Gwyneth was still trying to come up with a response when her phone buzzed.
A guy’s voice, somehow familiar yet different, came through, “I’m back in the country. Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
“I moved to a different city. I’m not in Laverston anymore,” Gwyneth replied.
She talked to Kieran Lauder for about half an hour. He said he was heading over to the Payne residence to see her.
Gwyneth got home that evening and was stunned by how Kieran looked now. He was 30 years old, wearing a casual gray suit. His eyes were sharp, but they softened whenever he looked at
her.
She hadn’t seen him in years. He brushed her hair back like he used to when they were younger, and tears filled her eyes.
“Kie,” she murmured.
Kieran wasn’t her brother, but he was like one to her. The Lauder family moved next door when she was six years old.
To outsiders, they looked like childhood sweethearts–three years apart, both went to the same elementary school, walking to and from school every day.
When Kieran was eight years old, his parents, Roderick Lauder and Felicia Wilkins, went overseas for work, leaving him with a nanny. The nanny took advantage of being in charge and treated him badly.
One day, the nanny blasted Roderick and Felicia for being unreliable right before Kieran. He couldn’t hold it in any longer and got into a fight with her.
When Felicia found out, she couldn’t bear seeing Kieran suffer anymore. She took him back to the Wilkins‘ place, and he stayed there for six years.
When Kieran turned 17 years old, Roderick wanted him to learn the family business abroad, so Kieran flew out that year.
Gwyneth started high school as a freshman the next year and met Asher. Actually, her parents, Franklin Payne and Greta Callaway, never supported her relationship with Asher from the
start
The Paynes might not have been prestigious, but they were doing much better than the Crowes. If Gwyneth hadn’t been so set on it, Franklin and Greta never would have agreed to her marrying Asher.
During the rough start of Asher’s business, the Payne family and Kieran quietly sent Gwyneth money to help her out.
