“Please keep Skye here,” Hailey said in a hurry.
“What’s the matter, Auntie Hailey?” Skye asked.
Hailey forced a smile. “Nothing, sweetie, I just remembered that Delinda asked me to be there for some business she’s conducting. It’s all really boring adult stuff. Mrs. Holihen, if she finishes her lessons early, maybe you could take her to the park?”
“That sounds like a wonderful plan,” Mrs. Holihen said before tapping the table to bring Skye’s attention back to the paper they were working on.
Hailey walked as casually as she could to their door and down the steps. As soon as she knew she was out of view of the guesthouse, she sprinted the rest of the way. Spencer was already inside. Hailey wasn’t surprised that Michael didn’t open the door. He would be in the wings making sure Delinda was okay.
Does he know? Is that why he’s here?
Hailey sped to the door of the solarium, but didn’t enter. Spencer’s visit might have nothing to do with her. If that were the case, then waiting to tell him later when they were alone might still be the best option.
“You’ve gone too far this time,” Spencer’s voice thundered.
“Would you like some tea, Spencer? It calms the nerves,” Delinda answered, not sounding at all intimidated by his anger.
“No, I don’t want any fucking tea.”
“Watch your language.”
“What a hypocrite you are. You think I’m poorly behaved? What would you call being petty enough to block an innocent woman from getting a job? That’s a new low for you, Delinda.”
Delinda blocked me from working at SmartKart? Oh, Delinda.
“If you calm yourself, perhaps we could discuss it like two civilized people,” Delinda said in her haughty defensive tone.
“There is nothing to discuss. I don’t care what you thought you would gain by using Hailey as a pawn, but she is off-limits to you. If I hear you so much as say her name to anyone else—”
“What? What will do you, Spencer? This entire conversation is ridiculous. Instead of coming in and threatening me, perhaps you should ask me why—”
“I know why, Delinda. You can’t lose, and you don’t care who you have to hurt to win. What is it you feel like you lost when I walked away? Was it your pride that took a hit? Did your old cronies suggest you should have been able to bring me back under your control? It’ll never happen. The only reason I was ever nice to you was because it was important to my mother. I don’t give a shit about you or—”
“Stop,” Hailey said, stepping into the room. “Both of you—stop.”
In a few long strides, Spencer was at Hailey’s side. “What are you doing here?”
Oh, God. “I work for your grandmother.”
He shook his head as if warding off a blow. “What do you mean you work for her?”
When she put her hand on his forearm, Hailey felt the tension raging through him. I wanted to do this in a much better way. “She’s the employer I told you about, the one who has been so good to Skye and me.”
He blinked a few times slowly. “You’re living here? With Delinda?”
“Yes.”
He spun and stood protectively in front of Hailey. “Get your stuff, Hailey. Get Skye. We’re leaving.”
Hailey looked from Delinda’s carefully composed face to Spencer’s tight and flushed one. “No,” she said softly.
“Yes,” Spencer countered. “I’ll explain it to you when we’re alone, but you’re going to have to trust me on this. You can’t stay here.”
“I’m not leaving,” Hailey said in a firmer voice. “I won’t uproot Skye before I understand what’s going on.” She looked across at Delinda. “Delinda has been good to us.”
Spencer put his arm around her waist. “She wants you to think that, Hailey. She is a manipulative liar. She wants you to believe she cares about you. She doesn’t. She’s been using you to get to me. It makes me sick to see how far you’re willing to go, Delinda. She has a child, for God’s sake.”
All color left Delinda’s face. “I would never do anything to harm Skye.”
“You’ll never be given the chance to prove that. We’re leaving. All of us,” Spencer said.
Hailey planted her feet when Spencer urged her to walk off with him. “Spencer, she loves you. Give her a chance to speak.”
He frowned down at her. “Why are you defending her?”
Hailey glanced over at Delinda. She was trying to hide it, but she was hurting. “Because I’ve gotten to know her, and she would never—”
“You don’t know what she’s capable of.” His frown darkened. “Why didn’t you tell me you were working for her? What is this all about?”
