Kiss by Kiss (Riggins Brothers #3) - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,78

are racing through me. I just need a minute. Instead of my words, I place my hands back on her shoulders and give them a gentle squeeze.

“Rory.” Owen sits in the seat next to her, placing the folder on Martin’s desk. I watch as he reaches over and takes her hands in his. “I trust you. I need you to know that before we have this conversation. However, I need to ask these questions for the sake of absolute clarity. You with me?” he asks her.

“Y-Yes.”

“Who is Elijah Daniels?”

She keeps her eyes on him as she begins to tell the story. “He was my fiancé.” She goes on to tell him about the mental and verbal abuse he threw at her and how he pretty much ignored her when her gran died and then left her sitting at the church just minutes before they were supposed to be married.

“Bastard,” Owen seethes, his eyes catching mine.

I can’t speak for the anger coursing through my veins, hearing the story all over again. My arms ache to hold her, to take this all away. I remember the night she told me her past, and my mind finally catches up. She has nothing to do with this. I know that. I feel like a fucking tool for even considering it.

“When did you open your account here?” Owen asks.

“When we moved here. I had a small inheritance from my grandmother. I used most of it for the lease on the bakery, and the little I had left went into my account here. They gave me a loan for the renovations. That’s how this mess started. I got a letter telling me that my payment failed.”

“Is there anyone else on the account?”

She nods. “Aspen.” Her tear-filled eyes find mine, and I break. After walking around her chair, I drop to my knees and cradle her face in the palm of my hands.

“We’re going to figure this out. I promise,” I say, leaning in and kissing her forehead.

“I’m sorry. When he showed up at the bakery, he wanted money. He said I owed him, and he looked… crazy. I just blew it off to him being him. He told me that he would get it one way or the other, but I didn’t take his threat as serious. His words hurt me for so long, and seeing him… it was like my time with him didn’t exist. You healed me, Grant, and I just wanted him to go away. I ignored him, and he left. I haven’t heard from him since.”

“He came to see you?” My voice is tight. I don’t want to yell at her, but fuck me, she should have told me about this. She nods. “Why didn’t you tell me?” My question seems to light something inside her. A fire I’ve never seen before. She sits up taller, squaring her shoulders, and although tears are still falling from her eyes, she locks her gaze on me, and I know that whatever she’s about to say is going to tip my world on its axis.

Chapter 28

Aurora

“He stole my life from me. He annihilated my spirit and broke my faith in men. He tore me down and left me when he knew I was the most vulnerable. I’ve told you the basics, but do you know what it’s like for a man to tell you to not eat for at least a month, if not longer, in order to look good in your wedding dress?” I pause when Grant’s hands drop from my face and his fists clench. “Every day he would ridicule what I was wearing, how bad I looked, and what I was eating. I gave up everything I loved for him. I stopped baking. I stopped eating the foods that I loved to create, and I ate what he told me to eat. It sounds petty when I say it out loud.”

“Fuck,” Owen mutters.

I have their full attention, and I make myself push forward. “I thought he loved me. He told me so, and I didn’t know any other way. He was my first serious relationship. I knew that our love was different than my parents’, but I was okay with that because it was us against the world. I was young and dumb, and I have so many regrets.”

“Rory,” Grant grits out.

“He broke me. It took my sister and my parents constantly riding me to follow my dreams to bring me to Nashville. Their suggestion of a new start on life, to