Embrace Me (38 page)

“
Compared to this place, I find that hard to believe,” he muttered. Yes, our New York mansion was luxurious and screamed wealth, but it wasn’t what I had pictured for Charlie and me.

“
You know this house isn’t really us,” I whispered, running my hands down his bare chest.

“
It suits me fine if this is where you want to be. Shan, you’ve already given up so much.”

I giggled. “I haven’t given up anything, Charlie. How many times do I have to explain? My mother and I have just delegated our company out to people we trust. We still have money. We still own the company. We still have most of the control. We just don’t have all the paperwork.”

“
I would follow you anywhere. You don’t have to do this. You know that, don’t you?” he muttered, his hands slowly sweeping across my face. I closed my eyes to bask in the sensation of his touch.

“
I want to move back to England, Charlie. It’s our home. I felt it the moment I walked in.”

“
Okay. Whatever you want, it’s yours, Sweetheart,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss me softly. Soon we were both lost in our new joy.

“
Are you sure about this?” Charlie muttered while I checked my reflection in the mirror.

“
Megan and I need to do this. So much has been left unsaid. I want to move back to England with a clean slate.” All the preparations had already been made, and Charlie and I were moving back to England at the weekend.

Megan had been the one to contact me last week. With this last confrontation, hopefully I’d get the closure I needed.

“
I wish you’d let me come with you.”

“
I don’t think that’s a good idea, do you?”

“
I worry when you go and face a member of the Field family alone,” he admitted with a wince. “It’s habit.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist. He was still deep in thought, remembering all the pain we had endured to get here, I expected.

“
Nothing is going to happen,” I murmured, kissing his lips softly, “apart from us getting on a plane at the weekend to start our new life.”

“
Please, be careful. I’ll never trust any of them, Shannon.” I nodded, kissing him one last time before leaving.

The drive across New York didn’t take too long. Megan and I had agreed to meet at a hotel bar near Central Park.

I realised that she would never change as I waited for her. She never could get anywhere on time.

When she came into view half an hour later, she was her usual, striking self. I had to smirk to myself as I ran my hand over my engagement ring. Charlie and I hadn’t gone public with the news yet. We were getting married in two months, and it couldn’t have been fast enough.

“
Megan,” I acknowledged once she took her seat. “I took the liberty to order us some champagne.”

“
Thank you,” she replied quietly. It was so out of character for her.

“
How is Maisy?” I asked, sipping my champagne.

“
She’s doing amazingly well.” Megan didn’t even look up to meet my gaze.

“
This is awkward for me, too, Megan, but you’re the one who called for this meeting.”

She finally looked up this time. I still had my glass in my hand, and her eyes zoomed in on my ring.

“
Charlie proposed to you?” she screeched, getting up out of her chair. This was the Megan I knew. “I can’t believe he would choose you!”

“
I thought you came to talk about Maisy?”

“
This goes deeper than Maisy and you know it!” she bellowed.

“
You have to let this go,” I replied calmly. Everyone in the bar was watching her, and I knew she would only embarrass herself. “Charlie and I have done nothing wrong, Megan, and when you think about what we
have
done for your family and chosen to forgive, you’ve been extremely lucky.”

“
You don’t think you’ve done anything wrong? You were seeing Charlie behind my back!”

“
I was not…not that I have to explain myself to you.”

“
You think you’re so amazing, don’t you?”

“
If all we are going to talk about is Charlie, then I’m going to leave. I thought you wanted to get closure, Megan. We both have to move on from this. Despite everything you and your family have done to me, I want that for both of us.”

“
I still love him, Shannon,” she sobbed, sinking back down into her chair and downing her glass of champagne in one go. “I know there’s no chance. I can see that you’re the one he wants, but I’ve never wanted something I can’t have before. I don’t know how to deal with it.” I couldn’t feel sorry for Megan…not any more.

“
You just have to learn.”

“
It’s not that easy,” she sighed, throwing her long blonde hair over her shoulders.

“
If I can learn to adapt to all of this, you can move on, Megan.”

“
You’re a lot stronger than me,” she replied, looking at me sadly. Did I sense longing in her eyes?

“
Was it all a lie, Megan?” I asked. She looked at me, confused. “Our friendship—was it all pretend?”

“
I wish I could say it was,” she groaned. “But, no, Shan. You probably understood me better than anyone. I valued your friendship a lot, even more so when…well, you know when.”

“
It hurts to know what your family did to me—how you could all be so deceitful.”

“
I can’t explain just how sorry we are, especially after what you did for us with Maisy.”

“
She is the only innocent member in your family. I wasn’t going to let her down!” I snapped.

“
We’re all grateful.”

