“KC?” they both asked right when the chimes sounded again.
I jumped away from the doors and pointed at them. “Andy, please help them. If it’s the people who were just in here, ask them to leave and then lock the front door.”
He brushed his hand against my shoulder as he passed, and while the doors were still swinging shut, I heard his voice. “Holy shit.”
Oh, Jesus.
“Uh . . . Kace?”
On shaky legs, I walked to the doors and pushed them open, afraid of what I might find and somehow already knowing. Once I was through the doors, I heard dozens of the all-too-familiar clicks and saw bright lights flashing. I heard too many people talking and knew that it was over. They knew I was here, and I had no doubt that Olivia was somehow behind their knowing.
“Oh. My. God. Kamryn, what have you done?”
My head snapped up, my eyes widening when I heard my mom’s voice. I found her immediately. She looked disgusted for all of three seconds before she pulled it together and started dramatically crying.
“My baby! We’ve finally found you!”
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. The cameras were still flashing, the same reporter who had been in the shop a few minutes before and another one were speaking toward their cameramen, and there, next to my mom, were my dad and Charles.
“Hey, move. Everyone move. News crews, get out of here. What the hell? I said get out!” Brody’s voice rose above everything else, and in that moment I wanted to die. “Jeston PD! I said get out! If you want me to call backup, I will!”
A few of the people, along with one news crew, quickly left. Brody made his way to me behind the counter.
“I said get the fuck out!” He held his badge out to them and pulled me close to his side, moving so his back was facing the cameras. “Baby, are you okay? What’s going on?”
“Get your goddamn hands off my fiancée!”
My eyes shut, and a harsh breath left me. Brody stilled, and the hand around my waist tightened as he turned to look behind him. “You need to leave too . . . wait, do I know you?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard of me, and I’m not going anywhere without her,” Charles said with a confidence you only learned when you’d grown up the way we had. “Kamryn, come here, babe. Get away from him.”
“Kam,” Brody said softly, “who the hell are these people, and why did he just call you his fiancée?”
“Who are you, and why are you touching our daughter?” Mom asked, her voice holding the same disgust her face had shown earlier.
“Shit,” I mumbled and looked up at Brody’s wide eyes.
“Kamryn?”
I shook my head and choked out, “I’m so sorry.” Moving to the side, I faced my parents and forced myself to keep my head high.
“God, Kamryn, what have you done with yourself? You look awful!” Mom chastised as she moved closer to me. “All your beautiful hair is gone! Why would you do this? Is this the man who stole you?”
I hadn’t planned on responding, but when she brought Brody into it, I couldn’t keep quiet. “He’s my boyfriend, and he didn’t steal me. I left! And honestly, I don’t care if you don’t like the way I look. I hated the way you made me look. I’m happy like this.”
“Kamryn, what is your last name?”
I turned to look at Brody when his horrified question filled the space between us.
Charles laughed condescendingly. “How wonderful. You have a boyfriend who doesn’t know you’re engaged, doesn’t know who your parents are, and doesn’t even know your last name. Cunningham—her name is Kamryn Cunningham.”
Brody mouthed my name, and his face fell as recognition and horror filled his eyes. “This has to be a joke.” His words were barely audible.
“Brody, I’m so sorry. I should have told—”
“Do not apologize to him.” I flinched and looked at my dad. “If you owe anyone an apology, it is us. We thought you were dead, we thought you’d been kidnapped. Do you know what your mother and I, or what your fiancé, have been through over the last year?”
“I am not engaged to Charles! And I know you didn’t care! You used my leaving to get more publicity, so don’t act like you’re so happy to see me now.”
Charles stepped closer to the counter, his eyes on Brody. “You should leave. This is a discussion she should only be having with her family.”
“Don’t. Talk. To him,” I seethed as I looked at Charles. My stomach rolled at having him this close again.
Brody pushed past me, and I turned to grab his arm.
“No, don’t, please don’t go!”