She hated the doubt in his eyes. “I was going to explain it all to you tonight.”
He stepped back from her. “Explain away. I thought I’d had my fill of lies, but I’m honestly curious. What were you going to tell me?”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
He held her gaze and waited.
“This isn’t what you think. It’s a coincidence. Or, I like to think, a nudge from Ryan. I didn’t know she was your grandmother when I took the job, and she didn’t know about us until after she’d interviewed me. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Spencer said in a tight voice.
“Well, do you believe me?” She put a hand on one hip.
“Yes, but that’s more of a reason for you to leave with me now.” His arm was protectively back around her waist. “You see the good in everyone, but this time it’s not there. She duped you. Tell her, Delinda. Look her right in the eye and tell her the truth, if someone like you even knows how to.”
Delinda’s eyes narrowed, and she looked down.
No. Hailey shook her head vehemently and went to kneel beside Delinda’s chair. “I’m the one who found the ad. I’m the one who called you. Tell him.”
Delinda refused to meet her gaze.
Hailey took Delinda’s hand in hers. “I know why you blocked me from getting the SmartKart job. You were afraid I would leave you. What you need to see, Delinda, is that what you do to keep people with you is actually what drives them away. I’ve seen the good in you. No one could change our lives as much as you have and not be a good person. Don’t shut Spencer out. He won’t ever see the loving side of you if you let your pride stop you from showing it to him. Tell him you missed him. Tell him you’re sorry. Show him the real you.”
Delinda’s lips pressed together in a straight line, then she said, “Ask him why you were offered that job in the first place. Are you as honest as you think everyone around you should be, Spencer? Are you?”
Hailey stood and slowly turned toward Spencer. It was his turn to look guilty. “Did you get me the job at SmartKart?”
Confusion and anger blazed in Spencer’s eyes. “You said you felt trapped in your job. I wanted to help you.”
Hailey’s emotions roller-coastered. She looked down at Delinda. “I did feel trapped but taking the job at SmartKart would have changed that. We weren’t going anywhere. Skye and I were still going to be here with you. Did you know about us before the interview? How? You need to be honest with me, Delinda.”
Looking like a child who was cornered into admitting a wrongdoing, Delinda said, “I might have learned your name from his mother. She told me you were the only woman Spencer ever loved.” She glared at both of them. “Was it so wrong to give you a chance to get it right?”
“But I found the ad. It was on the seat next to me on the bus.” Hailey’s chest constricted painfully. “Did you have someone put it there?”
“I only did what I thought was the best for both of you.”
Hailey swayed on her feet. “I feel so stupid. I knew it was too easy, too convenient, but I wanted to believe Ryan was somehow looking out for us. All this time, I felt like I was being guided, and I was.”
Spencer put a hand on her lower back. “You were manipulated, Hailey�
�that’s what she does. I wish I could spare you from the truth, but you need to see her for who she really is.”
Delinda rose to her feet. “If you weren’t so stubborn, Spencer, I wouldn’t have had to—”
“Don’t put this on me,” Spencer growled.
“It is your fault. You won’t forgive me for being the one who told you that Dereck wasn’t your biological father. I’ve said I’m sorry. I’m eighty-one. Are you waiting for me to die before you forgive me?”
“Enough,” Hailey said in a tone that shocked Spencer and Delinda into silence. “You’re both right, and you’re both so wrong I can’t begin to sort it out. Delinda, I’m grateful for all you’ve done for Skye, but I am so disappointed in you right now I can hardly look at you. You’re being childish and spiteful when you should be apologetic and comforting. Spencer, the way you’re attacking Delinda is just wrong. She’s old and scared she might die without you in her life. Is there no compassion in you? She didn’t make your mother have an affair. She’s not the one who lied to you about who your father was. You’re both hurting, but this is wrong.”
