AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His patience wore thin. He couldn’t take anymore from Lydia. She was a liar. He repeated that line over and over to himself. Whatever she’d shown him likely wasn’t what it seemed. He tried to stay calm, but he had to get away from her. “Get out, Lydia.”
“Grant…”
He tossed down the pictures, his eyes blazing with fury. “Get out!” he snapped, barely able to contain his rage.
Lydia’s nostrils flared as her jaw worked. “Fine. I’ll leave. But just remember who was on your side, Grant, and who betrayed you. First, the sailor, now, your son. A man who I’d stake my life is behind the efforts to destroy you.”
Lydia spun on her heel and stomped her way from the room, leaving him in silence. He tried to calm his nerves now that he was alone, but he found it impossible. Lydia had pushed every button of his, knowing exactly how to manipulate him.
His eyes fell on the pictures sprawled across his desk. It wouldn’t have been nearly as easy for her to goad him without these pictures. He desperately hoped they were fake. He scrutinized each picture, searching for some sign of manipulation, yet they seemed painfully genuine.
He snatched the receiver of his phone, his gaze turning steely and determined. “Max, Lydia has a cabin north of the city. Find out where. Use everything you have to. I need to find Julia.”
He needed to talk to her, to ask her about these photos. He desperately needed to hear that they were fake.
His mind raced as he waited for word. Were they staged? Had Kyle kissed her without her consent again? There were two kisses. She hadn’t tried to leave after the first one. At least that’s the story the pictures told.
Pictures that were likely manipulated by Lydia, he reminded himself.
He swallowed hard as doubts continued to crowd his mind. What if the latest developments had been a turning point for Julia? Had the murder and his near-arrest sent her running into the arms of his son?
He sank his forehead into his hands as his mind whirled, blending his own fears of losing Julia with the doubts that had kept him from telling her the truth about his feelings.
A knock sounded at the door, and the sharp noise echoes through his office, sending his nerves over the edge. He whipped his glass across the room before he raked his arms across the desk, sending the photos sprawling across the floor along with his phone.
The silver frame containing his wedding photo clattered across the floor, too, landing at the feet of his butler who quietly pushed into the room.
“I spotted Ms. Lydia leave the room a few moments ago. I see she had the usual effect on you,” Worthington said as he scooped up the wedding photo.
Grant sank back into the supple leather of his chair, rubbing his lips as he brooded over the latest developments.
Worthington stared at the mess on the floor as he picked his way across the room and held the framed photograph toward Grant.
He waved it away, unable to look at the happy moment before they’d shared their first kiss without it being tainted with images of her lips meeting Kyle’s.
Worthington arched an eyebrow, setting it on the desk in Grant’s direct view.
He tried to shift his eyes away, but he couldn’t stop staring at the frozen moment. Julia gazed up at him, her smile seeming so happy, so genuine. His own grin betrayed emotions he never expected to feel, emotions he didn’t want to let go.
Worthington collected the other images from the floor and neatened them into a stack before sliding them back into the folder. He righted the phone, setting it back on the corner of the desk, then crossed to the drink cart to retrieve another glass of bourbon, despite the morning hour.
“It seems you could use this,” he said as he held the glass out.
“It won’t do any good,” Grant said, though he took the glass. “But I’ll still take it.”
Worthington clasped his hands in front of him as Grant took a sip.
He let the bourbon burn his throat before he spoke. “I don’t know what’s happening, Worthington.”
“It must be frustrating not to know where Mrs. Harrington is, though perhaps Max will make some progress soon.”
“I know where she is. More or less.”
Worthington raised his eyebrows. “From the photographs Ms. Lydia provided?”
Grant nodded as they raced through his mind again. “She disappeared without a word, Worthington. I want to believe that this is Lydia’s fault…and Kyle’s, but…”
“Yet you find yourself wondering if she went willingly.”
