Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 133

Briar

I pulled up to my grandmother's house, and took a few deep breaths. This was going to be a night of truths, even if I had to pry them out of her. I wasn’t doing this another damn day. I couldn’t take it, and I wasn’t leaving here without answers. When she saw me striding up alone, she looked over my shoulder, searching for him.

“Where is Carter?”

“I doubt he's coming,” was all I said as she pushed the door open for me. She glanced up at my resolved and grave expression, her features mirrored mine; her cheery mood was silenced as she led me into the kitchen. Henry was absent, that wasn’t unusual; he often showed up just in time for dinner. She motioned me to the table and sat across from me, the scent of food making me nauseous. I wasn’t here to eat anyway, I told myself as she sat across from me.

“What's wrong, Brair? You don’t look well. Where is Carter?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

I shrugged. “I suppose all the secrets are catching up to me,” I said, devoid of emotion; I didn’t have the energy for them.

She sighed. “Tell me what’s going on with you two,” she insisted.

“Well, Clyde insisted on seeing me. I learned some things about Carter I’m still questioning, but I’m not here because of Carter, I’m here for what only you can tell me,” I said, crossing my arms across my chest. Her eyes cast down, and she stood turning off the stove. That let me know she knew very well why I was here and that the act of a pleasant reunited family was over. I was due answers, and the charade was over. My feelings no longer mattered, just the truth. She rummaged about, pulled the kettle that had been steaming on the stove off, and poured two cups of tea. I watched her patiently. I had all night to listen; I’d waited my whole life full of lies to find out whatever she was about to tell me. I could let her compose herself and make tea. A few minutes later,  she sat in front of me, passing me a cup. I took it and held it in my hands.

“You have to understand, Briar, you have been protected your entire life, and now that you’ve come home, you are in the gravest of dangers.”

I snorted. She had no idea what I had been through already, what was more dangerous than Creedon?

“That may be as it may seem to you now, you don’t know my life, so how are you to speculate that?”

“Because I’ve lived it,” she said, toying with the handle of her cup before looking up at me. “I was once the naive girl who fell in love with a powerful man, and he destroyed me.”

I let those words sink in, but I couldn’t acknowledge any sympathy for her. She lived too contented a life for me to feel sorry for her. In reality, I envied her. I’d never know that life. 

“You’ve been led to believe so many lies it's hard to know where to start, she murmured.

“How about from the beginning?” I suggested.

‘That’s such a long story,” she insisted, but paused.

“There's nobody waiting for me, I have all night,” I explained, and her head bowed. She gripped her cup tightly. These answers were not easy for her to express, but I didn’t have enough of a heart left to care about that. Mine was shattered across Clyde’s office floor.

“Everything you need to know starts with me. I’m going to explain your family ties, from the start; the rest is theirs to explain,” she said. I took the tea in my hand and blew on it, taking a sip. I had all the time in the world to listen to the truth.