They each took a step toward Hailey, but she raised her hands in the air. “I don’t want to leave here, Delinda. We both know how hard Skye will take it, but if the two of you can’t resolve this, I will. It’s unhealthy. Spencer, I would love to say that your problems with Delinda are none of my business, but I refuse to bring this hate into my life—or Skye’s. You’re better than this. Or you’re not and you’re right—I see good where there is none. I’m going back to the guesthouse. Don’t follow me. Either of you.”
Hailey walked out of the solarium with her head held high but her heart breaking. Tears freely flowed down her cheeks. She didn’t try to conceal them from Michael when he came to open the door for her.
“No matter what happens next, you said what they needed to hear and you said it from a place of love. It’s up to them now.”
Hailey nodded and wiped at her cheeks. “I don’t want to leave, Michael, but even if it hurts Skye in the short run, it might be better for her in the long run. What I saw in there wasn’t love.”
Michael stood with the door open. “Don’t give up hope just yet.”
His words echoed in her as she walked back to the guesthouse. Thankfully, Mrs. Holihen had already left with Skye, which meant it was perfectly okay for Hailey to flop down on her bed and have a good cry. She was just about to do that when a whimper from the other room caught her attention.
Hope beckoned.
Hailey opened the crate, let her out the back door to relieve herself, then picked her up for a snuggle. “How do you feel about moving?”
Hope buried her face in the nook of Hailey’s arm.
“Yeah, me, too. But you know what, Hope? You’re a Tiverton now, and we’re survivors. Every decision we make teaches Skye something. I could have left with Spencer. I love him . . . I do. Even when he makes me so angry, I could slap him. He’s upset, and he has a reason to be, but guess what? Life sucks sometimes. Look at you: you just lost your whole damn family because we thought you were cute. But what are you going to do? Bite me? Bite everyone around you? Would that bring them back? No.”
Hope looked up at Hailey with big sad eyes.
“See, it’s depressing when you look at life that way, isn’t it? It’s why I can’t go there with them. I don’t want their anger. A drowning person pulls others down with them. I’m a swimmer, Hope.”
Pawing at Hailey’s chest, Hope whimpered again.
“Of course we may end up alone at the end of this, but I refuse to let that decide my path. Skye and I will make a life for ourselves—here or somewhere else. And we’ll be okay. Tivertons don’t give up. We don’t let fear win.”
Hope twirled in a circle on Hailey’s lap and yapped happily.
“Exactly.”
Spencer stood absolutely still for several moments after Hailey rushed from the room. He’d almost raced after her, but she was quite clear about how she felt about that.
When Delinda spoke, Spencer realized she was standing beside him. “Did she just break up with both of us?”
He didn’t find her joke funny, but it was accurate. Without looking away from the doorway, he said, “I believe she did.”
“I’ve never been spoken to that way.”
“Nor have I.”
“I may have deserved it.”
“You definitely did.”
“You couldn’t have chosen a less outspoken woman to fall in love with?”
“I wouldn’t change a thing about her.” Spencer glanced at Delinda. His anger toward her was overshadowed by how disappointed he was in himself for acting the way he had. Hailey had been right to remove herself from the situation. “Not that she’d say the same about me.”
“It’s probably all that drinking. You’re functioning on fewer brain cells.”
“Is it impossible for you to say anything nice?”
“Maybe I would if you weren’t always scowling at me like I’m the villain in a fairy tale.”
“When something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks—”
“And I’m the one who’s not nice?”
She has a point, but while we’re being honest . . . “We wouldn’t be here if you had just accepted that I don’t want you in my life.”
She was quiet for a moment. When she spoke it was in a softer tone than he’d ever heard her use. “I won’t ever accept that. I don’t care what blood runs in your veins; you’re my grandson. You were from the first day I held you in my arms.” She cleared her throat.
Spencer’s head snapped around so he could gauge her expression. She looked serious and unusually vulnerable. “I don’t have a single memory of you that doesn’t include you either humiliating my mother or harshly critiquing me or my siblings.”
