Page 43

SINCLAIR

“She’s lying, right? She must be.”

“We’ll find out,” Denver says, his jaw tightening at the despair that’s inched deeper and deeper into my voice since the show ended.

I finished it, despite what just happened. There’s no way I was going to let everyone down who worked so hard. But my stomach hasn’t stopped churning since Theo’s words.

It’s not him.

I couldn’t even bring myself to look at my necklace again after she said it. It’s been something I’ve treasured for so long and now… now I don’t know how I feel. I handed it straight to Denver. It’s been in the inner pocket of his suit jacket ever since I asked him to take care of it for me.

Denver nods a thank you to the security guard who lets us out of the side entrance. Killian called to inform him that what just went down backstage is already trending online and the main entrance is swamped with reporters waiting for me to exit.

“I can’t believe it’s been Theo all this time. She acted like she was a friend.”

He wraps an arm around me, guiding us out into the alleyway. My head spins as I try to make sense of it all.

“She wrecked Lenny. She… Oh my god, she put…”

“She put shit on your car?”

I shake my head. “Oh my god, you know about that?”

“I do.”

“I don’t get why she would do it all. We’re not super close, but I thought we were friends. She’s come out with me, Zoey, Mikey, and Brad so many times. How did you know it was her who took it?”

Denver’s arm is like a shield around me, and I lean into his side, the scent of him helping to calm my racing heart.

“I saw photos of her meeting that model you fought with the day it went missing. She was handing it over to Theodora in exchange for cash.”

“I can’t believe it,” I murmur, sinking further into his side as a shiver runs through me. “Do you think she…” I squeeze my eyes shut as my throat burns. “Do you think she paid those boys to try and take Monty too?”

Warm lips dust my forehead. “If she did, Princess, then we’ll find out.”

I sniff, trying desperately to cling on to the safety of his deep voice.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I murmur as Denver leads us toward the top of the alley.

“I mean it. Not just you being my bodyguard, but just… being you, being there for me like you are. I know we never saw what’s happening between us coming, but I want you to know that I think the world of you and I?—”

“Get behind me!” Denver barks.

He reaches for his gun, maneuvering me behind him at the same time.

“What’s wrong?” I cry.

His gun is pointed at a figure at the head of the alleyway before they even get the chance to take a step toward us.

“I’m armed and I will shoot if you come any closer.”

I look out from behind him and take in the man standing frozen to the spot, his palms up in front of his stomach as he stares at Denver’s gun.

Something about him is familiar, even though I’ve never met him before.

But I’ve seen photos. I’ve looked him up online, needing answers, needing to know why she would do what she did to my father.

“Neil?” I gasp.

“Hello, Sinclair.” He lowers his hands and tilts his head like he’s trying to see me better around Denver’s body shielding me.

The click of Denver’s safety being released echoes off the high walls around us.

“Is he going to shoot me?” Neil asks me.

“If you move any closer,” Denver hisses.

“I wouldn’t test him,” I say, craning my neck to see him better.

He’s the same age as my father but looks older with thinning gray hair and sallow cheeks.

His eyes are dull, like he hasn’t slept properly in months.

He looks like he did in the photos of him and Mom that my father found hidden amongst her things after she died.

Only he was smiling in them. He looked like someone in love. And so did my mother.

Now he looks sad and lost.

I swallow the bile that’s threatening to creep up my throat.

His eyes widen as he takes me in. “My god, you look so much like her. Elaina told me you were fair like her, and that your brothers were dark. And I’ve seen pictures, but seeing you now… I?—”

“What the hell do you want?” Denver snaps, his gun trained on Neil’s forehead.

“I just want to talk.” Neil glances uneasily at Denver, then back at me. “Sinclair, please, I just want to talk. Your father and brother will never want to hear what I have to say, but you?—”

“Was she going to leave my father for you?” I choke.

Neil’s face falls. He looks like he might step closer, but I shake my head at him as Denver stiffens.

“I asked her to,” he says wearily, as though admitting it is draining the life out of him. “I begged her to. I loved her. All of my life, I loved her. I was a coward when I left her all those years ago. I didn’t want to walk away a second time.”

Something about the utter devastation on his face and the way his shoulders slump have me placing my hand over Denver’s rigid bicep.

“Put the gun away,” I whisper.

The corners of his eyes pinch and his gaze remains pinpointed on Neil.

“I don’t want to do that, Princess,” he grits.

“But I’m asking you to. Please .”

Denver’s brow furrows and his nostrils flare as he glares at Neil.

“I can tear your heart out of your chest so fast that when I crush it in my fist, it’ll still be beating.”

Neil’s face pales at Denver’s deathly calm voice. He nods once, his throat bobbing as Denver places the safety back on his gun and holsters it.

“I just want to talk. Just for a minute,” he says.

