With every step they took, Lexie’s spine got stiffer. Roxie’s hips, on the other hand, became looser.
“Maybe it would be best if I went out there first,” Lexie said quietly.
Contrary to appearances, she really didn’t want to make a scene, and she wasn’t trying to pit one against another. She loved the Underhills, warts and all. No family was perfect, and she’d never known any other. Not that she could remember anyway.
Roxie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Whatever.”
Lexie glanced at the woman standing beside her. She had no way of knowing if their relationship would turn out any better than the ones she had with her adopted brothers and sisters. Out of all of them, Blaire was the only one she was close to. With matching DNA, though, she hoped she and Roxie had a better chance of connecting.
A knot formed in her gut.
When it came right down to it, she just wanted to be loved.
Before her nerves failed her, she let herself out the back door. She braced herself as attention swung her way. The family was assembled in the casual seating area that had been set up for gatherings like this. Julian sat in the patio chair at the head of the table, while Anne Marie and the others took the chairs around the sides.
Unbidden, Lexie’s attention honed in on Cam. He was standing away from the group, but he never blended well into the background. Not for her.
Leaning against the white railing that surrounded the porch, he had his arms and ankles crossed. It was a casual pose that she knew wasn’t really casual at all.
She tore her gaze away from him, disconcerted.
“Sharon,” Julian snapped. “This coffee is cold.”
When he saw it wasn’t the household servant, his face crumpled awkwardly. “Alexandra.”
Her father schooled his face and gestured for Tara to move. “Come. Sit here beside me.”
Lexie almost obeyed, yet when Anne Marie sent her a questioning look, her fumbling thoughts started realigning. Having her mother here put an entirely different dynamic to the meeting, and it made Lexie realize just how unprepared she was. She wasn’t the impulsive type. She should have planned where this discussion would happen and what she would say. Her mother became overly agitated when she sensed discord amongst the family. For that reason, they all tried to shield her from anything that would upset her.
It was too late for any of that now. And Roxie was someone Lexie refused to hide.
“Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”
Her father sighed and pushed himself out of his chair. He straightened his tie as he walked towards her. “I’ve been worried about you, dear. I shouldn’t have gotten so angry the other day.”
No, he shouldn’t have. He’d said he didn’t care. Still, Lexie felt her lips tremble as he reached out and squeezed her arm.
“You were right. Somebody obviously did this to hurt the company. One of our competitors, probably. They’ll pay, honey. I promise they will.”
Lexie swallowed hard. “It wasn’t a competitor.”
Julian’s hand dropped from her arm. “Are you saying you lied to me?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lexie saw Cam’s arms uncross.
“No, I didn’t pose for that ad,” she said. “Somebody…else did.”
“Who?” her father demanded. “Who did this to us?”
There it was, the opening she needed—but the one she suddenly couldn’t take.
My sister. My long-lost twin. My mirror image. The words were there, but they wouldn’t come. Because nothing had been done to the Underhills. The billboard had nothing to do with her family or their business. Lexie stared at her father, afraid and unexpectedly angry.
Why was she walking around on eggshells? The misunderstanding had hurt her deeply. Her family had demanded an explanation, and she’d found one. The best one ever. She’d found someone she belonged to and who belonged to her. She felt strengthened by that, liberated somehow.
So why couldn’t she seem to share her happiness?
“Alexandra, I don’t have time for riddles. We’ve all taken time out of our busy days to meet you here, but if you’re going to stand there and make up—”
“She’s not making anything up.”
The voice came from out of the blue, startling everyone. It was as brash as the woman who pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto the veranda. Like a model on a catwalk, Roxie crossed the porch. Stuffing her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans, she rocked one stiletto boot back onto its heel. Lexie was standing in the same position. Self-conscious, she lowered her toes to the porch.
Roxie tilted her head as she surveyed the assortment of people gathered in front of her. “I’m Roxie Cannon. That billboard is mine.”
Breaths caught. Landers pushed back his chair and stood while Lowery dropped his fork. It clattered onto the china, but Lexie’s gaze didn’t move from her father. Her heart pounded as she waited for him to say something, to move, to give any reaction at all.
He stepped back and his eyes went wide. Whereas his face had gone red the other day, this time it turned white as a ghost.
“Oh,” he said gutturally.
Roxie’s gaze swung around. “Oh?”
Cam swore low and long.
Oh? That was all her father could say? Lexie frowned with confusion. The one, short word had sounded flat. Almost resigned.
Roxie’s foot snapped down. “Oh? Your adopted daughter brings home a dead ringer, and that’s the best you can come up with?”
Julian rubbed the back of his neck. Seeing that the household staff was staring out the windows, he waved his hand at them. “Get back to work. All of you.”
Nobody budged.
Cameron turned. “Anyone who isn’t family, leave.” He didn’t yell and he didn’t threaten, yet people scurried. The back rooms of the house emptied faster than if there’d been a fire alarm.
“Oh, Julian.” Anne Marie was wringing the cloth napkin in her lap like she was making a rope. “This can’t be happening.”
