The Sound of Secrets (The Monsters Duet #2)

Chapter 16

Channing

I got up earlier than normal and made a run to a nearby bakery to grab a box of doughnuts. Win had a wicked sweet tooth, and I wanted a simple way to unruffle Winnie’s feathers. I made a couple calls to reschedule the meetings I’d missed the day before. I was fortunate Alistair was an understanding boss. He had every right to fire me for being unprofessional. It was no wonder I’d never managed to have a corporate career before now. I wasn’t sure I was cut out for the high level of responsibility and accountability that came with making a better-than-decent paycheck. Working multiple jobs to make ends meet was tiring, but the only person who felt let down if my performance wasn’t up to par was myself.

When I got back to the brownstone, Win was on his way out the door. He muttered something about his half-brother acting like a child around his handpicked mentor. He was always frustrated with Alistair, so whatever was going down at the company had to be a fire he couldn’t put out over the phone, but the way his silvery eyes lit up when he bit into the doughnut made me slightly jealous. The way to this man’s heart was really through his stomach and high calorie treats. He left in a rush with a quick kiss goodbye and a gourmet pastry in hand.

Winnie walked into the kitchen fifteen minutes later. She had dark circles under her eyes and was yawning wide enough I could see her molars. Her hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail and the buttons of her school uniform were done up crooked. She looked like she’d slept in her clothes and tossed and turned all night. If her attitude toward me wasn’t still frosty, I would’ve straightened her up. Not that I cared if she was rumpled. I just knew the kids at her school were ruthless and would tear apart any flaw they found.

“I got doughnuts. If you want something else for breakfast, let me know. There’s time before you have to leave to make something.” I tilted my head to the side and studied her face. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

Winnie opened the box in front of me and took out a chocolate glazed doughnut. “I was doom scrolling.” She took a big bite and gave me a hard-to-read look. “Your name stopped trending around five this morning. Some famous singer and her equally famous actor boyfriend got engaged. Their news took over all the trending topics.”

“That’s good.”

Winnie held the doughnut in one hand and tapped the fingers of the other on the counter between us. “Doesn’t it bother you? Having strangers dissect your life and make up stories about you? It seems like it should be a pretty big deal. ”

I crossed my arms and leaned over on the counter. This felt like a conversation we shouldn’t have before I had coffee. But if she was willing to talk, I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip by.

“It doesn’t feel great. It feels even worse knowing that someone who should have my best interest in mind is the one behind it. However, as long as I know the truth, and the people who love me know what’s real and what’s not, it’s just noise. You’re going to have to get used to ignoring people who are loud for no reason. As you get older, strangers are going to have things to say about you that are way off base just because of your name.”

She took another bite and lifted an eyebrow. “Your dad is the one who sold your story? Why would he do that?”

“Because he needs money and thinks if he makes life hard for me, Uncle Win will pay him to go away.”

She shook her head, sending her ponytail bouncing. “What did I do to end up with such awful grandparents? Most kids are spoiled rotten and only have to worry about getting smothered in affection from their grandmas and grandpas. Mine are out there trying to ruin lives.”

“You didn’t do anything. It’s just an unfortunate twist of fate that both the Harveys and Hallidays have a few rotten apples in the bunch.”

Winnie finished eating and reached for her backpack. Before she could leave the kitchen, I reached out to stop her.

“Can we walk to school together?” I wasn’t going to force her to carry on a conversation, but I wanted to bleed out any bad blood between us as quickly as possible. I hated having her upset with me. I felt being at odds was also dangerous. I didn’t want her avoidance to lead her away from me and directly to someone who might want to harm her.

Winnie reluctantly agreed. She even let me take the time to make a coffee before we left. The security detail followed solemnly behind us. I was sure Rocco had ripped mine a new asshole for letting me slip away to speak to my father the previous day. Giving them the runaround when they hindered our plans had become a bad habit Winnie and I needed to break for Win’s peace of mind.

Winnie was solemn as she walked next to me. I clutched the coffee between my hands and asked her, “Have you ever heard the saying ‘hurt people, hurt people’?”

She cocked her head to the side and looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “No.”

I silently exhaled and tried to get my thoughts in order. “Basically, it means when someone has been hurt, that’s what they’re used to, so they inadvertently hurt others. They don’t mean to cause pain, but it’s all they know. Sometimes they don’t even realize that’s what they’re doing.” I gave her a wan smile. “I hope you know I never meant to make you feel like I was keeping things from you or that I didn’t trust you. I honestly wanted to protect you.”

