Page 27 of The House Guest

Guilt and dread twisted in my stomach as I dropped Rosie off at preschool Friday morning.

When the teacher came out to get her, I waved to my daughter, feeling like a fraud.

I hadn’t told Casey what I was doing this morning.

I’d decided not to mention anything until I understood what was going on.

I didn’t want to alarm him, and this felt like something I had to do without any outside voices complicating the matter.

Also, Casey was under a lot of work stress lately, and this would only compound that.

Keeping business as usual on the homefront seemed like the best idea.

My stomach churned as I pulled up in front of Dorian’s rental property in a residential neighborhood, tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac. The beautiful two-story brick house was huge. Not sure why this surprised me. It made perfect sense.

I’d planned to sit in my car and find my bearings for a few minutes, but I didn’t have the chance.

Before I could even take my seatbelt off, the front door opened and Dorian appeared.

He held a hand up in a wave, then slipped his hands in his pockets, seeming anxious.

The beauty of the house paled next to the man standing at the doorway.

I got out of my car and walked toward the door. I stopped a few feet away, keeping my distance. I looked up at the house. “This place is nice.” Though as lovely as it was, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the Vanderbilt mansion.

“Thanks. It was the only thing I could find that didn’t require a minimum stay.” He moved aside. “Come in.”

The inside was even more impressive than the flawless exterior.

The entry opened to a huge living room with a large wraparound couch the color of sand.

Everything coordinated perfectly, and large windows let in an abundance of light.

This place was meant for a large, wholesome family, not some mysterious meeting between ex-lovers.

Dorian had a roaring fire going.

“Let’s sit,” he said, leading me to the couch in front of the fireplace.

The flames crackled. It was a scene way too intense for eight fifteen in the morning.

“You’re nervous,” he said.

“I can’t help it.” I licked my lips. “I don’t understand any of this.”

He sat across from me on the far end of the couch, rubbing his palms along his thighs. “Believe me. I’m nervous, too. Can I get you some coffee?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you.”

He nodded and exhaled. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Why don’t you start with why you showed up at my doorstep after five years? Why did you wait so long if you have things to say to me?”

“I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’re not supposed to understand, but do you know anything at all?”

“What am I supposed to know about?”

“Have you googled me?”

“Only very recently. Like literally a week ago. That’s part of why it was such a shock to see you. I came across an article about you having gone missing, and I was afraid to keep searching because I thought you were…” My voice trembled. Shit. Why am I crying? He’s fine.

“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.” He moved to sit next to me and took my hand in his. “I’m sorry to have worried you like that.” He sighed. “You’d never searched my name before that?”

Sniffling, I shook my head. “Not even once. I chose to erase you from my life like you did me. It wasn’t going to make anything easier to keep tabs on you. It would’ve been painful to see your face.” My confusion worsened by the second. “Why? What would I have found if I’d kept searching?”

“Just some things that wouldn’t have made sense without me explaining—like the real reason I went missing, why I eventually walked away from my father’s company. Nothing you would’ve found told the full story, though. You would’ve probably just been more confused.”

“I did know you put the mansion up for sale.”

“A while back, yeah. How did you know that?”

“I drove by on my way out of Orion Coast. One final goodbye. Saw the realtor sign. I was shocked but figured you had your reasons.”

He stared at me a few moments.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re so fucking beautiful. It hurts to look at you, Rosebud.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I knew it was gonna be tough seeing you. But it’s even harder than I thought.”

I cleared my throat, hardly able to breathe. “This is hard for me, too.”

“I know it is. Thank you for putting aside your fears and coming. It means a lot to me.”

My body stiffened as my protective instinct kicked in. “Well, I don’t have all morning. I’ve got to be back at the school by eleven, so…”

“So I should cut to the chase.” He licked his lips.

“Yeah.”

Dorian took a deep breath. “Nothing is what it seemed, Primrose. When I ended things with you, it wasn’t because I wanted to. It was because I had to.” He paused. “Your life was on the line. You just didn’t know it.”

My stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“I need to back up a bit. Please bear with me because…it’s a lot to take in.”

Shifting in my seat, I nodded.

“I have to start by going back to the time right after my father and Christina died. Something about their deaths never sat right with me. It was a feeling I had even before I moved to California from Boston. My father had been working on a number of inventions at the time of his death that, for various reasons, could’ve been motivation for someone to kill him. ”

My eyes widened.

“Soon after I came home to Orion Coast, I hired a team of investigators to look into what really happened at that private villa where my father and Christina had been staying. The local authorities had deemed it an accident, but I wasn’t convinced.”

“How come you didn’t mention any of this to me at the time?”

“I didn’t want to burden you with it, especially since I was never sure there was any validity to my concerns.

I didn’t want to scare you. I never imagined what the investigation would spiral into.

Every day that you and I lived at the mansion, though, the investigators I hired were working tirelessly to get to the bottom of what really happened to my dad and Christina. ”

A sinking feeling grew in my stomach. “What did they find?”

He sighed. “It was worse than anything I could have imagined. Vanderbilt Technologies had been working on a new type of solar panel that would’ve garnered a huge government contract.

It would’ve been the most lucrative product they’d ever created.

For a long time, Remington was credited as the sole creator.

But in reality, the technology was originally designed by a man named Alfred Mills.

Unbeknownst to anyone until years later, Mills had pitched the idea for the panel to my father in the hopes of partnering with Vanderbilt to get it patented and sold.

But unfortunately, my father wasn’t as honorable a business partner as I’d always assumed him to be. ”

“Remington was crooked?”

Dorian nodded. “My father modified Mills’s design somewhat and filed the patent solely under his own name, leaving Mills off of it.

Mills filed a lawsuit, but it was eventually thrown out due to lack of evidence.

He was never able to prove he was the original designer.

I’d known about that but had always assumed Mills was lying. ”

“But Remington was the liar…”

He nodded. “Right before my father and Christina died, Vanderbilt was about to launch the stolen solar panel product. Their deaths stalled the release and distribution, and the potential buyers, including the government, lost confidence with Remington gone. One of the first things I was tasked with when I took over was getting the solar panel release back on track. Little did I know that Mills and the people working for him were planning my demise as well. I wondered if Mills might have been behind the carbon monoxide incident, but it wasn’t until I started noticing that I was being followed that I realized my suspicions were right.

The guys I’d hired to look into things discovered that people had been taking photos of the house.

Photos of us.” He paused. “Photos of you.”

Holy shit. “That’s when you started to pull away.”

Dorian looked into my eyes and nodded. “I was terrified. I knew I needed to get you away from all of it. I would’ve never forgiven myself if something happened to you.

But I also knew how loyal and dedicated you were.

I knew if I told you what was going on, you wouldn’t leave my side.

I couldn’t risk you getting hurt. The company I’d hired to investigate was based in London, which was why I went out there before I broke up with you.

During my trip, they presented me with all the evidence they’d gathered.

It became clear that I needed to develop a safety plan.

So I lied to you to get you away from me, though that was the last thing I ever wanted.

I didn’t want to scare you or drag you into it.

I wanted you to live your life, even if it killed me to let you go. ”

My heart had never felt heavier, and my mind swirled. Yet there was still so much he hadn’t yet explained. “What happened after we broke up?”

“I kept tabs on you, to make sure you were okay while you were living at Janelle’s.

I had someone looking out for your safety that entire time.

You just didn’t know it. And when I found out you were leaving California, I was relieved, even though I was already pretty sure that after moving out of the mansion and out of my life, you were no longer a target.

Once you left California, I felt more at peace with planning my eventual disappearance. ”

My head hurt. “Where have you been all this time, Dorian?”

“First, I flew to Turkey. That’s where we staged the boat incident to make it look like Benjamin and I were lost at sea.”

“How were you able to manage that?”