Love's Deception (2 page)

C
olin Hunter received the news of Travis Edwards’s heart attack with a twinge of surprise and guilt. But by the time he hung up the phone, a slow smile creased his lips. He eased back in his chair, stretched his arms behind his head, and filled his lungs with a deep cleansing breath.

As he looked around the room, he wished he could make a toast with someone. Victory never smelled nor tasted so sweet. He was in his mid-fifties, but he swore he had the energy of a thirty-year-old. Hell, he wanted to do more than celebrate. He wanted to send C. J. Cartel a wreath of roses.

“You gotta love that woman,” he boasted aloud, then slithered to his feet and headed to the bar. He’d
spent the past five years trying to put Edwards out of business when all he had really had to do was win Cartel over.

He shook his head as he poured himself a drink. There was still a lot about the cold businesswoman that remained a mystery to him. Like what drove her so hard and why did she spend so much time trying to prevent anyone from getting too close?

Colin dismissed the intriguing questions with a casual shrug. Who cared? The only thing that mattered was that he had succeeded in destroying Travis Edwards’s precious company.

Carissa paced the E.R. and worried over what took the doctors so long. Guilt and regret narrated the scene in her office as it replayed in her head. She was too harsh, her motive too selfish. She’d finally become the son her father had always wanted. And she was ashamed of herself.

Liz had left to take care of her five-year-old son, and to Carissa’s utter amazement, no one from Edwards Electronics had come to visit its president. She remembered the stories she’d heard about Travis Edwards and, in fact, had dismissed them. She’d learned a long time ago never to place her trust in rumors—especially since there were just as many circulating about her.

She wondered if there was any truth to them. If there were, Travis Edwards and her father would have been great friends.
Where is his son? He should have been here by now
.

As time ticked on, she concluded that he wasn’t coming. Just as she hadn’t.

Another wave of shame washed over her. She was drowning in her own sea of emotional torment. So why was she staying? She didn’t know this man. Travis’s accusation echoed in her ears, and she pressed her eyelids shut.
Please, God, say it’s not my fault
.

Her weak words lacked conviction and she stopped pacing and dropped her weight into a nearby chair. “Happy birthday,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Ms. Cartel?”

She stood with expectant eyes as a distinguished-looking African-American doctor approached. “Please don’t let it be bad news,” she whispered in prayer. Her heart inched up into her throat when she was unable to read the man’s expression.

“Yes. I’m Dr. Peterson and I’ll be your fiancé’s physician. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She should tell the doctor the truth, but if she did that, the hospital wouldn’t keep her abreast of what was happening. Besides, what harm could come of her masquerading as the man’s fiancée?

Nathan left Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport and paid little attention to the exit signs along the highway. When he’d jumped into the rental car two hours ago, he’d had every intention of driving to Northside
Hospital—but somewhere along the way, he’d lost his nerve. Going to see his father would be against everything he stood for and would break the promise he’d made to himself…and to his mother.

Why should he go? The man had abandoned them. Nathan still remembered the heartbreak when his mother told him his father wasn’t coming back, but most of all, he remembered his mother’s tears. A low curse resonated in his chest.

Rage and bitterness erupted within Nathan as he gripped the steering wheel. He couldn’t put the past behind him when years of heartache blazed within him.

For the fifth time that evening, Nathan passed the exit for the hospital.
Damn Travis Edwards to hell
.

Liz pushed open her grandmother’s bedroom door, again disturbed by the older woman’s eerie stillness. It amazed her at how long she’d sit and gaze out the window at nothing—like she was waiting for something or someone.

Goose bumps pimpled Liz’s skin at the sudden drop in temperature as she eased into the room. She never could understand why Nana preferred the room so cold.

Liz moved closer. “How was your day, Nana?” she inquired, neither expecting nor receiving an answer.

Funny, she thought, at how irony had a strange way of lacing its fingers throughout one’s life. She stroked her grandmother’s soft silvery hair and hummed an old tune.

