Page 44 of Mistletoe Mistake
He stopped there, as if he’d said enough, but I still wanted to know more. When he didn’t continue on his own, I prompted him again. “How much did she take?”
The amount made no real difference, but I thought it might help him to focus on the specifics.
“Nearly ten million dollars.”
I hadn’t expected it to be quite that much, and I exhaled loudly at the revelation. “Fuck.”
Although he smiled again, there was no humour in it. “At first I couldn't understand it. I mean, that amount... it's not nothing, but it's not like it would break me. If she needed the money, why not just ask me for it? Why would she take ten million when, if she married me, she would have access to so much more?”
“Those are good questions.” Clearly, they weren't just rhetorical. “What's the answer?”
“It turned out she’d actually been in a relationship with someone else the whole time we were together. Once I set some private investigators on her, it didn’t take long for it to come to light. She only ever got involved with me to get to my money. From the very beginning, that had been her plan. She never actually cared for me at all, so once she got what she came for, she ran off with him. They left together and I never saw her again.”
As his head dropped again, I couldn't help wrapping my arms around him, trying to pull out some of the hurt that he obviously still felt about it. It might have been years ago, but the wound hadn’t fully healed.
Cole didn't return my embrace, but he didn't stop me either. I rested my head on his shoulder as I thought over what he'd said. “So, if you never saw her again, does that mean you never pressed charges?"
He shook his head emphatically. “No, because it would have gone public. The damage to my reputation would have been far worse than the loss of the money. What would it say about me as a businessman if I couldn't even tell when I was being scammed?”
I remembered what he'd told me back at the park the day before, about how he could read people and how accurately he had described Holly to me. It must have been a terrible blow to realize he had been fooled to that extent. He could say that he let it go to protect his reputation as a businessman, but I suspected his personal pride played just as big a role.
He must be hell-bent on ensuring nothing like that ever happened again.
Things were finally starting to make sense to me.
“And that's why you insist on paying the women that you're with now? So no one gets the idea that they're entitled to anything more."
His nod confirmed that I’d understood correctly. "I thought I could tell if someone wanted to use me, but apparently, I have a blind spot I wasn't aware of. It's better this way. Things are clear and simple, everyone knows what they're getting up front, and there's nothing more to it than that."
And he wouldn’t get hurt again, although he didn’t mention that part. It did make a certain amount of sense, but there seemed to me to be one key flaw in his plan.
"It will be hard to ever fall in love again with all those restrictions."
“I don't intend to.” Cole's answer was immediate and firm. “It’s not worth it.”
I could tell he’d convinced himself of that, and once again, I could see where he was coming from. In his position, I might feel the same.
“My life is full enough,” he continued. “I have work, I have family, I have friends, and I have sex. Not necessarily in that order.”
Just like that, his smirk returned, and I couldn't help smiling back at him.
“Has that answered your question, Gemma?”
It did, for the time being, but I’d been wondering about something else too, and since he was actually being open with me for once, it seemed like a good time to ask. “Can I ask one more question? On a different topic?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you changing the terms now?”
“No, this isn't related to our deal. It's just me being nosy.”
He gave an exaggerated sigh, but I could tell he was only teasing. “You can always ask, but it doesn't mean I'll answer.”
“You might not, but I'm still curious. I know you enjoyed the house tonight, and I think you had fun at the park last night too. So, what, exactly, do you have against Christmas?”
~Cole~
Gemma couldn’t have any way of knowing that her question about Christmas was actually very closely related to what we had just been talking about. My dislike of Christmas had everything to do with my failed engagement, and since I had already told her the worst parts, I supposed it wouldn't do any harm to explain the Christmas connection.
Still, I couldn't resist turning the spotlight back on her first. “The real question is: why do you like Christmas so much?”
