Broken Truth (37 page)

“She was taking money from you?” Charlie gasped.

Callum smirked. “Of course she has. I’ve known it for a long time Charlie, but I let it continue because I knew why she was doing it. She was trying to set herself up with financial security for when Daddy found out what a little whore she had been and cut her off.” He tapped his fingers on the table as he continued to explain. “She knew that I would divorce her someday, so she was building herself a healthy little nest egg for when that time came. You see, I made sure to get a pre-nuptial agreement before we married, so she wasn’t entitled to anything.”

“But what about your business? Claire told me that you had lost everything because of her Father and the divorce,” Charlie asked, unable to hold her tongue.

Callum smiled knowingly. “She
thinks
that she put my business under, but she didn’t. I had already arranged a buyout with her Father before the divorce proceeded. His number was the first one I dialled after I got the call about the results. It turns out Daddy wasn’t too impressed that his princess had a child with someone else, so he agreed to the buyout with no conditions.”

“I take it that didn’t go down very well?”

Callum gave her a wry smile. “That is correct. Although Claire was less than pleased that I managed to walk away from everything virtually unscathed, it wasn’t her behind the events that subsequently followed despite what you might think. It wasn’t until later on that I found out the mastermind behind everything... Jared had been planning this attack for years.”

“Planning for what?”

“A plan to get back at me,” he explained with a sigh. “You see, Baby. Jared has always wanted what I’ve had. He wanted the financial security, the power of owning his own company along with the ensuing family package. When he saw me with Claire in the early stages of our relationship, he decided he wanted what I had. He wanted Claire, so he made a beeline for her and the stupid cow went along with it behind my back. Then she fell pregnant and I married her for the sake of the company and my unborn child. I couldn’t risk losing her Father from the business because his influence was far too great on the lower investors in my company.”

He took a deep breath and Charlie placed her other hand on top of his. “Go on,” she pressed.

“I fell in love with Paige the moment I held her in my arms. I wanted to love and protect that little girl no matter what my relationship with Claire was like. I knew that if we divorced she would fight me for full custody and I didn’t want Paige to have to go through that. She knew why I was holding on. She knew that I was waiting for the right moment to leave. So that was when she got clever and the threats started happening,” he explained.

“What threats?” Charlie wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“At first I didn’t know what she was doing because a close friend of hers helped her keep it all hushed over. I’m not sure how long it was going on, but I knew I needed to get myself and Paige out of there.” Callum cringed visibly. “She was taking concoctions of pills, which thankfully weren’t life threatening. Then she started to become depressed and talking about not wanting to be around anymore. That was when the weekend phone calls started. She called me over the weekends you and I were together, telling me that she was going to go through with it and I needed to stop her because it wasn’t fair on Paige to lose her Mother.”

Charlie couldn’t believe what she was actually hearing. She had known from first impressions that something was different about Claire, but she hadn’t thought her mentally unstable.

“My solicitor started looking into different angles for me and how I could work the divorce without losing Paige. I decided that I wanted to go for full custody of Paige in the hopes that we could bring her up together. My solicitor agreed and things started to look good, until the day I walked in to find Claire with Jared. You see, it all started to slot into place the moment he told me that he loved Claire. I knew that he was planning something, so I confronted him. He denied everything of course up until it came out that I wasn’t Paige’s biological father. That was the moment he had been waiting for all along. He asked Claire to be with him in the hopes of taking over the company from me after the divorce. When Claire denied his request, he set his sights much higher.”

“He wanted to come after you?”

“Jared believes that I ruined everything for him. He had planned to take over the company once my divorce with Claire had finalised. He hoped that Claire’s Father would watch me suffer following the divorce and give Jared sole reign over everything. What he didn’t bargain for was that I would tell her Father exactly who Jared was, effectively ruining any chance he had at taking over that company. I walked away with a nice settlement, Claire managed to persuade her Father to forgive her and Jared was left with nothing.”

