Forever in Love by Nadia Lee Page A

wouldn’t know what to do. He’s smart. Has an Ivy League degree.” Every one of her in-laws knew this, but somehow they blamed her. As if stupid Catherine, the one her teachers had thought was so slow and dim-witted, would somehow know how to embezzle money even if she had the chance.
    She hadn’t been able to do anything right in her life, and acknowledging it hurt.
    “So what are you doing here? Aren’t you going to fight them?” Blaine asked.
    The notion stunned her. “Fight them?”
    “What they’re doing to you is messed up. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you should fight back.”
    She tilted her head. “With what? I have no resources, and I’m basically…nothing. His family has private investigators, forensic accountants and an army of lawyers on retainer. They have enough money to finance a civil war in some third world country. How am I supposed to fight people like that?”
    “I don’t know.” He frowned. “But I can’t help but feel there’s gotta be something you can do to make them back off.”
    The sentiment was sweet. But she knew better; there was no justice in the world for people who couldn’t afford it.
    “And what about your folks? Aren’t they helping you?” he asked.
    “My father passed away years ago, and my mother thinks I’m to blame for my marriage falling apart.”
    “What the hell?”
    “Yeah, she thinks that I should have somehow known that my husband was already married…and hiding it from me. But that’s Olivia for you. She is what she is. I just need to take a deep breath and do what I can to minimize the damage.”
    “That’s messed up. And unfair.”
    She shrugged. “Life’s always unfair. My in-laws are determined to protect my faux-husband, so they’re gathering evidence to use against me. They also have lots of influential friends, and people tend to stick with who they know.”
    “Haven’t you met anyone over the years who can defend you?”
    “Plenty of people. But most of them are also close to my in-laws. And my cousins…well, they don’t like me much, so that’s that. I’ve never been the nicest person.” She’d always been too scared to be nice. If anybody got too close, they might have realized that her whole act was a sham—a pretty façade without anything else to offer. When her youth faded away, she’d be nothing. Less than nothing. Pitiable, even.
    And she couldn’t stand the thought of it. Catherine Scarlett Fairchild was
not
pitiable. Contemptible, perhaps, but never pitiable.
    But right now, looking into Blaine’s soft gaze, she knew she’d screwed up. She’d said too much, and now he’d think she was some pathetic washout from life. Damn it. She’d wanted him to see her differently, not as some spoiled bitch like so many others thought. If he was astute, though, he would realize she was too stupid to be saved and had too short a shelf life left to be of value.
    For some time she’d regretted wasting so many of her best years on Jacob…but she’d never regretted it more than now.
    * * *
    Blaine’s heart ached for Catherine. It didn’t matter if you weren’t the nicest person. Who was perfect? Nobody deserved to have their life destroyed that way. He couldn’t understand how people didn’t stand by her, not even her own mother.
    His mother had been uneducated and probably backward to many—she hadn’t even finished high school—but she’d always put her family first. She would never have kicked him, verbally or otherwise, when he was down. How could anybody function without a supportive family?
    Then he remembered how furious Catherine had been about the stolen purse. She’d probably expected things to be made right since she was the victim. Nobody in town could deny it; everyone knew about Willie Rae’s sticky fingers. It must’ve been a kick in the gut to be told the sheriff wasn’t going to act on her behalf.
    A sense of shame curdled like bad milk in Blaine’s belly. He hadn’t spoken up for her.