Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires #2) - J. S. Scott Page 0,5
Mafia family had ended up in prison for life. “We’re divorced,” I said sharply. “And criminals don’t usually get to keep the money they stole from other people.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have run off with him in the first place. You were too damn young to be married. You were only eighteen.” His voice was harsh.
“I didn’t have much choice. You know that,” I told him bitterly.
All of the pent-up anger I’d harbored toward Aiden started to roil up inside me, and I had no idea how to tamp it down.
For many months, I’d avoided him, tried to ignore how much I resented the fact that he’d never stepped up to the plate to talk about what had happened so many years ago.
“You had plenty of choices,” he argued. “You had plans to go to college. But you copped out and ran away with a guy who had money while I was out on a long job. Hell, you never even hung around long enough for me to come back and say good-bye.”
“You know what happened.” I hated the fact that the devastation I’d felt back then was actually threaded through my voice.
I have to stay calm. Show no emotion.
He curled his large hand around my upper arm, which forced me to look at him. I was shocked by the surprise on his face.
Aiden had always been ruggedly handsome. His skin was always weathered, even when he was younger. And he usually had a five-o’clock shadow because the black hair grew faster than he shaved. The guy spent a lot of time outside in the elements. But with his dark hair, sexy blue eyes, and ripped, muscular body, it was a good look on him.
He was physically gorgeous.
Unfortunately, his character hadn’t been as great as his appearance.
“I don’t have a damn clue what happened,” he said huskily. “I got back the day after you left for San Diego with a man who had a lot more to offer than I did. It didn’t take long to figure out that you didn’t want to live poor with a guy like me.”
I hadn’t given a damn about his financial situation. I’d cared about Aiden back then, rich or not. So it pissed me off that he was making me out to be some kind of gold digger.
How could he think that I hadn’t wanted him, money or not? How? I’d told him that I loved him, even though he’d never said those words back to me.
“My mother forced me into marrying Marco,” I said, my heart stammering as I tried to explain something that he was already well aware of. “I wanted you to come for me, but you never did.”
Dammit! I don’t want to have this conversation right now. It’s pointless.
His eyes searched mine. “How could she force you into it?”
Like he doesn’t know how my mother got the leverage?
“If I didn’t marry him, I’d no longer have a place to live.”
“You could have stayed with us.”
I swallowed hard as I recognized the sincerity in his voice.
Why is he acting like he doesn’t understand anything that happened?
What food I’d eaten was rolling around in my stomach as reality suddenly slapped me in the face.
Is it possible that he really doesn’t know?
I shook my head slowly. “I couldn’t stay with you. You already had enough mouths to feed.”
Aiden, Seth, and their oldest brother, Noah, had all worked to raise Jade, Brooke, and Owen, their younger siblings. And there had never been enough money. But God help me, had I known that he had wanted me to stay, I would have done anything I could to help out.
“I would have figured it out,” he said gutturally.
I shook my arm out of his grasp in a panic, and then stood up. “I have to go,” I told him.
My daughter was with a sitter, but that wasn’t why I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I had to get some air before I passed out.
I was being bombarded by memories, and none of them were good.
I needed some time and a quiet place to get a grip. I had to deal with the fact that maybe my reality had just been turned on its head.
He doesn’t know. That’s why Aiden has never come and talked to me. That’s why I’ve never heard from him.
I grabbed my purse as I struggled to breathe, my heart slamming against my chest wall so hard that I could barely make my way outside.