Lexie’s gaze stuck on her mother. Anne Marie’s hair was done up and her makeup was perfect, yet the look of horror in her eyes didn’t match her idyllic surroundings.
Roxie shook her head, confusion clear on her face. She frowned when the older couple wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Did you know about me?” she asked slowly.
Lexie’s breath caught. No, that wasn’t what this was about. It couldn’t be.
Julian raked his fingers through his hair. “Why don’t we go inside?”
“You knew.” Roxie took a shaky step backwards. “Oh my God, you knew.”
They couldn’t have, Lexie thought.
Yet around the table, the rest of the Underhills went still.
Julian’s gaze swept over his children. All eyes were on him. “Let us speak with this woman in private.”
“Oh, hell no,” Tara snapped. She tossed her napkin onto her plate. She looked ready to crawl right over the table and throw down with the denim-clad intruder who’d interrupted her brunch. “I want to hear this.”
“Tara,” Julian chastised.
“Actually, I’d like to hear too,” Lowery said. As reserved as he was, it was something for him to speak up.
Julian ran a finger under his collar, trying to loosen it. He couldn’t very well shoo his own children away. They were Underhills, after all. His pride and joy.
His attention gradually returned to Roxie, like a monster in a movie he didn’t want to face. Her toe was tapping a loud beat against the wooden floor.
“You were there,” he admitted at last.
“Where?” Lexie’s voice was barely louder than a whisper, but it was the most she could manage. Everything inside of her had gone tight and brittle. Cam was suddenly at her side, but all she could do was stare at her father incomprehensibly. “Where was she?”
“At the foster care or group home, whatever that place was where we adopted you.”
Roxie’s hands fisted at her sides. “You don’
t know?”
Julian threw a hand up in the air as if it didn’t matter. Moving back to his chair, he lowered himself onto its arm. He seemed older in that moment, almost lost. Anne Marie caught his hand. Her napkin fell to the floor, and the silk scarf draped around her neck threatened to follow.
“We were together?” Roxie’s voice sounded hoarse. Strangled.
“You have to understand.” Julian looked at his wife, and their fingers intertwined. “We’d been trying, but nothing was happening. We wanted children, but we were just starting out.”
He looked across the yard and focused blindly on the pond. As if sensing the tension coming from the house, a mallard duck churned up the water and flew away.
Lexie wanted to run away too, but her feet were rooted in place.
“Breathe,” Cam whispered into her ear.
She couldn’t. She was listening too hard. They’d known about Roxie. They’d known she had a twin. She wanted to hear this explanation. She wanted to know why the parents she’d loved had split her from her other half.
“We didn’t have all this.” Julian gestured at their surroundings. “As new parents, we didn’t think we could handle a passel of kids.”
“You certainly ended up with them.” Roxie’s gaze burned over the younger Underhills, and Landers moved protectively to his parents’ side.
Julian’s chin dipped. “Yes, we were blessed.”
The verbal backhand stung Lexie. They could have been blessed before, but the difference was that they were his passel of kids. His true offspring.
“You split us up!” Roxie hissed. “Why would you do that?”
“But you had your own family, dear.” Anne Marie was staring at her like she truly didn’t understand the outrage. A strand of platinum hair had slipped from the diamond clip at the back of her head, and it quivered against her cheek. “There was a couple there for you too.”
Roxie stepped back as if she’d been slapped.
Lexie hurried towards her. “Roxie grew up in foster care.”
Her mother turned the same ashen color as her father. “But…but they were there,” she insisted. “We all agreed.”
“Agreed to what?”
“To take one of you.”
Lexie thought she just might be sick.
Julian’s gaze was beseeching as he looked at the two of them standing side by side. “You needed homes, but the agency had trouble placing you together. You have to understand. We thought it was the next best solution.”
Roxie sputtered, but this time it was Lexie who stepped forward. “Why me?” she pressed. “Why did you choose me?”
Her father smiled at her, his eyes going watery. “You came to me.” He cleared his throat. “You came to me, a beautiful little doll, and called me Daddy.”
“She wanted her real daddy.” Roxie’s voice nearly sliced the porch in half. She pulled back another step and raked her hands through her hair. “How old were we when this happened? What do you know about our parents?”
“You were two, and I know next to nothing.” There was compassion in Julian’s eyes as he looked at her. “Honestly, we were given no information about your past.”
“And you didn’t ask,” Roxie hissed.
The porch fell back into silence. Inside the house, a vacuum started running. Life was continuing as normal, but outside, the past held everyone in its grip.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Lexie finally asked, even as she steeled herself for the answer. “You knew I was curious. Didn’t you think I’d want to know about my family?”
Her father’s proud gaze turned flinty. “We are your family, Alexandra. You’re an Underhill now.”
Her spine stiffened. “I’m the adopted Underhill. Everybody knows that. You made sure of it. Why not give me the whole truth?”
Anne Marie took a shuddering breath and tears slipped from her stunning blue eyes. She swept up her napkin and pressed it to her cheek.
Julian clenched his jaw at the sound of his wife’s crying. “Your mother and I fed you, gave you a home and loved you.”
