“Your mother signed up on Facebook,” Dad suddenly announced toward the end of the meal.
Justin nearly choked as he started laughing. I just sat back and slid my arm around Joey.
“It’s about time.”
“I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of Paris on there,” Mom said.
“There’re other places to post pictures,” Justin said. “You can go on Pinterest.”
“Someone told me about that,” she said. “But Facebook seems more interesting.”
“Next thing you know, you’ll get a blog,” Justin popped off. “Just like the one Sara’s been writing on.”
I glanced at Sara and caught her flash a dark look at Joey. Not at Justin, but at Joey.
“You have a blog?”
Sara shrugged. “I did. But I’m thinking about dropping it.”
“What kind of blog?”
Justin sat up a little, reaching for the bottle of wine. “Don’t bother asking. She won’t even let me see it.”
“Blogs are like diaries, Justin,” Mom said. “You don’t have to share them unless you want to.”
“You’ve certainly learned a lot about social media in Paris,” Justin said.
Mom shrugged. “I like to stay informed.”
“Doesn’t hurt that the daughter of the owner of the villa where we stood was bored out of her mind while we were there, so she graciously taught your mother all there was to know about Facebook and blogging and Vine and whatever else,” Dad said. “They spent hours on the laptop, setting up accounts all over the place.”
I laughed. Justin just shook his head.
“Imagine, my own mother has more of an internet presence than I have.”
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Justin,” Sara said.
“Speaking of which,”—I leaned close to Joey—“my lawyers managed to get the blog publisher to take down Dear Elizabeth temporarily.”
“Good,” was all she said.
Somehow I’d thought she’d be happier than that.
The baby began to fuss. Sara took her from Mom and went into the house. Joey watched her go, and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something going on between the two of them. And I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
I kissed Joey’s temple lightly and told her I’d be right back.
Sara took Alexa upstairs. I followed the sounds of Alexa’s irritated screams, taping on the doorframe before walking into the guest bedroom.
“Everything okay?”
Sara glanced up at me. “She just needs a new diaper.”
“I meant with you.”
Sara shrugged. “I suppose she told you.”
I didn’t know what to say. I assumed it had to do with whatever was going on between her and Joey, but I had no idea what she was talking about. So I just shrugged.
“I never meant for it to become the big thing it did. It was just a place to get out all the gossip I had to hold in because it wasn’t proper for me to act like a bitch around my friends.”
“But then?”
“But then…” She shrugged again, finishing with the baby and carefully raising her to her shoulder. “Justin deserves to run the foundation. You know he does. I know he does.”
“But Justin doesn’t want it.”
“Justin never knows what he wants until he has it.” She shoved the baby’s things back into her bag and stood. “I couldn’t just sit back and watch him lose out. Again.”
“He has Brooks Oil.”
“He’s your father’s puppet. With the foundation, he could really prove himself.”
I pushed away from the door and watched her move past me.
“What did you do?”
She glanced at me. “I did the only thing I could. I hurt you where it mattered most. Your precious reputation.”
And that’s when it sunk in. I felt like such an asshole. It was right there in front of my face the whole time.
“You’re Dear Elizabeth.”
Chapter 33
Joey
It was nothing like I’d been afraid it would be. Jason’s parents were more down to earth than I’d expected. His mother was actually funny and his father quite charming. They were a lot like my own parents. I could imagine them having dinner together, laughing over the same things.
I wasn’t sure they liked me. But I was pretty sure they didn’t hate me.
Jason disappeared as Sara went to care for the baby. I watched him go, wondering if she would tell him. I wasn’t sure she would.
“How are things with you and Sara?” Jason’s father asked Justin.
Justin shrugged. “Having a baby changes a relationship.”
Jason’s parents exchanged a glance. Then his mother focused on me.
“Jason hasn’t told us much about you. What do you do for a living, Joanne?”
“It’s Joey,” Justin said quite helpfully. I hadn’t realized he’d paid much attention, but the smile he flashed me suggested he paid more attention than anyone had ever noticed.
“Joey,” his mother said with a polite nod of her head.
“I’m in accounting. But I’m actually between jobs right now.”
“Are you?”
“She worked for Jason,” Justin said. “But they let her go when Frank was arrested.”
“Sad situation,” Jason’s father said. “It’s always disappointing when a trusted employee turns on you that way.”
Justin picked up his glass of wine and swallowed what was left inside of it. “Jason should have seen it coming,” he said. “Frank expected to be equal. That was just his way of punishing Jason for not making him an equal.”
Again the parents exchanged a look.
“I saw it coming. Then I did what I could to make sure things were taken care of.”
I looked at Justin, wondering what he was talking about. He met my gaze and shrugged.
