“Because I’m not someone to take stock in those things. You’ve had a lot of exes. I know it. Or a lot of people you dated. You’ve admitted it. She admitted she was causing trouble. I just don’t understand why. She gave some crazy explanation that the Bonds run this island and someone needs to stop them. That you can do what you want when you want even though you don’t have the money behind your name. I don’t know. I think she might have been high or something.”

  He let out a laugh. “I don’t like the fact that this woman figured out where you live. That means she had to follow us?” he asked.

  “That is my guess. After she went off on her mini spiel about the Bonds, I asked if she knew my name. I thought it was funny because if she did, or even looked into me at all, she’d know my brother was married to a Bond family member, worked for Eli, and that I worked for Bode and Drew. It told me she was stupid and petty more than anything so I wasn’t too fearful of her.”

  “That’s good. I still don’t like it. More so that you didn’t tell me last night.”

  “I don’t need to bother you when you’re working. I’m fully capable of taking care of myself. The reason I’m telling you now is that I figured you should know. If someone dated me and came here and said something to you, I’d want to know.”

  “I appreciate you telling me,” he said. “And I’m sorry if it upset you at all. Even a glimmer of it, though you seem fine.”

  Jennie was glad she’d calmed herself down overnight. There was no reason to be jealous. She was doing the right thing telling him.

  “I am. I had a moment. It’s hard not to. I think that’s natural.”

  “It is,” he said. “Her name?”

  “Oh,” she said. “Lizzie something. She gave her last name and I forgot. I’m sorry. I guess there was a part of me that was annoyed. I’ll even admit I worked myself up over it last night and didn’t sleep. Not because I didn’t trust you or anything but because she had the gall to do it and even admit she was causing trouble. I’ve been around people like her my whole life. Troublemakers. I don’t understand the need for someone to do it.”

  “Lizzie Gibson,” he said.

  “That’s it,” she said. “I’m assuming you two hooked up or dated. Oh. She said it was when you didn’t live on the island. That means it was a long time ago, but she said her family has a home here.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “They do.”

  It was the look on his face that made her pause. “What more is going on? I’d think you’d laugh this off and you aren’t reacting at all like I thought you would. She’d even said you are all fun and games and nothing is serious. I knew that about you. I never believed it completely and said that to you. Now I’m starting to wonder if my gut was right and you’re keeping something from me,” she said, staring at him.

  As annoyed as she was about this whole thing, she did think he’d either get angry or laugh at it all. He had neither reaction but was just asking questions calmly after he looked embarrassed. Now he was getting quiet on her.

  She wasn’t sure she remembered Alex being embarrassed about anything since they’d been dating.

  “Lizzie and I dated when I lived in Plymouth. You could say she was the last girlfriend I had and what she did to me was something I’ll never forget or forgive.”

  “What?” she asked. “She said she saw us at the casino. Did you see her and not say anything to me?”

  “I did,” he said. “She looked at me and then looked away as if I didn’t exist. Like she’s done for years. She’s the one that played games and I don’t get it now. I wasn’t good enough for her when she found out she was pregnant because I came from the wrong side of the family tree and yet she wants to come here and try to ruin what I’ve finally got in my life.”

  “Child?” she asked, stunned and feeling sick to her stomach. “You’ve got a child out there somewhere?”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t. And she shattered everything in my life back then.”

  37

  The Truth

  Alex knew right away it was Lizzie that had stopped when Jennie said someone he dated showed up here.

  The woman that killed everything he’d ever thought he’d have in life for years decided now she cared enough to acknowledge they’d had a relationship. He couldn’t figure out why. Then he realized it didn’t matter at this point.

  He’d never told anyone before but knew he had to tell Jennie the truth. She deserved to know it all.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “But I’d like you to explain this to me.”

  Jennie was annoyed. She was borderline angry and he supposed he should be thankful she was keeping that much in.

  “I don’t even know where to start,” he said.

  “The beginning,” she said shortly.

  Yep, she was pissed and he wasn’t sure why, but he was positive he’d find out soon enough.

  “I was bartending in Plymouth. You knew that. She came into the bar one night and we got talking.”

  “You ended up in bed,” she said firmly.

  “We did,” he said. “Don’t get pissy over it. You’ve accused me of that and many have told you on top of it. I’d like to think you realized that I’m not that person anymore.”

  “I didn’t think you were. I mean, I know it.”

  “Then don’t snap over something that happened fifteen years ago.”

  When he’d said that he realized had his child been born, they’d be driving in another year. A teenager that he never got to see grow up. Seeing his brother’s child now only brought on a pain that he hadn’t expected, but he hoped that maybe he would experience those joys at some point.

  That was probably what Lizzie was trying to do. She knew how pissed and upset he’d been over everything, but she laughed it off as she walked out of his life.

  “Fifteen?” she asked.

