Page 56 of One Night in Glasgow (The Scottish Billionaires #15)
Her smile faltered. “What on earth are you talking about, dear?”
“I always knew Stewart was weak and pathetic, but I never saw him as a monster.” I spun to face her, my voice filled with a new, powerful conviction. “I could never marry a man like that, Mother. I will not be the wife of a rapist.”
Mother let out a short, sharp laugh, a sound as brittle and cold as ice.
“Oh, Elisabeth, listen to yourself. You and your melodrama,” she said, waving a dismissive hand.
“A rapist? You’ve been reading too many of those trashy novels again.
Stewart Beauchamp wouldn’t have the imagination for such a thing, let alone the spine. ”
I just stood there, my expression unwavering, letting her laughter die in the heavy silence of the room. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t argue. I just let her see the absolute, unshakeable conviction in my eyes.
And that’s when I saw the flash of panic. My refusal to be dismissed, my cold certainty, was something she hadn’t anticipated. In trying to make Sean look like a brute, she had accidentally made Stewart, her chosen candidate, look unforgivable in my eyes. Her plan was backfiring.
She set her teacup down with a sharp click, her composure finally cracking.
“Stewart is a debtor, not a monster. He didn’t drug you.
” She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, believing she was salvaging her plan.
“This was for your own good, dear. But I told him about your little mark. It was all my idea.”
Her confession hung in the air, and seeing the flicker of understanding on my face, she mistook it for dawning admiration of her cleverness. Her arrogance returned in a rush.
“I knew your American, with his brutish, protective passions, wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Fiona continued, savoring every word. “It was the only way to make you see him for the violent, unsophisticated savage he really is. The only way to save you from your own appalling choices. ”
When I nodded in agreement, she continued, “I’ll let you in on a little secret.
I never told you before, but now that we’re on the same page; your little New York adventure was not unsupervised,” she said, as she touched my hand.
“After your aunt arranged that ridiculous intern position, I took precautions. I contacted that young man, Garrett Reeves, myself. The plan was for him to get close, keep an eye on you, maybe break your heart a little. A necessary cruelty, to make you finally ready to come home and accept a sensible future with Stewart.”
She leaned back, a triumphant smile returning to her face. “So, Stewart is harmless, see? I did it all for you, darling. To protect this family.” She finally exhaled. “I’m so glad you finally understand me.”
I didn’t say a word. I just stood up, my hand still in my pocket, my thumb pressing ‘stop’ on the recording. I had everything I needed.
“Where are you going?” she demanded, her smile faltering as she saw the cold, clear resolve in my eyes.
“I’m going to go save the man I love,” I said simply, “from a monster.”
I walked out of the room without a backward glance, leaving my mother sitting alone with her teacup, the full weight of what she had just done slowly dawning on her stunned, triumphant face.
I met my father in his solicitor’s office and played him the recording.
The look of utter devastation, of horrified disbelief that washed over his face as he listened to his wife’s cold, calculated confession was absolute.
He didn’t hesitate. He took the recording directly to his lawyers, who immediately forwarded it to the police and the Crown prosecutor’s office.
The final scene of the battle took place hours later, outside the Glasgow police station.
The sky was a moody, bruised purple, but for the first time in my life, I felt the sun on my face.
The assault charges against Sean had been dropped, the case thrown out due to the clear, irrefutable evidence of premeditated provocation and entrapment.
Not only had my mother warned Stewart; she had personally scripted the lie designed to incite Sean to violence.
He walked out of the station a free man, and saw me waiting for him across the street. We didn’t run to each other. We simply walked, closing the distance between us until we were face-to-face. The world seemed to fall away.
Sean gently touched the side of my face, his thumb brushing away a single tear I hadn’t realized had fallen. “It’s over,” I whispered, my voice thick with relief. “You’re safe.”
“We’re safe,” he corrected, his voice a low, rough murmur.
He pulled me into his arms, and I buried my face in his chest, inhaling the scent of him, the scent of safety, of home. In that quiet, profound embrace, surrounded by the sounds of the city I had once so desperately wanted to escape, our future finally, truly began.
“How are you holding up?” he murmured into my hair.
“I keep replaying it,” I confessed, my voice a whisper. “I painted Stewart Beauchamp as this great monster in my mind. This pathetic, weak man… I saw him as the final boss I had to defeat to finally be free.” A short, humorless laugh escaped my lips.
I turned in his arms to face him, my gaze locking with his.
“But Stewart was never the monster,” I said, the truth of it washing over me with a clean, painful clarity. “He was just another one of her puppets. A sad, greedy little man on a string.” A single, defiant tear slipped down my cheek, but my voice didn’t waver. “It was her. It was always her.”
Sean’s expression was so soft, his thumbs coming up to brush away the tear. “Yes,” he said, his voice full of an understanding that soothed the rawest parts of my soul. “It was always her.”
I looked down at our hands, then back up at him. “She played everyone. My father, Stewart… me. She was always counting on me to be the ‘wild child,’ the mess who would eventually crumble.” I met his eyes, and I saw my own resilience reflected there. “But I didn’t crumble this time, did I?”
I saw the pride welling in his gaze as he shook his head slowly. “No, you didn’t,” he said, his voice deep with an emotion that made my heart ache in the best way. “You walked into the dragon’s den and you set it on fire. You were magnificent.”
Magnificent. No one had ever seen me as magnificent. They saw me as a menace, a disaster, a problem to be solved.
A real smile, my first genuine smile of the night, finally broke through. “I think I’m done being a puppet,” I whispered.
He pulled me against him, his forehead resting on mine, the world narrowing to just the two of us. “I know you are,” he said. “And you’ll never be alone in a fight again. Ever.”