Shaw (Alpha Geek #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,31

of the things you’ve blamed your uncle for, I think I am responsible for.”

At least he had the decency to look repentant and sad.

“You’re the one who emptied out my bank account?”

He averted her gaze.

“Holy shit. You did, didn’t you?”

“I’m so sorry. It was under the Cain name, and Chuck was listed as having access. I thought it was one of those messed up things crooked people do to hide money.”

“No, you jackass! It was my money. Do you have any idea how much heartache you caused me? How much shit you put me through?”

The realization was crushing.

It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it was, but it did. It was like being pressed down by a large boulder. Poppy couldn’t breathe, and she didn’t know if she wanted to.

She felt overly dramatic, just like her uncle had always accused her of being.

Was the feeling of burning shame and betrayal warranted?

Her mate had betrayed her. It was true that she barely knew him. After talking only a handful of times and a couple of dates, it was hard to say that they had developed a full-blown relationship.

But he was her mate.

That was the blow.

That was the biggest wound of all.

Poppy had been gypped by life when her parents had died. She had become the Cinderella to her uncle’s evil stepmother act.

And now her mate was responsible for emptying her bank account and for putting her in the path of her very angry family.

“Poppy, do you know what your uncle does for a living? What your cousins do?”

“I’m not dense. Of course I do.”

“Okay, so then you know they’re bad people.” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and he began at the very beginning of his history with the Cain family.

He told her every sordid detail about how the terrible trio were his abusers all through school. He described years of physical attacks, not to mention mental ones. He explained that the very few times he tried to get help, the reprisals were intense and shocking. He thought better of asking for help after a while and just spent years planning his revenge.

It all came to a head when they forced his grandmother into a lease she couldn’t afford when they had bought the building that housed her apartment. He spared no details, telling her exactly how life was in the building and just how impossible it was to get his nana to leave. She was emptying her bank account to pay her rent, but she had no choice. There was no way to break her lease agreement. She was caught, no matter what Shaw did.

Even if the trio had taken advantage of a confused old woman, there was no legal recourse.

Shaw went into great detail, explaining how his revenge needed to hit the Cains in the only place they could feel pain: their wallet. The shifter serum was the only way he could think of how to defend himself after the theft of all of their money.

“But it’s not like I kept it for myself. I didn’t keep a single penny. I gave it all away to those who had been fucked by the Cains.”

Poppy listened to him patiently. His reasoning made some level sense, but it didn’t take the sting away from the fact that she was in the splash zone of his revenge.

“I am really sorry you got mixed up in all of this. When I emptied all of the accounts, I should have made sure that I wasn’t hurting anyone else.”

“Yes. You should have. I was already in a vulnerable position with my uncle. I was running away because he was trying to force me into an arranged marriage with a business partner of his.”

Shaw stiffened, but she leapt off his bed and turned to face him. If she could shoot daggers out of her eyes, she would have then. She didn’t like that he had a reaction to that.

“You don’t get to lie there and be indignant because my uncle wanted to sell me for some land. You are no better, Shaw Eagan. You might be my mate, but when I needed the nest egg I had been saving my entire life, it was gone. You took away my safety. You put my friend in danger. You put me in harm’s way. For revenge. I don’t care how noble you think your motives were. The truth is, you’re just as conniving as the Cains, as you so gently put it. In case it escaped