Stealing Her, page 25
“Let him?” Julian exploded. I’d never seen him this angry. I’d never seen him be anything but in complete control. “I don’t know, Bridge, how could you take over my life? Huh? Wear my clothes? Spend my money? Take my job!”
“I did it for you.” Bridge glared at him. “And for Mom. She’s dying.”
“Yeah, I know,” Julian spat. “Why else would I send money? Why else would I put a separate account together for you guys? Do you really think that all this time I’ve just been blind?”
“You never visited. You never contacted us.” Bridge crossed his arms. “What the hell was I supposed to think?”
“Because I finally had everything!” Julian swore. “I was going to be CEO! I found out about the trust fund Dad left you and put two and two together! I knew we could take back what was ours! And then you go and pull this stunt, marrying her just so you can get it! What the hell is wrong with you?”
I gasped at his outburst and then dread washed over me as I turned to Bridge. “Wait . . . what?”
Bridge stiffened. “I was going to tell you, but I didn’t really think it mattered since I married you because I love you.”
Julian looked between us and shook his head. “Unbelievable. Dad said Bridge had to marry you in order to get the trust released to him along with the shares. Congratulations, you married a true Tennyson after all. Liars. All of us.”
“Cheaters.” Bridge glared.
Julian shook his head. “You don’t get it, the pressure he puts on you, the constant attention, women throwing themselves at you.”
I almost plugged my ears.
“Doesn’t excuse cheating.” Bridge gritted his teeth.
“Doesn’t excuse lying,” Julian fired right back.
It was my wedding day.
My perfect day.
I slowly sank into the nearest chair and my dress billowed around me. My chest was tight as I looked up at the two brothers.
Both of them had hurt me.
In different ways.
I squeezed my eyes shut as more hot tears slid down my cheeks.
“I was breaking up with you,” I whispered to no one in particular. “Julian, I was leaving you.”
“You don’t know, then.” He looked away. “I’d turned around, Iz, I was in the car, and I asked them to turn around because I knew a text wouldn’t do it, not this time. The driver pulled a U-turn, wasn’t paying attention, we were hit head-on. I got in an accident, was in a coma, nearly died because I was planning on going back to you, getting down on my hands and knees and begging you to take me back.”
“That’s not how this works, Julian,” I whispered. “You can’t just hurt someone over and over again and apologize and make it all better.”
He let out a long drawn-out sigh. “Even if that person realizes he’s been a jackass?”
“Even then.” I reached for Bridge’s hand. “Both of you . . . I can’t right now . . . Bridge, you should have told me.”
“I know.” His face was crestfallen as I stood on wobbly legs and exhaled. “First things first, you need to figure out what to do tomorrow.”
“What?” they said in unison.
“Sixty percent of the company’s shares.” I said it slowly. “You want to be free of this hatred, start with the man who planted it.”
And just like that, I swallowed my tears, turned around, and started walking out of the room.
“Izzy, wait!” Bridge grabbed my arm. “You can’t leave, we have to talk about this. We have to—”
I shook my head. “If you love me, you’ll let me walk out of this room, you’ll let me go.”
“I’m never letting you go.”
I believed him.
“Just for today. I need time.”
“Okay.” He kissed the top of my head like he always did and repeated himself. “Okay.”
Chapter Forty-Six
BRIDGE
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t look at him. In fact, I was still staring at the door that Izzy had walked through, taking my still-beating heart with her when she left that room.
Empty.
I felt so damn empty.
“For everything.” I hung my head. “I know you won’t believe me, but I tried. I tried to stay away. She thought I was you, and all I kept wondering was, Why does this beautiful woman treat her own fiancé with such hostility? Why am I having to earn her trust when they’re supposed to be getting married?”
Julian didn’t say anything.
I finally turned around and saw guilt in his expression. “She fell for me because she thought you were coming back to her, that the old Julian was finally paying attention. So yes, I took what was yours, but I also fixed what you broke, and I won’t apologize for that.”
He locked eyes with me, but said nothing.
“When you got in the accident, Dad showed up. He did what he does best, convinced me that I had to act as CEO so stocks didn’t drop, told me people were relying on him, relying on you, said the board would look the other way and know the entire time. He basically said the Tennyson fortune rested in my hands while you slept. And I knew this was everything to you, I knew it was everything you had worked for. I knew you’d been VP for two years and were just waiting for your chance. So I took it, with the understanding that the minute you woke up, you’d have it back. Seamless transition.”
“It won’t be seamless, though,” Julian said with a hard edge to his voice. “Because somehow you’re better at my job than I am.”
“I’m not better.”
“That’s not what my own father said to me within minutes of waking up. ‘Bridge has a natural gift with business. Maybe if he had worked as hard as you, he would have been something great.’”
The compliment was both offensive and backhanded.
To both of us.
“The job is yours, Julian.”
“And the girl?” He just had to ask. “What about her?”
