Hold Me Closer (Sea Island Brides Book 1) (21 page)

Annabelle
had to force her mind to clear so she could figure out what to do
next. She was frantic with worry. “I’ll head to the hotel
and pack my things right away. I don’t know how long it will
be, but I’ll call back as soon as I get a flight. Do you know
what happened to the intruder? Did they arrest him?”

“I’m
afraid he was gone by the time the police arrived.”

Anger
surged through her like a tsunami.

She
wasn’t sure who she was more upset with. Herself for starting
this whole mess or Mark.

As
tears of fury streaked down her face, she searched for an outlet.
Anywhere to focus her anger and frustrations.

Hudson
appeared around the corner and suddenly, she knew exactly who was to
blame. The man who started it all with his self-serving agenda and
his cold words. This was as much his fault as anyone’s, and it
was high time she confronted him with the truth.

Annabelle
shot daggers at Hudson as he approached. If he had only listened to
the truth and treated Julia with the respect she deserved, none of
this would have happened.

When
Julia first came to him with the news of her pregnancy, all she
wanted was Harlan’s phone number. She wanted to tell him about
the baby so they could figure out their next move together. Hudson
stole that opportunity from her by keeping Harlan’s whereabouts
a secret and refusing to give Julia’s story a second thought.

As
he approached the area where Annabelle stood, he kept a polite smile
on his face, nodding in respect to various people as he passed. But
in his eyes, she could see his dismay. After all, he expected her to
give one final performance tonight so his business could reap the
benefits of their lies. Instead, she was standing far from the party,
red-faced and seething.

She
didn’t care one bit. Let him be upset. He brought this on
himself.

“Annabelle,”
he grasped her arm and steered her toward the bathrooms where it was
more private. “What happened to you? This is a very important
night for me.”

Wrenching
her arm from his grasp, she stepped away. “This is all your
fault.”

“What
are you talking about?” he asked, glancing back toward the
private room where Mr. Takahashi was waiting. “Whatever it is
that’s bothering you, this isn’t the time or the place to
discuss it."

“Believe
me when I say it’s past time. There’s something I should
have told you a long time ago.”

Annabelle
was shaking, her anger and fear getting the best of her. She couldn’t
think straight.

“What
are you talking about?” he asked.

“I’m
talking about Julia Davis,” she said. “The young woman
who came to you a few months ago, pregnant and asking for your help
contacting Harlan.”

His
eyes grew wide and she knew he remembered. “What does she have
to do with you?”

“She’s
my cousin, and you treated her like she was nothing. Just another
annoyance you had to deal with in your fancy, busy life,” she
said.

His
mouth fell open and he glanced back toward the dining room, shifting
his weight from one foot to the other. He lifted a hand to his
forehead. “She’s your cousin?” he repeated.

“Yes,
and I just got a call that she’s in the hospital fighting for
her life,” she said. “If you had just listened to her
back then, contacted your brother and let them sort this out between
the two of them, none of this would have happened.”

Hudson
touched her arm. “You’re talking in circles, Annabelle,
slow down. You’re upset.”

“Damn
right I’m upset,” she shouted. “She was staying at
my apartment because her own flooded, and Mark must have broken in
looking for dirt on me. He hurt her, Hudson.”

Tears
streamed down her face and her hands were shaking so hard, she could
barely hold onto her cell phone. She needed to get out of this
restaurant and get her things together, but she wasn’t even
sure she’d be able to make it back to the hotel on her own.

“Oh,
my God,” Hudson said. “And she’s pregnant?”

“Just
over five months pregnant,” she said. “If anything
happens to her or this baby—”

Sobs
cut off her voice and she held a hand to her mouth, trying
desperately to pull herself together. To be strong for Julia.

“You
were wrong about her,” she said. “The baby she’s
carrying is your own neice, and you turned her away like she was
trash on the bottom of your shoe. You’re so busy thinking about
yourself and your precious company that you stole my cousin’s
best chance to have a real family.”

