Expose (Billionaire Series) (12 page)

“You’re not being silly,” I told her comfortingly. “Anyone
would be shaken up by this.”

“You’re not, though,” she pointed out. “Mathis always told me
how strong you were. I should try to be more like you.”

I hesitated. “Does…Mathis talk about me?” Why would Mathis
ever talk about me to a woman who was supposed to be his girlfriend?

“All the time,” she said. “He doesn’t use your name, of
course. He just talks about this strong, amazing woman that he knew once. I
don’t even think he realizes how much he mentions you.” She used the back of
her hand to wipe smearing mascara from under her eyes. “You know, sometimes
I’ll ask him what he’s thinking and he’ll say ‘someone I used to know’ or ‘old
memories’ and I’ll know it’s you.”

Kathryn proceeded to run her fingers through her hair to
brush out the mess caused by the ruckus. “He told me once that he met the love
of his life when he was pretty young and lost her. Then, she came back into his
life like she was messing with him.” She paused before continuing. “I knew the
moment I saw you at the party that he was talking about you. The way he looks
at you… He’s never looked at another woman that way.”

“But…aren’t the two of you dating?” I was totally confused.
She seemed as if she was comfortable with the fact that Mathis wasn’t
interested in her. That wasn’t at all like the person I had been led to believe
she was. I’d had the impression that she was just a shallow gold-digger who was
interested in being with Mathis for his money and reputation – not that she
really needed either of them, as the daughter of a prominent politician.

“Not
really
,” she said, with a grin. “Mathis is a good
friend of my father’s, which means we’ve been pushed together a lot. My father
really wanted me to have a suitably rich, influential man who I could parade
around on my arm at events.”

Kathryn folded her arms in front of her chest. “I could tell
from the beginning that Mathis wasn’t really interested. He’s built up quite a
reputation as a ladies’ man, but I could tell right from the first time we met
that it was just because he’d already met
the
woman.” She sighed like it
was the most romantic thing ever. “But, for whatever reason, he couldn’t have
her. So, like most successful good-looking young men do, he filled in the time
with random ladies because he was expected to.”

I just nodded, trying to take in all this new information.

Kathryn softly placed her hand on my arm. “I thought maybe
she got married, or she’d died young, or turned him down, or…something.” She
shrugged. “It wasn’t until I saw him reacting to you that it hit me. When I saw
the way he looked at you – I
knew
it was you.” She smiled proudly, and
then looked expectantly at me.

“But—” I was confused.

“You shouldn’t worry at all about me,” Kathryn said, waving
her hand in front of her face. “I care about Mathis as a good family friend and
all that, but he really isn’t my type.” Her cheeks flushed slightly. “I
actually already have this guy I like… but he’s a lot younger than me and I
don’t think my dad would approve.” She gave a laugh, and I found myself smiling
in return.

A blossom of hope was creeping into my chest. Could she
really see how Mathis felt about me? There was no reason for her to lie about
it. And someone he met when he was eighteen and lost until recently… She
couldn’t possibly know all that unless Mathis really had told her.

But the love of his life? I didn’t really know what that
meant.

“Why did you date him if you thought he liked someone else?”
I looked at Kathryn cautiously.

Kathryn gave an elegant shrug, and plunged into her story.

“The first time Mathis asked me out, I already knew that he
just wanted to make some other girl jealous or play around. There was never
anything between us, and I never expected there would be. He never kissed me,
or touched me unless we were in public, and I never wanted him to. Really.”

She smiled at me in a reassuring way. “It’s just convenient
for both of us to be together in public. In private, we’re both entirely free
to do what we like with whomever we like. As I said, he talks about
the
mysterious woman
quite a bit. Sometimes, you know, I even hear him murmur
your name to himself. You, don’t do that unless you’re completely smitten.”

“What else did he say about me?” Part of me was curious to
know, and part of me knew that I shouldn’t be prying into Mathis’ personal
feelings. It was so rare to get an insight into him, though, that I couldn’t
resist. Anyways, all this talk seemed to be putting Kathryn in a better mood,
since she’d recovered from crying.