I said nothing.
Julian finally sat, and then his eyes searched the room before landing on an open bottle of champagne.
He walked over to it and took a few swigs. “Not how I imagined my wedding day going.”
“You mean your twin marrying the girl you love? Yeah, I figured that wasn’t really in the ten-year plan,” I said sarcastically. “Should you be drinking so soon after the coma?”
He flipped me off and took another swig. “Should you be marrying someone else’s fiancé?”
“I love her.”
“I know, damn it.” Julian swallowed more champagne. “She’s easy to love. Hard to leave.”
“Then why cheat, Julian? Why make her feel less important than she is?”
“I woke up.”
“What?”
“I woke up,” he repeated. “It was a Sunday. She was lying in bed staring at me, and it just clicked, like I’d been sleeping my entire life and was finally awake . . . this family is a poison. It was in my blood, in my makeup. Don’t deny it’s in yours too. Tennyson, through and through.” He hung his head. “She had lost a little of the light that made her special. She looked . . . older, wiser, and bitter, and I knew I’d put the bitterness there by asking her to be the wife that I knew Dad wanted her to be for me. Wear the right clothes, shop at the right places, jump through five million hoops so hopefully in the end, you can get what you deserve. I was a coward. Instead of breaking up with her, I went out and got extremely drunk, and one thing led to another. I remember maybe half the night. I came back smelling like someone else’s perfume, apologized profusely, and we set a wedding date. And I hated myself a little bit more each day I kept her, knowing that one day she would wake up too, and she’d realize she wasn’t the person she wanted to be, not with me, and she would never be.”
“You woke up,” I repeated, finally understanding what he was saying. “Julian, you can walk away from all of this, you know that, right?”
“No.” His gaze met mine. “I really can’t. Dad owes me, he fucking owes me for the hell he put me through, and so do you.”
He was right about that.
I did owe him.
“We have sixty percent equity combined,” I reminded him. “What do you think about using it? Together?”
“I think we need whiskey.” He shook his head. “This doesn’t mean I don’t hate you. I still want to throw you off the nearest cliff. I don’t know how to process the depth of this kind of betrayal, but I’m a Tennyson, so business”—he choked back another swallow of champagne—“comes first.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
ISOBEL
I was back at the apartment.
Out of my wedding dress.
With a bottle of wine in one hand and my cell in the other.
I wanted to scream at them both.
I wanted Bridge to hold me.
Just like I wanted Julian to forgive me.
It was closing in on midnight, and I was Cinderella with two shoes and no prince.
Neither man had contacted me.
Then again, what was there to say?
I didn’t blame Bridge for not telling me. I knew he loved me, the way I loved him.
And I didn’t blame Julian for being angry beyond reason.
Because he had every right to hate us.
To hate me.
Because he’d loved me first.
The way I had once loved him.
The knob turned.
I glanced up as Bridge walked in the door, still in his tux, looking like he’d been run over by a car.
His expression darkened when he took in my face, and then in long, determined strides he was in front of me, dropping to his knees, pressing his face against my legs. “I’m so damn sorry, Izzy.”
“Bridge.” His name fell from my lips like a prayer. “Me too.”
“I love you.” He clung to my legs. “I love you so much. Know that I love you more than anything in this world, will love you more than you could ever possibly imagine.”
Tears slid down my cheeks onto his head. “Why does this feel like goodbye, then? If you love me? If I love you?”
“Because.” He finally looked up into my eyes. “I hurt him. We hurt him. We knew we couldn’t come back from this. I got my brother back only to lose him for good. I want to think we can survive this, I want to think we can survive anything.” He stood and then cupped my face with his hands and pressed a feather-soft kiss to my lips. “I love you enough to let you choose what happens next, alright? I’m going to stay at a hotel.”
“Don’t.” I clung to him, afraid to let him go.
His gaze softened. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Is Julian . . . is he stopping by?”
“It’s his apartment,” Bridge reminded me. “But tonight we decided—together—that walking in here, seeing us together, knowing what we did, would be a bad idea, and since he’d been drinking, I figured it was better to let him sleep it off. He’s at the Ritz-Carlton.”
“And you’re here with me,” I whispered. “Forever.”
“If you’ll have me,” he confessed. “I’ll be by your side forever.”
“He didn’t love me, not anymore,” I said, more to myself than to him. “The love I feel for you is so different. It steals my breath and makes me want to run in the other direction. The love I have for you, Bridge Tennyson, is terrifying.”
“Well, Izzy Tennyson, I think that’s going to be our first argument as a married couple. Because the love we have between us, while terrifying, is perfect.”
He kissed me hard on the mouth.
And I was lost to him.
I parted my lips as his hands wrapped around me and lifted me to my feet. Fingers pulled at my dress until it was free from my body, and all I felt was cold air from the room and the heat of his mouth on my skin.
My eyes drifted closed, and I released a sigh.
I just wanted to feel him.