  “That’s right,” he said. “I was twenty. Almost twenty-one. Lizzie and I had been dating for a month or so. We were having fun, but I considered it a relationship. Her parents had money, they had a house on the island. She knew my family name.”

  “She thought you had money?” she asked. “She made a comment about you being from the wrong branch.”

  “Yep,” he said. “She heard my last name and thought I was one of the lucky ones. If she was smart enough she would have realized that I wouldn’t be working nights in a bar if I had the kind of money some of my cousins did.”

  Jennie snorted. “She didn’t come off as all that smart. As I said, she had no clue my name or where I worked. I’m still trying to figure out why she showed up if it was that long ago.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe she saw how I was with you. Maybe she could see that I loved you and she didn’t like it or wanted to take one more thing away from me. Coming to your door and doing what she did was bound to get us to this point.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “I don’t even care about what she said. What I’m more concerned about is this child I’m just hearing about.”

  “No child,” he said, the lump in his throat still there all these years later. “Before she found out she was pregnant, she’d realized I didn’t have money like the rest of them did. I think she still thought she could get to know some of my cousins or something through me. Advance her career somehow. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but she was working on a business degree. Lots of businesses in the Bond family. What better way to make a mark in the world than having the last name of Bond, right? I have no idea. Or I found out more when we split.”

  He got up and started to pace. There were so many things going through his mind right now but first and foremost was the fact he didn’t want to lose Jennie and had no idea what was going through her mind.

  “Keep going,” she said.

  “I told my parents I was dating her. My father knew her family. As the chief of police, he knew a lot of people on the island. Though Lizzie came from money, it wasn’t Bond money, but they had it. I don’t even remember where it came from and didn’t care. I only know that she didn’t want me to meet her parents.”

  He wasn’t good enough for her. She’d brought up enough times about going to parties on the island with his cousins at some point. So yeah, wanting to meet some of them. The rich ones, she’d say and then laugh. It’d pissed him off enough that he never did it and hadn’t planned on it. She was his girlfriend. She should have been more concerned about wanting to spend time with him and not who he could introduce her to.

  That was where he was stupid, but he wouldn’t say he was fully in love either.

  Sure, they were having fun and he didn’t see anything wrong with it. They were both young and Lizzie was silly, but he didn’t think she’d do what she had. Or have the agenda so deep in her mind.

  “She was embarrassed?” she asked.

  “That is my guess,” he said. “I don’t know. What I know is we started to drift a bit. I wasn’t fighting to find time together and she wasn’t either. But then she told me she was pregnant. She’d been a week late and took a home test.”

  “Did you not use protection?” she asked. “You told me you always did.”

  “I did,” he said. “But not everything works all the time. Ask your brother that.”

  “Point taken,” she said.

  “I asked her if she’d been to the doctors yet. What was going on. I was making plans in my head. I figured our relationship was shaky, but I was going to be in my kid’s life. I always loved kids. I’d make it work. My parents would be pissed and upset. Disappointed. My family would talk. But I didn’t care.”

  “And this child?” she asked. “What happened?”

  “She told me to cool my jets. I was moving too fast. She wasn’t making plans yet,” he said. He’ll never forget that day as long as he lived.

  “I don’t understand her comment.”

  “Neither did I,” he said. “But I was letting it ride. It was early, it needed to be verified. In my mind I was working shit out. The money it was going to cost. Trying to figure out my jobs. You know, the responsible things I was raised to do.”

  “What happened?”

  “A week later she came to me and said she’d lost the baby. Started to bleed and went to the hospital. It felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. I had no idea what our relationship would have been and only cared about the child I was going to have. She said women in her family often miscarried and seemed relieved and that hurt the most.”

  “She didn’t want the baby?”

  “Nope. She said she was glad she lost it. That the more she thought of it, the better off she’d be. It’s not like I could give her the life she wanted or support her and the baby the way she wanted. And since its last name would be Bond, she said her kid would have that Bond stigma but no money to go with it.”

  “Stigma?” she asked. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell even cares about that other than someone on Amore Island?”

  “Exactly. It hurt just the same though. My whole life I’ve been from the wrong side of the family, yet this generation never gave a shit. We were always accepted in the family as one. The wealthy ones never made you feel as if you had less, but the outsiders sure the hell did. I learned that the hard way.”

  “If it was one of your wealthy cousins that got her pregnant, it’d be different then?” she asked.

  “I’m sure,” he said. “I never specifically asked. Why bother when it was a moot point?”

  He couldn’t bring himself to ask point blank, but her words implied it. It would have been another knife in his chest when he was already bleeding out enough, but his mind went there more times than it should have.

  “I don’t think I’d want to know,” she said.

  “I didn’t. She left that night and I never heard from her again. I was too pissed to talk to her and she didn’t reach out to me and that was it. I’d crossed paths with her a few times and she’d look the other way as if I didn’t exist. I knew where I stood in her eyes.”

