The Unknown Billionaire (Captured by Love Book 6) (14 page)

Marilyn’s eyes filled with angry tears. “But you never meant to explain
anything
, did you? You were still lying to me just a few minutes ago when I told you about Elliot. You pretended you didn’t know him and yet you obviously do.
He’s the COO of the company you half-own.
Is that why you’re both so keen on dating me? To see which one I’d fall for so either one of you can screw me and use me?”

“No! Don’t you say that!”

Barry put an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Leave now, Jarryd, before I call the police.”

“Marilyn,” Jarryd said pleadingly. He couldn’t go yet. Not until she listened to him. Not until he told her everything. Not until she understood and forgave him. Fuck, he’d stuffed up majorly, but she had to let him explain.

“Leave, Jarryd,” Marilyn said, her voice cold as tears cascaded down her face.

“Please.”

“At least have the decency to go before any more guests arrive. Let us continue with this party without people like you here,” she said bitterly.

He sighed raggedly, Marilyn’s words wounding him. Perhaps she was right. He’d done enough damage for tonight. He should go quietly to avoid Barry having to forcefully remove him from his home. That would create a bigger scandal for them.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said softly, then headed for the stairs with Barry behind him. Tomorrow he’d try to talk to Marilyn again. If she refused, he’d try again the next day, and the next, and the next, until she did. He’d show her that if there was one thing he never lied about, it was that he loved her.

“Wait,” Marilyn called.

His heart skipped, hope sprouting as he turned around.

Marilyn held a fisted hand towards him. “Take this.”

He opened his palm and she dropped her heart lock necklace on it.

“I want my keys back.”

Struggling to hold back tears, he reached into his pocket, fished out her keys, and gave them to her.

Marilyn snatched them from his hand and went to her old bedroom, shutting the door with a bang.

Jarryd had to force himself to breathe as his heart twisted in pain.

“
Marilyn, Patrick O’Neill is here.”

Marilyn hid a sigh. She didn’t want to meet with Patrick, but she and her family owed the man something for what he’d done last Christmas Eve. The least she could do was to see him for ten minutes, which was all Patrick had asked.

“Give me a couple of minutes, then send him in,” she told her PA, who nodded.

She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Perhaps she should have followed her mother’s suggestion and taken more time off work. It had only been two weeks since she’d learned that Jarryd was a heartless liar.

She was still kicking herself for not telling her friends about her and Jarryd dating again the minute it had happened. She would have found out from Natasha earlier that Gavin had done a check on Jarryd months ago.

Back then, Gavin had been hell-bent on making sure Natasha was safe from a criminal who’d become Gavin’s personal enemy. Since Jarryd was a new acquaintance who’d invited Natasha to some party, Gavin had done some digging to ensure Jarryd wasn’t connected to his enemy.

Jarryd wasn’t in any way involved with the criminal Gavin was protecting Natasha from, but along the way, Gavin had discovered that Jarryd was very rich. Unfortunately, having been satisfied that Jarryd wasn’t a suspicious character, Gavin had dropped the investigation and hadn’t told anyone about Jarryd’s wealth status until he’d mentioned it to Natasha during the party at Rick and Lexie’s. Both Gavin and Natasha had simply assumed Jarryd didn’t want to make a big fuss about his wealth, just like Marilyn avoided telling people who her parents were.

Well, didn’t that show that Jarryd was a cunning con artist? He’d managed to fool not only her, but also her friends into believing he was a nice, trustworthy guy.

Would things have been different if she’d known that Jarryd was a billionaire from Natasha or Gavin instead of learning about it from Patrick and her dad?

She shook her head. What was she doing thinking about him again? She’d already spent a cheerless week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, not wishing to be part of the festivities.

At least she’d been able to get out of bed and drag herself to the office for the last three days. But she certainly wasn’t getting any work done. Most of her brain power was being used to push away the constant memories that she never, ever wanted to remember. She was supposed to be working on handing over the management of her business brokering firm to one of her managers so she could free herself to work back at Grant Ace. Unfortunately, nothing was capable of distracting her from her unwanted thoughts.