His nostrils flared as he looked down at me. “Olivia . . . she worshiped you, she never stopped talking about you as we grew up. I can’t believe I didn’t realize before. She freaked when you disappeared. You’re—you’re just like her.”
“Brody! I’m noth—”
“She wanted to be you! I’ve dealt with the way her family is for years, and I finally get away from that . . . only to find out that my girlfriend and her family are the people who Olivia’s strived so hard to be like?” A sneering laugh left him. “Fuck this. I can’t go through this again.”
“Can’t go through what? Brody, don’t do this!”
“This!” He flung his arm out to my parents and Charles. “Having my girl’s family look down on me because I didn’t grow up in country clubs, having her dad constantly remind me that I don’t make enough to keep her happy.” He took a few steps away from me before turning and pointing at himself. “I told you everything, I never kept anything about myself from you. I knew you wanted to forget where you were from, so I never pushed it. And now I find out that you’re not only engaged but you’re the—what the fuck did Liv call you? The princess of the racing world? Tell me, do you view me the same way Liv did? Someone to keep around because you knew your family wouldn’t approve? Someone beneath you who you could try to control?”
I was sobbing so hard that I couldn’t say anything. Shaking my head back and forth, I took a step forward as I reached for him. But he stepped back and rushed away from the counter to leave the shop. I’d started to follow him when my eyes fell on Kinlee standing there at the entrance of the store with a pained look on her face as she watched Brody leave.
Turning, I found Grace and Andy standing there staring at me in shock. “I’m so sorry. If y’all want to go home, I understand.”
Grace looked at Andy, and Andy gave my mom a disgusted once-over. “I think I’m going to go make some cupcakes. It feels like a Monday, and don’t Mondays just suck?” he asked and turned to shoot me a smile and wink.
“I think I’ll help you.” Grace turned to follow him, and in that moment I wanted to hug them both.
To find out you’ve been working for a complete stranger and then show your support the way they just had—that was something I’d never had in Kentucky. And I loved them even more for it.
“Where are you staying? We’ll go and pack you up.”
“What?” I asked my mom.
“We’re taking you home. Where are you staying?”
“No.” I shook my head, and the ache in my chest over having Brody leave turned into anger. “I left for a reason, I hated that life . . . hated everything about it. All the two of you wanted was a perfect daughter. You were the most detached parents a girl could have!” Looking at my dad, I raised my hand toward him. “And you? I heard you the day I left. You were talking to Charles and his dad about me marrying him so we could merge our stables? I only stayed with him as long as I did because y’all didn’t give me a choice! I never would have married him—having him this close to me now is making me sick. The only reason I stayed in that house as long as I did was because of Barbara. She was more of a parent than either of you, and she was always there for me. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have lasted in that fucking prison of a house!” I screeched, and my chest rose and fell roughly.
“How dare you—” my mom began, but Dad cut her off.
“You
ng lady, you have forgotten your place in this family.”
“I haven’t. I know exactly where I would be if I were still in your family. But I’m not. This”—I motioned toward my bakery—“is my life now. That man who just left, those two in the back, and this girl are my family now,” I said, gesturing toward Kinlee.
Wiping the wetness from my cheeks, I glanced at Charles, who was studying me silently, then over to Kinlee, who still looked upset, but proud.
Looking back at my parents, I cleared my throat and squared my shoulders. “Now I need to ask you to leave. I’m sorry I left the way I did, but I didn’t have any other option. I don’t want anything to do with y’all, or racing. I just want to continue my life here.”
“Kamryn—”
“Leave. Or I will call the police and have them remove you.” Walking around the counter, I went to stand at the door and held it open. “Don’t come back, and don’t contact me.”
“Charlotte,” my dad said by way of an order.
Mom immediately began walking toward the open door, and at the last second turned to face me, her palm connecting with my cheek before I realized it was coming. I turned my head back to look at her, my eyes wide and mouth open. But I couldn’t say anything else; I was too shocked by the force of her hand.
