Elliot huffs a breath out. “Second item,” he says.
“Okay,” I whisper shakily.
“I know Annabelle is your name. I just don’t like it.”
My mind connects the dots—Annabelle Underhill has to be the reason. I wait, all the while my imagination going wild with what she could’ve done to make him unable to tolerate even her name.
“You already know my dad’s on his sixth marriage.”
I nod.
“His first wife was Geraldin
e Pryce. She’s the mother of Blake, Ryder and Elizabeth. My mom was Wife Number Two. Geraldine and my mom married Dad without prenups. So when those marriages ended in divorce, they took huge chunks of Dad’s money. After that he wised up. His third wife didn’t get a penny, even though they stayed married for about three years. Then quickly he moved onto the fourth one. Within a month if I remember correctly. Some people thought he divorced his third wife just to get the fourth one.”
I cringe at the story. It sounds like something out of a bad soap opera, except this is Elliot’s life.
“He married for the fourth time a week before my twenty-first birthday. I was forced to attend that particular ceremony.”
Ugh. Who would like to watch their father marry like that, especially to a younger woman? The more I hear, the more I despise Julian Reed. “How…” I search for the least rude word, and finally settle on “…awkward.”
“Yeah, it kind of was. Especially since my girlfriend was the bride.”
“What?” Thank god I wasn’t drinking anything when he said that.
“Annabelle Graham—now Underhill—was my girlfriend. We dated for a couple of years, very low key and very quietly since I was in a working relationship with her uncle. I was crazy about her. She was dazzling.”
“Oh my god.” My fingers rest on my lower lip. “I’m so sorry.” Elliot is a proud man. How deeply must this have cut him?
“She wanted money, and she got it. Of course, if she’d waited a week longer, Lucas and I would’ve sold our company. Then she could’ve had both money and a younger husband. Since I was too young to know any better back then, I would’ve probably married her without a prenup. What a disaster that would’ve been.” His gaze is directed at me, but his eyes are lost in the past. “Dad knew Lucas and I were up to something. He just didn’t know what, which is why he went after Annabelle. He discarded her fairly quickly once he’d gotten what he wanted. He knew I’d never take her back, and he never really cared about her anyway. He just wanted to take something of mine to show that no matter what, he was still one step ahead of his kid.”
“But marrying your girlfriend? That’s…disgusting. I’m sorry, but father or not, that’s the kindest thing I can say about what he did to you.”
“Nobody knows the story but you. Well, Dad and Wife Number Four do, but they aren’t talking.”
I blink away the tears forming in my eyes. “She must’ve meant a lot to you.”
“Did. Past tense. But yes.”
It’s such a horrible story. No wonder he didn’t want to share it. “Elliot…”
He brushes a thumb at the corner of my eye. “Does this mean you aren’t going to call me A anymore?” He’s trying to lighten the mood, but it’s not really working.
A part of me is glad he told me, but I know it cost him to recite the ugly and humiliating story, the way my telling him what happened when I was fifteen hurt me. I shake my head. “That was mean of me.”
“I think it was human of you. And it gives me hope that I’m with a woman, not some perfect celestial being out of my reach.” A rueful grin tugs at his sensual mouth. “I could’ve at least given you a nickname.”
I squeeze his forearm. “Nonny calls me Anna.”
“I know.” His forehead rests gently on mine. “But I’d rather call you Belle.”
“Belle?”
“It means beautiful.”
My lips part.
He puts his index finger on my chin. “When I called you beautiful, it wasn’t just some empty nickname I use with all the women. Most of the time that would be ‘babe’ or ‘sugar.’”