A soft, thin sigh escaped Nana’s lips as she tilted up her chin.

Liz smiled and wondered whether she’d recognized the song. Inhaling, she drew in an odd combination of baby powder and Ben Gay.
I’m going to miss this time with you
. The words floated across her head and a rush of tears slid from her eyes.

Nurse Anne Browning smiled at Carissa as she explained the visiting hours. “We normally don’t allow non-family members in the ICU, but Dr. Peterson has made an exception in your case being that you’re Mr. Edwards’s fiancée. You’re more than welcome to stay as long as you’d like. But we do ask that you leave during shift changes between seven and nine.”

“Thank you,” Carissa said, avoiding eye contact. She turned and slid open the glass door and eased her head inside Travis’s small quarters. Her hackles stood at attention as her gaze centered on the body lying so still. The steady beep from the monitor overhead added relief to her troubled heart.

Taking a deep breath, she once again tried to reassure herself that he’d pull through. He had to. She simply couldn’t handle another death on her conscience. Instead of leaving, she moved farther into the room as if pulled by some invisible force.

As she drew near, she was struck by the uncanny resemblance Edwards had to her father. Soon, she found herself studying him. From the strong angles of his face to the broad frame of his athletic body, his
appearance nearly convinced her that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

She reached for his hand. It was cold. She blinked and swallowed the lump in her throat. Why hadn’t she come when her father had asked for her?

A chill raced along her spine. She shivered. Hospitals were always cold, she thought bitterly. Another reason why she hated them.

A chair sat a few feet from the bed and she contemplated staying a few minutes longer. Really, it didn’t make any sense for her to stay. In truth, she’d done more than what was expected.

She pulled up the chair and sat. But as words of apology cluttered her head, she could do no more than hold the older man’s hand and allow her tears to fall.

Early the next morning, Nathan stood outside the ICU with anxiety twisting knots in his stomach. His nervousness surprised him and accelerated his heartbeat.

With his jaws clenched, Nathan’s heart hardened as bitter memories monopolized his thoughts. Why in the hell had he come here? He turned from the door while a war with his emotions raged on, but something stopped him from leaving.

Just get it over with
.

It sounded like a simple command, but he’d be damned if he could do it. However, the urge to see the giant of his childhood, helpless, forced him to act.

The unit was cold, despite the morning sunlight streaming through the windows.

“May I help you?”

Nathan turned toward kind, inquisitive eyes. “Yes, I’m here to see my father, Travis Edwards.”

“Yes, of course.” She looked down at her watch. “You have a few minutes before the shift change if you want to see him. I don’t know whether his fiancée is with him. If you’d follow me, he’s at the last unit by the window—”

“I think I can find it.” He managed to maintain an amicable smile, then headed off in the pointed direction.

He pulled back the sliding curtain and his gaze swept across his father’s still face. Another jolt of anger struck him. The years had been kind. Travis Edwards’s appearance hadn’t changed in thirty years.

“I shouldn’t have come,” Nathan declared in a low voice.

A soft moan startled him. He blinked when a woman lifted her head from the bed.

He watched, fascinated, as waves of dark curls spilled back from the woman’s head to reveal her flawless features. The woman’s natural beauty astonished him. She stretched languorously, then stifled a yawn behind her hand, still unaware of his presence.

However, all illusions of love at first sight vanished when she reached for his father’s hand before opening her eyes.

Jealousy eclipsed Nathan’s adoration and his greeting was sharp and spiteful. “You must be my father’s latest conquest.”

A
nger boiled through Carissa’s veins as her eyes narrowed to thin slits. “Just where in the hell do you get off?” She rose to her feet.

A single brow lifted on the man’s otherwise unchanged expression.