“Is that why he targeted me at Vision?” Charlie asked.

Callum nodded. “He went for you knowing that you would be the final piece that could bring everything down. He knew that if he couldn’t have Claire or the company then you were the next thing on his list.”

Charlie closed her eyes as guilt consumed her. “I almost allowed his plan to succeed,” she whispered.

“I can live with almost.” Callum lifted his free hand to rub his wrinkled brow. “I am so thankful that I decided to keep tabs on you that night,” he confessed. “I know it was wrong to have followed you, but if I hadn’t, God knows what would have happened after. I mean, who knows if we would even be sitting here right now?”

“You were angry.” She turned her head away in shame as she remembered the images of the destruction left at the penthouse.

“I was,” he conceded. “I was extremely angry when I saw that bastard’s hands on your body. I just needed to do something, so I took it out on Jared and then the living room when I got home.”

She angled her head to focus on him. “But you left the penthouse in that mess for weeks though? Why Callum?” she asked, already knowing the answer to the question. She had known all along that Amelia was right with her theory and that he had done it to show her his true feelings.

“You hurt me, Baby. Seeing you with
him
and what you were about to do hurt me more than anything Claire or Jared could have done.” At that moment, Charlie felt her heart break into two pieces as she witnessed the outpour of hurt and pain in his cracked voice. “I needed to show you that it wasn’t just you that was feeling lost and broken. I was feeling it all too, Charlie. I just wanted you to see that I was taking everything just as hard as you,” he croaked.

“Why didn’t Claire tell me what was going on? She could have stopped all of this,” Charlie asked, feeling slightly annoyed that she had been tricked into a part of Jared’s scheming plan.

Callum gently shook his head. “Of course she couldn’t say anything to you. As far as Claire was concerned, she didn’t know anything about the plan Jared was devising. Her mission that day was to purposely fill your head with more lies and try to convince you not to come back to me. She lied to you about me losing the money and the company. She lied to you about me being Paige’s father. Charlie, she fed you a little bit of the truth mixed with a whole load of bullshit. She believed that if she couldn’t have me then you couldn’t either.”

“I’m sorry for believing her and I am sorry for what happened with Jared.”

“I know you are, Baby. I get that it was a mistake. You were angry and hurt at that moment, and I can’t blame you for the thoughts running through your head. I would have deserved everything I got if you had actually gone through with it,” he said quietly.

Charlie nodded.

“So how did Jared buy into The I&L Group?” she asked.

“He had money saved. The company were desperate for his experience along with the cheque he could provide, so they snapped him up immediately. After everything that had happened at Vision, he still clearly wasn’t done with you Charlie. That’s why he arranged for you to be transferred to Milan. It was an easier place for him to work on you. He wanted you,” Callum spat.

“How do you know all of this?” Charlie asked curiously.

“Baby,” he grinned. “Nothing is ever secret from me. I’ve had Jared and Claire followed for the past two months so that I could see what was happening. I knew you were at the club already, so when he showed up I knew something was up. I also knew he was meeting with the director’s of The I&L Group. It wasn’t hard for me to put everything in place.”

“So... You bought out the company from underneath him?”

“Yes,” Callum smirked. “I had great pleasure in writing that cheque and getting on that plane. I received the call yesterday morning that the deal with Jared had gone through and that he was making his way out to you. Luckily, all I had to do was throw a large sum of money at them and they caved. They were going to tell Jared tomorrow that it had all blown up, but I guess I got here first and broke the happy news.”

“So you did that for me?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’d do anything for you, Baby.”

“Then why did it take you a month to approach me after you divorced Claire?” she challenged.

“I am sorry for that, but I have had to lay low over the past few weeks because I have been busy making arrangements,” he admitted with a small smile.

“Arrangements for what?” Charlie cocked her head to the side and studied him inquisitively.

