Papers Don't Lie (Lavish Love, #1)

by Maeve Hazel

“Thank you. I never forgot what you did for Liane.” “No need to thank me, Kendrick. I’ll always be here if you need me,” I tell him before hanging up and getting to my feet. And when I say that, I mean it. Liane, his sister, was in an abusive relationship for eight years until she decided enough was enough. The guy simply refused to leave her alone. When she finally got close to someone else, he broke into her house and used her as a punching bag. She was unrecognizable. Getting rid of him was what any rational man with a power like mine would’ve done. Thankfully, she’s now happily married.

I’m not certain Esmeray Hamilton is going through the same thing, but if she is, I won’t back down from helping her. She might be a stranger, after all, and while that should have me second-guessing, I believe she was brought into my path for a reason—even if I didn’t see her in time and ran over her with my car.

My eyes roam over her and the small stature of her body, which is completely hidden by her large clothes, only her toes showing under the material. The little troublemaker is no doubt beautiful, with those angry green eyes sending daggers my way.

“Who are you?” Esmeray frowns, blinking repeatedly to chase away the sleep she just woke up from. When she finally focuses on me, she freezes, her eyes rounding in fright.

I don’t know if he didn’t hear what I just asked him, but he continues to stare at me like I’m some kind of enigma instead of replying to my question.

In one quick moment, a smug smile replaces the curiosity on his face. “I wanted to deliver this to you in person.”

“Esmeray, you don’t have to be afraid of me,” the man says, tilting his head to take a look at me, and I can’t ignore the soft touch of genuineness crossing over his voice. I put a brave face on, raising a brow at him. “Why would I be scared of you?” He takes a step further, and I take one back, gulping at the closeness while keeping my chin up. “You shouldn’t. I’m not the man threatening you. I’m Kai Graves.”

“Oh, so you’re the man that ran over me with his car and vanished into thin air?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. I step closer to him, regaining some of my confidence now that I know he’s not been sent by Carter, my naked soles touching his expensive shoes. “How’s that any better?”

He’s not even that hot.

“What do you want, Mr. Graves? To what do I owe the pleasure of finally having you here?” I ask, giving him a forced smile. “Let me guess," I cut him off when his lips move. “Was it my surprise? I knew it would work.”

Carter is my problem, and no one should ever get involved. I can’t have someone fight for me when I know full well that at some point, I’ll go back to the prison I escaped from. It’s just a matter of time until he finds me, but I’ll make sure to make my freedom counts until that moment comes.

In the past four weeks, Esmeray’s blackmailer has turned more and more aggravated, and I have a feeling he’ll run out of patience soon. When the red envelopes doubled in number and the severity of the threats escalated, I hoped it would make her reach out for help, but it had the opposite effect on her.

Esmeray cut any contact with Kendrick and moved to a small town next to New York, where she got a job as a waitress close to the house she rented for a few months in advance. As much as things like that work in movies, there’s a lot more one needs to do to make herself disappear.

“We got our blackmailer’s name.” An inexplicable wave of relief swims through me, and my shoulders drop back onto the seat. “Who is it?” “Carter Wanderson, sir,” Kendrick says.

Fucking Carter Wanderson. I hang up the phone, pinching my chin with my fingers. Esmeray is Carter’s running wife? But how? She’s eighteen, and he’s thirty-five years old. Why would he want to marry a girl seventeen years younger than him? It sure as hell isn’t because of love because if that were the case, she would’ve been next to him.

No more than two seconds later, I’m dialing Kendrick’s number. “Mr. Graves.” “Kendrick, withdraw the security team now,” I tell him, my pulse quickening. “Already did, sir.” “Make sure she’s safe,” I say before ending the call and putting the phone back inside my coat.

I assumed he was rich since he found her everywhere she was going, but I never thought that I was the one leading him straight to her. I sent her directly into his arms.

It’s clear he knows I’m the one who required a security team for his running bride. Is he scared I’m finally going to end the partnership with him? I’ve wanted to do it so many times, but I’ve never had a real reason to do it. This could be the perfect opportunity for me. But it’s not the time. “This will never happen again,” I tell him and act like I’m going to leave but turn around at the last moment. “How was your wedding, by the way?”

Gosh, if my parents knew where I was working right now, they’d bury me alive for staining the Hamilton name.

Raven puts her hand over mine. “You know I love you, right? More than anything,” she says, her voice shaking. I smile. “Of course, Rave. I love you too.” Her eyes turn into a puddle as she nods, biting her lip before letting her gaze wander all over the place, as if she’s expecting someone to pop out at any second.

The only thing I’m thinking about is that she was followed and someone who isn’t supposed to be here is, or a second option I try as much as possible to not take into consideration. “Then I hope you remember that and you can forgive me." She breaks into tears, covering her mouth with her trembling palm.

My heart immediately starts beating erratically, ready to pump out of my chest. “Raven, what are you talking about?” I ask, even though deep down I know. I just can’t accept it. “I’m sorry,” she cries, standing up and getting lost in the darkness after she throws the rest of the ice cream in the trash.

There’s no time for me to process whatever just happened because Carter walks from behind me to where Raven was standing mere seconds ago, a disgusting satisfaction in his eyes. He traces his tongue over his lip, taking one of my curls between his fingers and wrapping ...

Carter’s never going to let me go. I know that. “You are mine, Esmeray. No one can take you away from me, not even you. I know you’ll love me one day just as much as I love you.” “You’re sick.” I

“You’re sick if you believe that, Carter. Why do you want me if I don’t want you? Would you rather spend your life praying I’ll love you one day, knowing that I’ll suffer every step of the way instead of letting me go?” I ask, taking a step further. “Carter, if you love me and that’s true⁠—”

“Listen to me, Esmeray. You. Belong. To. Me. Let that settle in your empty little head,” he says, his grip tightening with each word while his other hand points at my temple. “Even your fucking worthless life is mine. You were born for me.”

