Why did you take advantage of me? You knew my weakness! You knew and exploited it.
I no longer believe that Callum has been unfaithful, or even if he has, I must learn to live with it. We can’t continue like this, Steve, hiding the truth from Callum.
I need to tell him. I have to. Otherwise I won’t be able to live with myself.
But while I can’t live without Callum, I don’t know that I can bear to be without you, either. You do things to me, bring me alive in ways I didn’t think were possible. Every night when I close my eyes, I see your face, feel your touch.
When that other woman is near, I burn with anger. Why would you marry her? She’s beneath you. Knowing that you go from me to her disgusts me. You ask me to leave Callum, but I don’t trust you, either, Steve. I don’t believe you. I don’t believe in anyone any longer.
There’s no choice for me. All of them have been taken from me. Don’t try to stop me.
Maria
Once I’m finished, I let the letter drop to the carpet at my feet. This is so…crazy. How could Steve do that to Callum? How could Maria?
“I need to tell Reed,” I blurt out.
Steve lunges forward before I can get my phone off the nightstand. “No,” he begs. “You can’t tell him. You’ll tear them up. Those boys worship their mother.”
“So did you, apparently,” I say bitterly. “How could you do that? How could you!”
“Ella—”
Fear and hope and despair swirl around me, sucking all the air out of the room and making it hard to breathe or think. “You slept with Callum’s wife,” I accuse.
Steve’s jaw clenches for a moment, his face haggard, and then he nods abruptly. He can’t even bring himself to say it out loud.
“Why?”
“I always loved her,” he admits in a hoarse voice. “And, in her way, she loved me.”
“That’s not what this letter says.”
“She did,” he insists. “We saw her at the same time, but Callum got to her first.”
I just gape at him. Oh my God. He sounds like a little boy whose toy was taken away.
“So when Callum was busy saving your company, you told Maria he was cheating on her?” My thoughts are jumbled and crazy, one leaping after the other, but I think I’m starting to piece it all together. “That’s how you got her into bed?”
His eyes shift away to stare somewhere over my shoulder.
“Was Callum actually cheating?” I demand. “Was that true?”
When he can’t look me in the eye, I know it’s not. The fragile relationship we were building crashes to the ground. I can’t respect him. I barely like him right now. He slept with his best friend’s wife. Worse, he told Maria that her husband betrayed her. And she’d killed herself! Steve O’Halloran pretty much drove that poor, messed-up woman to suicide.
I suddenly feel like throwing up.
Bending down, I pick up the letter and clutch it tight. “We’re taking this to Callum. He thinks his wife killed herself because of him. The boys believe the same thing. You need to tell them all the truth.”
Anger flickers in Steve’s eyes. “No,” he snaps. “This stays between us. I told you before, it would ruin those boys’ lives.”
“You think they aren’t already dead inside because their mother killed herself? The only person this letter will ruin is you. And frankly, Steve, I don’t care if it does. The Royals need to know the truth!”
With that, I grab my phone and barrel past him, practically hurling myself out the door.
“Don’t you fucking walk away from me!”
His enraged voice brings a jolt of fear. I start to run, making it all the way to the living room before I’m suddenly yanked backwards. The momentum sends me flying butt-first onto the carpet, inches away from the fireplace where Brooke died—
And suddenly I’m struck with the most horrible thought.
“Was it you?” I blurt out.
Steve doesn’t answer me. He just looms over me, breathing hard, his features creased with frustration.
“Did you kill Brooke?” My voice is weak now, shaky from horror.
“No,” he growls. “I didn’t.”
But I see it—the flicker of guilt in his eyes.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “You did. You killed her and then tried to pin it on Reed. You murdered her—”
“It was an accident!” he roars.
The deafening volume has me flinching. I stumble to my feet, trying to put as much distance between us as I can, but Steve steps forward, and all I can do is back up, until my spine is flat against the fireplace.
“It was a goddamn accident, okay!” My father’s eyes are wild now, red and narrowed and terrifying.
“H-how?” I stammer. “Why?”
“I just got off a damned plane after months of being trapped on some godforsaken island!” He’s screaming now. “And I get home to see goddamn Reed leaving the penthouse! What the hell else was I supposed to think? I already knew that my wife was screwing Callum’s eldest.” His breathing is shallow. “And then Reed? You think I was going to take that lying down? After everything I’d just gone through?”