Contemptuously, her gaze raked the tall stranger. But her disdain didn’t last. The man’s handsome dark features caught her off guard. His muscular physique appeared to be the result of hours in the gym. With skin the color of roasted chestnuts and eyes the color of dark chocolate, she was mesmerized by what could only be called perfection.

She forced herself to blink and break the trance. It
was then that she became aware of his reserved appraisal, too.

Her anger renewed itself. “I believe I asked you a question.”

She watched a muscle twitch along his temple, and his eyes darkened. Even though she’d been in countless confrontations, her stomach twisted into knots beneath his hard glare. She steeled herself for a verbal attack.

Instead, the brewing storm in his eyes calmed suddenly and he turned toward the still body lying between them. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled-for.”

The rich timbre of his voice, which she could’ve sworn wasn’t there seconds ago, weakened her knees and had her draw in a quick breath just to clear her head and abate her own anger.

She followed his somber gaze, and his sudden tenderness touched her. Realizing it was time to leave, she turned and reached for her purse. “I’ll leave you two alone.” She headed toward the door when her conscience forced her to turn back, but all thoughts of an apology vanished the moment their eyes met.

The gentleness she’d witnessed seconds ago had vanished. In its place a hard and unforgiving expression stared back at her. The man was a jumbled bag of contradictions, she concluded. Frustrated, Carissa clamped her jaws shut, then turned to leave.

Nathan’s curious gaze followed her, then lowered back toward the bed. His hands clenched at his sides as he waited for remorse or even regret to assault him,
but instead he felt…well, he wasn’t quite sure what he felt.

Despite the uncanny resemblance, Nathan continued to stare at a stranger. For so long he’d dreamed of this day—the day when he’d have the opportunity to confront the man who had destroyed his childhood and killed his mother. No, Travis Edwards didn’t pour an overdose of sleeping pills down his mother’s throat, but Nathan still considered him responsible.

So why are you here?

He didn’t know. A list of possibilities had run through his head in the car: responsibility, vengeance, peace. None of them made any sense. He closed his eyes and struggled to pull himself together. In his mind, all he saw was a picture of his mother. What would she think of his being here?

With a heavy heart, he drew in a deep breath and physically ached when her image faded.

Nathan blinked his eyes dry. “I wish I knew where to begin.” He exhaled and struggled to lift the weight of the world from his shoulders. “I spent so much time hating you—most of my life, in fact. Even now, there’s a part of me that wants some type of revenge for the
years
of pain we endured.”

He shook his head and added, “But it’s too late for that now. It’s too late for a lot of things.” Tears obscured his vision as his emotions overwhelmed him. “I just wish I could understand. Or at least know what went wrong. Maybe I’ll never know.” He laughed at himself. “Hell, I’m a grown man. I have
no business believing in fairy tales. Who am I trying to kid? We were never happy, were we?” He looked at his father’s face, almost searching for a confirmation.

Jabbing his clenched hands into his pants pockets, he tried to finish. “I guess it’s pretty customary for family to try to reach some type of closure at times like these. The truth is, I sort of feel like a hypocrite for coming here. But I had to. I need some kind of peace so I can move on.” Lowering his head, he wished the floor would swallow him whole. “I just want to know
why
you left.”

Of course, he didn’t really expect an answer, but the room’s silence disappointed him all the same. “I have to get out of here.” Before the tears that crested his eyes fell, Nathan rushed from the room.

Carissa sat defeated behind the wheel of her car with her head slumped against the headrest. She would rise above this, she assured herself. This whole mess wasn’t her problem. How was she to know the man had medical problems?

She pinched the bridge of her nose while her thoughts drifted to Edwards’s son and the familiar mixture of pain and anger in his eyes. They were emotions she knew all too well.

Eighteen years had passed since her father’s death—a long time to live with regret. Had she been a better daughter, things may have turned out differently, she reasoned.

Carl James Cartel had been a hard and ruthless businessman and was equally hard on his loved ones, if one could call barking orders and ruling every inch of his family’s lives love. As a teenager, Carissa didn’t think so, but as an adult, she held a different view.

