45. Why I Need to Quit Eavesdropping

FORTY-FIVE

#2 you keep hering stuff you dont like

My brain was already churning when I decided to go downstairs before dinner. Nathan was still showering off the remnants of our afternoon ride and bliss beside the pond, but after our discussion, I decided I needed to do…something…to improve my relationship with his parents.

I wasn't expecting much. After all, what kind of relationship could I really expect with people who had seen me naked, having sex on the internet (or maybe just their son's phone? A girl could hope)?

That said, I was hoping that, at some point, they would understand I was the victim of that particular crime. That I'd been recorded and put on video without my consent. Nathan had convinced me as much. There was no reason he shouldn't be able to do the same with them.

But what really drove my desire to talk to his parents was the fact that Nathan wanted a relationship with them. I could see that as plain as day. Listening to him talk by the side of the pond, I could hear the yearning in his voice. Nathan didn't want the kind of parents who manipulated him or forced him into decisions he didn't want to make, but he wanted to get along. He wanted a family who supported him as much as he clearly wanted to support them. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here in the first place.

While I personally thought his family could jump off a bridge, I had to admit that maybe their machinations came from a place of love as well, however misplaced. After all, his mother wouldn't want him to be such an integral part of the family if she didn't care, right? I didn't know about his father, who seemed apathetic at best toward his sons, but Lillian Hunt obviously wanted her children around. There was maternal instinct in there somewhere. Perhaps I could appeal to it.

Nathan always said I was good with people. Maybe I could charm his parents into showing their best colors too.

And so, I put on my very best and most conservative dress for the evening—a light blue wrap dress that Lea probably would have loved, but before now, I wouldn't have been caught dead in. I figured it was in my best interest to look more like a socialite than a dancer. To do everything I could to remind Lillian of herself.

I made my way to the dining room, hoping to catch them early. Nathan said his parents enjoyed cocktails before dinner and often took drinks in the library. But just as I reached the doors, I heard voices spilling out into the hall. Including one particularly unwelcome baritone.

"Well, she's got some balls. I'll give her that." Carrick's voice echoed off the tiled floors and molded ceilings of the house. "Nathan too. I honestly didn't think he had it in him."

"He'll tire of her," Lillian replied. "He has to. She's unbelievably inappropriate for a man of his station. A man of his worth."

"Come on, Mom. She's not all bad. If you take away the dirty dancing and the Pornhub entry, she seems all right. Loves the hell out of Nathan, and you know that's not always easy."

I frowned. Carrick was defending me? Wasn't he the one who sabotaged our relationship to begin with?

And easy for who? Nathan was one of the best people I've ever met. One of the easiest. At least for me.

"He could make things easier," Lillian was saying. "Charlotte, for one, is very interested in him. What was the point of arranging for her to work at his silly little practice if it wasn't so he could finally meet his match?"

I sucked in a breath. I knew Charlotte Mueller's presence in Nathan's life wasn't by accident. But a puppet for Lillian? That was legitimately insane.

"I only regret giving him access to his trust that early," Lillian went on. "God knows what will happen if he actually marries this girl like he said. Disaster. Could be billions down the drain."

I covered my mouth in shock. Billions? I knew Nathan's parents were that wealthy, and, yes, I knew he had a trust. But he didn't actually live like I would expect of someone who had billions of dollars.

Xavier, for instance, bought real estate like trading cards, and Frankie often complained about his propensity for showering her with gifts even though she was married to the guy. Their townhouse that was currently being renovated in New York was the size of a hotel.

Nathan's home, while very nice and, yes, containing at least one priceless work of art, was still no more than a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility for most people who had a decent job.

At the same time, I realized quite clearly that I didn't care if he had a secret bank account or if he ever shared it with me. I would have taken him if he had nothing more to sleep in than a cardboard box. And I was pretty sure he felt the same about me.

Just as I was about to walk in and inform Lillian of just that, she spoke again.

"It's clear that something must be done."

"Well, you got him down here," Carrick said. "That was the first step. He still trying to play nice?"

Lillian grumbled, "He is. My good boy."

"Then here's a wild thought. Just give him what he wants. You might be surprised. He might just stick around."

"You can't be serious. If we gave him Isla's guardianship, we'd never see him again. It's like you scooting off to the townhouse. You never come home."

"Don't worry about that," Carrick said. "My leash is plenty tight."

There was something in Carrick's voice I didn't understand. Something dark. Something resigned.

"He might surprise you, though," Carrick went on before I could consider it more. "Nathan's always had a soft spot for family. That's why he's able to be controlled through the girl. He basically adopted her as his own, and now he thinks of her as a daughter. In his own cold fish way."