“I know he’s been concerned about you getting hurt. I don’t
really understand why… He just told me he could never be around you and it was
for your own protection.” She tilted her head in thought. “He said we needed to
be an item so that you would lose interest in him and find someone who was
better for you. I agreed, of course, even though I didn’t really understand. He
was just so adamant that it was the best thing for you – it touched me, you
know?”

I was stunned and not sure why she was telling me all this.
As if she had read my mind, she continued, “I just want to see Mathis happy. He’s
like a big brother to me. He’s very kind and I’m grateful to him. I know that
he loves you very deeply, and sometimes love just needs a bit of a helping
hand. Call it my thanks for the two of you being so kind to me.”

Before I could reply, I felt a hand on my arm. I jumped, and
turned around. Sharon was standing next to me, looking a little out of breath
and annoyed but otherwise unscathed.

“There you are! What were you thinking, running off like
that?” she chided me. “I called your cell like a hundred times!”

“I’m sorry, Sharon” I said, the guilt rushing through me as I
remembered how I had heartlessly abandoned my friend in the middle of all the
chaos. “Are you okay?”

“Sure, ask me that
now
!” She rolled her eyes. “Anyhow,
I’m fine, as it happens, but Amanda – what the hell happened? I heard a gunshot
and everyone was suddenly screaming and going nuts.” Sharon threw her hands in
the air to stress the craziness. “I got pulled along with the crowd when you
shot off in the other direction. It’s taken me this long to finally find you!”
She put her hands on my shoulders and shook me out of relief and frustration.

“I’m really sorry,” I repeated. “I guess I just wasn’t
thinking too clearly.”

“Damn straight! You could have run off chasing a crazed
gunman for all I knew – I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you made a
beeline for Mathis.” She angrily put her hands on her hips. “Is this about—”

“Later. We’ll talk about it later,” I said firmly, cutting
her off before she could reveal in front of Kathryn that the bullet had been
meant for Mathis and not her father. It’d be hard to handle the fact that
Mathis had potentially put her life in danger.

“Okay, but can we go now? I’m sure this will be all over the
news in no time and Ryan will definitely be freaking the fuck out.”

“Uh…” I glanced at Kathryn, and then looked over at Mathis,
who was still absorbed in conversation with a group of security men.

“It’s fine,” Kathryn assured me, “I’ll be fine – I have half
the police in the city right here! You should get home. It’s been a crazy day.”
She shooed me away with her delicate hand.

“There’s not a lot more you can do here,” Sharon agreed.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Although part of me badly wanted to stay near Mathis, I knew
it was unfair to Sharon to linger much longer. She was anxious to be home, and
I realized that I was exhausted, mentally and emotionally, and I didn’t really
have the energy to deal with any more revelations or drama right now.

Mathis could wait – he was busy, and I didn’t know when he’d
remember me again. Besides, I needed time to mull over everything I’d been
told.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” I nodded.

***

We walked back to my car, and I didn’t pay any attention to
the gaggles of event security and guests who were seemingly a lot calmer now
and demanding to know if all the races and auctions had been cancelled for the
day. They must have been hardcore car enthusiasts or just really thick-skinned.

It looked like some reporters had turned up too, disappointed
to have missed out on all the action. They were trying to round up a few
witnesses and people they could talk to, circling their cameras in the same way
that sharks circle an isolated swimmer.

I didn’t want to get involved in anything, and I didn’t even
have any curiosity about what had happened with the gunman. I wanted to get
home, curl up with a drink and watch mindless TV. Just as Sharon and I were slinking
off, however, someone gave a shout and started pointing in my direction.

“Wait, that’s her – that’s the girl!” someone said. “Hey!
You!”

I automatically turned in the direction of the voice, and a
little group of guests who were talking to a reporter were making a beeline
towards me and Sharon. I grimaced, realizing that someone must have seen that I
was the one who had shoved the gunman out of the way. I turned grimly to face
the music and was immediately cornered by a slender dark-haired woman with a
tall, burly cameraman dogging her footsteps.