A plane crash had claimed her mother when Carissa was a toddler, leaving her alone with her father. It took until adolescence before Carissa became a rebel without a cause, and the true battle of the wills alienated father and daughter.

An endless supply of anger had been stored in her hormonally imbalanced body, and every prank and act of disobedience was meant to punish her father for reasons that now escaped her. Her outlandish conduct never stopped, even after she was slammed into a private Catholic school. And they weren’t even Catholic.

A sad laugh escaped her as she shook away her reverie. She had more than made up for those lost days. Since his death, she’d made sure she attended the schools he’d outlined, and she had joined her uncle Charles in the family business, then even went on to run the company after his death as well.

Now, she couldn’t remember the person she’d been or the dancer she’d dreamed of becoming. Guilt drove her to become the person her father wanted. Somewhere along the line, his dreams became her goals and the real Carissa had ceased to exist.

For years, she’d heard people refer to her as cold and calculating—a progeny of her old man. And it
was true. She’d built a career by lying and manipulating her way to the top. Tears slid from her eyes. Somehow, somewhere, she’d sold her soul for forgiveness from her father and she hated herself for it.

Was it too late to change?

During the drive home, her thoughts scattered in numerous directions, then ended in a severe migraine. She needed a vacation, she concluded, then laughed at the outrageous thought. What would she
do
on a vacation but go crazy? The concept of having nothing to do was enough to cause the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand at attention.

She arrived at her penthouse in the center of Buckhead. The promise of a hot shower awaited her upstairs. After that, she’d steal a couple of hours of sleep.

Staying busy would allow her to forget the past twenty-four hours. And that was exactly what she wanted to do—forget.

Relief flooded her the moment her key slid into the lock. She didn’t get far into the apartment before kicking off her shoes and singing, “Home sweet home.”

Next, she peeled her clothes off one layer at a time and formed a trail of material leading all the way to her bathroom door. Shortly after, a hard steady stream of hot water erased every residue of stress.

Behind closed lids, Nathan Edwards’s dark, sinful eyes with an odd mixture of pain stared back at her. Maybe there was something she could do to help him
through this horrible time. Her eyes flew open. What in the hell was wrong with her? Yesterday, she was out conquering the world, and today she was trying to win a Good Samaritan badge for her old Girl Scout troop.

She stepped from the shower, wrapped a towel around herself, and mumbled a low curse at the initial cool breeze wafting from the air conditioner. But before she could head back into the bedroom, a sharp knock drew her attention to the front door.

Carissa retrieved a robe and raced toward the door. But when she glanced out the peephole, she gasped aloud. “I don’t believe it.” She flung the door open and rushed to embrace the elegantly dressed woman on the other side. “Aunt Helena. What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit my one and only niece for her birthday. I’m sorry I’m a day late, but my flight was canceled yesterday and I got here as soon as I could.” Helena pulled Carissa back at arm’s length and took a good look at her. “I swear you grow more beautiful every day,” she declared with a broad smile.

Despite herself, Carissa blushed. “Thank you.”

“A lot it does for you. When are you going to snare a husband and give me some babies to spoil?”

Carissa pretended to glance at a watch. “Well, look at that. It took you less than two minutes to jump on my case. That has to be a new record for you.”

Helena simply shrugged and smiled.

“You look good, as always,” Carissa complimented.

As was her habit, Helena pinched her niece’s cheek. “You always did have a good eye.” She sighed. “Well, aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“I’m sorry. Come in.” She gestured with a sweep of her hand and assisted with the luggage. “I take it that you’re going to be staying a while?”

“Just for a few weeks. I knew I couldn’t depend on you to find time for me in your busy schedule to conquer the world. So I took matters into my own hands and here I am. And you can just forget about trying to get rid of me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Carissa said with a genuine smile, then escorted her aunt to the guest room.