"No, you're the cold fish," I muttered. "A friggin' flounder, you asshole."

"Did you hear something?" Carrick wondered.

Lillian remained quiet, though I could hear the sipping of some kind of drink. A white wine spritzer, I was guessing. She'd had it the last two nights.

"Come on, Mom. Haven't you ever heard the saying if you love something, set it free? Nathan just might come back on his own."

"We did that once with a pair of imported swans. The trainers told us that they were smart enough that they would come back every year and replace the other two. But they didn't. They found a pond on the other side of the county they liked better. It didn't matter that we provided them with everything they'd ever want. They never came back."

"Nathan is not a fucking bird, Mother." Carrick's voice dripped with sarcasm. "He'll come home if you give him a good reason to. One that maybe trades genuine affection for blackmail."

There was the sound of footsteps pacing around the soft carpet inside the library, Lillian taking a few more sips of her drink, and the tinkling of her fingernails on the glass.

"No, I don't think so," she said at last. "Your brother has always been too independent for his own good. The only way to keep him safe is to bring him to heel."

"Nathan's not a dumb twenty-one-year-old kid anymore. And for what it's worth, I don't think Joni is anywhere near the same as Lindsay. I've asked around, and she's actually pretty damn talented. Once her knee's healed up, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up dancing with a legitimate company again. You want Nathan back in DC? Get his girl a spot on the Washington Ballet."

I tilted my head in surprise. It was the nicest thing Carrick could have said about me. I honestly thought he hated me.

"And in that…video?" Lillian asked. "Was she demonstrating her talent there too?"

My cheeks burned. But honestly, I was just mad. Mad that I'd made such a stupid error, but also that it was apparently going to be held against me forever. It wasn't fair.

"Look, we've all made mistakes. Trust me, you wouldn't want to know half the stuff I did at that age," Carrick joked. "She's a good egg. More importantly, she loves Nathan. I think he deserves to be happy, don't you?"

There was another long silence while Lillian seemed to consider each point. I, for one, was just confused. How could someone who had gone out of his way to sabotage my relationship with his brother suddenly be on the other side of it? Carrick made no sense. What were his motives?

But then Lillian spoke, and I decided I didn't have the time to figure that out. Her next statement was too fucking damning.

"He doesn't know what happiness really is," she said at last. "It's not dating a pretty girl. It's not indulging yourself with only your own interests. And it's not caring for a child who isn't even of your own blood. If we don't guide him now, he's going to wake up one day and realize he's wasted his entire life with trivialities."

I scowled. Our relationship aside, saying Nathan's job or Isla was trivial was beyond insulting. I didn't need to know anything else to know that Lillian Hunt didn't know her son at all. Nor did she really want to.

"It's done," Lillian went on. "Our lawyers are already drawing up the case to present to the judge next week. And it's Edward Carver, so you know it's just a formality."

"You're really going to do it?" Carrick asked. "Force the girl into a conservatorship so she has no say in who cares for her? Nathan says she's pretty smart. Enough to make her own decisions that way, or at least weigh in on them."

"Please. Anyone who's been living in a glorified loony bin for most of her life is in no state to be making decisions on her own behalf."

I felt sick. Had Lillian even met Isla? She was different, to be sure, but hardly incapable. At the very least, she deserved to choose her own guardians. Have a say in the terms of her life.

"We've already been dealing with a caseworker," Lillian went on. "I've been making monthly trips out to the center just to prove my dedication."

"Have you actually seen the girl?"

"Bless your heart. The point is to demonstrate my dedication. Why would I need to see the little urchin for that?"

I listened to Lillian detail the other aspects of her case for guardianship. The bills she had accrued, paying without first talking to Nathan. The backhanded communication she'd established with Isla's school without Nathan's knowledge. Quickly, it became obvious that this wasn't just a last-ditch effort to bring her son back into the family fold. Like a spider, Lillian Hunt had been spinning this web for years with the express purpose of trapping Nathan like a fly, all at the expense of Isla. At the expense of his entire life.

"Now, if we can just figure out how to get rid of his little tramp, everything will be as it should," Lillian said. "Cheers, darling."

I backed away from the door on my tiptoes, feeling sick but not wanting to alert them to my presence. My mind was spinning. What could I do?

Help. I needed help. And not just from Nathan. From someone who had been in a situation like this. Someone who had extricated himself from a devious family. Who knew how to beat them at their own game.

That's when I knew who to call.

And as I turned to go back to my room, I had the inklings of a plan to free the love of my life for good. If only I could play things right.