“You’re the girl who saved Walter Rossi’s life?” the reporter
asked. “What’s your name? Can you describe what happened?”

“I don’t know,” I said, deciding that I didn’t want anything
to do with this. I hadn’t seen the gunman’s face, and I didn’t know anything
about him except that he was holding a gun. So really, whatever I knew wasn’t
much help for anyone. The last thing I wanted to do was become the center of
attention by the media. “I didn’t really see anything.”

“But you’ve been identified as the person who diverted the
gun,” the news reporter said accusingly. “Can you tell us more detail on what
you did and more of your story?”

“I didn’t do anything. You’ve got the wrong person,” I lied.
“The whole scene was a blur. I was just minding my own business, watching the
race when I heard a bullet shot. I just got out of there as fast as I could. I
didn’t see a thing.”

“Are you sure?” the reporter looked a little bit desperate,
and very disappointed.

“She’s right,” Sharon said, stepping in and rescuing me. “We
were nowhere near. It must have been someone else.”

“Did either of you ladies see the man’s face? Can you tell us
who the shot was meant for? Was anyone hurt?”

“If you don’t mind, we’re very tired,” Sharon said,
interrupting the stream of questions as I stood dumbly, my mind a blank. She
took me firmly by the arm and marched me away in the direction of the car,
leaving the reporter in the cold.

“Are you okay to drive?” Sharon asked, giving me a sideways
glance. “You look a bit dazed.”

“I’m fine – just a bit tired,” I said. The ordeal with the
reporter had been the last straw. “Should I drive you back to your place?” I
pushed my hair behind my ear to get a better look at Sharon.

“Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hang out with you
for a bit. Ryan’s going to go berserk once he finds out about this, especially
if we end up on the news, and I don’t think I can deal with that right now.”

“I hear you,” I said. “Okay, we’ll go to my place.”

I turned on the engine and left the scene behind me, glad we
hadn’t been held up by police taking statements or anything like that. I was
drained, exhausted and confused from everything that happened, and all I wanted
to do was to get home.

She picked up her
cell phone as soon as she put down her purse. She'd left it on the charger by
accident, though as soon as she saw her screen, she was glad that she had. Not
a single missed call from Rachel but six from Brad. She listened to the first
voicemail as she headed into her room to change out of her dress.

“Why are you doing
this to me, Jennifer? I've been waiting all day for you to call and it's making
me look really pathetic that you still haven't gotten back to me. Are you
sending my calls to voicemail on purpose? This isn't how a proposal is supposed
to be answered. I'm starting to think that it was a mistake to give you my
heart, if this is how you're going to treat it.”

Jennifer deleted
the rest without listening to them. She was done with all of that. She went
back into the living room, dialing as she went. She had to talk to Brad before
she lost her nerve. She didn't get a chance to say a word, however, as he was
yelling as soon as he answered the phone.

“Where have you
been?! The entire point of a cell phone is so that you can have it with you
when you go places. Or maybe you were with someone and you didn't want him to
see that I called. Was that it? This isn't the way to start an engagement,
Jennifer.” Brad's volume began to lower the longer he ranted. “We're trying to
regain what we had and you're just fucking it up. I suppose it shouldn't
surprise me. You were generally fucking things up, always thinking of yourself
instead of how things affected me. I don't know why I thought this time would
be any different.”

Jennifer was
surprised by how little the words hurt this time. Before, even though she'd
been just as used to them, they'd never failed to bring tears to her eyes, to
rouse an apologetic response to the accusations. Now, she heard them for what
they were: the petty complaints and excuses of a man who couldn't accept that
he wasn't the center of her world anymore.

“I was just so
worried,” Brad's tone still held an angry edge to it even though the words were
designed to excuse his behavior. “Why would you make me worry like that? It's
not like I'm just your boyfriend anymore. I'm your fiancé now. I'm going to be
your husband and you can't be doing things like this when we're married...”