Winnie sighed. She hiked her backpack up higher on her shoulders and turned to watch me for a long moment. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she tried to formulate a response that expressed her feelings but didn’t attack me. It was a very ‘Win’ way to handle a difficult situation with someone you were angry at but still deeply cared for. He never popped off with words he would later regret. As much as I always told Winnie I wanted her to be more like the Harveys than the Hallidays, I couldn’t ignore that many of her best traits were directly from her uncle.

“Are you sure you weren’t trying to protect yourself, Aunt Channing? Everything you’ve done to hurt me and Uncle Win, is from trying to make sure you’re the one unscathed.”

I blinked and stopped walking. People moved around me like I was a boulder in the middle of a rushing stream. The security guys had to wave pedestrians off so they didn’t bump into me as I imitated a statue. I didn’t move until Winnie pointed at the screen of her phone and told me she was going to be late for her first class.

I reanimated and walked silently next to her as her words spun around my mind like a whirlpool.

When her school came into view, I put a hand on her arm to slow her clipped pace and told her, “You’re right. I am always trying to protect myself. I’ve been doing it since I was younger than you. It’s not something I consciously do. It’s instinct. It’s how I survived growing up with an ill mother and an absent father. It’s how I navigated losing your mom and getting out of an abusive relationship. I protect myself out of reflex, regardless of the consequences. You deserve more than that from me.” So did Win. “I’m sorry. I hate that you’re mad at me.”

Winnie sighed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more sympathetic when you told me about your past. It was a lot to take in. I feel like every step I make, there’s an adult in my life, warning me not to follow in their footsteps. It makes figuring out where I’m supposed to go and how I’m supposed to get there very difficult. Sometimes I don’t want to navigate a new path.” She bumped me with her shoulder and grinned at me. “We aren’t always going to see eye-to-eye. I’m a teenager. I’m supposed to be contrary.”

I hugged her and pulled back to give her a thumbs up. “Mission accomplished.”

She tossed her head back and laughed. When we got to the gates of her school, she paused and looked at me over her shoulder. Her voice was serious, and her tone was far more adult than a fourteen-year-old girl should manage.

“I know your deal with Uncle Win is something he forced you into, and that falls into the category of a situation where you instinctively want to protect yourself. But I don’t think Uncle Win wants to hurt you, and you’re the one inadvertently hurting him. Maybe if you take a step back, you can see what I see. What everyone who watches him with you sees.” She blew me a kiss and darted inside the gates, her security hot on her heels.

I turned to walk back to the brownstone, lost in thought, as I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other.

The way Win hijacked my life was all wrong. However, I couldn’t deny that every move he made since we were forced together had been exactly right. My fake marriage made me feel better about myself and the future than either of my real marriages did. If I ignored the origins, I couldn’t find much to complain about Win’s ability to be a husband. Just like everything he did, he excelled at it.

When I passed the park, I caught sight of a familiar head of white hair. I knew Win still wanted to do a blood test, but I was certain to my core that Ky was just a victim of circumstance. I couldn’t blame him for being conned by my father. Grown men and women who should know better had become pawns for him. A defiant teenager was no match for a man who made his way through life manipulating and scamming others.

Thinking I should leave the teenager alone and let him get back to his unbothered life, I planned to cross the street and walk down the opposite side to get back to the brownstone. I had to meet with the clients I ditched yesterday and do my best to make a good impression. Not necessarily because I cared what they thought of me, but because I couldn’t stand the thought of besmirching Alistair’s name. Not after he’d given me such a massive opportunity and had proven to be a wonderful friend to me and an excellent uncle to Winnie. He was also a damn good younger brother to Win and Archie. Not that Win would ever admit it. Handing over his global conglomerate would have to be enough to show that he considered the younger man family.

“Heads up!” I was slow to react to the shout.

If I didn’t have someone following my every move, I would’ve been smacked in the head by the soccer ball sailing through the air. Fortunately, the man in charge of keeping me safe caught the ball and held onto it as Ky ran across the park to collect it .

“Sorry about that. It was a wild kick from the goalie.” He was breathing hard and his bleached hair was sticking to his forehead.

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” I don’t know why that’s what I blurted out. I wanted to swallow the question back as soon as it left my lips.

Ky raised a dark eyebrow and took the ball from the glowering man next to me.

