The Arrangement

Chapter 51

Caroline was in Tampa, Florida and agreed to meet up with me.

"He's all of a sudden making demands like that?  Yes, that sounds like the work of Donovan Ralston."

"What happened between you and Trent?  If you don't mind me asking."

"Donovan likes my father, and he liked that I was a pretty blonde, but he didn't like that I was just as determined to be a fashion mogul as I was Trent's fiancée."  Caroline sighed.  "We were both young and in love, but immature.  We had a lot of growing we had to do individually.  We were too dependent on each other to fill our voids. We didn't know how to rely on ourselves. Have you noticed how Trent is around his father?"

"He's like a different person."

"That's because Donovan isn't the sort of man to accept failure.  He was always unfair to Trent.  When Trent earned co-captain on a championship team, his father told him 'Co-captain?  So you weren't the obvious choice then?'  Can you imagine what that sort of treatment does to a man?  His best was never good enough.  His ego was crushed.  I'm sure he'd be pissed for me telling you this, but you're his wife.  You deserve to know all of him.  There was more than one night he snuck into my place and I just held him while he broke down.  Donovan is a monster.  He always berated Trent while catering to Nick.  Nick didn't realize that Donovan would use his success to exploit Trent's failures.  Trent never understood why Nick was given the attention, praise, and love, but he was treated like a stray dog.  It has more to do with Helena than Trent realizes.  Now, to keep the peace, I haven't voiced my opinions.  It's more drama than it's worth, but that woman is a poisonous bitch.  She's a harpy at best, covering for her very own spawn of Satan.  She and Maddy are two of a kind.  They thrive on chaos and discord.  They aren't happy if they aren't ruining someone's life.  Donovan and Maddy made sure that Trent and I ended."  Caroline's soft features hardened.  "And it sounds like Donovan gave another ultimatum.  I saw the way Trent was looking at you.  That man is in love with you.  Did you know he asked me for advice with you while we were there at the cabin?"

"He - he did?"

"Yes.  And if you haven't noticed, Trent doesn't ask many people for help, nor does he care what most people think.  After you two had your fight he came to see me and asked for my help on how to fix it."

I stared at her as I processed the information. 

"He was desperate.  Love makes fools of us all."  Caroline said with a dreamy smile. "Do you want it to work with Trent?"

I nodded. "I love him."

"Then we need to find out what Donovan is planning and we're going to stop him.  Trent and I lost our chance.  You shouldn't have the same thing ripped from you.  I don't know if Trent could survive that."  Caroline wrapped her arms around herself.  "He doesn't deserve that."

"You didn't either."  I blurted out.

Caroline shook her head.  "Trent and I weren't right for each other.  We would have ended up miserable.  But you two, you can make it."

I shook my head.  "You can't know that.  But I do know Trent wasn't telling the truth when he said he wanted to end things between us."

Caroline nodded sadly.  "He didn't want to end things between us either.  Donovan wasn't going to leave things to chance.  He blackmailed, bought off, and did whatever underhanded tactics he had to in order to win.  Donovan believes in winning at all costs.  And I mean all costs."

Caroline and I talked for a long while after that.  She had a couple of ideas and so did I.  Trent didn't want this anymore than I did.  Caroline was going to talk to Maddy.  She might not have been a fan of the girl but she did use her as a model.  She already knew about Trent and had already been booked so she was scheduled to fly in this week anyway.