It was the
continuation of that assumption that was the final straw for Jennifer. “Brad,”
she interrupted him. “Can I say something?” She may have worded it as a
question, but there was no doubt in her voice that it was merely a means of
getting him to relinquish control of the conversation.

“Of course.” Brad's
voice was smug, as if he expected an apology and then an explanation.

Jennifer couldn't
blame him for thinking that way. It's how she would have done it before. It
wasn't, however, the way she was going to do it now. “I've put up with this for
long enough, Brad. It's time to stop.”

“Excuse me?” He
sounded shocked.

“Do you realize
that because of you, my parents and I have had to spend the last couple years
rebuilding our relationship? I lost friends who felt like I was choosing you
over them.”

“Come on, Jenny,
you don't really think that's my fault, do you? Clearly, they were either just
jealous of our relationship or they never really liked you that much in the
first place.”

“You know what,”
Jennifer felt the control that had held back years of bitterness and anger snap
at the last part of his statement. She kept her voice calm, but her words took
on a bit of bite. “You've made all of these excuses about why you've treated me
the way you did, but it’s all a bunch of bullshit.”

She heard him start
to interrupt but kept going. She was going to say it all now that she'd
started. “I wanted to believe that you'd changed. I wanted to believe you when
you said that all of those cruel things you used to say were just
misunderstandings, that you'd only meant to help me but that the words had come
out wrong. I wanted to believe you so much that I'd almost convinced myself
that what you were saying was true. But you haven't changed. You knew what you
were saying back then and you know it now. You weren't worried about me because
you care about me. You were worried because when I didn't answer, you didn't
know what I was doing and the control freak in you couldn't stand it.”

“Listen here you
ungrateful little...”

“Shut up, Brad.”
Jennifer flared, hardly able to believe that she'd said the words. “I listened
to you for years, telling me how worthless I was, how stupid and ugly and bad
in bed. I listened to you when you told me that I should choose you over
friends and family who loved me unconditionally. Now you're going to listen to
me
.
I see now that even those times that I thought were good can't make up for
everything I lost. Time with people I loved. Relationships that I can never get
back. My own self-respect and self-worth.” With every word, Jennifer felt as if
some poison that had been weakening her was leaving her body.  “I can't go back
and change what's been done, but I can make sure that it never happens again.
We're through, Brad. We are
not
getting back together and I am
not
marrying you.”

“You can't be
serious. After all we've been through together, you're going to just say 'no'?
You can't do that.”

“I can.” Jennifer's
voice was firm. “And I am. I'll mail the ring back to you first thing in the
morning.”

“No, you're going
to...”

“I'm through with
you telling me what I'm going to or not going to do,” Jennifer interrupted.
“We're done.
I'm
done. Good-night.”

Before he could
argue any further, Jennifer ended the call. She stared at her phone, her heart
racing, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She'd done it. And she hadn't
just turned down the proposal, she'd let go of years of bitterness and anger as
she'd finally told Brad exactly how she felt. Her hands were shaking as she
opened up her messaging, but it wasn't from nerves, she realized. She felt
energized, alive, ready to take on the world. If she could confront Brad, she
could do anything, including pursuing a relationship with Philip.

It took her longer
than usual to compose the text message, but she wanted to make sure she told
Rachel everything, starting with her great dinner with Philip and ending with
hanging up on Brad. It ended up being too lengthy for just one message and
Rachel would probably yell at her for sending something that insanely long, but
everything that had happened was too important to not include. The two events
were the turning points, the point in time that she would forever think of as
the place where her life could have gone one of two ways.

Tomorrow was going
to be the start of something amazing, she just knew it. That thought stayed
with her throughout the remainder of the night, playing over and over in her
head as sleep eluded her. When she finally did slip under, it was the last
thing her conscious mind registered and, though she didn't remember, it was the
same thing that haunted her dreams until she finally woke the next morning, far
more exhilarated than she should have been after just a few hours sleep.