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“Hunter,” mom’s gasp echoes all around us. “You don’t mean that. You’ve been working there for a long time…”
“I did if for the money,” I shrug. “I make good money. I finally have enough to pay you back.”
“Pay us back for what?” Mom shakes her head in confusion.
“For my four years at NYU. I wanted to do it sooner,” I explain, enjoying the shock on her face. “I couldn’t qualify for a loan. I didn’t have enough credit. So I saved a lot, and also took a loan. And now I have it.”
“Hunter, you lived like a pauper in that city. Is that why you hardly ever flew home?” she hiccups.
“Basically,” I admit.
I watch my mother dropping to her gardening stool, her legs too weak to hold her up anymore. She looks at me like she’s seeing me for the first time in her life.
“You really held a grudge for all these years, didn’t you?”
“No, Mom,” I wrap my arms around myself, trying not to crumble. “I mourned my dead relationship with the man I was so in love with. I’ve been feeling guilty all this time for the way I ended things with him at the time. For everything that happened to me after. I’ll never have that back. I’ll never have his love again.”
“I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t know. I thought I was doing what was best for you. You were so young,” Mom insists.
“I wasn’t much younger than when you met Dad, was I?”
She doesn’t respond to my question because there’s nothing she could tell me that would make any of this better.
“What was his name?” she finally whispers.
“Why?” my eyes narrow on her face. I am suspicious of everything and everyone.
“I never asked before…”
“Zach Cavanaugh, that’s his name.”
With that, I turn around and go inside the house. My back crashes against the front door as soon as I close it behind me. Why did she have to stir all this shit inside of me again?
CHAPTER 16
Seven times over
Zach
Today’s been an easy day as far as work goes. Since I took over the company from my father, I’ve been working my ass off to bring it to where we are today. And I hate it. I hate it all.
When I am not busy out of my mind, I have too much time to think. And my thoughts always go back to Hunter Montgomery. I thought I was over her, but my buddy Van dating her cousin now has thrown me for a loop, scrambled my brain again all these years later.
Funny thing is, my father signed a contract with Hunter’s brother for his marketing firm to produce all our marketing material. Go figure. Out of all the fucking places in the world, he picked that one. I was not aware of it until I became the CEO and took over all aspects of the business.
To make matters worse yet, my long lost sister works for Ridge Montgomery as well. About six months ago I finally got the balls to look her up. It was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. The private investigator I hired was a total waste of money as he came back with her whereabouts within a day.
I wish I could be some vengeful son of a bitch and go after the brother to get revenge for what Hunter did to me. However, that would also mean destroying not only my sister’s career, but also our relationship. She is best friends with Ridge’s wife. My life could not get more complicated if I wanted it to.
On top of that, I am just not that type of person. If anything, I will go straight for Hunter, make her life miserable. I won’t bother with the people around her.
I laughed the other day and told Van to have a get together and invite me over. Invite Hunter and not tell her I’d be there. I wanted to see the look on her face when I walked in.
Now I am not so sure about anything anymore. Why am I thinking of Hunter so much now all of a sudden? Van jumped ship and went back to New York couple of weeks ago after dumping Chloe and leaving her in the dust. I almost felt sorry for her when he told me about it. Well, he said they were not broken up, just on a break. Same difference. She and I have things in common, it seems.
Speaking of Van, he left me a message earlier and I never got to call him back.
“About time, dude,” Van’s voice thunders over the line. His voice really matches the massive human that he is at an impressive six-foot seven and wide as a tank. No wonder he is the best defenseman the Sliders have ever had. He doesn’t even have to do anything other than just stand there. “What kind of a best friend are you?”
