a fortune. I will have no part of him.”
“He’ll never know,” Garrett answered, putting away his phone. “Your father is dead now, Sophia. You’re not hurting him. The people whose lives you are affecting are Will, Zach, Ryan and Caroline,” Garrett said quietly. “Sophia, they didn’t even know about your existence— Don’t punish them when they haven’t snubbed you. When they found out they had a sister, they wanted to meet you. They feel you’re part of the family and all of you should be united. Aside from the money, they would have tried to meet you and bring you into the family. They are great guys in spite of their father. They don’t want to hurt you. They want you to have your money as much as they would like to have theirs. And they want to meet their sister.”
“So they sent you to trick me into meeting them.”
“There was no tricking you. They tried to meet you openly. Will called. Zach flew here. You’ve rejected every contact, including their attorney.”
Sophia was losing her patience with Garrett, and she couldn’t stand here and have this conversation with him any longer. “I don’t see why you are still standing here when you know you’re unwanted,” she said coldly, her eyes still blurry from tears that streamed down her cheeks. “Once again, I don’t care about the Delaney brothers’ inheritances or about meeting them. I don’t want to see you again, and I never want to see the Delaneys. I want you to go. You deceived me, Garrett.”
“You’re not going to listen or give me any kind of chance, are you?”
“How could you do this?” she lashed out, her voice a hiss. She wanted him to get out of her house and her life. Why couldn’t he understand?
“I did it because those guys are important to me. And all they want is for you to give them a chance. But I don’t want to lose you,” he said. Her burning anger had turned to a chill. She shook and couldn’t stop tears from falling.
“Get out, Garrett. Just go. You can’t change my mind, and you and I are through.”
“Sophia, don’t do this. You’re being stubborn and foolish. If you don’t want the money for yourself, give it to charity and do some good with it. You don’t have to keep it or live on it.”
“There is nothing you can say that will make me change my mind. I don’t ever want to meet my half brothers. The only thing we have in common is Argus Delaney and nothing else. Garrett, get it through your head—I don’t want to have anything to do with any part of my father, and those half brothers are all part of him.”
“You’re part of him, Sophia.”
“Don’t remind me. If I could do anything to erase that, I would.” She walked toward the door, opening it to make it very clear that she needed him to leave. “You have to go now.”
“Why the hell are you being so selfish about this?” he said. Momentarily, she was taken aback by his harsh accusation and then her anger surged again.
“Selfish? Haven’t you been listening when I’ve talked about my father? His world revolved around him. He thought only of himself. His ego was enormous. Don’t accuse me of being selfish. He took the prize.”
“But what would it hurt to meet them? There’s no way you can be harmed by a meeting. You’re being stubborn and unreasonable about this—spiteful and hurtful for no reason. Argus will never know, Sophia. You are not getting back at your father,” Garrett said, his voice rising.
“How dare you. How dare you call me spiteful and hurtful after what you’ve just done to me. In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, Garrett, I don’t want to see you again ever.”
“Sophia, I don’t want to lose you. You’re important to me and I thought I was to you. I thought we had something special between us. Other than my connections with the Delaneys, I’ve been open and truthful with you.”
“Other than your connections with the Delaneys? How can you discount that? That is actually the first thing you should have told me about yourself. Because the problem now, Garrett, is that I don’t believe you or trust you, and I never will. Get out of my life.”
“I’m sorry, Sophia. I’m sorry about everything. About the way this worked out, about how long I kept the truth from you. Just please promise me that you’ll think about this and stop having such a closed mind.”
Sophia wasn’t even going to grace his request with a response. Instead, she walked out of the room. He followed and caught up with her at the door.
“Just think about what I’ve said to you. Give some thought to your half brothers who have done nothing to you.” When she refused to look at him, he paused for a moment. “Maybe, Sophia, you’re more like Argus than you care to admit.”
“How dare you, Garrett!” she cried. His words cut like a knife. How could she possibly have given this man her body? Her heart? What on earth was she thinking? “Get out of my life!”
“That isn’t what I want to do. I don’t want things to end this way between us.”
“There is no ‘us,’ Garrett.”
“There was, and there can be, if you’ll just give me a chance to explain. I put off telling you about the Delaneys because I was scared of losing you. What I feel for you is real.”
“I can’t believe you care.”
He clenched his fists. “What I want is you in my arms, and in my life. What I feel for you, I’ve never felt for any woman. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about calling Will and resigning. But I didn’t, because I believed I was doing the right thing—both for you, and for them.”
“Goodbye, Garrett,” she said, unwilling to listen to another second of his plea.
“I wish you viewed this differently. You’re stirring up a storm when you could have so much joy and give so much joy. And you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Actually, reason doesn’t even enter into it. You’re blindly striking out and trying to hurt whoever you can. Listen, if I had thought I could be up front with you from the first moment, I would have been. But I can see now that I was right. You wouldn’t have talked to me, and so I did the only thing I could to get near you. You have a closed mind. You want me out of your life? I’m out,” he stated coldly. He turned and left in long strides.
Sophia slammed her heavy door and sagged against it, sobbing and shaking. She hurt badly in every way.
Garrett had betrayed her—she couldn’t perceive anything else. Their lovemaking had simply been a means to an end, nothing more. When they had made love, he hadn’t been emotionally involved—he had been working. But as swiftly as that thought came, she replayed the pain in his voice as he confessed to her, and she believed his emotions were real.
Yet how could she trust him now?
She heard his car and then it was gone. And with that, Garrett vanished out of her life.
She sat on the nearest chair and cried. Hurt was overwhelming. Heartbroken, she hated herself for being duped just as much as she hated Garrett for deceiving her. How blind she had been to Garrett’s purpose.
His accusations echoed in her thoughts—you’re selfish; you’re blindly striking out and trying to hurt
