Burned Read online

  She smiled. “Guess I’m growing up.”

  “And I’m very proud of you for that.” Rhys prayed today would go well. The two of them had the horses saddled and ready to ride by the time Sadie made her way to the stables.

  “Sorry, I’m late guys. I took a little nap before coming and slept a little longer than I anticipated.”

  “No problem. We’ve just gotten the horses ready.”

  Carys walked over to Sadie and handed her a helmet. “Hi, Sadie. Got you a helmet. Safety first.”

  Sadie took the helmet from the teenager’s hand with a tight smile. “Thank you. How are you today, Carys?”

  “I’m great. And I’m so glad you could make it. Look, Sadie, I know I’m probably not your favorite person, but I appreciate you being so understanding to me since my mother died and…well, I really want us to get along.”

  Rhys was proud of his daughter for her maturity. Maybe this would be a good day.

  * * *

  Sadie gripped her horse for dear life. Any second now she felt like she’d fall off and break her neck. Rhys and Carys had taken nearly a half hour showing her exactly what she needed to do and she was doing well enough as long as her horse went slow. Very slow.

  Rhys and Carys were excellent riders and they were patient with her, stopping when she got too far behind. After a while, Rhys’s stallion seemed restless.”

  “Why don’t you go ahead of us, Daddy. I’ll hang back here with Sadie. Sir Percival seems restless,” Carys suggested.

  Sadie stiffened. She didn’t want to be left alone with Carys.

  Rhys raised a brow. “I don’t mind hanging back here. If you want to go ahead you can.”

  “Well, I kind of wanted to talk to Sadie alone. You know, girl talk.”

  “Oh? Like what?” He asked.

  “Like things a teenaged girl would be too embarrassed to talk to her father about.”

  “Ahh. I see. Okay. I’ll meet you two at the stream up ahead.”

  Sadie wanted to scream out to him that she didn’t want to be left alone at Carys’s mercy, especially when she was riding a creature that could bolt any second.

  Rhys trotted away leaving her alone with his daughter.

  Carys pulled her horse level with Sadie’s. “Are you enjoying your ride on, Buttercup?” She shot Sadie a bright smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes.

  “It’s certainly a different experience. Look, now that your father is out of earshot you can drop the act now. What do you really want to talk to me about? Did you want to warn me off of your father again? Or did you want to comment on my weight?”

  “No. Obviously, nothing will make you leave us alone. Why can’t you just go away like the others?” The young girl scowled.

  “Because I happen to love your father very much and even though you have been nothing but nasty to me, I’m willing to put up with it for him. Did you think by treating me so poorly that I’d up and run like the other women you probably ran off?”

  Carys pouted. “You act like you’re so different from them. You hate me too.”

  “Maybe I wouldn’t if you didn’t go out of your way to insult me. Look, Carys, I never set out to be your enemy, but from day one you haven’t made this easy for me. I’ve tried to be your friend, but you wouldn’t let that happen. Well, I’m tired of begging. While I had hoped the two of us could at least be civil for your father’s sake, I no longer care, so please just leave me alone. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say right now.” Sadie’s head swam and a feeling of nausea began to take over. She hoped she could make it to the stream and get off this blasted animal. The last thing she wanted was to be on something that had a mind of its own. Give her an inanimate object like a car any day.

  Suddenly Carys moved her horse so close to Sadie’s she was nearly knocked off balance.

  “Hey, watch it.” Sadie clung to the reins.

  Carys smirked. “I just wanted to give you a little lesson in horsemanship.”

  Sadie glared at the girl. “And what lesson is that?”

  “To hold on tight.” The teenager fell back slightly, leaned over and gave Sadie’s horse a heavy pat on the rear.

  The horse went berserk, rearing on its hind legs. Sadie screamed in panic, wrapping her arms around the horse’s neck. The next thing she knew it took off as if the devil himself was on its tail. “Help me!” The peal of laughter at her back barely registered. She swore if she survived this she’d hurt that little girl.

  “Whoa horse, whoa.” Sadie cried as she held on as best as she could but she felt her grip slipping. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of the famous actor who was paralyzed after falling off his horse.

  “Sadie!” The sound of another pair of heavy hooves digging into the earth barely registered. Rhys.

  He caught up to her and reached over to grab her reins. It sent her horse on its hind legs. This time she couldn’t hold on. Sadie fell off the horse. Throwing her arm to break her fall, she landed with a heavy thud. Something went snap and a rash of fire shot up her arm making her scream.

  Rhys was off his horse in an instant. “Sadie!”

  Sadie cradled her injured arm, howling, the tears flowing freely. When he reached for her, she flinched away. “Don’t touch me!”

  “But Sadie—”

  “Stay away from me, Rhys!” She was in enough pain as it was.

  “Okay, but your arm…”

  “Will be fine as soon as soon as I get away from you and your horrible daughter!” she screamed.

  He reared back as if he’d been slapped. “What did you say?”

