Secrets Of The A-List (Episode 8 Of 12). Cat Schield

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СКАЧАТЬ Harrison ever cared about her pleasure? She frowned as she struggled to recall. Maybe in the early days of their marriage. Had things cooled because of his affairs, or was it the other way around?

      But it was one thing to have an affair and another to father a child with another woman. Mariella recalled the voice on the phone. The French-accented gold digger who claimed to be pregnant with Harrison’s child. Was it possible? Could he have gotten this woman pregnant and then abandoned her?

      With each new revelation about Harrison, Mariella realized she had no idea whom she’d married.

      “I’m glad you decided to spend the night,” Joe said.

      “Yes, well...”

      His smile, so filled with delight and so dear, tore at her heart. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Staying the entire night was just not done. She’d meant to put on her clothes and go. It was bad enough that she’d come to his room on the eve of her daughter’s wedding.

      The wedding!

      Mariella realized the room was quite bright. What time was it? She glanced at clock on the nightstand and blinked in shock at the numbers glowing at her. It’s impossible that so much of the morning could’ve gotten away from her. She should’ve been at Elana’s room a half hour ago.

      “It’s so late,” she exclaimed, staring at Joe’s face with regret mingled with dismay. “I have to go.”

      Flooded with embarrassment and confusion, she snatched the sheet to her chest and spied her clothes strewn all over the floor of his suite. So far away. What foolishness. She wasn’t a silly virgin unaccustomed to a lover’s lust-filled gaze. She’d made love to the man twice. He’d slid his hands and mouth over every inch of her. Why was she now so reluctant to let him see her naked body?

      There was nothing else to do. She simply had to get dressed and go find her daughter. Elana had been acting odd for weeks. This wedding was too important to let anything go wrong.

      * * *

      Thom stands at the foot of Harrison Marshall’s bed. The once powerful, charismatic tycoon lies as still as death, trapped in his coma. Around the patriarch’s bed cluster his children and wife. Each of them stares at the man in the bed, their faces inconsolable masks of sadness and regret.

      Beside him, Elana weeps softly. Thom hasn’t ever seen his fiancée so sad. He yearns to put his arm around her and offer comfort, but Rafe occupies her other side and she leans her head on her brother’s shoulder. For a second Thom envies their closeness. What would it be like to have siblings to lean on? To share secrets with and be able to count on?

      Thom would give anything to have a brother to share the burden of the family business. To spread the load of his parents’ expectations. Expectations that are leading him to marry Elana to look “normal.” Although Thom isn’t sure what normal is anymore.

      Harrison opens his eyes.

      “You’ve lied to everyone.” Harrison’s accusation echoes ominously in the silent room.

      “I’ve...what?” Thom recoils from the icy fury in the man’s eyes and stumbles back several shocked steps. “No.” Tearing his gaze away, he glances from Elana to Rafe to Mariella and back to Elana. At Harrison’s words, their heads swiveled in his direction. Searing, unblinking gazes fix on him. “No.” He’s moaning now. “I haven’t lied about anything. I swear.”

      Harrison sits up in a fluid motion. Back stiff, eyes cold fire, his arm is extended, finger pointing straight at Thom. “You lie about the reasons you’re marrying my daughter.”

      “I... I...haven’t. I’m not. I swear.” But the last word comes out weakly. He’s hidden the truth for so long, it’s become second nature to be who everyone wants him to be.

      Abruptly Luc points a finger at Thom. His voice is the acid hiss of hatred. “Liar.”

      “Liar.” Rafe whispers the word. His eyes brim with disappointment.

      Mariella scowls. “Liar.”

      “Why did you lie?” Tears fill Elana’s eyes.

      Thom stumbles back, away from her sadness. He bursts through a door. Blinded by the brightness beyond, it takes a couple of seconds for him to realize where he is. Above his head is a flower-festooned arbor. The sweet scent of so many blossoms fills his nostrils, making his head spin. A minister’s deep voice intones the beginning of a wedding ceremony.

      “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today...”

      Thom’s fingers clench into fists as he turns his head and spies Elana. She’s gorgeous in her white wedding dress, her face obscured by a heavy lace veil.

      As the minister drones on, Thom begins to calm down. He’s doing the right thing for everyone—his parents, Elana, her parents. He needs to focus on making Elana happy. He can do that. They’ve been friends forever. He wants the best for her.

      Calmer now, at the minister’s directions, Thom turns to face Elana. It’s nearly time for their vows. He will promise to be true to her. And he will keep that vow. Till death parts them.

      “If there is anyone who can show just cause that these two should not be joined together in holy matrimony, let him speak now...

      Thom starts to reach for Elana’s hands, but she steps back and snatches at the hem of her veil, lifting it. Suddenly Thom isn’t looking into Elana’s beautiful face, but Gabe’s. The Fixer. And he is laughing.

      “Surprise.” Gabe sneers. “Did you really think I’d let you marry Elana? You are lying about who you are. It’s all your fault.”

      “What’s my fault?”

      “That.” Gabe gestures toward the chairs where the wedding guests sit.

      Five hundred guests stare at him in cold accusation. At first he doesn’t understand why, and then he sees the carnage. The entire Marshall family is slumped to the ground like marionettes with their strings cut. They lie together in a broken pile. Crimson droplets are splattered over them like hundreds of rose petals, each one glistening wetly as if drenched in tears.

      Who could have done this and why?

      “You did this,” Gabe says as if reading Thom’s mind. “This is all because you told.”

      “You told.”

      “You told.”

      A rising chant swells from the guests. Five hundred pairs of eyes pin him where he stands paralyzed by terror and confusion. There’s no escape. Flies begin to buzz over the Marshall family’s lifeless bodies, dipping and lurching through the air as if drunk on the taint of all that blood.

      “You told.”

      Thom’s head starts to spin, and he sways. “I swear I didn’t.”

      And then Gabe’s hand comes up, blood soaked and bearing a silver knife. Thom has a split second to take it all in before that blade begins its deadly arc in his direction. Sunlight glints off the razor-sharp edge, blinding him. He throws up his hand to ward off the killing СКАЧАТЬ