My husband.
My forever.
He braced my hips with his hands and I lifted my eyelids, taking in his face as I spread his shirt open, touching his smooth skin while he made promises against my neck.
Ones I knew he would keep.
“I love you so much.” The lights from Manhattan glittered outside the tall windows, and I wondered if anyone would believe that the man in this apartment making love to me with his hands, with his mouth, was the self-proclaimed villain in our story.
And that as he pulled the remaining pieces of clothing from my body and bent me over the couch, I thanked the universe that he wasn’t the white knight.
“Look at us.” He exhaled against my neck, our naked bodies reflected in the living room window.
The lights of Manhattan.
And me and my villain.
He gripped my hips again, pulling me against him as he thrust inside me, as he made me his and said my name.
I didn’t want to shut my eyes.
I wanted to see us.
To feel us and see us.
It was all-consuming, wave after torrential wave.
Not all stories end happy.
Some end messy.
Ours would be filled with chaos.
And I would always remember the day I fell for my fiancé’s twin and vowed to keep him forever.
Chapter Forty-Eight
BRIDGE
I went to bed Sunday night with the world knowing that the CEO of Tennyson Financial was me.
Bridge Anderson Tennyson.
The news of my identity and the fallout with Julian wasn’t just front-page news. It was on every single newspaper, on every single channel.
My picture. His picture.
My phone was blowing up, and all I wanted to do was hide under the covers with Izzy’s body.
Instead, I had to get up early Monday morning and meet a brother who hated me, so that we could once and for all fix what we should have fixed when we were kids.
I’d told Izzy what we were planning.
And then I told her I would need her later.
The car stopped at the hotel. I sent a text to Julian.
And out he came, in his perfect suit with his Ray-Bans and stoic expression. Paparazzi were already waiting outside the building, but he took it in stride, not once opening his mouth to deny or confirm.
He got in the car as more cameras flashed, and shouted questions went wild with speculation. Who else was in the car with him, his long-lost brother?
“They make it sound like I’m the prodigal son,” I grumbled when the car finally took off.
He shrugged. “The only part of that story I remember is where the dad throws a party for the shitty son while the good one gets jealous.”
“Trust me, our father’s not going to be throwing a party for either of us today.”
“Good.” Julian let out an exasperated sigh. “I hope like hell you’re right about the board eating out of your hand.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Julian turned and gave me a murderous look.
“What?” I smiled. “I was trying to make you laugh. Not working? Lose your sense of humor?”
“Yeah, about the same time you slept with my fiancée.”
“What about the maid?”
“Excuse me?” Julian frowned. “What the hell would the maid have to do with this?”
“When Izzy returned home the day of the accident she found her very naked in your bed.”
“Son of a bitch.” Julian wiped his hands down his face. “No wonder Izzy was pissed when you showed up. The maid has been after me for the last year, but I never thought she’d take it that far.”
“I think it was more than just that, but good to know the maid didn’t stand a chance with you.” I made a face. “I also may have fired Amy.”
He stared me down. “Anything else I should know about your actions while claiming to be me?”
“Benefits.” I shrugged. “Lots and lots of benefits for old IFC employees, parental leave, gym memberships.” The more I talked, the more he seemed to listen, until we were finally at the building.
“Shit, Bridge, could you have at least tried to suck a little bit at my job?”
I winced. “Sorry.”
And for the first time since waking up, a ghost of a smile spread across his face. “Don’t be. This company is my life. You did well.”
I didn’t realize how much I needed him to say that until that moment.
“And you’ve done well, Jules. I stepped in for a few weeks, but you’ve been running this place for years. I know he never said he was proud, but that’s because he’s a selfish jackass. You’ve done incredible. This”—I pointed to the skyscraper—“is all you.”
He put his hand on my shoulder and then pulled it away.
It was all I was going to get.
And I was okay with that.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said under his breath.
The car door opened.
We both got out.
And all hell broke loose.
So many cameras I was blinded. We walked tall, right next to each other. We entered that building as equals. We got on that elevator with a charged sense of purpose.
An eerie silence followed us as we walked down the familiar hall to the boardroom. People stared almost in reverence as we moved in sync.
I opened the door for Julian and followed.
It shut quietly behind us.
No board member stood.
Our father, however, did. “Boys, good to see you. Have a seat.”
“Actually”—I grinned—“it’s feeling a little crowded in here.”
Board members exchanged glances while I nodded to Julian, who chose that moment to stare down the man he once would have done everything for.
And lost everything because of it.
“I make a motion to remove Edward Tennyson as corporate president of Tennyson Financial.”
“I second.” I stood by him.
Dad slammed his hand onto the table. “How dare you think you can walk in here and—”
“Third,” Harry interrupted.
“Fourth.”
“Fifth.”
More voices chimed in. Every man pledged their allegiance to us in front of our father. The men representing the company he’d built.
The company that was ousting him.