Loved being the last thing he thought to mention, Lexie noticed. And why not? Landers had been conceived only four months after they’d taken her into their loving home. In all the excitement, she’d taken a backseat. They’d had someone else to love, someone of their very own.
“Why put her through the wringer about the billboard then?” Roxie demanded. “If you didn’t want her to know about me, why did you send her out looking for me?”
Lexie’s eyes narrowed. Yes, why?
Julian got very quiet. “It was a long time ago.”
The tension on the veranda grew. Even the birds in the surrounding trees stopped chirping.
“Jesus, Julian,” Cam said softly. Lexie felt his hand wrap around her wrist. Her own was clenched into a fist.
“Did you think we wouldn’t look alike anymore?” Roxie asked. “Did you think she wouldn’t find me?”
Lexie watched as her father’s mouth twisted. He was focused on the pond again. His blond hair suddenly seemed dull, and Anne Marie was crying outright. The tears weren’t pretty, leaving splotches on her foundation.
“Well?” Roxie pressed.
“The picture in the newspaper upset me.” Julian smoothed his tie and looked at the floor. “It didn’t occur to me… I’d forgotten… I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Lexie stared at him blankly. He’d forgotten what?
The answer hit her like a two-by-four.
He’d forgotten she had a twin.
“Daddy!” Blaire exploded from her mouse-in-the-corner spot by the door. “How could you?”
The damage was already done. Roxie had gone white as a sheet. In that instant, she looked as if she’d gone from being ready to burn up to being ice cold.
Lexie, on the other hand, felt…nothing.
No anger, no hurt, no surprise. She just wanted out. She wanted away from these people. She wanted away from this place.
“Lexie.” Her father tried to stand, but Anne Marie clutched at him and he sat back down. “I’m sorry. Please know we’re so sorry.”
Lexie took a step away and bumped into Cam. When she glanced up at his face, she saw anger and concern, but she turned away and walked towards the door.
“Forgive us, Alexandra,” her father called. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. If it counts for anything, we kept your name. It was the one thing your parents did ask for.”
“Lexie,” Cam said. For once, his low voice didn’t seem calm and controlled. “Lexie, hold on.”
She kept on going, away from it all.
Away from everything.
Chapter Ten
“Lexie!”
Cam was already at the door, all his instincts focused on getting to Lexie. This was bad. Incomprehensibly heartless.
Damn that man!
Grabbing the doorjamb, he wheeled into the hallway. She was nowhere to be found. He cursed when he heard her heels beating against the tile in the foyer and hurried after her. A maid watched with interest, but she became immersed in straightening a picture frame when he caught her staring.
Cam nearly snarled at her. That better be what everyone was doing right now, working as if their jobs depended on it. He didn’t care if the household staff wasn’t under his purview.
The front door was closing as he turned the corner. He yanked it open before it could shut. “Lexie.”
She wasn’t that far ahead of him, but she acted as if she didn’t hear him. Trotting down the steps to catch up with her, he planted himself between her and her car. The moment he saw the expression on her face, his gut tightened. Her face was smooth, too smooth. And her eyes… He’d never seen her pretty eyes look so flat. It was as if she was staring right through him.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Did you know?” Her voice was flat too, emotionless. There was no anger, no heat. There wasn’t even any sadness.
“Know what?”
“What my par—the Underhills did? Is that why you insisted on being here this morning?”
Cam understood she was hurting, but he gritted his teeth all the same. He was sick and tired of being lumped in with that bastard Underhill. “How the hell would I know that?”
“You told me to let you worry—and this is something that could affect the company’s reputation.”
“I…” Hell.
He took a step towards her, getting in her space. He waited for the electricity that was always between them to jump. For the first time ever, he felt the pull but not the spark. “I suspected something was off with the adoption,” he admitted.
She nodded and pressed her lips together. The reaction was small, but a flicker of energy passed between them. It sputtered out almost as quickly as it had appeared, and she dipped her chin. Her hands hung at her sides as she tried to walk past him.
He caught her by the waist to stop her. This wasn’t right. She should be spitting mad or crying. She was doing neither.
He shook her to get her attention. “It wasn’t the company I was worried about.”
She didn’t respond. She just stood there, tired and defeated. Tired he could understand. Defeated he wouldn’t accept.
Bending his head, he peered straight into her eyes. “I was worried about you. What adoption agency separates identical twins? Even twenty-some years ago, they knew better than to do that. It didn’t make sense. That’s why I wanted to be here this morning. That’s why I tried to dig into the adoption details.”
“But you made me think you were concerned about Roxie. You didn’t tell me you suspected my…” a muscle near her mouth tensed, “…Julian.”
There it was, a tiny bit of the pain, a scrap of the anger she had to be feeling.
She looked blindly down the long driveway. “At least I got the truth.”
Brutal as it was.
She didn’t swallow hard or even blink. The hurt was there, but it was buried deep.
Cam’s jaw clenched. This was exactly what he’d been trying to prevent. “I didn’t want you to get hurt this way.”
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