Trevor’s tone was so fraught with anxiety, Sabela knew he wasn’t joking around or trying to manipulate her for some unknown reason. Not this time.
He spoke slowly and distinctly. “You need to come home. Right now.”
It wasn’t like Trevor to be protective. She hadn’t heard him speak like this since long before the accident. But how could she just do as he said? She knew there was some explanation for everything that would allow both Colin and Trevor to be good men.
“I’m sure you’re overreacting,” she said. “What do you mean he used to live in Brent Grove? How did you know him?”
“And of course the bastard neglected to tell you. I’m telling you, that guy is bad news. Where are you exactly, Sister? Tell me.”
Sabela’s thoughts were jumbled. She was still trying to process that Colin lived in Brent Grove. She had found the matchbook for Pinkie’s Diner, but Colin hadn’t mentioned once that he was connected to her hometown.
He said he had been passing through. Though now that she thought about it, how had he gotten a 30th anniversary matchbook when he was in town four years after the anniversary? She should have realized that.
She been so relieved that Colin wasn’t some freaky stalker, she’d overlooked a few details she should have caught.
What else wasn’t he being straight with her about?
How was it possible that she had missed this? Everything that she had thought she knew about her current situation might be wrong. Her romance with Colin might be wrong. Her stomach began to churn.
“Tell me where you are,” Trevor repeated, more demanding this time.
“At his home outside of Andermatt, Switzerland,” she mumbled. “It’s called Haberlin Chalet.”
“Can you get someone to take you the airport? You need to come home now, Sister. I mean it,” Trevor persisted. “Listen, this guy and Blanca. It’s … complicated.”
Sabela didn’t know what to do or how to process everything that Trevor had told her. She needed time to think things through without anyone pressuring her one way or the other.
“I have to go,” she said softly.
“Don’t hang up on me! This could be —”
She ended the call and shut off her phone. She couldn’t handle any more surprises. She needed time to think.
She collapsed into the nearby chair and lowered her head into her hands. Why hadn’t Colin told her that he had lived in Brent Grove? And that he’d known Trevor? It was no simple oversight, of that she was certain.
What did Trevor’s dead girlfriend have to do with Colin? They didn’t talk about the poor girl anymore, though she was once an important part of her brother’s life.
The accident. Everything had changed on that day. Trevor had been driving a girl to Pinkie’s Diner, someone he’d claimed was his girlfriend. Sabela had never heard Trevor talk about her before the accident. He talked about her plenty afterward.
He claimed she was the only thing that had made his life worth living.
Blanca was her name, Sabela remembered well. Trevor insisted that a former friend of his had been trying to steal Blanca away before the crash, but he’d never said the name of the friend. She hadn’t asked for more information at the time because Trevor was on heavy pain medication, and she couldn’t know how much of what he ranted about was real and how much was drug induced.
Could that girlfriend-stealing former friend have been Colin?
It had never occurred to her that the Colin in Haberlin Chalet was somehow tied to her and Trevor, but evidence was mounting.
The Pinkie’s matchbook, the compulsion to help her out of her debt, and the way he’d been asking her about her brother …
All of it was ominous, and Sabela was no longer sure if Colin really meant the best for her.
Did he really try to steal Blanca away from Trevor? Even if so, she couldn’t imagine how he could still be obsessing over a long-dead woman who was never his to begin with. It made no sense.
Sabela pondered how secretive he’d been about his past. All he’d told her were basic things, no details, like the actual names of his businesses. He’d said that people had hurt him. She wondered what that might have to do with Blanca.
Colin was many things, but he hadn’t seemed to be a liar. Trevor, on the other hand, lied frequently and with abandon. He could be lying about Colin just to get her to come home.
She couldn’t believe it, though. Trevor had sounded genuinely worried for her safety.
She groaned. She didn’t know who to trust.
Whatever decision she would make, she had to do it quickly. Trevor had been right — she couldn’t stay at the chalet.
Tears welled in Sabela’s eyes as she stood and wondered where to look for her own clothes. They had to be around somewhere. She’d leave with only what she’d brought.
The fairytale had ended without a happily ever after.
Chapter Thirty-Four
COLIN LEANED BACK IN HIS SEAT and stretched, feeling better than he had in ages. Not even the stack of dry legal documents he was poring over could sour his mood.
Sabela was his at last, and his scheme of revenge had ended before it was completed. The bright future was worth infinitely more than his dark past. He’d leave that darkness behind, in the shadows where it belonged.
Light and happiness lived in Sabela’s beautiful eyes. He wouldn’t trade that for ugly revenge.
For the first time in more than four years, he was satisfied.
And all of it was because of a small-town waitress from a place he never wanted to go back to. All of it because of a Vaughn. Colin laughed as the stretch ended.
Fate worked in unexpected ways.
One Vaughn had smashed his heart to pieces, and now a different Vaughn had picked those pieces up and glued them back into place.
Caught up in his thoughts, when Colin returned to his legal documents his mind began to wander. He couldn’t make sense of the words.
Like it or not, he wasn’t going to get any more work done today.
Setting the papers aside, he sent an email to his executive assistant and told her to cancel the meeting scheduled for later that day, then messaged one of his lawyers to let him know that he’d be getting the approval back to him tomorrow.
Afterward, Colin considered taking Sabela into town again for dinner. There were a myriad of quaint shops that he wanted to show her that he thought she would love. He would buy her whatever she wanted, and he liked the idea of having her on his arm as they explored the town together.
The more time they spent out of the chalet, the more they’d come to be seen as a couple in public. Even if nothing was official yet, the thought appealed to him.
He wanted the world to think that she was his.
And if he was lucky, one day she would be.
Before Colin left his desk, he checked a few additional details. His business guests were still scheduled to arrive on time, and the deliveries he had planned before their arrival were still set to ship as planned.
By the time his guests arrived, maybe Sabela wouldn’t be his escort anymore. Introducing her as his girlfriend, his real girlfriend, excited him.
If only he could get his act together and figure out how he wanted to ask her.
As he shut off his computer, he heard a slight commotion coming from the direction of the front hall. Marie was typically quiet, and the other servants were likewise. Curious, Colin rose from his desk and swept out into the hall to investigate the noise.
He found Marie standing in front of the door with her hands on Sabela’s shoulders. Sabela was dressed in the clothes she’d worn the day she’d arrived.
Colin knew immediately that something was wrong.
“Dear, please! You can’t go out!” Marie insisted. “You don’t have a coat.”
“Marie, let me go!”
It sounded like Sabela was near tears. Colin’s heart shot up into his throat.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, trying not to
sound as worried as he was.
Marie turned, looking relieved that he was there. Her hands dropped from Sabela’s shoulders, and Sabela took a step back and crossed her arms, not meeting his eye.
“Ms. Vaughn requested that Bruno take her to the airport. I assured her that you would want to speak to her before she left,” Marie explained.
Colin made a mental note to give Marie a raise. He had a feeling that if she had not intercepted Sabela, she would already be halfway to the airport by now. He had no idea what had set her off, but he needed to set it straight as quickly as possible.
“Thank you, Marie. I can take it from here.”
Marie nodded and rushed away. He waited for Marie to leave before he spoke again.
“I would like to know why you want to leave,” he asked in the tone he reserved for skittish people. “Why don’t we go to the lounge and have a talk?”
Sabela shook her head and tightened her crossed arms, her eyes everywhere but on him. “No. I need to go.”
What had gone wrong? This morning everything had been perfect. Did she regret what they’d done?