Tara’s mouth went dry as his words traveled from her ears through her entire body and set it on fire.
Yes, a rebellion was definitely in order.
28
Paul gave Consuela a grateful nod when she poured him a cup of coffee and placed it in front of him on the dining table. “Thank you, Consuela.”
She shuffled out of the room, and Paul knew that the moment of truth had arrived. Everybody was assembled at the breakfast table in the dining room, looking at him as though his family were the Spanish Inquisition and he the sinner.
After the awful scene at the party, his parents had been unable to prevent a scandal. There was no way to stop wagging tongues in the Hamptons, and this was the juiciest story in Montauk and beyond since Sabrina had been falsely accused of being a call girl.
After the incident at the pool, his mother had fled and taken to her bed with a migraine, though Paul suspected it was simple embarrassment that had made her flee the curious crowd.
His father, with the help of some of Paul’s friends, had managed to send the guests home. Tara had disappeared, most likely whisked away by her parents in order not to be implicated in the scandal, after she’d pulled Geoffrey Tillamer, the jerk who’d exposed Holly, from the pool.
After that the phone had started ringing off the hook and Consuela had been instructed to take messages and relay that the family was not available to talk.
“How could you bring that woman into our home?” Paul’s mother now said in a tight voice.
Everybody at the table was silent. Not even Jonathan piped up. He probably sensed that something was wrong and that it was in his own best interest to behave.
“It’s nobody’s business but mine.” Paul stabbed a fork into his bacon, but had no intention of eating it.
He’d lost his appetite the moment Tillamer had put his dirty paws on Holly. At that moment he’d seen red. And instead of pulling the jerk behind the pool house and tossing him off the property, where he wouldn’t have had a chance to expose Holly in front of all the guests, Paul had provoked a public fight.
His mother slammed her fist on the table, making the cutlery and plates rattle. “You’ve ruined our reputation! For God’s sake! How could you do this to us? The people! They’ll point at us because our son hired a hooker and brought her into our house!”
Paul jumped from his chair with such force that it toppled over behind him. “If you hadn’t insisted on forcing eligible women on me I wouldn’t have had to hire Holly! But no, you kept on insisting that I go out with some prissy rich girl of your choosing! It’s your own damn fault!”
His mother gasped.
“Don’t talk to your mother like that!” His father tossed his napkin onto the table.
Paul glared at his father. “Well, maybe if you had talked to her like that just once, then I wouldn’t have to!”
“Paul, I’m warning you!” His father jumped up.
“Brad is right. You can’t treat your mother like that!” Quentin suddenly interrupted.
Paul whipped his head in his direction. “Don’t get involved in this.”
“I am involved already! By bringing a hooker here, you’ve also ruined my reputation!” Quentin claimed. “Nobody is going to do any business with me now.”
Paul leaned over the table and addressed Quentin. “You selfish bastard! Why don’t you clean up your own house first, huh? You’re a self-centered prick who has no respect for my sister. Why she stays married to you is a mystery to me. If I were Olivia, I would have tossed you out on your ass years ago! You don’t deserve her!”
Quentin’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “My marriage is none of your fucking business!”
“Then my relationship with Holly is none of yours! So butt out!”
“Relationship?” Paul’s mother echoed, having jumped up too. “But you said you hired her. You mean you didn’t know she’s a hooker? She tricked you?”
Paul gritted his teeth. “Holly would never trick me!” Even as he professed it, he knew it wasn’t entirely true. Holly had kept the pregnancy from him and not told him whether he was the father. “She quit the escort business months ago. What she did in her past is her business, not yours.”
“They all heard what she is! She quit? Who cares that she quit? The scandal is going to crush us!” His mother pointed out toward the pool area as if the guests were still assembled there. Then she shot a pleading look to Paul’s father. “Do something, Brad!”
“What do you want me to do, Nora? Paul got us into this.” His father tossed an annoyed look in Paul’s direction. “You disappointed me, son! I never expected you to sink so low as to hire a hooker—”