Mr. H.O.A., Carina Taylor [uplifting book club books .txt] 📗

the whole Mercier mess now. She shouldn't be cheerfully offering me snacks at a time like this unless it was her warped idea of giving me a last meal.

"No, we'll be fine. Thank you, Darla."

She nodded then disappeared out the door. A moment later, another body stepped through the door.

Except it wasn't who I was expecting.

I leapt up from my desk, barely catching myself from rushing to the door and scooping Nola into my arms. The relief in my chest at seeing her again. At breathing the same air in the room with her. No matter how mad I'd been that she'd kept Mercier's identity a secret from me, I couldn't deny the fact that she was my person. She was my other half. She brought light and color into my otherwise gray world.

"Hello," she whispered as she closed the door behind her.

She looked as though she'd lost weight. There probably wasn't anyone keeping her supplied with ice cream anymore. There were dark circles under her eyes, and I could tell she hadn't bothered with make-up that day. It didn't matter; she was beautiful, regardless.

"Nola." I sighed. "How are you?"

"I—I don't know," she admitted.

I nodded. I wondered if she'd discovered the same thing I had. That our lie had become our truth. Our marriage wasn’t fake anymore. That was why forgiveness was the only option in my mind. I needed her in my life.

"Darla said Mercier was here."

Nola fidgeted her hands at her side as she spoke. "I wanted to explain about all of that."

I cut her off. "I could have said 'no.' You didn't coerce me to live there with you. You have nothing to explain. You look stressed, Nola."

She shook her head. "I need to tell you something, Bane. You're always protecting me. Forgiving me. But I need you to let me explain so that you can understand. Then you won't ever have to speak to me again if you don't want."

My stomach dropped to my toes. Never speak to her again? That sounded like a great way to lose my mind. I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off with a raised hand.

"Let me explain."

"What is it, Nola?"

She shifted from foot to foot before she finally raised her green eyes to meet mine. They were missing their usual spark. "I...I'm sorry I didn't tell you that Sally was Sebastian Mercier. I panicked when I saw him there. I hoped you would never meet him. I hoped I wouldn't have to tell you. I knew how much it would bother you if you knew we were living in his house. I was so angry with him. About everything. I thought he'd stolen from us and that he'd abandoned my friend. I didn't want to claim any connection."

I took a step back and sat down on the edge of my desk.

Nola continued, "But it was me. I was the one pushing him away and hurting him. But that's a story for another time. As you learned, it wasn't my Dad stealing and evicting everyone. And he isn't even building those luxury apartments. He's building a nice apartment complex set up for families with a large park and pool. Chippy lied about the cost just so that all the tenants would disappear and hopefully not be around to point out his thievery."

"I know. I was there with Sally, er, Sebastian when we found out about that."

She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Dad was impressed by you; by your work ethic, by your money savvy, by the way you treated me."

It felt as though she were digging a knife into my chest. "But why didn't you say something? I thought we were friends. We were married after all..."

She smiled softly. "That's why I didn't want him to tell you who he was. I—I was falling for you, Bane. I didn't want anything coming between us because I hoped you would eventually feel the same. That's why I asked him to be in on the secret with me. I guess I childishly wanted a chance to make you feel for me the way I felt for you."

I took a step towards her. Hope. A deadly thing. It was what had crushed my heart in the first place.

"I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know why I didn't tell you. It wasn't because I wanted to hurt you. The complete opposite, in fact. I wanted you to have somewhere to stay, and I was afraid if you knew Sebastian Mercier owned the house, that you wouldn’t stay there, and you would still be homeless. I simply didn’t have the guts to tell you. And then when I was falling for you, I was so scared if I told you the truth that it would push you away. I didn’t want anything to come between us."

I watched as she lifted her head and squared her shoulders back, looking more like the Nola I knew and loved.

"I’m not going to lie, it hurt me. It hurt a lot. But I also know you were being protective."

With a sigh, I turned around and grabbed a chair, pulling it closer to the ottoman. "Why don't we sit down while we talk about this?"

She looked up in surprise. "You're not mad?"

"Honestly, it's a relief."

Nola sat down slowly. "How so?"

"Because there were some things that didn't make sense living with you. Why you wouldn’t tell me the name of the homeowners. Your obsession with Sebastian Mercier. I mean, I was beginning to think you might have had a crush on the guy with the amount of time you spent talking about him. I thought I was fighting a losing battle against a man I'd never met. I hadn't realized he was old enough to be your father, or that he was your father. And then there was the way "Sally" treated you. It makes sense now that I know you are his daughter."

Nola smiled. "I guess that would seem a little strange. My weird obsession. Well, imagine my surprise when Dad