“You’re an ungrateful little brat. When your world comes crashing down around you, don’t come running home to us. You’ve made your decision, and as far as I’m concerned”—she raised her chin in an attempt to look down on me—“my daughter died a year ago. You have no place in our family anymore. Do you hear me?”
“Charlotte, we’re leaving.”
With one last look, my mom turned to leave, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. Dad was right behind her, but didn’t look at me as he walked out the door.
Charles walked up, his eyes glossing over Kinlee before coming back to rest on me. “Can she give us a minute?”
Kinlee grabbed my hand, and I huffed a short laugh. “She is here for me, and I don’t want to talk to you. Please. Leave.”
His lips pulled up in a small smirk, and one hand came to the back of my neck as he leaned forward to place a kiss on my forehead. I tried leaning back, but his hand held me in place. With the door still open, I could hear the clicks of cameras, and one of the news reporters talking—and I had no doubt Charles was doing this for them.
Moving his lips to the ear farthest from Kinlee, he whispered, “Do you have any idea how much you’ve embarrassed not only your parents but me as well? I won’t be as harsh as your parents, Kamryn. You have a day to change your mind. And if you know what’s good for you, you will,” he said, his tone conveying his warning.
Releasing me so quick that I stumbled back a step from the force of trying to get away from him, he turned and walked away. Slamming the door shut behind him, I locked the deadbolt and turned to throw my arms around Kinlee.
“How the hell did they find you?”
“Olivia,” I cried. “It has to be her. She’s the only one who knew besides you.”
“That stupid fuc—”
A hard sob was wrenched from my chest, and Kinlee tightened her grip on me. “Brody . . .”
“It’s okay,” she crooned softly.
“What do I do, Lee?”
“I thought you’d told him. Why didn’t you?”
Pulling back, I wiped away new tears and shook my head. “I didn’t want anyone to know, I wanted to forget about them. I told you that night because I hated that I’d been lying to you and keeping things from you. With Brody, he never asked other than the first or second time we saw each other. It was easy to forget about them.”
“Did you think he would judge you differently? I just don’t understand why you thought you had to hide this from him.”
I shrugged helplessly as I thought about it. “I don’t know. In a way, I guess I’m afraid everyone will judge me differently. I’ve always been treated a certain way because of who I am—well, was. I didn’t want that. I wanted normal; I wanted a new start. And as you can see”—I gestured toward the crews still outside—“this happens as the result of someone figuring out who I am.”
“Anyone can see you’re not like them—well . . .”
“Kinlee, he looked like I’d crushed him.”
“He’ll understand, he’s just upset right now. Go get him, Kam.”
My eyes drifted to the back of my store, and she waved me away.
“I’ll tell them, and they’ll understand too. Just go get my brother-in-law back. You brought him back to us, I can’t have him leaving us again now.”
“I’ll call you to let you know.”
Unlocking the door, I ran past the news crews and hopped into my car, praying like hell that I would find him. I drove quickly through the streets on the way back to my condo. The entire time my body stayed tense as I worried about Brody’s reaction and thought about the different possible outcomes of what had just happened. I called his cell a second time, but like the first time, it went straight to voice mail. Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to believe that Brody and I couldn’t work through this too . . . after everything we’d already been through . . . there was no way this would be the thing to break us.
After looking at my condo, Jace and Kinlee’s, and his parents’ house, and not finding him, I finally drove back to my bakery, exhausted and defeated.
Grace and Andy didn’t ask if I’d found him. I think they knew based simply on the fact that I was already back and probably looked like hell. After asking me to stop trying to hide my accent and whether I preferred Kamryn or KC, they handed me a few cupcakes, turned the music up loud, and pointed me toward our “Mondays suck” wall to let out my anger before we went back to baking like it was a normal day.
Every time the door chimed I ran out, hoping it would be Brody. And every few minutes I called his phone, hoping it would finally be turned on again. Every time my hope was crushed I felt like I was that much closer to losing him.