He’s not wrong. My parents made me, like the rest of my sisters, for one purpose: to get married the moment we turn eighteen. To this day, how they got that idea is still a mystery to me. It’s not like we’re part of the mafia, who’s known for arranging marriages for alliances. We used to be a simple family.

Mom told us to go outside to play, and I came back to grab my favorite purple toy when I heard her scream. I opened the door to their room, and Dad was holding her in his arms while Mom bled on the floor. She had an abortion then. “I can’t have boys, do you understand that?” she asked after she told me to come closer, sweat dripping on her forehead as she shook me from my shoulders.

Since then, she made me assist every one of my brothers being aborted because she needed help, and I was the only one who could give it to her since my sisters were clueless about what was happening. Mom had three more abortions before she could give birth to the last girl in the Hamilton family and because she had blonde hair—not brown or black hair like the six of us had—they considered her a miracle, and two days later she was out of the country.

“we were her key to a much better life,” which became a reality a few years later when they were getting richer and richer because they were selling us. Mom doesn’t like to call it that, though. She maintains that she’s offering us the life she couldn’t have. So Carter’s words couldn’t be more real.

My jaw twitches as tears blur my vision. “You’re hurting me,” I whisper, but I don’t tell him that it's his words I’m talking about. “That’s how you show me that you love me?” At first, he doesn’t realize it and watches me with squinted eyes, but when I move my shoulder, trying to escape his hold, something snaps in him. He takes a step back, his expression softening from t...

The meeting with Carter didn’t fuck me up that much, even though it wasn’t a pleasant moment either. He doesn’t mean anything to me, and I don’t think I mean more than an obsession to him either, but the situation with my sister is different. Raven wasn’t only a relative of mine. She was my best friend. She was the one I knew I could always count on. How could she betray me?

“Esmeray?” A knot immediately finds its way to my throat at the sound of the familiar voice, keeping the tears that until now ran with no shame on my cheeks. I take a deep breath before turning around, but when I see the worry on his face, I break. “Please, get in the car,” Kendrick pleads,

“Are you okay?” a deep, grave voice asks, and I jump in my seat, my palm instantly lying on my chest. I look to my left, finding Mr. Graves sitting there. Gosh.

I can’t see Mr. Graves very well, but I can feel him watching me as Kendrick drives away until he switches on the lights in the back, his eyes pinning the spot on my skin. My gaze lowers, and when I see the dark bruise all around my arm, my insides twist. What would’ve happened if I married that man? Would I have spent the rest of my life as his victim? “Did he do this to you?” The venom in his voice doesn’t go unnoticed.

He slowly takes my hand in his to lift it in the air, his fingers running slowly on the hurt skin afterward. I close my eyes even if it doesn’t hurt a bit—it’s because I despise his touch. It’s soft and careful when it shouldn’t even exist in the first place. “I promise⁠—” My eyes snap open. “Don’t promise me anything, Kai Graves.” He lets go of my hand but doesn’t listen. “I promise he’s never going to hurt you again.”

When I look at him in this moment, I see he’s sincere, but I also spot a raging battle taking place inside him. But why would a stranger want to carry my fights for me? Why would he show so much interest when I’ve been nothing but a huge pain in the ass that made his life a living hell?

“What is it that you want?” I ask, doubt settling in my voice. “Why would I trust you when I’ve just been betrayed by my own sister? My blood?”

“We start with the beginning. Once you’ve told me everything I need to know, we’ll find an escape hatch.” “And if we don’t?” “I’ll fucking build one.”

It’s not like I have a choice because if I let my guard down—a thing that I did with Esmeray without even being in her presence for too long—my brain registers the problems of those around me as my own.

My plan was simple: know people outside my family only at a professional level. However, being diagnosed with savior complex syndrome makes it impossible for me to follow the rule around Esmeray Hamilton.

As much as I tried to stay away from her and not poke my nose in her problems, when Kendrick told me about the envelopes, I was already in. If Kendrick knew about this, he’d feel responsible, even if it’s not his fault he doesn’t know about my d...

When I try to avoid getting involved in any kind of personal matters, I develop a severe type of insomnia to the point where I have hallucin...

Esmeray is still sleeping in my bed, while I didn’t sleep a wink all night. How can I save her from this? When she told me that the only reason she was born was to marry a wealthy man so her parents could rise on the social scale, I was at a loss for words. Her ...

What if I help her move out of the continent? But I still don’t know how badly Carter wants her and how far he’s willing to go, because if he wants to find her, he will. Fuck.

She murmurs something in her sleep before she moves around in my bed, making the cover slip from her body and flashing me an amazing view of her ass. When we got home, I carried her from the car and gave her a T-shirt to sleep in. She was so lost in her mind that she got undressed in front of me, her eyes still closed as she threw herself in the bed.

While the main thing on my mind is to find a way to help her, a boner at seven a.m. isn’t exactly comfortable to ignore. Sh...

“I’ll act like you didn’t see me half-naked and go take a shower,” she murmurs,

“You have clothes for me?” I catch her searching my fingers for a ring. My hand is already on the door when I answer her. “I bought them last night when we got here.” “But how? All the stores were closed.” “I have connections, troublemaker,” I say before leaving.

Shit. I completely forgot about breakfast. “You brought someone home last night?” Dad asks without turning to look at me.