Page 62 of Captivated By You
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
CLAUDIA
My family home looked exactly like it always did as I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. I’d only been gone for a few months, but I expected it to look different. Feel different.
I certainly did.
But other than some stale, warm air from the air conditioner being on but turned higher than normal, everything was exactly how I’d left it.
Family photos, ones starting the year I was born and continuing until the most recent summer were framed and hung all over the hallway that led from the front door straight back to the kitchen.
I tossed my purse and keys onto the kitchen island and looked around.
All of this would have to go. When I’d left for New York, I had figured I’d sell this place, but I couldn’t prepare myself to do it before I moved. It hurt too much.
Now, it was just stuff. The pain would fade. The anger at my dad would eventually subside. And my mom? She’d always be my mom. Gentle, caring. A little stuck-up and a big pain in my ass for the way she cared too much about other people and their opinions, but I was over all of it.
My phone vibrated in my purse, but I already knew who it was.
When Harrison had answered my phone call after I reached the airport earlier, I’d expected him to be cold and callous, the two things I always used to describe him. My dad might have been a liar, but he’d at least treated me with a lot of love. A lot of laughter. His expectations had been fierce, but he freely doled out hugs and approval.
Harrison, on the other hand, grew up in a family where nothing was good enough. He wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps come hell or high water. And my father was so indebted to his dad…that he’d promised Harrisonmeas a present.
Per the rules my father and Edward Williamson, Harrison’s dad, had discussed and decided on when I was only seventeen years old, Harrison and I were supposed to be married by the time I was twenty-five. That was still a year away, but since my parents died, Harrison didn’t see the need to wait any longer.
I hadn’t even known of the agreement until my parents’ death.
At first, I was in such shock I considered it only because I tried to hope my parents had believed it was best for me. But then I continued seeing the man Harrison really was beneath his stylish suits and perfectly groomed hair and slick smile.
Which was why I left for New York. Because screw them all. My parents had drilled into me the importance of propriety and class and living better than then the rest, remaining pure because it was important.
They’d never once said part of the agreement with the Williamsons was that their daughter be a virgin…because that was what Harrison wanted.
I hadn’t known of any of it until I sat in Edward’s office as we discussed my trust fund and losing my house.
He’d been shocked. Figuring my parents would have let me known all along.
Instead, I’d been angry. A few weeks later, I was on a plane.
Despite sending him the same two-word text that said, “We’re over,” repeatedly, he still insisted there were things to discuss. Things that would make me change my mind.
He was dead wrong.
But knowing he was coming to my family’s home, we’d be the last people inside this place before it went up for auction and everything picked apart piece by piece, filled me with a bravery I never knew I had until I saw Sophie earlier this morning.
She’d been through a living hell much worse than mine.
If she could be brave, fight through her past, I could do the same.
A flash of a black car through the stained glass windows around my front door flashed in my eye and I smoothed down the black dress I’d been wearing all day. My face felt greasy from recycled airplane air and my hair was oily and flat. The dress was wrinkly beyond all saving, and I’d kicked off my shoes.
Harrison had never seen me look such a mess and I couldn’t summon the energy to care.
I waited for him in the living room, which had a direct view to the front door. Cocky and arrogant and condescending as hell, Harrison walked right in like he owned the place. I hadn’t bothered locking the door since I’d told him to meet me here.
“Hello, Claudia.” Harrison wasn’t unattractive. Blond hair slick and nicely trimmed, he carried himself with the ease and arrogance of a boy who hadn’t had to work for much but had everything.
