AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I loved him, but Noah’s grades were slipping so he said I was ruining Noah just like our mother ruined him. He didn’t love her the way I’d always thought.”
“Wow. I had no idea all this was going on. Am I—?”
“Yes, you are Trevor’s son and he is very proud of you and committed to your success.”
“Except he doesn’t trust me enough to run his company and gave it to his protégée Doug Wemmer instead of me.”
“I thought that might’ve been a surprise blow to you.”
Bryce nodded. “Not that we aren’t wealthy because of him.”
“And he left me way more than I expected, considering.”
“He was a man of principles, Julie. Just no heart.”
“So now you know why I got so angry I told him to drop dead.” Her voice cracked. “He made me feel like I was a curse and then after he died, that seemed to prove he was right. And that I deserved to die too. It was kind of what I was hoping for on this trip.”
“Stop it, Julie.” He gripped her shoulder. “That is childish thinking. It’s not how the world works. Our father died early because he worked way too many hours nonstop and put a lot of stress on himself to achieve the things he did. And his diet and exercise habits were not conducive to good health.”
Julie blinked back more tears. “Why is it I can almost believe those things when you say them?”
“Because I’m your big brother and you know I’ll always tell you the truth. And I’ll always look out for you. So I don’t want to hear any more of this ‘I deserve to die’ crap.”
She gave him a hug. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
“No need for thanks, little sis. We’ve been a team since the days when we were two kids left alone in that big house.”
“And finally Mariel came along.”
“She was worried about you too.” He stood up and looked around at her things. “Now, I’ve got a private jet on stand-by, so let’s gather your stuff and get you home.”
“I’m not sure where that is anymore.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
Present day…
Hearing all that,Noah wanted to hold Julie and comfort her, but he knew there was more to say between them.
She looked up at him now and said, “Bryce told me you’d left the apartment even though I’d asked him not to sell it just so you could stay there.”
He took her hand. “I left right after your phone call. After you turned me down and more or less made it clear we were done. I sent a note to your attorney who’d given me the original agreement.”
“Where did you go?”
“I moved in with four other med students who had an extra sofa to sleep on, but I wasn’t home all that much in my final year anyway.”
“I couldn’t face the apartment we shared either,” Julie said. “Especially when I discovered I was over four months pregnant. So after a quick stop in our Connecticut house that Bryce had put up for sale, I asked him and Mariel to collect things I wanted and went directly to a small house I rented near Albuquerque. I stayed there for two years. By the time I was ready to leave,Bryce was working for Vaughn Wemmer and he’d fallen in love with the Hamptons and suggested I settle there.”
“It’s great the way he found you and brought you back to the States.”
“It was.” She sighed. “So, now you know the whole ugly story and I hope you can understand why I went so off-kilter.” Julie gave him a shy half smile. “At the time Bryce also suggested losing you had something to do with it, and suggested contacting you. But I told him it was too late. I was having someone else’s baby and I was still a train wreck and would only be an added responsibility you didn’t need.”
“No, Julie. I would have wanted you back. Yeah, I would have been angry, but if you’d told me what went down, I would have understood.”
“Well, even though we lost some years in between, I’m glad we didn’t meet again until we were both on stable ground. We might not have lasted being two young people weathering the storms.”
Unsure of what to say, Noah pointed to the thimble. “You said finding this has brought you full circle. What do you mean?”