“Then you’ve forgotten the time you spent here before your parents divorced. You used to sit beside me on that very couch, and I’d read story after story to you.”
“I don’t remember that.” Even as he said it, memories of sitting with her and asking her to read to him returned. He could almost hear her roaring like a lion and feigning the voice of Billy. “How did we get from there to here?”
“I was angry with your mother, and I didn’t hide it.”
“I remember that, too.”
“I thought she was the worst possible choice my son could have made, and they would never last. I wish I had been wrong.”
Spencer sighed. “Your son was no saint. In a way it was a relief when I discovered he wasn’t my father.”
“Dereck loves you. He just doesn’t know how to express it.”
“I’ve heard that before. Rachelle loves to say that about Brett. It’s okay. We’re not children anymore. We don’t need to all get along.”
“Is that why you won’t go to Brett’s wedding, because you think he doesn’t care about you?”
Before now he would have ended this conversation prior to this point, but Hailey’s words kept circling back to him. He never again wanted to see her look at him the way she had just before she walked out. If that meant staying and talking things out with Delinda, he would do it. For Hailey. “Actions speak louder than words. Brett chose to not be part of our lives.”
“There’s so much you don’t know.” She sat down, and he found himself sitting across from her a moment later. She looked tired, and he was tempted to say they could speak another time, but that would have meant he would need to return, and he wasn’t sure that would happen. He could work to let his anger go, but welcome her into his life?
“You would have loved my Oliver. He was a lot like Mark. Family was everything to him. He never stayed upset with anyone. It was his warm heart that I fell in love with first, but it was that softness in him that took him from me.”
Spencer didn’t know what to think at first when a woman who had always held herself above everyone opened up in a very human way. She told him the truth about how her husband had died and how it
had put great pressure on her son. She unapologetically described how she’d tried to toughen Dereck up because she feared if she didn’t, she might lose him, also. By the time she brought up Brett, Spencer already saw the pattern that had shaped his brother’s personality. He’d spent a good portion of his life envying Brett, but he saw then that he’d actually had the better childhood. Spencer’s had been full of love and laughter. Brett had been raised by two emotionally stunted adults. Was it any wonder he couldn’t express himself?
Delinda continued, “Dereck may not have known how to be with you when you were living with your actual father, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t care about you. Your mother didn’t want you or your sisters to take anything from us. I doubt Dereck ever told her about Oliver. In her mind, it was greed that ruined her marriage. She wanted to raise you away from that. You never went without anything you needed, though. Dereck made sure of that. He and Brett were quite crafty when it came to finding ways to take care of all of you without her knowing. Do you remember when Mark wanted to spend the last of his life at home? His insurance wouldn’t pay for it. Dereck made sure it happened, and he paid for it.”
“Why would any man pay for nursing the man who stole his wife?”
“Because my son still loves your mother, just like he loves all of her children. How could he not? You are part of her. And Mark was good to you. Dereck didn’t hate him. He did what he could for him, and then later Brett took on the responsibility of watching out for all of you when he took over the company. Do you know he has people on his staff whose sole job is to make sure you get any loan you apply for? Every scholarship you were denied, then received—that was Brett. Tell me, does that sound like a brother who doesn’t love you?”
Spencer took a moment to digest that claim. There had been times in his life, more than he cared to remember, when something had come through after it had looked like it wouldn’t. He’d always prided himself on having done everything without the help of his family’s money, so it was unsettling to discover he received boosts along the way.
There was a slim chance the entire story was bullshit, that Delinda had made it up. The Spencer who’d stormed into her house a short time ago would have accused her of exactly that. He would have stood up, told her to keep her lies, and walked out. He didn’t want to be that man. It wasn’t how he’d been raised. It wasn’t who he was in his heart. He looked at Delinda and asked himself who she would be to him if he let his anger go.
Up for Heir (Westerly Billionaire Series Book 2) Page 20