Your Fault (Culpable Book 2)

With clenched teeth, I walked away. If it had been up to me, I’d have told her to hop in a car with me, and we’d have left. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t give a shit that dad had asked me to be. All I cared about then was having Noah back, and hanging out with Sophie wasn’t going to help me do that.

As soon as I’d seen Noah, I’d known that night was going to be torture. Everyone was watching her, no one was capable of ignoring her when she was there looking so beautiful that it almost hurt your eyes. She shone all over: her skin, her hair, her eyes, her face, and her body in that dress that fit her like a second skin. Her waist was so narrow in her corset, I wondered how she could breathe, but it was worth it to be able to see her like that.

My fingers were itching, I wanted to touch her so badly, kiss her, savor her, love her for hours. I missed her so badly, and I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking wasting time with this farce.

I crossed the room, stopping to grab a drink from one of the waiters and pouring it down my throat in one gulp.

I knew it had been idiotic to go there with Sophie, and that was the last thing I planned on doing for Dad. No more favors, no more putting stupid games ahead of my relationship.

Before I reached the dining room, where they would serve the dinners, give speeches, and close the night off with a performance from one of the finest orchestras in the country, I was surprised to run into a pair of bright green eyes. I stopped for a moment, then walked cautiously over to where she was standing, next to a small table in one corner of the hall.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Briar, restraining myself to keep from cursing.

She grinned, but I could see the poisonous rancor behind that pleasant expression.

“Morgan brought me. Are you honestly walking around here with another woman right in front of her nose?” Instead of looking at me, she looked past me over my shoulder. I turned back and saw Sophia talking with people from the company. A lot of them were friends with her father, people she knew fairly well and could be comfortable with. Sophia told me outright she didn’t want any problems with Noah. She had insisted on coming alone, but I couldn’t permit that, not after the senator had explicitly asked my father to have me bring her.

We both knew there was nothing there, just a good friendship between two coworkers. She’d screwed up by telling Noah about New York, but the way she’d apologized was so sincere and so heartfelt that I could tell she wanted nothing more from me than to be good colleagues.

“She works in my office. What do you care, anyway, Briar? Why are you even here? We both know this is the last place you’d want to be.”

That remark wiped her cheesy smile off her face.

“The world is the same as it’s always been, but I’m not as naive as I used to be. The other day you told me you’d changed. Well, I have, too. I don’t let people treat me like a fool anymore. So don’t think for one minute I’m afraid of being here.”

I refrained from speaking. I wasn’t about to get into it with her again. If she was there, I guessed what she was saying was true. I looked around at the rich and famous there walking, talking, drinking, boasting of their supposed accomplishments, each jockeying to look better than the other, then back at Briar, at the hatred concealed by that facade of hardness she always wore.

I wanted to respond to her, but something…or rather, someone, caught my attention. I looked over at the main door, and my entire world shook.

Anabel Grason had just arrived.

My mother was here.

What the fuck was she doing here?

I clenched my fists and walked to the other end of the room. I couldn’t believe she had the gall to show up there. And why? Why the hell had she even wanted to? I felt a pressure in my heart and the urge to vomit.

Turning around, seeing everything in red, I bumped into my father, who appeared out of nowhere to stop me before I could do anything stupid. He took a quick glance around and grabbed me by the arm, pushing me toward one of the windows. The sun had gone down, and the light poured in from the lamps in the garden and, intermittently, from the moon, which was hidden now and again by the quickly gathering clouds.

“Nicholas, take it easy.”

His expression was serious, his eyes stern. He wanted to get my attention, but the only thing I could see was that woman I hated more than anything else.

“What the hell is she doing here?!” I almost shouted, and my father pushed me even farther from the other guests.

“I don’t know, but I’ll take care of it. Listen to me, Nicholas, you need to stay calm, okay? You can’t start a scene right now.”

For a moment, I felt hypnotized as I looked into his eyes, a darker blue than mine. I had my mother’s eyes; everyone had always said that. He patted me on the cheek.

“I’ll talk to her. You don’t have to do anything.”

I nodded, letting my father take control of the situation. I didn’t want to see her; I didn’t want to talk to her. All I wanted was for her to be as far away from us as possible. And yet it was obvious to all that she was there to convey a message—she’d already tried to contact me before. And whatever she had to say, I was sure it wasn’t good.

My father tried to transmit calm to me. But I could tell even he didn’t feel it. He turned his back and vanished into the invitees.

I looked for Noah. She was talking to a small group of people and seemed to be having fun. She wasn’t aware of the danger she was in, but before I could do something—take her hand, hug her, stuff her in a car and take off—another girl appeared in my peripheral vision.

