“My baby! We’ve finally found you!”
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. The cameras were still flashing, the same reporter who had been in the shop a few minutes before and another one were speaking toward their cameramen, and there, next to my mom, were my dad and Charles.
“Hey, move. Everyone move. News crews, get out of here. What the hell? I said get out!” Brody’s voice rose above everything else, and in that moment I wanted to die. “Jeston PD! I said get out! If you want me to call backup, I will!”
A few of the people, along with one news crew, quickly left. Brody made his way to me behind the counter.
“I said get the f**k out!” He held his badge out to them and pulled me close to his side, moving so his back was facing the cameras. “Baby, are you okay? What’s going on?”
“Get your goddamn hands off my fiancée!”
My eyes shut, and a harsh breath left me. Brody stilled, and the hand around my waist tightened as he turned to look behind him. “You need to leave too . . . wait, do I know you?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard of me, and I’m not going anywhere without her,” Charles said with a confidence you only learned when you’d grown up the way we had. “Kamryn, come here, babe. Get away from him.”
“Kam,” Brody said softly, “who the hell are these people, and why did he just call you his fiancée?”
“Who are you, and why are you touching our daughter?” Mom asked, her voice holding the same disgust her face had shown earlier.
“Shit,” I mumbled and looked up at Brody’s wide eyes.
“Kamryn?”
I shook my head and choked out, “I’m so sorry.” Moving to the side, I faced my parents and forced myself to keep my head high.
“God, Kamryn, what have you done with yourself? You look awful!” Mom chastised as she moved closer to me. “All your beautiful hair is gone! Why would you do this? Is this the man who stole you?”
I hadn’t planned on responding, but when she brought Brody into it, I couldn’t keep quiet. “He’s my boyfriend, and he didn’t steal me. I left! And honestly, I don’t care if you don’t like the way I look. I hated the way you made me look. I’m happy like this.”
“Kamryn, what is your last name?”
I turned to look at Brody when his horrified question filled the space between us.
Charles laughed condescendingly. “How wonderful. You have a boyfriend who doesn’t know you’re engaged, doesn’t know who your parents are, and doesn’t even know your last name. Cunningham—her name is Kamryn Cunningham.”
Brody mouthed my name, and his face fell as recognition and horror filled his eyes. “This has to be a joke.” His words were barely audible.
“Brody, I’m so sorry. I should have told—”
“Do not apologize to him.” I flinched and looked at my dad. “If you owe anyone an apology, it is us. We thought you were dead, we thought you’d been kidnapped. Do you know what your mother and I, or what your fiancé, have been through over the last year?”
“I am not engaged to Charles! And I know you didn’t care! You used my leaving to get more publicity, so don’t act like you’re so happy to see me now.”
Charles stepped closer to the counter, his eyes on Brody. “You should leave. This is a discussion she should only be having with her family.”
“Don’t. Talk. To him,” I seethed as I looked at Charles. My stomach rolled at having him this close again.
Brody pushed past me, and I turned to grab his arm.
“No, don’t, please don’t go!”
His nostrils flared as he looked down at me. “Olivia . . . she worshiped you, she never stopped talking about you as we grew up. I can’t believe I didn’t realize before. She freaked when you disappeared. You’re—you’re just like her.”
“Brody! I’m noth—”
“She wanted to be you! I’ve dealt with the way her family is for years, and I finally get away from that . . . only to find out that my girlfriend and her family are the people who Olivia’s strived so hard to be like?” A sneering laugh left him. “Fuck this. I can’t go through this again.”
“Can’t go through what? Brody, don’t do this!”
“This!” He flung his arm out to my parents and Charles. “Having my girl’s family look down on me because I didn’t grow up in country clubs, having her dad constantly remind me that I don’t make enough to keep her happy.” He took a few steps away from me before turning and pointing at himself. “I told you everything, I never kept anything about myself from you. I knew you wanted to forget where you were from, so I never pushed it. And now I find out that you’re not only engaged but you’re the—what the f**k did Liv call you? The princess of the racing world? Tell me, do you view me the same way Liv did? Someone to keep around because you knew your family wouldn’t approve? Someone beneath you who you could try to control?”
I was sobbing so hard that I couldn’t say anything. Shaking my head back and forth, I took a step forward as I reached for him. But he stepped back and rushed away from the counter to leave the shop. I’d started to follow him when my eyes fell on Kinlee standing there at the entrance of the store with a pained look on her face as she watched Brody leave.