She shook her head, wanting to be in denial about Jared’s betrayal, but she couldn’t.
Don’t make a scene. This is Sarah’s wedding. It’s her day.
Struggling to breathe, tears starting to trickle unchecked down her face, Mara did the only thing she could do. Her heart feeling like it was being torn from her chest, she bit back a sob and fled.
CHAPTER 20
Away from prying eyes, Mara had bawled her eyes out in the home that she’d lived in all her life. Seated on the soot-covered floor in the kitchen, the only room still partially standing, she’d let go of her sorrow about everything: her loneliness, hopelessness, the pain of missing her mother, and most of all the betrayal of a man she loved.
Her arms wrapped around her upper body, she rocked on the floor, wondering where she could go from here. She’d thought she might find comfort in the old kitchen where she’d spent so much time with her mom, but all she felt was shame and failure as she sat in the burned-out remains of what had once been her home.
“I’m not so sure all will be better in the morning anymore, Mom,” she whispered huskily, as though her parent were listening. “And I don’t think you’d be very proud of me for being such an idiot. I guess maybe I thought that I loved him enough for both of us, but I was wrong. So wrong. He told me he didn’t believe in love, and he doesn’t. I just didn’t want to listen.”
“He loves you,” a low baritone spoke above Mara, startling her. That last thing she’d expected was for anybody to answer her heartbroken ramblings.
Mara swiped the tears from her face as she glanced up to see Evan Sinclair standing over her, big and intimidating. Strangely, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see him there. Was there anything the man couldn’t find out? Her location had probably been easy. “What are you doing here?”
He grimaced and then lowered his bulky body down beside her. “This is my favorite tux,” he grumbled, sounding unhappy that he was soiling it.
“You can leave. There’s no point in you being here. The house isn’t safe, and the fire is still under investigation.” She was too distraught to care that she was in a restricted and potentially dangerous area, but she didn’t want Evan to get hurt.
They weren’t quite touching, but their shoulders were close as they both leaned back against what used to be the kitchen cupboard.
“You’re here,” Evan answered, as though that explained everything. “Jared loves you. I think you need to know that. He’s looking for you. I doubt it will be long before he thinks of coming here.”
“Why did you come here?”
“This is where it all began. I think it’s human nature to return to the place where you were happy once when you’re troubled,” Evan said gravely.
Mara turned her head and gaped at him, surprised that he was so insightful. “Jared and I are done. I don’t know what will happen to the business now, but I can’t live with him anymore. It’s pretty obvious that everything he’s done was out of pity and guilt.”
“Then you can use my house,” Evan offered stoically. “And my offer still stands to help with your business. Same terms. Although I doubt it will be necessary.”
“You feel sorry for me, too,” Mara replied, feeling pathetic.
“I don’t do business deals because I feel sorry for someone, Mara. I do it to make money. Your business is extremely viable, and the growth potential is enormous.”
“Jared and I signed contracts.” An agreement I insisted on making. Now, she wished she would have lagged a little more. It was going to be a lot harder to end a business arrangement that was completely in writing.
“You did more than that,” Evan mentioned irritably. “Maybe my brother didn’t always believe in love, but he has since you came into his life. He bought the house because he was already head over heels for you. Maybe he didn’t realize it then, but he knows it now.”
“Why would he do that if he cared about me?” Mara asked, puzzled by his observation. She felt compelled to listen to him because, like it or not, Evan Sinclair was rarely wrong.
“The same reason that he almost ran in to his own death the night of the fire. To protect you. If I hadn’t caught him in time, he would have run into that damn inferno after you. He didn’t know you weren’t inside, and like the hothead he is, he plowed ahead into the fire to rescue you when you were already safe. I caught him just in time.”
“Jared went after me into the fire?”
“Yes.”
“He could have died,” Mara said shakily.
“There is no could . . . he would have died. The house collapsed completely the second I pulled him out,” Evan corrected angrily. “How in the hell can you doubt his affection for you? He literally walked through fire to try to save you, and he didn’t give a damn if he died doing it.”
“I didn’t know,” Mara replied, dazed by Evan’s revelation. “Then why did he buy the house in the first place?”
“Not for the reasons you think,” Evan said enigmatically. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“Not for profit or because it once belonged to a Sinclair and he wanted the property back in the family again?”
Evan balked. “Like any of the Sinclairs need the money? We have literally hundreds of properties that are or have at one time been owned by a Sinclair, historical properties. Why would he be so obsessed about owning that particular property? Think, Mara. Your reasoning is irrational.”