Page 42 of Bound As His Business-Deal Bride

Gage left the house, wandered through the sprawling gardens, down to the edge of the property, to where the large magnolia grew. He leaned against the trunk, sliding down to sit on the ground underneath. Not caring if he ruined his trousers in the tree’s detritus, not caring about anything at all. He felt numb, broken by the revelations of the past few days.

About Eve leaving him.

He shook his head, refused to think about it, about her final words. Gage stared at the huge wall separating his parents’ land from the Chevaliers’. From a vantage point in the branches above he used to watch Eve in the garden. He’d been lonely, an only child with not many friends to play with, and a bright little girl picking flowers hadn’t seemed like the enemy but a possible friend.

To this day he still didn’t know why the Carons and the Chevaliers held such enmity towards each other. It had been ingrained in his psyche for so long he hadn’t questioned it. From imploring him never to go over the fence if he lost a ball or a paper plane there to the open hostility when they saw each other in public, he’d grown to accept something he should have fought, for Eve’s sake and for his own. As children they hadn’t embraced the hatred that had poisoned every interaction between their families. As young adults they’d naïvely thought they could end it. Until seven years ago when he’d believed he’d finally understood that a Chevalier could never be trusted. Turned out the people he shouldn’t trust had been far closer to home.

More fool him for believing anyone.

Footsteps scuffed through the fallen leaves surrounding him. He looked to his left, up at the pale, drawn face of his mom.

‘Darling, I’m so sorry.’

He shrugged. What did it matter now? Apologies changed nothing. He was here. Eve was gone. His father wasn’t his father. Nothing was right with the world as he knew it.

‘At least you’re my mother.’

‘Do not say that to me. I understand you’re angry. You have every right to be. But think.’ She pointed up to the house, her voice trembling. ‘That man has been nothing but your father since the day you were born.’

If he tried to intellectualise it, his mom was right. He couldn’t fault Gus. Apart from how they looked and that one question when he’d been nine, he’d never guessed his dad was not his blood. The man had given him unflinching love and support, had bailed him out of jail when he’d been arrested after he and Eve had run. Paying lawyers to clear his name. Never, ever questioning what had led Gage to flee in the dead of night with the daughter of a sworn enemy. Nursing him through the hangovers and poor behaviour after Eve had told him never to speak to her again.

Other kids had always been envious of how much his dad loved him, including Eve. He’d always thought how lucky he’d been. He knew it, but that didn’t stop the pain scouring through his veins like acid.

‘Were you ever going to tell me?’

His mom sighed, sat down next to him in her pretty dress on the leaves and raw earth. She’d get dirty too and he wasn’t sure why that worried him. His mom cupped his cheek. Her fingers were warm, but a tremor ran through them.

‘I wish I could say we were bigger people. But no. Time passed and the harder it became till we wondered what the point would be. Then you told us you were engaged to Eve—’

Pain struck him straight to the heart. He rubbed his chest. ‘You don’t have to worry about that. We’re not engaged now.’

The silence his words met flayed him some more. His parents’ disapproval had been clear. It had needled in the beginning, even if the arrangement with Eve was a fake. But right now he couldn’t bear to hear it. His mom took a deep breath.

‘Oh, sweetheart. Why?’

The words caught in his throat. A tight lump that he swallowed down before it choked him. ‘She knew all along about me not being dad’s son. Her father threatened to tell me if she didn’t break it off all those years ago. She was pregnant. She lost the...’

He couldn’t go on. The pain of it was too much. His mom wrapped him in her arms, like she’d done so many times when he’d been a child.

‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured into his hair. ‘I know platitudes will never be enough. As adults, we have so much to beg Eve’s and your forgiveness for. We’ve all failed you because we acted like children and couldn’t let things go.’

He took a deep breath. ‘She says I’m like her father.’

‘You must have made her furious to use that insult.’

‘I said and did things I’m not proud of.’

; His mom patted him on the arm. ‘That one statement tells me you’re not like him, because you have the capacity to learn. Hugo Chevalier doesn’t. He never did, which is one of the reasons I fell in love with your father. We may have had our problems. Serious problems. But your father could think and reason and he cared. He’s the best of men, even with his human frailties. You take after him, not that man next door who only ever wanted to tear things apart.’

Gage looked up at his mom, the belief in what she saw written in the gentle smile on her face. ‘You have so much faith in me.’

‘Your father and I both do, darling. It’s time you had faith in yourself.’

He didn’t know what to do, how to fix this. All he knew was that he loved Eve, had never, ever stopped, and he wasn’t sure how to tell her, how to forgive...either of them.

‘There’s one question I’ve never asked. Why do our families hate each other so much? How did it come to this?’