I gasped and almost dropped the cream puffs I was holding when the chime went off again. Putting the tray on a counter, I burst through the swinging doors, only to have anger quickly flood my veins.
“Leave. Now!”
Charles smirked and took long steps to the counter. “I decided a day was too much time for you to think and get more of your insane ideas in your head.”
“Do you not understand? I want you to leave. I don’t want to see you again. How is that so hard to get?”
His smirk was turning into more of a sneer. “Oh, no, doll. I got it. What you’re not understanding is that you’re making the wrong decision, and I’m trying to make all of this go away for you right now. Your parents and mine will forgive you, I’ll forgive you, and we’ll all move on the way we were supposed to. You leaving messed up more than you could imagine.”
“Like the fact that you couldn’t merge the stables? I don’t care about the stables, Charles! I’ve never cared! I don’t want to be seen as property to be sold off to a family. This is what I care about,” I said as I waved my arms at my bakery. “Falling in love with someone who wants to be with me. Just. Me. That’s what I want.”
“You think I didn’t love you, Kamryn? You think I don’t still love you? You think your disappearance didn’t kill me?”
“No! I don’t! I think you’ve always seen me as an opportunity—”
“Bullshit!” he yelled, slamming his fist down on the counter. “If this is what you want, Kamryn, I’ll give you it. I’ll build you a goddamn bakery. You want your hair to stay this way? When you’re my wife, your mom won’t be able to say shit. Do what you want, I don’t care. Just let me take you back to Lexington. You and I both know I will be able to take care of you better than anyone. Your parents’ status, babe . . . we’ll top that. We’ll fucking rule the racing world,” he whispered, his eyes brightening. “You and me.”
“Oh, my God! Do you not see? That’s all you want! You want me to help you ‘rule.’ I told you, you see me as a
n opportunity.”
“Right now I see you as a spoiled girl who pulled some ridiculous stunt because she wanted attention. Now I’m giving you the attention you wanted, baby, and you’re done playing this game.” Grabbing a box out of his pocket, he opened it and put it on the counter. “I’ve held on to this for far too long, Kamryn. You will put that ring on. You will be leaving this shop with me tonight. And we will be going back to Kentucky together.”
I glanced at the diamond that had to have cost as much as my bakery, and swallowed back bile as I looked up at Charles and saw the man walking into the bakery from over his shoulder.
“We’re going to finally get married, I’ll give you another bakery in Kentucky, and then we’re merging the stables.”
“Brody,” I whispered as my eyes filled with tears.
Charles turned and hissed a curse. “Oh, Christ. Do you mind?”
Brody didn’t move, and he didn’t respond for a long moment as tears steadily fell down my cheeks. His eyes just stayed glued on the box sitting on the counter, with the ring fully displayed.
“I said . . .” Charles began when Brody’s deep voice whispered, “You are engaged.”
I shook my head, even though he wasn’t looking at me as his mocking tone pierced my chest.
“We’ve gone through all this . . . all this shit, and I almost lost you because I was married. And you’ve been engaged the entire goddamn time?!” He looked up at me, and his face was twisted in anger, but his eyes couldn’t hide the deep ache he was trying so hard to mask.
“So now your boyfriend’s married?” Charles asked. “This just keeps getting better.”
“I’m not,” I choked out, ignoring Charles. “I left before he ever asked, I swear to you, Brody.”
He laughed hard once and threw an arm out between Charles and me. “How am I supposed to believe you? I knew you wanted to forget where you were from, but I thought—God, I don’t even know what I thought anymore. But I knew you would tell me when the time was right. I just had no fucking clue that you were Kamryn fucking Cunningham. That you were some privileged girl who wanted to see what normal people lived like. That you were this princess”—he sneered the word—“who I’d grown up constantly hearing about from Liv. Her parents’ goal in life was to be your family. Olivia’s dream was to be you! They are the way they are because of your family, Kamryn, don’t you get that? My wife was a nightmare because of you!”