"Annabelle,
I’m sorry about your cousin, but you have to understand,”
he said, careful to keep his voice down as he stepped closer to her.
“You’re not the only one who cares about their family. My
brother promised me he hadn’t had any affairs in the past year.
I believed him.”

She
searched his eyes. “Did you tell him about the baby?”

Darkness
crossed his features and he cleared his throat. “No, but I
didn’t think it was necessary,” he said. “I didn’t
want him to worry for no reason.”

“No
reason? He’s going to be a father, Hudson,” she said. “I
just pray the baby survives. I need to go.”

She
collapsed into tears again and her knees grew weak as she tried to
walk toward the entrance.

Hudson
grabbed her arm again and spun her around to face him.

“Why
didn’t you tell me any of this earlier?” he asked. “Why
keep it a secret until now?”

“Because
I knew you wouldn’t take me seriously,” she said. “If
I mentioned the baby to you earlier, you would have dismissed me the
same way you dismissed her.”

He
let go of her and stepped back, realization reaching his eyes. “The
payment,” he said finally. “You went through all of this
for her?”

She
swiped at the tears that blurred her vision, knowing he deserved the
whole truth. “Yes, and I know you’ll hate me, but I was
the one who set up those photos in the first place,” she said.
“I never wanted them to be leaked to the press, but Mark sold
them out from under me.”

“What?”
Hudson’s hands tightened to fists and he looked as if she’d
just slapped him. “You set me up?”

“I
should have told you the truth in the beginning,” she said.
“But it’s too late now. It’s too late for us,
Hudson. Just know that I never meant to hurt you. No one was ever
supposed to see those photographs. All I wanted was to get your
attention so that you’d hear me out and agree to talk to your
brother. It was wrong, I know, and now Julia is paying for my sins.”

He
started to reach for her, but then shook his head.

“I
have to go,” she said.

As
she turned to go, Hudson slammed his fist against the wall and
muttered a curse.

“Annabelle,
wait,” he said before she reached the door. He rushed to join
her. “I’ll call my pilot. It will be impossible to get a
flight out at this time of night on a regular airline. You can take
the jet.”

She
looked up and his eyes pierced through to her soul. The memory of all
they’d shared came rushing back to her and it was all she could
do to stay standing on her own two feet. But she did stand. Despite
her broken heart.

“Thank
you,” she said, and he stepped aside to let her pass.

“Thank
you, too,” he said, surprising her.

“For
what?” she asked, turning back to look at him one last time.

“For
making it a hell of a lot easier to let you go.”

His
words cut her to the core. Maybe it was easy for him to say goodbye,
but for Annabelle, walking away from him that night was the hardest
thing she’d ever done in her life.

The
next morning, Hudson was exhausted as he walked into his brother’s
office for their meeting with Mr. Takahashi. He’d managed to
salvage the dinner last night by telling everyone that Annabelle had
gone home with a terrible headache. He’d blamed it on jetlag,
but the truth was eating him up inside.

Mr.
Takahashi was scheduled to sign the papers just before noon, but
Hudson didn’t feel like celebrating.

“Wow,
you look rough this morning. What’s wrong, didn’t that
fiancée of yours let you get any sleep?” Harlan laughed,
but Hudson’s fiery stare made it clear that he wasn’t in
the mood for jokes this morning.

“Let’s
be serious this morning, guys,” Jack said. “It’s a
very important day for our company.”

He
fixed himself a steaming cup of coffee and sat down on a grey leather
couch in the room. “Annabelle’s gone,” was the most
he could bring himself to say in response.

“What?
Back to Sea Island? Why?” Jack asked.

“No,
back to Atlanta. Last night on the jet.”

“Ouch.”
Harlan patted Hudson on the shoulder twice before standing and
straightening some papers on his desk. “She didn’t even
wait for the ink to dry. Don’t you know you aren’t
supposed to transfer the money until after the deal is signed?”

“Cut
it out,” Hudson said. “I mean it. Let’s just get
this over with.”

Hudson
did his best to listen as Jack went over the contract and the deal
that was on the table. Without Annabelle, he had barely gotten a wink
of sleep. This should be one of the happiest days of his life, but
the truth was, he didn’t care about the acquisition half as
much as he cared about the woman who had left him.

