Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
“What do you mean? How could you possibly know what I want, Fern?” he asked, sounding affronted.
“Because I heard you, Cade,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, it just happened. But I heard you.”
He looked confused, stricken, uncertain and—more familiarly—outraged.
“Heard me? What do you mean? How could you have overheard me say that you’re not what I want? I’ve never once uttered those—”
“On the phone,” she interrupted. “A few weeks ago. After we first slept together—uh for the second time—you were speaking to someone. Talking about the night we met. About how pale and drab I was. A moth.” She swallowed painfully before continuing, ignoring how pale he’d gone, how utterly appalled he looked. “How grateful you were that the baby and I wouldn’t be a permanent part of your life. And how I wasn’t the type of woman you’d ever imagined settling down with.”
“Oh Christ,” he finally muttered, voice shaky. “Fern—fuck—none of that… all of that… You weren’t meant to hear any of that.”
“I know. And it’s okay, really. It helped keep me grounded. Helped manage my expectations. We each deserve someone who loves the other, Cade. We shouldn’t settle.”
“No,” his voice was urgent, and he reached for her hand, but aborted the attempt when she flinched at the movement. “Fern, I said those things before I knew you. We could be good together. I think we deserve the chance to…”
“Cade.” Her interruption stilled the desperate babble of words tumbling from his lips. This time she was the one who reached out, tentatively covering one strong hand with her own. “It’s okay. I want us to be friends. And if you want to be a part of this baby’s life, we can work something out. But I want us to be happy.”
“We can be happy together,” he maintained.
“I don’t think so.” The words were filled with quiet dignity. “I think we can be content. But I don’t think we’d ever be truly happy together.”
“I don’t agree.”
She cupped his jaw in her hands and gave him a sweet, lingering kiss.
“Thank you. For wanting to try. It means a lot. But please, let’s not talk about this again. It’s too tempting, too easy to agree, and I truly believe it would be a mistake for us to go down this path. We’d be content. But years from now, we’d realize that contentment isn’t enough. And it shouldn’t be.”
“Fern.” Her name was a ragged whisper and he dropped his forehead to hers, but he said nothing further.
“We’re going to be okay, Cade.”
He folded her into his arms again and held her like she was precious to him and in that moment everything was perfect in Fern’s world.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
“Nothing but good news today,” Cyrus Bradford got straight to the point after greeting Cade and Fern warmly the following afternoon. He was a handsome man in his fifties with a full head of brown hair and graying temples. He smiled broadly and slid a document across his desk toward Fern. She stared at the bold black print at the top of the paper in disbelief, her eyes going from the words, to Cyrus, and then to Cade.
“It this what I think it is?” she asked in a wobbly voice.
Cyrus’s smile widened.
“If you think it’s the official transference of all your assets into your name, you’d be right.”
“That’s it? It’s done?” she asked, elation adding volume to her voice. “Seriously? Just like that?”
“Well, you’re going to have to sign these documents, it’ll be witnessed, notarized, lodged at court… but yes, for all intents and purposes that’s it. You’ll have to meet with your bank manager at some point in the new year and I’d suggest appointing a financial and asset manager—I’d be happy to recommend a few reliable people—but those are all formalities.”
“And…” She hesitated, not entirely sure how to frame the question she needed to ask. “How… how bad—?”
Cyrus sighed and folded his hands.
“As you know, your trust fund was mismanaged, Fern. But we’re working on recouping those losses for you.”
“Do you know the extent of his malfeasance yet?”
“It was systemic,” Cyrus confirmed. They’d discussed this before, of course, he’d been keeping her apprised of his findings. “And quite blatant. He never expected to be caught because he believed he had you under his absolute control. Years of pilfering, as you know… padding his own books, making dodgy deals in your name that benefitted only his company. We’re still digging, but for now, what’s left, is out of his reach.”
“And what’s left?”
“About half of the money, Lambecrete, of course,” he said with a nod toward Cade. “A lot of the residential properties were sold.”
He went through a list of the assets that remained in Fern’s name, and at some point, her hand crept into Cade’s and he squeezed reassuringly as she listened and tried to come to terms with the damage her stepfather had done to her inheritance.