“You should hear how everyone on the team is talking about you, Nick. Word’s gotten around about your accomplishments. People are already speculating about when you’re going to take the baton from your father.” Sophie smiled, but I could barely nod in reply. “Are you all right?”

All right? I was in hell.

I looked all over for Briar again. I couldn’t see her anywhere, and every part of me grew suddenly anxious. There were too many potential problems in one place.

Before I could respond to Sophia, people started sitting down for dinner. Trying to keep cool, I put my hand on Sophia’s waist, guiding her to our place at the table.

I was grateful for the dim lighting in the dining room. I was so out of sorts that the last thing I needed were spotlights shining down on me. My family’s table was in the center of the room, close to the stage where the orchestra would play, where the speeches would be given, and where they would hold a charity auction for an organization the company had been supporting as long as I could remember. When I got there, I saw Noah seated next to her mother. Briar had disappeared. There was pain in Noah’s eyes as she looked away to keep from seeing me with Sophia.

Dammit.

Sophia greeted her politely, along with the rest of the people at the table, and before I could sit, I heard the voice of the one person I knew I’d be glad to see that night, and I turned around swiftly.

“Where’s my grandson? There he is—an old man’s pride and joy!”

I grinned as I saw my grandfather Andrew slowly approaching the table. People were so distracted talking and looking for their seats that no one noticed the arrival of the one man there I didn’t have a single objection to.

Andrew Leister was eighty-three years old. He was the one who had built this empire. His sparse white hair had once been black like mine and my father’s. He had a lot in common with my father, but he lacked his coldness. My grandfather was the closest thing to a father I’d ever had.

All the unpleasant memories my mother had brought to the surface vanished, replaced by those moments when all I’d cared about was riding horseback on my grandfather’s farm, fishing in his lake, and finding the nastiest frog I could to hide in Dad’s closet to surprise him.

Grandad.

I shook his hand, and he pulled me in to squeeze me in his arms.

“When were you thinking you’d come see me, you little devil?”

I laughed, then stood back to admire him. “Montana’s far away, old man.”

He grunted as he looked me up and down. “I remember times when we couldn’t keep you away from the place. Now all you care about is surfing and your stupid beaches.” He breathed hard, making his way into a chair. “Imagine: you have grandchildren, and they turn into typical bloody Americans on you.”

I laughed aloud, happy that no one but Noah, who couldn’t take her eyes off us, had heard that remark. My grandfather had emigrated from England when he was twenty years old to start his company in this country. However much time he’d spent here, he’d never stopped reminding me that his roots weren’t here and I should never dare take him for anything but an Englishman.

Dad appeared then and looked at his father with a blend of affection and impatience.

“Dad,” my father said, shaking his hand. My grandfather didn’t hug him the way he had me, but he did narrow his eyes with interest.

“Where’s that new wife of yours you have yet to introduce me to?”

My father rolled his eyes just as Raffaella appeared next to him. The past year had been so intense that we hadn’t had time to travel to see my grandfather, and now that he was here, I realized how much I missed him.

Noah stood and looked at me. I could see how uncomfortable she was when my father called her over to introduce her. The whole thing should have been different: I should have been the one introducing her then, and I should have been able to tell him she was the love of my life.

My grandfather smiled, a bit distracted, then noticed Sophia.

“You’re not going to introduce me to your girlfriend, Nicholas?”

Sophia’s smile, polite when she had been looking on, vanished, and she looked over to Noah. I rushed to correct his impression.

“Sophia’s not my girlfriend, Grandad. She’s my fellow intern. She’s Senator Aiken’s daughter.”

He nodded. “I see. That’s just as well. I don’t want my grandson involved in politics, especially not in your father’s kind of politics.”

Sophia seemed paralyzed until I burst out laughing. Noah must have warmed up to my grandfather in that moment. But by then, it was time for us all to sit down.

My father’s friend Robert Layton, a member of the board, was the one who gave the introductory speech. Everyone lifted their glass of champagne to celebrate sixty years of hard work. Just afterward, dinner was served. I looked all over the room, trying to locate my mother among the tables, but it was impossible.

Raffaella seemed out of sorts. She hardly touched her food, and she looked tense every time she took a sip of her champagne. Noah, in the meanwhile, talked cheerfully with Grandad, who seemed to have a good impression of her. Now and again, she turned to Briar, who had showed up a bit late with glassy eyes and pink cheeks. The alcohol she’d drunk was leaving visible marks on her, and that only made me more anxious.

When we were done with dessert, my mother’s elegant, svelte figure made an appearance. I grew tense as I watched her stop beside Noah.

Everyone fell silent, and Noah stiffened like a corpse when she heard my mother’s voice behind her.

“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Leister and the rest of you. Congratulations on the anniversary.”