Fighting for the Forbidden: A Stepbrother Romance by Tracy Lorraine

Author:Tracy Lorraine [Lorraine, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Lauren

It feels good to finally tell Ben how it really felt when he left instead of just shouting at him. Being able to see his reaction reminds me that I’m not alone in this. I’ve been carrying around this anger and bitterness for so long that it’s hard to accept that he’s always felt the same. I’d no idea that when I was trying to get someone to understand how I felt, that the one person I’d swore I never wanted to see again was the only one who would truly get it. The longer I talk, the more I realise that my anger’s been directed at the wrong person since finding out the truth. Yes, Ben was the one who walked out that night, but it wasn’t of his own doing. And while I may always wonder what might have happened if he’d stayed and fought for us, I do understand why he thought he was doing the best thing. It might have been a little naïve and misguided, but his young heart was in the right place.

As he thinks back to the day he walked back into the office, pain and regret fill his eyes. “I’d convinced myself over the years that you’d hate me. It was no less than I deserved. But I knew your dad wouldn’t have let me off lightly. I knew I was going to be the bad guy; he wasn’t likely to admit his part in it. I told myself that you’d have moved on, found someone else. That you’d be happy. Then you glanced up from your desk and you looked at me exactly how I remember, and I knew. Nothing had really changed. I knew you were still mine.”

I blow out a long breath as the realisation that he can read me so well after all this time settles within me. How is it possible that after six years, nothing can really change?

“Tell me about your life. What did you do when you left?”

“I got on the first train I found and ended up in Exeter. I was about as lost as you described earlier. I found a crappy bedsit and pretty much drank myself into oblivion for quite a long time.

“Then one day I saw an advert saying something about it not being too late to apply to university, and I thought why not. I had absolutely nothing else to fill my time with.”

“You got a degree?”

“Yeah, you don’t need to look so shocked. I’m actually kinda smart.”

“I know you are. I just never imagined you studying.”

“Me either,” he admits. “But I had no idea what to do. I’d just walked away from everything that was important to me. I signed up to a business course, I still had hope then that it might come in useful if I ever got the chance to take over Johnson & Son’s like I always planned to. I met Dec on the first day. We hit it off instantly and went out for drinks straight from our first lecture.

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