“
I already know all this from talking to Will.”

“
It wasn’t pretend with him either, Shannon.” This wasn’t where I wanted the conversation to go.

“
I didn’t come here to talk about your brother. I’ve already spoken to him.”

“
What do you want to say, Shan? I’m listening. I owe you that.” An understanding Megan; well, this was different.

“
Firstly, Charlie and I never set out to hurt you or Will. We simply fell in love, and the way you and your brother reacted because of it was utterly disgusting. You have no idea how lost I felt until I found Charlie. Yes, you gave me strength and courage over the years with our friendship, but considering it was your family’s fault in the first place, that theory is void.” I knew my tone was harsh, but she, of all people, deserved it. “I was blackmailed by your brother, Megan. He threatened to kill Charlie, and you have the nerve to sit there and have a go at me because I am marrying him!? Do you know how much of a hypocrite you sound like?” She was sat there smiling into her champagne glass. “What is so funny?” I snapped.

“
You’ve grown into a strong woman like your mother.”

“
No thanks to your family!” I snarled.

“
I know I deserve that. I didn’t know Will was blackmailing you at the time. I thought you actually wanted to marry him.”

“
Truthfully?” I asked, widening my eyes.

“
Truthfully, Shan. Only my father knew.” I wasn’t expecting that.

“
It still doesn’t change anything.” Megan had still lied through our entire friendship.

“
I wasn’t expecting it to. I just thought you should know. I know Will offered to give you all the answers and you declined.”

“
I’m not living in the past anymore. I have all the answers I need.”

“
You’ve come out of this stronger than I thought you would.”

“
Charlie gives me all the strength I need.” It was a low blow, but I couldn’t stop myself. Megan glared—her ice blue eyes trying to slice through me—but I wasn’t afraid of her. I could stand up to any Field member now.

“
I was shocked to learn that Harry Mac is his brother.”

“
They’re working through their issues.”

“
He took the bullet for Charlie that night, didn’t he?”

“
Yes.” I tried to keep my voice calm.

“
We sure made a mess of everything. Who knew money could cause this much chaos?” That was understatement.

“
What was the main plan, Megan? If I had married Will, what would have been in store for me?” Did I really want to know? I knew a small part of me did.

“
Father wanted you to discover your true identity once you and Will were expecting your first child.” I wanted to throw up in my mouth. “I know how wrong that sounds.”

“
Didn’t you think it was wrong, the lengths your family went to for power? Field Organisation isn’t exactly suffering financially.”

“
You know this feud goes deeper than that, Shannon.”

“
And we are the generation where it has to stop,” I replied firmly. “We have to accept that our families will never join forces. We can’t let this war continue, Megan.”

“
Shouldn’t you be having this conversation with my brother?”

“
I already have.”

“
And what was his answer.”

“
He’s moving on and letting go.”

“
Really?” I don’t think she believed me.

“
We’ll still have the past, that won’t change, but we all need to look to the future.”

“
That’s easy for you to say when you have everything, Shannon.”

“
There was a time I would have said the same thing about you, and did I ever make you feel bad about it? I did
everything
you asked of me, Megan. Christ, I idolised you, and all the time you knew the truth about me!”

“
Alright! God, stop with the guilt trip, already.”

“
I won’t be looking back when I leave this bar. I need to know you understand that this is where we move past everything. I’m done worrying or even thinking about it. I’ve wasted too much time over it already. This entire feud ends right now, right here!”

“
I can’t forgive you for taking Charlie.”

“
I’m not asking for forgiveness. I couldn’t care less what you think. I’m referring to moving on and not looking back. If I happen to bump into you in the years to come, I’ll be civil, but that’s it, Megan. This. Ends. Here. The bitching, the snide comments to the press—it all stops.”

“
That’s your demand for helping to save Maisy?”

“
This isn’t because of Maisy. This is for us. I know you. You’ll never let this go if we don’t call it quits now.”

“
So what? I hold my hands up and say, ‘
Go ahead, Shannon. Marry the only man I have ever loved and be happy!
’? Do you want to hear that to make yourself feel better?”

“
You see?!
This
is the bitterness I’m talking about. You need to let it go before it suffocates you. You can be happy, too. Someone is out there for you.” Megan laughed darkly, finishing her drink before she got up. “You’re leaving?”

“
I’ve heard enough.”

“
You can’t do it can you?” I laughed as she began to walk away. “After everything you did to me, you can’t be happy for me.”

“
Not when you have the only person I want, Shannon, no!” she glared. “You can’t ask me to be happy about that. I don’t care that you helped save my sister. I never wanted you as my equal. I wanted to keep you under my thumb. I loved ordering you around, knowing who you really were. It made me feel powerful.”