“For Paige,” Callum replied. “After Claire rejected Jared, he told her that he didn’t want anything to do with her or Paige. When Claire told me this my heart broke for that little girl because she doesn’t deserve to not have a father in her life. I asked Claire on her thoughts if I were to go for joint custody with her and effectively adopt her as my own. I was going to try for full, but Claire promised to get help for her depression.”

Moisture pricked at the corners of Charlie’s eyes. “Did you get it?” she whispered.

Callum beamed and squeezed their entwined fingers. “She is legally my daughter now.”

“Oh Callum!” Charlie couldn’t stop the smile on her face. “I am so pleased for you.”

“I got half of my life back together,” he said, watching her closely. “Now I need to get the other half fixed.” He stroked her hand affectionately. “I wanted you to hear all of this from me. I wanted to tell you everything, so you knew what the truth was. I know that I messed up by not telling you everything and I’m sorry, but I just want you to give this another chance. Please,” he started to beg. “Please just give us
both
another chance. It will be different this time - I promise. I can’t even tell you how much my heart has ached for you since you’ve been gone. I knew from the moment that we met that I didn’t just want you in my life, I wanted you as my
wife
and the
mother
to help me raise our daughter.”

Charlie felt her chest beginning to cave from the overwhelming amount of emotions she was feeling. There was so much information for her brain to take in and process, so much so that she could hardly think straight.

Looking down at Callum’s hand covering hers, she knew at that moment that she had a choice to make.

With all of the obstacles they had faced along the way, Charlie came to terms with the fact that she had known for a long time that their future would be twisted. Although she didn’t appreciate how deep and misconstrued the lies Callum told were, coming in from a different angle, Charlie could clearly see that with the past behind them, they would finally have a proper shot at this relationship. It all hinged on the next answer she gave and whether she would agree to give Callum another chance. 

“Charlie?” Callum’s voice sounded hoarse as he waited for her to give him an answer.

Keeping her gaze fixed on his face, Charlie tried to imagine a life without Callum. It was hard because she didn’t want to visualise a world without his heart melting smile or his smooth and sensual voice that turned her body on within seconds. She knew that the past six or seven weeks without him had almost killed her. It was this thought that continued to play on her mind as she wasn’t sure if she would be able to go through with the same torture again if they did decide to part ways.

“Please... Please don’t do this,” Callum begged, his eyes starting to glisten with tears. “I can’t and won’t do this again, Charlie. We love each other. Why put ourselves through all of this heartache and pain for no reason? Just please give us another chanc-”

“Enough Callum,” Charlie choked as she struggled to keep herself together. She had finally come to her decision which she hoped was the right one.

“What do you choose?”

Charlie swallowed a dry lump that had formed in the back of her throat before answering.

“Us,” she finally whispered. “I choose us, Callum.”

“I knew you would,” he said as he nodded down at his hand covering hers. Slowly he loosened his grasp and pulled back to reveal Charlie’s ring finger.

She whimpered softly in happiness at the sight of the large diamond solitaire that was now sat on her finger. “How did you do that?”

Callum grinned and covered his hand over hers again. Ever so gently he began to caress her skin with his thumb as he had before. “You were too busy feeling my thumb that you didn’t realise I had put the ring on your finger,” he smiled. “It has been on throughout the entire conversation because I knew you would make the right choice, Charlie. I never doubted for one minute that you wouldn’t pick us. I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with you, Baby.”

“I love you,” she sobbed.

“I love you too,” he replied. “Now come here so I can kiss you...”

Thirty Four

Holding her engagement ring up to the light, Charlie admired the way the large diamond sparkled prettily. She couldn’t believe that she was now engaged to the love of her life, especially after everything that had happened between them. She knew that she was making the right choice.

She chose him.

She chose them.

She chose their future.

“Baby...” She turned to look at her handsome fiancée who was sleepily watching her with amusement. “I take it you like your ring?” he asked with a small yawn.