“So talk,” Denver growls.

I step out from behind him, but he catches me with a hand to my hip and curls it around me protectively, drawing me into his side. I glance up at the murderous set of his jaw.

“I’m an asshole who’d fucking die for you. And no… not because it’s my job.”

My eyes rake over his profile for a second and warmth blankets over me.

“It’s okay,” I breathe.

“When some guy accosts you in an alley, Sinclair, it is not okay.”

“I just want to talk,” Neil says again.

There’s no malice in his voice, no strength. He sounds like a broken man. One who’s lost everything.

“She told me she would never leave you,” he says.

“She still loved my father?” My heart lifts.

These past two and a half years he’s had to live knowing Mom had an affair with her first love.

The man who left her pregnant and heartbroken.

My father was the one who picked up the pieces and dealt with the wreckage he left behind.

My father was the one who held her when she cried after her miscarriage.

My father was the one who built a family with her. An empire.

My father was the one she truly loved.

He’s beyond happy with Halliday now. But maybe knowing Mom never meant to hurt him will be some comfort to him. Because he never got to ask her himself. He was robbed of those conversations when she died.

“No. Elaina said she would never leave you ,” Neil replies.

I suck in a sharp breath. “Me?”

“She said you were her youngest. Her only daughter. She said even though you were an adult that you still needed her, that a daughter always needs her mom. She would never leave you, even though she loved me.”

My eyes burn. Neil’s outline gets blurry, and Denver’s grip on my hip tightens, supporting me.

“Is that what you came to tell me?” I cry. “The reason you’re back in New York? Because you wanted to tell me it was my fault she wouldn’t leave to be with you? You came back into her life, and you screwed with my whole family! We were fine before you came back. We were all together.”

My chest heaves as sobs threaten to break free.

Denver pulls me into his side, the warmth of his solid chest meeting my cheek as I press it against him.

“Get the hell out of here before I kill you,” he snarls.

“I miss her too,” Neil says.

“Go!” Denver thunders, reaching for his gun.

“I was there the day they died.”

I snap my head up from Denver’s chest. “What?”

“I was there,” Neil says. “I flew to Cape Town after her. It was my last attempt to get her to leave with me. I’m sorry, Sinclair, but I loved your mother, and I wasn’t prepared to let her go without a fight.

We talked at the marina, I begged her to leave with me, but she wouldn’t.

Then she…” He drags a hand down his face, blowing out a breath as his eyes fill with tears.

“Then she… she was gone.” He clamps a hand over his mouth as he lets out a strange, muffled cry.

“Did you hurt her?” Denver asks slowly, his voice low and commanding.

“No,” Neil splutters. “Of course not, I loved her! But that’s why I came back. I saw your father’s engagement announced. He’s moving on, but I… I can’t. Not until I know what happened to her.”

Every nerve in my body tingles as I stare at him.

“She died in the fire. No one knows how it started, except that the yacht must have had a fault. A fuel leak or something.” My voice comes out shaky as images of flames and thick gray smoke rush to the front of my memory.

“No.” Neil shakes his head. “I saw a man getting off the yacht. He walked away a few minutes before your brother ran onboard. Then it… Oh God,” Neil chokes up.

“My brother ran onboard?” I reel back. “No, he was on there with Mom and?—”

“I saw him run onboard before it exploded.”

“Who was this man you saw?” Denver snaps.

Neil’s chest deflates like an old balloon. “I couldn’t tell you. I was too far away at that point to get a good look. It was a man, that’s all I know. Dressed smart. I don’t even know how old he was. Nothing.”

“If you think you can come back here and even suggest that Sterling?—”

“No!” Neil throws his hands back up as Denver pulls his gun on him again.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. It wasn’t your father.

” He glances at me, then looks straight at Denver again.

“Sterling ran onboard after the yacht exploded. He came from another direction. It couldn’t have been him. ”

“Denver,” I whisper, my chest turning in on itself until breathing is difficult. I just want to get out of here. I squeeze my eyes shut hoping that the memory of the smell of burning leaves me as fast as it’s arrived.

“You go back to where you’re staying, and you don’t move until we come to you,” Denver instructs Neil.

“Okay, okay… I’m?—”

“I know where to find you,” he growls, making Neil’s face pale. “Now, get the hell out of my sight.”

Neil takes a couple of steps backward, his eyes darting to me. “I’m sorry, Sinclair. I loved your mother. I would never have asked her to leave you if I didn’t. But she chose you. She loved you too much to leave.”

“Now! Before I shoot you!” Denver barks.

Neil spins and rushes off, and I turn into Denver’s embrace, sinking my face into his chest.

“Denver,” I whimper.

“It’s okay, Princess,” he soothes. “It’ll be okay.”

His lips meet my forehead, and I desperately want to believe him.