  Sadie ignored him, trying to get up, but the pain in her arm and backside hurt like a son of a bitch. Rhys helped her up, but she immediately pulled herself out of his arms. She turned to see Carys approaching. The girl was white as a sheet. She even looked a bit remorseful, but Sadie was beyond caring, with the last bit of strength in her reservoir, she stormed over to the teenager and with the last bit of strength in her reserve she reared her good hand back and smacked the shit out of her tormenter. “You little bitch!”

  Carys went reeling back.

  “Sadie! What the fuck has gotten into you?” Rhys demanded.

  “Some sense! You two can go fuck yourselves!” She walked away from him where she vomited, emptying the contents of her belly on the ground, and promptly passed out afterward.

  * * *

  Sadie woke up in the hospital with her arm in a soft cast on her injured arm and an IV drip sticking out of her other one. Rhys sat by her bedside. There was grim expression on his face and it all came back to her. She didn’t understand how she’d gotten here but then it all came back to her. Carys had finally succeeded in pushing her to the edge. Sadie abhorred violence and while she was ashamed of her actions, she wasn’t as sorry about it as she should have been. With that came the realization that this was the end of her and Rhys.

  She ran tongue of parched lips. “How long have I been out?”

  “A couple hours. The doctor gave you a light sedative and set your arm. Luckily it was a clean break. He also said you were dehydrated. You should take better care of yourself. I called your sister, who should be here any minute.”

  Sadie turned her head away from him, unable to meet his gaze.

  “Why Sadie?”

  She didn’t need clarification to understand what he was asking.

  “I’m sorry it happened,” she spoke without looking at him.

  “Seriously? Is that all you can say? You assault a fourteen-year-old girl and all you have to say is sorry?”

  “Assault is pretty harsh, but if that what you’d like to call it, fine. Are you going to press charges?”

  “If I were in my right mind, I would, but I’m not going to believe the woman I love and who I thought loved me would snap like that without some reason. Carys didn’t deserve that. She’s bent over backward to be your friend. Are you really jealous of my daughter?”

  Sadie didn’t have the strength to ar
gue. “Well, I guess it’s like you suspected. I don’t like your daughter. I never will so let’s just call this thing quits.”

  “You slap my daughter unprovoked, and you’re the one who’s breaking up with me?”

  “Yep.”

  “I thought you were different. That you actually cared about me, that you loved me.”

  Sadie wanted to cry out that she did, but pride wouldn’t allow it. It was either her or Carys and at the end of day, she should have known from the beginning there was no contest. Her heart was breaking in tiny pieces, but she had to let Rhys go. Maybe one day Carys would mature enough to allow him to find someone to love without interference, but she realized she wasn’t that woman.

  She didn’t say anything.

  “So that’s it then?”

  “Guess so.”

  He sighed. “I suppose it’s for the best. I would never have trusted you around her again anyway. Guess next time, I’ll listen to my daughter when she has concerns. I certainly should have listened to her about you.” He stood up and stalked to the door.

  She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, concentrating too hard on holding back tears.

  He halted at the door. “I don’t know why I never saw what a bitch you are. Guess you had me fooled.”

  It was almost as if he wanted her to react but she didn’t have it in her.

  Just then Lily showed up. “Excuse me? What the hell did you call my sister? I almost had to put my foot up your brother’s ass this week, I’ll be much obliged to follow through with you.”

  Rhys rolled his eyes before storming off.

  Lily rushed to Sadie’s bedside. “Oh, honey, what happened?”

  Sadie told her sister the day’s events and then broke into body-shaking sobs.

  Lily held and rocked her, careful of Sadie’s broken arm. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here now. I should have known that man was no good considering who his brother is. You don’t need him or his juvenile delinquent daughter.”

  The door opened again, and a nurse with a clipboard walked in. “Ah, glad to see you’re up. How are you feeling? Is the sedative wearing off?”

  Sadie shook her head, still too choked with emotion to speak.

  “Well, other than the dehydration and the arm, you should be fine. You have a bruised tall bone that may require a rubber donut but that shouldn’t give you too much problem. The good news is, your baby is fine.”

  The sisters stiffened. “Baby?” they said in unison.

  The nurse frowned and looked at the chart again. “The chart says you’re nearly three months along, or at least that’s according to your blood work.”

  “But that’s not possible. I’ve had regular periods.”

  “Hmm, I’ll check with the doctor. I’ll be back.”

  Could her day possibly get any worse?

  An hour later after she’d spoken with the doctor, Lily tried her best to calm Sadie down.

  “What am I going to do? A baby needs two parents. I can’t tell Rhys. And there’s no way I could have a baby and take it anywhere near that maniac daughter of his. If she tried to kill me, there’s no telling what she’d do to a helpless baby. She’s a future serial killer in the making!” Sadie started to cry again.

  “You’re getting hysterical sis, and you don’t need that in your condition. It will be all right. We’ll work it out. I’ll help you out in any way I can. We’ll get through this together. I promise. As a matter of fact…” Lily whipped out her cell phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Calling reinforcements.”

  Lily punched a series of numbers into her phone and waited. “Hey Daisy, it's Lily. How fast do you think you can get a flight to Raleigh-Durham airport?”