“My team is using this field for practice today. I don’t have a morning class.”

I waved my hand and pulled myself together. “Sorry. I have no right to ask something like that.”

Ky smiled but it wasn’t very nice. “You’re right. You don’t.”

I wondered absently if the reason I never let myself get attached to the idea that Ky might be mine was because I was insulating myself from the disappointment of learning the truth. I wanted to believe my kid was out there so badly, it was hard to let that dream die a painful death.

Since Ky tore off the mask of civility first, I asked, “Did you tell my father about Goldie?”

Ky frowned and bounced the ball in his hand. “No. I told you, he showed up to warn me that you and the billionaire wanted to take me from my mother. That’s it. Why would I tell him about Winnie’s security people?”

I shrugged. “Someone told him and he used that information to harm an innocent woman, because he had no other way to get to me.”

Ky picked up the ball and smirked at me. “You don’t believe me? I’m not surprised. I saw everything people were saying about you yesterday. You and I have a similar background in that we don’t come from much. It looks like you would do anything to get where you are now. Of course you think I’d do the same. Winnie never told me anything about her family that you can’t find on Google, and I haven’t spoken to that old man since the first visit.”

I took a sip of my coffee as he and I stared at each other. He looked so much like Parker I couldn’t help but go on the defensive every time I saw him. But he was just a kid. A kid trying to keep his family safe from an indomitable enemy. If he wasn’t so prickly and combative, I would appreciate his nerve.

“I can feel it in my gut. We’re not related. You should do the blood test to get Win off your back. I’m telling you it’s best to comply as someone who has tried to evade him for years. It’s easier to give him what he wants. And a word of advice: since you’ve had the shitty luck to get entangled in this family’s affairs, don’t believe everything you read about the Hallidays or the Harveys. The truth is far worse than the fiction Win lets people eat with a spoon.”

Ky turned his back on me and ran back to the field when his teammates called his name. I send up a silent thanks to the sky that Winnie wasn’t an insolent teenager. She’d been a dream to manage since she was young. I hoped she didn’t pick up Ky’s more brazen and difficult traits during their friendship. Win wouldn’t stand for it.

I made it home and did my best to look like a respectable adult. I even managed to show up early for the meeting. The clients were very understanding about the rescheduling and enthusiastic about what sort of items they were interested in sourcing for their new restaurant. They left satisfied and ready to sign a contract with the design firm. My second meeting didn’t go as smoothly. The client was an older woman with a firmly entrenched aesthetic. She didn’t want to hear any of my suggestions and demanded I find specific items that were scarce. Locating what she wanted wasn’t a problem. The issue came from her wanting a discount since I wasn’t available when I said I would be. She claimed the inconvenience of the canceled meeting was worth several thousand dollars off of the commission. Regardless of how many times I explained to her I couldn’t make that call, she insisted she wouldn’t pay the quoted price. I was frustrated and annoyed at the back and forth. I planned to call Alistair in for reinforcements when the woman made a snide remark about me being a gold-digger. She insinuated I could afford to lose my entire labor fee because I was married to a man worth billions.

Irritated that she turned things personal, I refused to continue working with her and left the meeting in a foul mood. I called Alistar right away to let him know he needed to find another acquisitions manager to handle her. However, when he answered the phone, he was in a worse mood than me.

“Fuck her. The customer isn’t always right.”

His violent response took me off guard. “Well, I did inconvenience her by not showing up yesterday.”

He grunted. “Shit happens. It was a family emergency. She’s lucky I’m your boss and not Win. If he caught wind of what she said to you, a canceled contract would be the least of her worries.” He sighed heavily and muttered, “I wish I could refuse to work with someone when they piss me off.”

I bit back a laugh I knew he wouldn’t appreciate. “You’re still having issues with your mentor?”

“She talks to me like I’m an incompetent child. Like I didn’t build a successful business from the ground up. I feel like I can’t breathe without her telling me I’m wasting valuable time and company resources.”

I hummed a sound of sympathy. “She’s also very accomplished. I hope you’re treating her with the level of respect you think she owes you.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” I could tell he asked through gritted teeth.

“I’m on the side of whomever gets Win out of there fastest.”

Alistair groaned. “That’s not what you would’ve said a couple months ago.”

That’s because a couple of months ago, hell, a couple of days ago, I couldn’t see myself with Win long term.

Now, I was having trouble picturing my life without him.