Page 65 of The Lie That Stole Christmas

Gabe laughed, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor in it.“Whatever fantasy you’ve built in your head about you and Ashley ends tonight.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I?I saw her go into the stables, and I saw you coming out.”

Silence stretched between them, tension crackling around them.

“Walk away.”

“Gabe—”

"You think this only affects you?"

"My grandfather finds out you've been sneaking around with Ashley, and you think you're the one who pays for it?"

"Your father works here.Lives here.Depends on this place.You really willing to risk his job, his benefits because you can’t keep your hands off my sister?

Carter’s entire body had frozen.Caught between the girl he loved and the father who could have walked away from him after his mom passed but stayed because he loved him.The man supported him through every high and low, wiped his tears when he scraped his knees when he fell off his bike at five.Lifted him up high to see over the crowd to watch the tree lighting.

He had just been diagnosed with cancer.He needed this job, the family he created here, to get through this hard spot in his life.He wouldn’t just lose his job; he’d lose his insurance and, most importantly, his support system.

"If you love her, you'll walk away."

Gabe had walked out of the kitchen, those words lingering in the air long after he was gone.

Carter had thought about going to New York City to find Ashley so many times and tell her the truth, even more so after his dad passed, but he knew how much Ashley loved her dysfunctional family.He didn’t want her to know who her brother really was.But Carter was done protecting a man who hated him for no reason other than he was born with the wrong last name in the wrong zip code.

If they were going to move forward, he had to put everything on the table.No more lies.

“That night I had left to go get hot cocoa.”

“And you came back cold and distant.You told me you didn’t love me, and it had all been a game.You just wanted to say you fucked a Wetherby.”

He closed his eyes and physically recoiled at the reminder.Those words had haunted him every single day since they came out of his mouth so easily.

“You believed it.”

“I didn’t know what to believe.You left the man I had spent years falling in love with and came back as someone I didn’t even recognize.”

“I ran into your brother that night.”

“Gabe?But what did Gabe…” Her words trailed off because deep down she knew what Gabe was capable of.“What did he do?”Her voice turned lethal.

“He told me to walk away from you, and if I didn’t… in not so many words, he said my dad would get fired, lose his job, his benefits, and Ash…” He took her face in his hands because she needed to hear him clearly, see into his eyes that it was the hardest choice he ever had to make.“My dad had just been diagnosed.He needed this job.His benefits.His support system in Ms.Porter, Hawthorne, Clint, Wendell, Luca, all of them.If my dad was fired, I would be fired too, and then both of us would be out of a job, homeless, and no insurance to cover his chemo.”

Tears welled in Carter’s eyes, and it was the first time since his dad died.“He made me choose between the two people I loved most in the world.It was an impossible choice, but I chose the person who needed me most.”

He ran a thumb over her cheek, zeroing in on that grayish-blue gaze that glistened in the moonlight.

“I knew you’d be okay without me.I convinced myself for years you deserved better because it was the only way to make me accept what I did.”

“I’m going to murder my brother,” she said, emphasizing each word.She stared straight ahead, jaw tight, eyes blazing with a fury he’d never seen before.

A knot formed in Carter’s throat.For years, he protected a man who wouldn’t even cross the street if he saw Carter bleeding out on the other side.He protected his reputation and his image with Ashley by making himself the villain.Even after his dad died.Even after the guilt had eaten away at him every Christmas, every birthday, every night he lay awake wondering what his life would have looked like if he’d made a different choice that night.

“Ash, I know he’s your brother and—”

She shook her head.“Do you have any idea what he took from us?”