  She waited for a reply. “Yep, it’s Sadie. If you can get here by tomorrow morning that would be even better. I think Rose should be back in New York by now and I’ll call her as soon as I get off the phone with you.”

  Sadie groaned inwardly. She adored her older sisters, but they all coddled her as if she were still a kid. To have all three of them around fussing over her would be an ordeal in itself, but she knew they meant well so she didn’t voice her concern.

  Lily disconnected the phone and dialed who Sadie assumed was Rose and proceeded to have a similar conversation. Once she was done, Lily patted her hand. “Help is on the way.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rhys played the scene in his mind over and over again, yet he could still make no sense of it. That Sadie would slap his daughter angered and concerned him. Maybe he should have seen the signs. In the last few weeks together, it had almost seemed as if Sadie had resented Carys’s presence, when in the beginning she seemed to genuinely try to make friends with his daughter. Had it all been a carefully orchestrated façade?

  If he was being honest, he knew that in the past Carys hadn’t gotten along with some of the other women he’d dated; some had gone as far as to say that they didn’t like her. That was usually the end of the relationship for him. It wasn’t like he would choose them over his child. He thought Sadie was different, however. She was so sweet and seemed so genuine like she actually gave a damn about other people.

  And the passion. Even now, after what she’d done, his cock stirred as he remembered what it was like to have her in his arms. Again he thought back to that day nearly a week ago. Sure, in her panicked state she could have acted out of character, but there’d been more to that slap than that. For a second it seemed like Sadie actually hated Carys. Really hated her.

  It twisted his stomach in knots over the way things ended. She’d been so cold to him in the hospital, giving no explanation. It was then he knew they had no future together. How could he be sure she wouldn’t do something to Carys when she was angered? His first priority as a parent was to protect his child. No matter how much he foolishly missed her or wished things were different, he had to put his daughter first.

  Why did it have to fucking hurt so much? Why couldn’t he just stop loving her? He couldn’t eat or sleep. He couldn’t do his job properly, and most of all he couldn’t give Carys his one hundred percent like she deserved, although it didn’t seem like she minded as she’d stayed out of his way for the past few days. The times he’d attempted to talk to his daughter she’d barely look him in the eyes and he couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t like it was her fault that he and Sadie had broken up. Rhys had tried to explain that to her and he wasn’t sure if it had sunk in. It seemed the poor kid was taking the break up personally.

  He stared at the term papers he should have had them graded days already, but every word ran together and he could barely make anything out. Hell, maybe he’d give them all B’s and be done with it. Most of the students probably didn’t deserve that, and for the ones who’d deserved more, they could come to his office later and plead their case. Tossing the documents aside, he placed his elbows on his desk and rested his face in his hands. It wasn’t getting any easier. Maybe if he could hear her voice one last time…

  She did still owe him an explanation. Yes. He’d call her and demand one. Hell, he fucking deserved one. Picking the phone up, he punched in her number. When he heard it ring, he almost lost his nerve and hung up. On the verge of doing just this, the phone was answered by a woman whose voice he did not recognize. “Hello?”

  “Is Sadie home?”

  “She is, may I tell her who’s calling?”

  “Rhys.”

  “Sadie is resting. She’s not taking calls right now.” It seemed that the voice had gone chilly.

  What the hell? Was Sadie screening her calls? It pissed him off, even more, considering he was the injured party here. “Could you please put her on, what I have to say won’t take long.”

  “I don’t think so. Please don’t call again.”

  Before he could utter another word, a loud click resonated in his ear. She’d hung up on him. How dare Sadie have the nerve not to take his calls! Not only had she assaulted his daughter, she was a coward t
o boot. He was of the mind to go over to her house right now, and if Carys weren’t home he would.

  Full of nervous energy he paced the study floor plotting his next course of action when there was a knock at the door. “Come in.”

  The door slowly opened and Carys poked her head inside the study. “Daddy? Do you have a minute?”

  “Sure, princess. What can I do for you?”

  There were dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t been sleeping and she was pale as a sheet. His heart hurt to see her suffering and it hurt even worse knowing she blamed herself. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Are you coming down with something?” Rhys walked over and placed his hand on her forehead to see if she was okay.

  She trembled. Her eyes were downcast. “I need to tell you something”

  “Sure, sweetheart. What did you want to tell me?”

  “Maybe you should sit down.”

  Rhys laughed uneasily. “What are you going to tell me? You’re not going to tell me you’re failing some of your classes are you?” he teased.

  She shook her head. “Please have a seat Daddy.”

  This sounded serious. Taking a seat on the sofa, he patted the empty space next time to him, indicating that she do the same. Carys sat down and folded her hands on her lap, her head still down. Something was definitely wrong. His daughter was never afraid of speaking her mind. So why did she seem so hesitant now? “Princess, what’s the matter?”

  “Dad,” she paused to moisten her lips, “I…remember when you came to me and asked what I thought when I overheard you and my mother arguing about me? About me not really being your daughter?”