Her heart compressed once again, her eyes stinging. Damn it! Why couldn’t someone invent a pill for heartache? They’d be a gazillionaire!

She shook her head vigorously and took a large gulp of tepid coffee. Ugh. This was the third cup that she’d forgotten to drink before it had gotten cold on her.

A knock on her door had her standing up and putting a smile on her face. Her PA ushered Patrick in.

“Hello, Patrick,” she said, walking to him and extending her hand for a shake.

“Marilyn, Happy New Year,” Patrick said, giving her a kiss on both cheeks instead.

“Thank you. Happy New Year to you too. To what do I owe this visit?” she asked congenially, gesturing for him to take a seat and going back to hers.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Patrick said gently. “In hindsight, I probably should have been more mindful of when and how I approached the situation. I let my own emotions get in the way and picked the wrong time to tell you and your parents what I’d suspected.”

“Thank you. I’d still say you had the right timing. We were able to get rid of the Greeves and Jarryd before the rest of the guests arrived. Only my friends were there to witness the whole thing.”

“Yes,” Patrick said sympathetically. “I’m just grateful that Olivia and Elliot arrived ten minutes early. Did you know that they contacted me on Christmas Day to threaten that they’d make my life hell for spouting ‘lies’?”

“No,” she murmured, torn between curiosity and not wanting to know at this point in time.

“I said I stand by my words and that
they
should prove that I’ve lied about them and Jarryd colluding to beat Grant Ace in acquiring Well of Brilliance,” Patrick said, the hatred in his voice apparent. “It makes me wonder if Olivia and Elliot somehow helped Jarryd in manipulating Margaret to rewrite her will.”

Marilyn inhaled sharply. “How do you know for sure that Margaret was manipulated?”

Patrick frowned. “Can you really see any other reason why my wife wouldn’t have told me about Jarryd? Why she never said anything about giving him the bulk of her estate? Margaret and I had a close relationship where we talked about our respective businesses and finances openly, so I’m finding it very hard to believe that she simply hadn’t been ready to tell me about Jarryd. She’d kept the news about him secret for one whole year—and who knows for how much longer if she hadn’t died. I’m not angry that Margaret only left me a small portion of her wealth. I might not be a billionaire, but I’m financially independent. I don’t need Margaret’s money. What I’m incensed about is the thought of my wife being so afraid that she wasn’t even able to speak out about someone forcing her to do something against her will.”

Marilyn took a long slow breath, trying to keep a lid on her own emotions. What the hell was wrong with her? Her stupid heart was still rebelling at the thought that Jarryd was a scammer. It kept on whispering to her that he simply couldn’t be.

But Patrick’s suspicion made more sense to her than any other reason Jarryd might have. She’d spent sleepless nights considering many possibilities, but with Jarryd having hidden the truth of who he was—and only admitting to it when he’d been caught—how could she believe anything else he had to say?

This wasn’t the first time she’d been betrayed by a man. Never again. And no way she’d let the same man fool her more than once.

“I’m sorry,” Patrick murmured. “You must still be hurting. But he doesn’t deserve any consideration from you, Marilyn.”

She smiled. “I’ll be fine. Anyway, thank you very much for coming. I appreciate it.”

“There’s something else I want to discuss with you, if you don’t mind.”

Yes, she did mind. She wanted to be alone now. But she was unfailingly polite. “Sure.”

“You guys haven’t pulled out of the Well of Brilliance negotiations, have you?”

“No. And even though we’ve come to certain conclusions, we’re keen to avoid accusations of defamation because we really don’t have any concrete proof that Jarryd, Olivia and Elliot meant to get sensitive information from us Grants. It looks like we caught them before they were able to. But Dad did mention to Lorna Tramwell that he kicked Jarryd out of his house on Christmas Eve for lying to me. I’m sure the Tramwells can put two and two together.”

“Right. Well, I want to lend my weight to your cause, if you’ll let me. I hate that I’m going against the company that my wife used to lead, but I can’t stand the thought of those people winning anything. So how about I promise the Tramwells a guest mentor spot on
Biz Q&A
for, say, six episodes as part of the Grant Ace bid? That will be three sessions for each sibling. They can mention the new ventures they want to go into and it would be a huge free promotional opportunity for them. As you know, there’s a long line of business owners waiting for me to accept their request to go on the show. Only you Grants seem not to want a spot on it,” he added teasingly.

