building up to the climatic moment. Then… I drop, and I drop hard.

Wren glances down, sees the name, and swipes a button. Tria immediately lowers the phone with her lips parted in disbelief. Erica smiles up at Wren, no doubt having seen what he just did.

“I’m not hungry anymore,” Tria says, glaring at the back of Wren’s head.

“Then how about that drive?” I ask mildly, even though I’m on the verge of tears.

She backs out and we drive away. She rolls both windows down, and we let the cool air drift through the car with the briny scent of the ocean. No words have to be spoken.

Tria’s phone starts ringing, interrupting our peaceful moment. “Kode,” she says softly, sounding as crestfallen as I feel. “No, I’m with Allie. We’re taking a drive. I’ll be home later… I don’t know what time… I’ll explain when I get home… Love you, too.”

She hangs up, and her phone goes off again. She clicks the power button, shutting it off.

“Kode knows I’ll be home later. Work calls can go to my assistant. No more phone calls from my end.”

I nod while sending a quick text to Bella, letting her know Tria and I will be out for a while. Hopefully a long while. I could drive three states away right now. And if Angel was in here with me, we’d already be gone.

Then, just because I need my best friend to know, I send her a text telling her everything that I just saw. And I ask her to go pick up Angel sometime this afternoon, because I want to see her when I get back to Tria’s house.

But I get worried that she’ll call once she reads it, and I just can’t talk about it right now. Whatever was going on, it hurt to see him ignore my call and focus on her, even if I wasn’t technically the one calling.

I power my phone down, adding to the tranquility, and Tria just drives.