“I suppose Jason already suspects it. But I called that supervisor of yours…what was her name?”
“Mrs. Constantine.”
Justin nodded. “I told her to fire you. It wouldn’t do, between those crazy blog posts, the pictures, and Frank’s arrest, for people to find out that you still worked there.”
“You told her to fire me?”
“That’s your brother’s company,” Jason’s mother said disapprovingly.
“To protect my brother’s reputation. It’s what he would have done—has done—for me.”
I suddenly felt caught in the middle of something I didn’t understand and really didn’t want to understand. The parents exchanged another look and then Jason came back out, dropping into the chair next to me with a sense of finality. He picked up his own wine glass and swallowed what was in it in one, quick gulp.
She told him.
I wanted out of there. I started to stand, but Jason grabbed my wrist roughly and tugged me back into my seat. The only way I was leaving was if I made a scene, and I didn’t want to do that. Sara came to the door a moment later and called to Justin.
“We should go. The baby’s fussy.”
Justin stood and swept his body into a deep bow.
“It was quite an evening. Thank you for the invitation, brother.”
Jason’s parents left a moment later, his mom grabbing my arm and saying, “We should go shopping sometime soon.”
I just smiled and nodded.
Jason made a beeline to the bar, drinking a healthy shot of whiskey as the catering team came back out and cleaned up the remnants of our meal. I wanted to help, but the caterer waved me away with a soft smile.
“You should have told me.”
He was standing in the center of the room, his hands pushed deep into his front pockets.
“What?”
“About Sara.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, my eyes falling to the floor. I didn’t know what to say. What was there to say?
“She told me everything. How she called your friend, Rahul, and found out you wo
rked for me. Called your house, your coworkers. Tried to find out everything she could so that she could publish enough dirt about us to make my parents change their mind about giving me the reins of the foundation.”
“Is that what it was all about?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t even know she cared that much about it. But, I think, it became something else as things went along.”
“Did she say that?”
“She didn’t have to.”
Jason turned away from me and began to pace, his shoulders tense.
“I can’t believe my own family could do this. After everything I did for Sara, everything I did for Justin. I don’t understand how she could turn on me this way.”
“She wasn’t trying to hurt you. She was trying to hurt me.”
“She was trying to hurt us both because she’s greedy and she wants more. She’s never been content with life the way it is. She’s always fought for more and she doesn’t know how to stop.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
He turned, disbelief widening his eyes. “What does that mean?”
I was suddenly exhausted. I just wanted to curl up somewhere and forget about everything that had been happening lately. I wanted to go back to the simplicity of going to work, going home, and starting all over again the next day. But, of course, there was no going back.
I sat on the edge of the loveseat and ran my fingers through my hair.
Jason was immediately beside me, his hand on the small of my back. I leaned into him and sighed.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“What wasn’t? Talking to Sara?” he rubbed my shoulder lightly. “It had to come out eventually. It was better now than sometime down the road when my lawyers finally identified her.”
“Not Sara. Us.”
“Jo…”
There was a warning in Jason’s voice. I could hear it as clearly as I could feel the tension come into his shoulders. I didn’t like it any more than he did, but maybe it was time for us to face the truth.
“Your brother told Mrs. Constantine to fire me. Did you know that?”
“Why would he do that?”
“To protect you. That’s what he just told your parents.”
“From you?”
“Your reputation is everything, Jason. You know that.”
“My family reputation. And that had nothing to do with you. That was about Frank Thomas.”
“But I was involved because of the estimates I wrote up. If anyone had looked closer into it and began to put everything together…”
“But that’s over now.”
“And what about the next time someone writes a story about my background? What if you take over the foundation and someone decides to write a story about you? About us? And they look into my background and discover that my dad doesn’t even have a high school education?”
“We don’t live in the 1950s, Joanne.”
I pulled away from him, stood, and crossed the room.
“You can’t even call me Joey, can you? It’s not proper enough for you.”
“It’s just a name!”
“No, it’s not.” I crossed my arms over my chest, biting my lip to keep the tears from escaping. “It’s just another part of all of this. Of everything that’s been coming between us. Don’t you see that?”
He stood and came toward me, but I backed up, nearly knocking into one of the caterer’s assistants as he tried to discretely leave the room.
“If your sister-in-law would write those things about me, about us, then what’s to stop someone with nothing to lose from saying something worse?”
“There are always going to be people who want to hurt us.”
“Not us. You. And I’d be the perfect weapon.”
“So what do you want me to do, Joey? Give up my business, my family, my money? I would do that for you.”
I shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t.”
We just stood there for a moment, neither of us able to say anything else because there was nothing else to say. Then I walked away.
He didn’t follow me.
Chapter 34
Jason
Two months later.