“I absolutely love what you’ve done with this place. Let me guess, you went with Lars for the decor, am I right?”

“You always say to go with the best.”

Her aunt’s eyes widened. “I must write this historical moment down. Carissa Jeanette Cartel heeds my advice. Will the world’s wonders never cease?”

“Very funny.”

She pinched Carissa’s cheeks again, eliciting yet another frown. “I was so surprised when Liz told me you weren’t at work. I actually harbored hopes of you stashing some gorgeous hunk in here and having your way with him, but then I realized how unlikely that scenario was—so I rushed right over to see if perhaps the kidnappers left a ransom note.”

“You know I do occasionally take time off.”

Her aunt’s delicate brows arched.

“What?”

“Don’t forget who you’re talking to. Something must be dreadfully wrong for you to still be in your robe this late in the morning with large duffel bags under your eyes. Have you been crying?”

“Does nothing ever get by you?” Carissa asked, shaking her head.

“Rarely.” She sat on the king-size bed and patted the vacant spot beside her. “Now, sit right here and tell me what’s bothering you, sweetheart.”

Carissa loved her feisty yet nosy aunt and, being honest with herself, she realized she was glad she’d come. Obediently, she sat down. “To be honest with you, Auntie, I think I’ve finally done it. I have finally made a complete mess of my life. And right now I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Sounds serious.” Helena frowned. “Maybe you should start from the beginning. I tend to get confused when I come in on the tail end of things.”

“The beginning?” Carissa shook her head. “You already know the beginning. It started when I made the foolish decision to step into my father’s shoes.”

“You mean the ones I told you to leave alone?”

“All right, all right. Are you here looking for the chance to say you told me so?”

“Of course I am, dear. I live for these things. I have no children of my own, so I look forward to the time I can prove my superior knowledge to you.”

Carissa laughed. “You’re too kind.”

“I do try to be. And you’re being evasive. What happened?”

“I think I may have killed a man.”

Silence trailed her sentence, and Carissa had to look up to make sure her aunt hadn’t passed out.

Helena shook her head. “A funny thing happens when you hit sixty. Your hearing has a nasty habit of playing tricks on you.”

“It’s no trick.” Carissa exhaled and tried again. “It started quite innocently. Colin Hunter, my new vice president, brought this small electronics company to my attention. I reviewed the statistics. On paper, there wasn’t anything that really stood out, but it definitely showed promise. With the right direction, I can see it doing quite well. So we looked into acquiring it. There was just this one minor setback.”

“You had to knock someone off?” Helena guessed.

“No.” Carissa playfully slapped her aunt’s knee.

“Well, hurry up and get to the good part.”

“The so-called good part came when the owner refused to sell. It was really no big deal to me, but Hunter persisted.”

“Your VP?”

“Yeah. Well, anyway, one thing led to another and we were able to acquire the company anyway. And, as expected, the owner blew his top. But what I didn’t expect was for the man to suffer a massive heart attack in my office.”

Helena’s eyes rounded with astonishment. “What did you do?”

“Everything happened so fast. I got Liz to call 911 while I stayed with the guy until help arrived, then I went with him to the hospital.”

“Oh, my goodness. Is he all right?”

“No. During surgery he suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma.”

Carissa waited for her aunt to say something, but when she didn’t respond, she looked up at Helena’s blank expression.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Helena said.

“I wish I was. But believe it or not, it gets worse.”

“He didn’t—”

“No,” Carissa cut her off. “He’s still in a coma. However, I had to lie to the staff and pose as this man’s fiancée in order to see him.”

“Well, that’s completely understandable. I would have done the same thing.”

Carissa held up her hand. “There’s more.”

Helena eyed her suspiciously. “What?”

“The man’s estranged son shows up.” Carissa stood and paced the floor. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what really happened. In fact, our meeting turned out to be downright hostile. He was rude and the next thing I know I’m practically snapping the man’s head off.”