“That’s very generous of you.”

“I have a personal connection to this case because of what Jarryd did to me, and I want to be on your side. You really wouldn’t want a man who doesn’t care about breaking your heart to win Well of Brilliance, do you?”

That heart Patrick was talking about felt a sharp pinch. “No.”

“So would you accept my offer? I’m not asking for anything in return. As long as those bastards don’t get what they want, that’ll be payment enough for me.”

She gave herself a long moment to think, but she saw no reason to say no, and every reason to say yes. “Thank you. I accept on behalf of Grant Ace. I’m sure my parents would be as appreciative about this as I am.”

“Great! I’ll have my secretary type up my offer and you can send it to the Tramwells.” Patrick got up from his chair. “And I wish you all the best, Marilyn. It might not be my place to say this, but please don’t put any more energy into thinking of someone who doesn’t deserve another minute of your time.”

“Thank you, Patrick.”

“You’re welcome.”

She walked Patrick to the lifts and hurried back to her office, shutting the door before fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She angrily wiped them away. Why was she still wasting emotions over a guy who’d only meant to use her for his own gain? And what was wrong with her for attracting these types of men? Was she too trusting? Too desperate? Too dumb when it came to matters of the heart?

Well, no more. She’d rather be alone for the rest of her life than risk being used like this again.

She heard the faint vibration of her phone on her desk and her heart jumped. Hesitating for a beat, she checked who’d sent her the text.

Jarryd. Again.

*Hi. Just me with another request to see you so I can explain. Please?*

She deleted it. Again. Why she hadn’t blocked him yet, she didn’t know. Maybe she should now...

Marilyn shook her head. She might need to communicate with him later—if Grant Ace needed to take action against him, Olivia and Elliot.

She blinked back the tears that pooled in her eyes. Argh, damn him!

What she’d love right now would be to be with one of her friends. She hadn’t wanted to burden them with her gloomy mood, especially during what was supposed to have been a happy time of the year, so she’d stayed away from them, only communicating via text and phone calls, and requesting that no one ask her about Jarryd.

But had any one of them contacted Jarryd, or had Jarryd tried to talk to one of them? She was so tempted to ask, but doing so felt like looking back. And she didn’t want to look back. Not at anything involving Jarryd. She just wanted to keep going and focus on her goal: to heal from Jarryd’s betrayal. Until she’d achieved that, she didn’t want to discuss him at all. Like Patrick had said, he didn’t deserve another minute—heck, another
second
—of her time.

Her phone rang in her hand and she smiled. “Hey, Simon. Great timing.”

“Why?” Simon asked.

“I was thinking I need some company for lunch. Are you free?”

“Funny you say that, because that’s exactly what I’m ringing you for. I’m heading to your area now and have a couple of hours free before my meeting.”

“Great! Shall we meet at the café across the road from my office that make organic smoothies?”

“Sure. I’ll be there in about fifteen.”

“Okay, see you then.”

She sat back on her chair, looking around her desk. She had a few minutes to kill before lunch.

But she didn’t want to start any work. What was the point when she’d been unable to concentrate all day? Well, all week, actually. She sighed and grabbed her bag from her drawer. Might as well go to the café early and save a table while waiting for Simon.

“Going to lunch,” she mouthed to her PA and exited the building. She was hit by the stifling humidity. Hurriedly, she crossed the road and entered the coffee shop, thankful for its air-conditioned comfort and relaxed ambiance. The place was already busy even though it was only eleven thirty. Everyone else must have been trying to escape the heat. Fortunately, a table had just been vacated by two women, and a server motioned for her to take it while he cleared it for her.

Smiling her thanks, she took her seat when the table was ready. She checked the menu that was propped on a holder at the edge of the table, not really feeling hungry. Then again, she hadn’t been eating well. But she should order something substantial or Simon would notice her lack of appetite and make a big fuss.