My mom slid her arm through mine. We were sitting on a low swing on the back porch of the house I grew up in. It was a warm afternoon, the winter haze finally blowing off and bringing back the humidity and heat that made Houston’s weather famous around the world. Alexa was on a blanket on the low porch, talking in that babbling baby talk to a rack of toys positioned above her.
“When do they get back?”
Mom shrugged. “At the end of the month.”
“Do you think they’ll work things out?”
“Honestly?” Mom looked down at the baby, a distinct sadness pulling down the edges of her mouth. “I’m surprised they lasted as long as they did.”
“But Justin—”
“Loves her. He always did. He was heartbroken when you started dating her in high school. But Sara was always ambitious and Justin only wants to be happy.”
I nodded. I’d known that for a long time, too. I just hoped that Sara loved Justin enough to make things work. And now, with Alexa, it just seemed extra sad.
“What about you? What about Joanne?”
The baby began to fuss just then. I went over and picked her up, lifting her high above my head until she started to giggle.
“She loves that.”
“She’s too little to be afraid.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all incapable of fear?”
I glanced over at her. “Are you and Dad going to be at the fundraiser tonight?”
“Of course.”
I handed her the baby. “I should go. I have some things to finish up before it’s time to head over.”
She grabbed my hand before I could walk away. “There’s really no reason for everyone to be miserable, Jason.”
I kissed her cheek and left.
I didn’t want to discuss the troubles in my personal life with my mother. It was bad enough that I had to work side-by-side with her now that I’d taken over the Wallach Foundation. She was supposed to retire, but somehow she always thought of some way to insinuate herself into the day-to-day running of the foundation. Shelly was running JB Graphics now, doing the job she probably should have been doing all along. She was, after all, the one person who had been there from the very beginning who cared as much about the company as I did. And she probably saw more and knew more than I ever had. If she’d been in charge when Frank was still there, he probably never would have had the opportunity to steal the money in the first place.
But then I wouldn’t have met Joey.
It was all such a double-edged sword, wasn’t it?
The fundraiser tonight was a small dinner party, really. It was a dinner we gave twice a year to thank the biggest donors. There was a rumor that it was something of a competition to be invited. I wasn’t sure that was true. But I knew that the donations tended to roll in more consistently in the weeks before it was due to take place.
I found my thoughts wandering as I stood in the shower, letting the hot water work at the knots in my shoulders. I had a flight to catch after the party tonight. I hadn’t told my parents. Hadn’t told anyone. It was just a weekend getaway. But I was surprisingly nervous.
I moved carefully as I dressed. My ribs were sore.
What a week this had been!
“Where’s that pretty little girlfriend of yours, Brooks?” Congressman Todd demanded, as he greeted me at the party a short time later.
“Not here tonight.”
“Sorry to hear it. She was quite entertaining last time.”
I just inclined my head and grabbed a flute of champagne, as a pretty, blonde waitress walked past. She caught my eye and winked. She was pretty, just the kind of girl Justin would have chased back to the kitchen a few years ago. I might have, too, before.
“We’ve raised more than three billion dollar
s this past year for our various causes,” I announced a bit later to the gathered elite. “And we hope to raise ten percent more this year.”
Polite cheers rose around the table.
“We’ve also added to our charitable works. One new cause is a fund that helps educate students about student loans and helps working graduates pay off their loans. The idea is to help students who fall in that no man’s land between poverty and privilege, those who have to take out thousands of dollars’ worth of loans in order to get an education, but then find themselves struggling to pay them back.”
There was more applause, but it was also pretty clear that they were ready to dig into their meals and forego the speeches. So I held up my glass and said, “Here’s to the Wallach Foundation and the good works we do together!”
Another cheer and more applause. I drank deeply of my champagne and wished it was already over. The only problem with being the head of the foundation now was that I couldn’t sneak out when the party got tedious.
Dinner was amazing, as usual. And when it was done, I was sneaking peeks at my watch, wishing time would pass a little faster. My mother pushed her elbow into my side. When I glanced at her, she gestured with a little flick of her head toward the back of the room. A cake, maybe four or five layers, was being rolled in on a cart. It was decorated with green and lavender flowers—the colors on the letterhead of the foundation stationary—and very delicate lacy piping. It reminded me of something I’d seen Rosie do in Joey’s kitchen.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
“I need to go,” I whispered to my mother, as I climbed out of my chair.
If I’d thought my early departure would cause some sort of scandal, I’d been mistaken. No one hardly looked up, except my mother, of course.
The jet was fueled and waiting for me. I would have flown commercial, but catching a flight this late in the evening was always a nightmare—and I didn’t want to take a chance of missing her.
Chapter 35
Joey
Cabo. I’d never pictured myself walking the beaches of Cabo.
At least, not alone.
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