  Jennie’s arms were still crossed. There was something going on in her mind and he couldn’t figure it out. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “Why would I?” he asked. “I’ve never told a soul. I never planned on it either.”

  She snorted and shook her head. “I told you so much about my life that no one knows. You’ve pushed me and yet kept so much back. I’ve told you before that I suspected you put on a front for a reason, but you’ve denied it time and again. I even asked why you were still single and you joked you were waiting for me.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “Bullshit!” she yelled. “You were hurt by what she said. I feel for you. I’d be livid too. My faith in the opposite sex would be shaky at best. My guess is once that happened you locked up tight and found it was easier.”

  He didn’t like that she understood that. “It was working for me.”

  “That’s your story and you’re sticking to it?”

  “What do you want from me, Jennie? I’m not that person anymore. I said it was working for me, but it wasn’t anymore. I met you and I knew I wanted more. I’ve given you more than I’ve ever given anyone else and yet you’re still throwing it in my face it’s not enough.”

  “You don’t get it, Alex. You’re more than enough for me. I don’t want the money. I don’t want the attention. I’ve said it enough and you know why. But what I want is someone who opens up to me.”

  “Like you’re one to talk,” he said.

  “That’s the point,” she screamed at him and then put her hand in front of her mouth. “You need to leave. I don’t want to lose it again. We’ll end this conversation with the fact that you’re a hypocrite. You talked a good game to get me to open up and you didn’t do the same. Maybe you should think about that. There were reasons I held back from our relationship. Committing all the way. Things happened in your life to make you hold back, but you didn’t share yours. That’s what this is about.”

  He stood up and walked out the door. Slamming it on the way.

  She wasn’t wrong with what she’d said and he had to figure out a way to fix this. There was no way to do it when they were both emotionally charged though.

  He should have gone home but found himself driving to the other end of the island. Past the house that Lizzie’s parents owned. Not that he’d ever been here before, but when things went south, he’d looked up the address, he’d driven by enough but never stopped to talk to her.

  She’d moved on with her life and he’d done the same.

  But he wanted to know why she’d done what she had to Jennie.

  There was a car in the driveway. Not a big luxury vehicle but a sporty one. He parked his truck in the road and decided to take a chance and see if Lizzie was there and hoped she was alone. If not, he’d play it off as he had the wrong house.

  He got out and walked to the front door and knocked.

  Lizzie opened the door a minute later. “Alex,” Lizzie said, smirking at him. “What a surprise this is.”

  “Is it really?” he asked. “What game are you playing?”

  “No games,” Lizzie said.

  “You always have something you’re trying to do or get. The question is what this time? Why go to my girlfriend’s house and say what you had when you can’t even come say hi to me out in public?”

  “We’ve never had anything to say to each other since I left you,” Lizzie said.

  He wasn’t going to correct her on who left whom. It didn’t matter. “But now you think you can show up on the island and cause trouble? For what?”

  “Your girlfriend confronted you on your playboy ways I see?” Lizzie asked.

  “No,” he said. “She didn’t. She actually told me what happened so I knew. She didn’t care what you had to say. That is why she shut the door in your face. She made a good point that you don’t know who she is, do you? You went there to trash my family without getting your facts straight.”

  Lizzie came out onto the front porch and shut the door behind her. He didn’t care they were going to have this conversation outside. He was probably stupid to be here, but he had to know what her motivation was.

  “Why does it matter?” Lizzie asked.

  “You might have realized it backfired on you,” he said. No way he was letting her know that he and Jennie just fought. It had nothing to do with Lizzie showing up and saying what she had as much as the fact Jennie felt like he hadn’t been upfront with her.

  He hadn’t and maybe he was wrong, but he couldn’t focus on that now.

  “Since you’re here talking to me, I’m thinking it didn’t backfire,” she said, laughing at him.

  Lizzie was probably right and he wasn’t going to address it. “Why?” he asked. “After all these years, why do what you did?”

  Her arms were crossed now and there was anger in her eyes like the night she’d told him she was glad she’d lost his bastard child. She’d deserved better than him and was going to get it.

  He didn’t tell Jennie those things because it hurt too much to be judged the way he was because his bank account wasn’t big enough.

  He’d always said he didn’t want the money that some of his cousins had. There was too much responsibility with it. But not having it cost just the same in his eyes.

  “Lower your voice. I don’t want people to hear.” Lizzie all but snarled at him.

  “Then you shouldn’t have come out on the porch. And you should have minded your own fucking business and stayed away like you have for fifteen years.”

  If the flames in her eyes could come out, his buddies would be on the way to put them out. The attractive woman that he’d been drawn to was still there on the outside, but the inside was nastier than shit in a busted sewer pipe.

  “I was,” Lizzie said. “But I saw you out the other night with her.”

  “Jennie Zale,” he said. “You should know her name. She’s a person just like I am.”

  “Whatever,” Lizzie said. “I saw you talking with Eli and that security guy that is always around. You had your hand on her back.”