Take It All by Alexa Riley
Chapter Fifteen
Rory
The party on the yacht is being thrown by one of the prominent families in Craven Cove. It’s a benefit for the school and their art department, so the turnout will probably be quite large. Good thing the yacht is the biggest in the marina.
Turning to Anna, I kiss the back of her hand, and she nods at me. “I’ll see you soon,” I say as I let her go. The plan is to arrive separately tonight, so I’m giving her extra time to board the boat. After enough time has passed, I begin the long walk down the dock and to the waiting yacht.
I’m greeted by the staff and crew and welcomed aboard. Once inside, I take a glass of champagne off a waiting tray and circle to the back. In the distance, I see my Anna, looking beautiful in an emerald-green gown that’s practically glowing in the moonlight. Then I look beside her, and there’s Heather.
It’s been over eighteen years since I’ve seen her, and I still feel nothing when looking at her. Well, I guess now there’s anger and hurt because of what she’s done to Shy. At least I was able to protect Apollo from her, but I didn’t know about Shy or I would have done my best to protect him too. How can a mother be so cruel?
When Anna gives me the signal, I begin to walk over. I’m almost by her side before Heather turns and sees me. Slowly I slide my arm around Anna, and she leans into me, a united front against this horrible human that doesn’t deserve the title of mother.
Just as she realizes what’s happening, the boat begins to pull away from the marina. Good, now there’s no place for her to go.
“Good evening, Heather,” I say.
“Rory, hi, um…I, uh, didn’t know you were with Anna.”
“Sure you did.” I tilt my head to the side and wait for the bullshit explanation she’s going to give next.
“I’ll just be going.” She tries to retreat, but we anticipated this. There’s security waiting behind her, and she pauses when she sees them.
“What was your plan, Heather?” Anna asks. “Did you really think you could befriend me and go to the estate? Then what?”
“I think she was planning on getting to Apollo,” I say to Anna and then look up. “Am I close, Heather?”
“I don’t have to answer any questions,” she hisses. “I was invited here tonight.”
“I know, I made sure of it,” I say to her as I nod to the security guard. “Follow me.”
He takes her by the upper arm casually so that we don’t make a scene. I take Anna by the hand, and we move below deck until we are in the media room. In here there’s a large television with lounge chairs and couches. Once security has brought her into the room, they take her over to one of the chairs and wait for her to sit. She makes a huff of protest but finally does it.
“What the hell is all this, Rory? Just let me leave, okay? You’ve made your point.”
“No, I don’t think I have.” I pull Anna beside me as I lean up against the bar and take a long drink of my champagne. I’m trying to calm down when all I want to do is rage on her. Reaching into my pocket, I take out the remote for the video and hit play.
“What the hell is this?” she says as she watches the video of herself.
“This is security footage of you breaking into Anna’s old house,” I say casually and click to the next screen. “This is footage of you at four separate banks writing fraudulent checks on the old account I had set up for you.”
She swallows hard but doesn’t say a word.
“And these are the documents I gave to Shy a few hours ago.” I click the screen and pause on each one so that she can see everything I gave him.
I’d thought about recording Shy when he received it but decided not to because it would be a violation of his trust. Instead, I had Anna sit on the other side of the restaurant with a listening device so she could hear it with me. She didn’t record it, but I couldn’t do it alone. It took everything in me to not get up and go after Heather right that second, and I needed Anna to be there in case I did.
“This is bullshit.” Her face is red and angry as she glares at me.
“I’m going to have you arrested for trespassing and then sent to federal prison for check fraud.” Her eyes widen in surprise. “Oh, you didn’t know that messing with a government financial institution would send you to federal prison? I guess you should have looked that up before you blew through all the money I gave you in a matter of months.”
“You can’t do this.” She stands up and points her finger at me. “I’ll ruin you.”
I feel Anna’s hands on me tighten but I remain seated and cool. “You can’t do shit, Heather. You’re nothing to me, and even worse, you’re nothing to Apollo.”
Her face pales.
“I’ll make sure Shy is protected from you for the rest of his life.”
“He won’t believe you.”
I shrug. “That’s not up to you anymore. He has the facts. Now it’s his life to live.”
“Rory, please,” she begins to beg, and then the rage inside me spills.
“Please what?” I snap. “You left. You made the choice to walk out the fucking door on your baby.” Anna’s hand slides up my chest. “And not only with Apollo, but Shy too.” I shake my head. “You will never get near my family ever again, and that includes Shy.”
Movement out of the corner of my eye causes me to look up. And when I see Shy standing there, my stomach drops.
“Shy, do you hear how he’s talking to me?” Heather pretends to burst into tears, but I ignore her as I take a step toward him.
“Yeah, I heard all of it,” he says, his face unreadable as he looks at all of us in the room.
When Heather sees that he’s not falling for her trick, she turns an angry glare my way. “You’ll pay for this.”
“No,” Shy says simply, and Heather turns to him. “It’s over.”
I nod to the security waiting in the corner, and they come over to take her by the arm. “There’s a boat beside us waiting to take you back to the island. The police are there too.”
“You can’t do this,” Heather hisses as she tries to fight the security. She turns to Shy and begins to plead. “Come on, Shy, please. Tell them to let me go.”
He gives her one last look before he turns around and gives her his back. It’s the only answer she’ll get as security takes her out of the room kicking and screaming.
A deafening silence falls over the room before I walk over to where Shy is standing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to see that.”
“I know,” he says and his shoulders drop. “I followed my mom after I left the restaurant. I saw her getting on the yacht, and I followed her. I wanted to confront her, but I was still hoping that—” He blows out a breath. “I guess that it somehow wasn’t true.”
I nod in understanding as I place my hand on his shoulder and give it a squeeze. “I meant what I said. You’re part of our family now.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means anymore,” he says so softly that I almost don’t catch it.
“We’ll figure that out together.” My words are almost as soft as his.
When he looks up at me, there’s a sliver of hope in his eyes. Maybe all he needs is time, but for right now, this is enough.