Last
night, his worst fears had been confirmed. Annabelle had been lying
to him the entire time, and he’d been foolish enough to fall
for her. It took his heart years to recover after what happened with
Haley all those years ago. This time, he thought he might never get
over the pain of being betrayed.

When
he’d gotten back to the suite the night before, he tried to
convince himself he was better off without her, but
he’d ached at the silence that permeated each room. All of her
clothes were gone, but she’d left a package on the bed for him.

Those
damned sketches kept him up all night. The
drawings and plans she’d done for the old slave quarters back
on Sea Island spoke to his heart. She’d given life to the
vision he’d had for the area, and he could see her passion and
personality in every page of her carefully constructed proposal.

If
it weren’t for those sketches, he might have been able to
convince himself that she never cared for him at all. When he looked
over her drawings, though, something inside him knew that deep down,
Annabelle’s feelings for him were real. She’d put so much
love and detail into every stroke of her pencil.

All
night, he’d wrestled with his own demons, trying to convince
himself that Annabelle’s actions were no better than Haley’s,
and he should write her off for good. But unlike Haley, Annabelle
wasn’t interested in his money. All she wanted was to protect
her cousin’s happiness.

What
if he’d been wrong about Julia all along? The thought came to
him in a rush. All this time, he’d never once considered the
fact that Harlan was the one lying about his behavior.

“Hudson,
are you even listening to me?” Jack stood in front of him with
one hand on his hip, looking concerned.

“Wait,”
he said. “Harlan, can I ask you something?”

“Of
course. You know that you can ask me anything.”

“You
have to promise me you’ll tell me the truth. No bullshit. No
matter what. This is very important to me.”

"What’s
this about, Hudson?” Jack asked, but Hudson ignore him, his
eyes trained on Harlan’s face.

“Just
promise me,” he said.

“Okay,
sure.” Harlan looked worried, but he agreed.

“When
you were in Georgia this past March visiting the family, did you ever
slip up and go out to a bar? You know, pick up a woman and take her
home?”

Harlan
inhaled sharply and paced the room. When he stopped, he ran one hand
through his thick brown hair. “We said we wouldn’t do
anything that might jeopardize the deal, specifically,
picking up women or being seen in public at bars or dance clubs.”

“Just
answer the question, Harlan. Please.”
Hudson searched his brother’s face and immediately saw the
truth. The guilt in Harlan’s eyes said it all.

“Just
once, I swear. I was bored and needed to get out of the house. I
headed over to St. Simons Island, thinking that the bars would be
empty in the off season,” he said. “I went out to get a
drink. I didn’t have any intention of talking to women or
anything, so I figured there was no harm in it.”

“But
you did meet someone.”

“Yes,”
Harlan admitted, and Hudson closed his eyes, unable to believe how
wrong he’d been. “I met the most beautiful angel. She was
irresistible. I couldn’t help myself, Hudson. I was drawn to
her like a moth to a flame. Julia was her name. We got to talking and
one thing led to another. It only happened once, and I have no idea
how you knew, but I have to tell you. I haven’t been able to
get her out of my mind.”

“What’s
this all about?” Jack asked. “Mr. Takahashi and his
attorneys will be here any minute.”

Hudson
cursed and slammed his hand down on the table. He’d been such a
fool. Annabelle lied to him about some things, but she’d been
right about his behavior. He’d been so quick to judge Julia,
believing that she was only trying to trap his brother into marriage
so she could get to his money. Believing that she wanted to hurt
Harlan the way Haley had hurt him all those years ago.

Hudson
stood and clapped his brother Jack hard on the shoulder. “I
have to go,” he said. He grabbed Harlan’s hand. “You’re
coming with me. I’ll explain on the plane.”

“Wait.”
He heard Jack’s voice calling after them, but he didn’t
stop.

As
the elevator doors began to close, Jack’s hand jammed between
them, causing the doors to stop and reopen. “Where in the world
do you think you’re going? We’re about to close one of
the biggest deals in our company’s history.”