Marrying Mr. Darcy (Love Manor #2) - Kate O'Keeffe Page 0,77

give us the room?”

“Are you serious? After the stunt you just pulled, Emma, I’m not inclined to give you anything,” she replies.

I appeal to my fiancé. “Seb, please.”

He takes a deep breath and says, “Jilly, I need to talk to Emma alone.”

“I won’t leave you,” she sniffs.

“I’ll be fine,” he insists.

She presses her lips together as she looks between the two of us, seemingly deciding whether to stay or go. “All right, but I’ll be out there waiting for you, Sebby.”

“Thanks, Jilly,” he says softly.

She shoots me a lethal look before I close the door behind her.

With his back still facing me, I notice his shoulders are tense.

I move closer to him. “Seb?”

After a beat, he turns to look at me, and the pain in his eyes has my breath catching in my throat.

“I’m so, so sorry,” I gush, moving over to him. “I didn’t mean for any of that to happen. I was upset, and he followed me out into the hallway. You’ve gotta believe me. I didn’t do anything to make him think I wanted him to kiss me. That’s the God’s honest truth.”

He presses his lips together as he casts his eyes down. He exhales heavily and then looks back up at me, his shoulders slumping. “I believe you, Brady.”

Relief floods through my veins. “You do? Oh, Seb.” I rush over to him and wrap my arms around him. Although he hugs me back, his body remains taut. I pull back from him and our gazes lock. “You hit him because of the kiss?”

“Partly that and partly something else,” he replies evasively. “Chris Hampshire had it coming, believe me.”

“Why? I get that he’s a bit of a slime, and I’m pretty sure he’s never heard of the #MeToo movement, but why did he have it coming? Is it because of Jilly?”

“Let’s sit. I should really tell you the whole thing.”

We pull a couple of padded wooden chairs out from the large dining table and sit down facing one another. I take his hand in mine and wait for him to begin.

“Chris Hampshire has done more damage to my family than any living person.”

I pull my brows together in confusion. “To your family? I don’t get it.”

“Years ago, when we met at Cambridge, I genuinely enjoyed his company. I brought him home to Martinston to stay, and we spent a lot of time together. He even spent Christmas with us one year when he didn’t go home to Boston. Then, of course, he was dating Jilly. Everything seemed great for a while, that is until I discovered his true character.”

“What did he do?”

“Unbeknownst to me, he had Jilly paying for everything, from his rent to their summers in the South of France and ski trips to the Alps.”

“That’s not a crime, though. She’s from a super wealthy family, and he’s not. They’re kinda us in reverse, in some ways.”

“Believe me when I say, Brady, you are nothing like Chris Hampshire. Over time, it became clear to me that he was taking advantage of her, so much so that when he asked her to marry him, he stipulated in their prenup that he would get half of her wealth should they separate within two years. More if they remained together for three.”

“She signed something like that?”

“Of course she did. She was besotted with him.”

“She didn’t mention that.”

“It was a hard time for her. What made it harder was when I caught him with my girlfriend in a, shall we say compromising position.”

My eyes get wide. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. When I challenged him, he practically admitted he was using Jilly for her money. That’s when I stepped in. I didn’t feel I had any choice. This guy was using my good friend and sleeping with my girlfriend. Not exactly the type of guy you want in your life.”

“You saved Jilly,” I say, my voice heavy with emotion. “No wonder you punched the guy.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I certainly tried to act in her best interests. But the problem was, he’d seduced someone else at the time, too. Someone very close to me. Someone I loved.”

“Not Zara?” I say in a gasp.

He shakes his head. “Thank God, no. It was my father.” He looks down at his hands as his words sink in.

“Your father?”

“He wormed his way into my father’s good books. They became great friends. Chris introduced him to another world.”

My breath catches in my throat. “Gambling.”

He nods, his features grim. “I knew they would go to the races together.