ChapterSeventeen
Brodie burst out from the courtroom before anyone else. Mallory, seated on a nearby bench, ogled him— a free man with a stoic expression, his suit jacket spreading out behind him like a cape. He looked as though he couldn’t move quickly enough. Miraculously, he didn’t spot her and just trudged down the sidewalk.
Away. Away from her.
She had to run after him.
“Brodie!”
He stopped short on the sidewalk with his neck bent. It felt like eighty-five degrees and too hot for that suit. He was probably sweltering.
When he turned back to face her, his eyes were hard and chilly. Mallory wished she could leap back through time and relive the beautiful nights they’d shared. How had this happened?
“Brodie, I’m just—” she began.
“Please. Don’t apologize,” he told her, his voice husky. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“But I need to say it.”
“No. You don’t.” He cleared his throat. “My family’s name was humiliated in there. All I’ve tried to do for the past ten years is clear my family’s name. No matter what bad thing happens on this island, people immediately think it has something to do with the Thomkins. We have such a bad rep here. It’s ridiculous. I swear the only reason I got into so many fights in high school was that people would talk smack about my family. I couldn’t take it.”
Mallory’s stomach twisted into a knot.
“Now, the prosecution is going to go after my family. We don’t have the legal fees for that. Do you understand?” Brodie barked angrily.
Mallory dropped her eyes to the ground. “Brodie, I…”
“You should have asked me about the ring,” he told her, his tone softening. “I would have told you where I got it. I would have given it back to you.”
“Where did you get it, Brodie?”
Brodie shook his head. “I can’t, now.”
“Brodie, you have to understand. I was terrified when I found that ring. I thought you’d manipulated me, gotten close with me just to take more things from my family,” Mallory added hurriedly. Gosh, she felt foolish.
Brodie nodded. He couldn’t look at her. “What I said those nights was true, Mallory. All of it.”
I’ve never met anyone like you. I feel like I could build something with you.
“I didn’t tell them about your father,” Mallory whispered.“About him leaving the island.”
Brodie made a strange noise like a wild animal in the base of his throat. “I guess that means you think it was him, too.” He pondered this for a long time before twisting around on his heel. “Take care of yourself, Mallory.” He then gestured at her business suit, a far cry from the swimsuits and dresses he’d seen her in before. “What’s all this about?”
Mallory felt like a schoolgirl. “I’m just um. Interning. For Susan.”
“The law?”
Mallory shrugged. “I’m trying it out.”
“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” Brodie continued, his nostrils flared. “I hope we both do.”
Then, he strode back down the sidewalk and out of Mallory’s life, probably for good.