Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles)

by Lee, Kimball

  “Absolutely, maybe this summer or the next. Her mom can be a real bitch, but I took her to court, so I have set visitation,” he said.

  “When you bring her to San Diego give me a call and she can come play with Atticus. She’s a doll, Billy, you’re both lucky to have each other.”

  Charlotte went into the house, and the cheerful sound of talk and laughter echoed through the massive rooms. Babies crawled and toddled about, and parents drank champagne and compared stories of difficult pregnancies and emergency C-sections. Several nannies stood in a group, sipping their drinks and laughing, and she watched as Mia Bly yanked a toy away from her brother so that he began to cry. Charlotte picked him up and looked into his sea-glass colored eyes and smoothed his silky blonde hair. He laid his little head against her shoulder and quieted as she whispered to him.

  “Shh, sweet angel, it’s alright now, I’ve got you. We’ll find you another toy, don’t be sad,” and when she peered down into his little face he had fallen asleep. He looked so much like Bly that her heart seemed to flip over in her chest and she closed her eyes and hugged him tightly to her.

  “Now this is a sight I’ve dreamed of seeing, Charlotte holding my son.”

  Her eyes flew open and she looked up into Bly’s face and fumbled for words.

  “He was crying… he was just tired, it seems,” she said, and her face was hot under the intensity of his gaze. He looked supremely happy, and too handsome for his own good. He didn’t have the sad air of a man who was divorcing his wife for infidelity.

  “Well he looks happy now, and why shouldn’t he be, with you to hold him close?” Bly said, running his hand over Holden’s downy head, then calling for one of the nannies.

  The girl scurried up, red faced and tongue tied, and apologized profusely as she lifted the baby out of Charlotte’s arms. Little Mia had spotted Bly and she clung to his pants leg, she looked up at him smiling and saying “da-da.”

  Bly picked her up and hugged and kissed her, then introduced her to Charlotte, “Charlotte this is my little Mia, and of course, you’ve already met my son.”

  Mia had Maddie’s large brown eyes and her cheeks were the color of peaches. Her face resembled a tiny heart beneath a cap of the palest blonde hair. She pressed her little bow-shaped mouth to Bly’s cheek in the semblance of a kiss, and he spoke to her lovingly and called her his sweetheart.

  “Yes, I met Holden. They’re both adorable, Bly, and I can see how proud you are. I need to get going, will you tell Amanda goodbye for me?” she asked, moving away from him and turning toward the door.

  She heard him speak to one of the nannies, then Mia was crying for him as he followed Charlotte outside and shut the door.

  He stopped her before she walked down the front steps, and she faced him and put her hand on his chest so that she kept some distance between them.

  “I wish I had known about Bennet stalking you, I would have done more than just put him in the hospital,” he said and he wanted to push her hand away and crush her against him. The sight of her holding his son was like a dream come true. The baby had curled against her and she looked down at him with more love in her eyes than Maddie ever had.

  “Finn will see to it that he never gets out of prison, although I heard his lawyers are trying to have him moved to a psychiatric facility. Finn also looked into the former rape case and found that the DNA evidence had been suppressed, he’s working with the D.A. to have it reconsidered,” she said, as Bly walked with her to her car.

  “I’ll help with that in any way that I can,” he said, and his hand reached out and held hers as they walked. “I’m getting a divorce and I’m happy about it. We will be together, Charlotte, and I’m prepared to wait until you come to me.”

  “Tell me about West and Evangeline and the baby. I just can’t imagine that situation,” she said, changing the subject.

  They sat in her car and she turned on some music and she listened to him talk, it was comfortable being with him, although it made her feel guilty.

  “You’re right, it’s damned odd that West has a child, but he really loves that little boy. My mother locked herself in her room for a week in a fit of temper when he showed up in Paris with a baby, then she got over it and welcomed them both with open arms. Beau is his name, and even though Evangeline saw to it that his nursery is in the far reaches of her house, she dotes on the kid. He has a French nannie and his first words were “papa” and “maman.” Although my mother isn’t much for being called maman, it basically means mommy. God knows my sister and I weren’t allowed to call her that. I suppose she’s mellowed somewhat, but not completely, according to West. He says she still throws fits and vases on a daily basis. They must be happy, they stroll the baby in the Tuileries and Luxemburg Gardens, and West emails pictures of him at least once a week. The child’s mother has disappeared completely, I mean without a trace. I’ve had Billy Kipling employ all of his Special Ops tactics, but the girl is a ghost, she’s just gone,” he said, and then he sat quietly looking into Charlotte’s eyes and listening to the music.

  “If you want it, come and get, crying out loud, the love that I was giving you, was never in doubt, let go your heart, let go your head, and feel it now,” David Gray sang.

  “Come away with me, Charlotte, have you ever doubted that I love you? Do you understand that I cannot love any other woman? It’s the way I’m made, I suppose. Without you, my life devoid of love and passion,” Bly said and he touched his lips to hers and tasted her tears. He leaned back in the car seat and ran his hand through his hair, then sighed deeply and rested his head in his hands.

  “You have your babies, Bly, and I can see how much you love them. Your little boy looks just like you, except for the blonde hair. They’re so sweet and beautiful, you’re a lucky man,” and she wanted very much to put her arms around him and comfort him as she had comforted his son.

  “Where are your children, and what did you name your daughter? Amanda says they are the most beautiful babies she’s ever seen, even cuter than her own. So they must look like their mother,” he said, and the look in her eyes wasn’t lost on him.

  “They were tired from the party, so Finn took them home. My little girl’s name is Hadley, well, Charlotte Hadley, since the name goes way back in the McCall family. Finn and my father insisted that we have another little Charlotte. She doesn’t look like me at all, her eyes are blue-grey and she has the most beautiful mouth, she looks like her father,” Charlotte said, and her eyes blazed with love as she spoke.

  “What about your son, does he look like his father?” Bly asked.

  “He has my eyes and my dark hair, I’m sure he will be a real heartbreaker when he grows up,” she said, and she turned off the music and said she should go home, they would be waiting for her.

  They watched as two cars stopped in front of the house, one was marked ‘Department of Social Services’ and the other was from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration.

  “I had better find out what’s happening… Charlotte, you know I’ll wait for you, I can promise that I won’t lose hope for us,” he said. He kissed the palm of her hand and let his lips linger there, then he stepped out of the car.

  “Don’t waste your love on me, Bly. I’ll never leave Finn.”

  He smiled and his sea-glass colored eyes held hers. He started to walk away, then he turned back to her and said, “Ah, Charlotte, everything changes, and never is a very long time.”

  END

  LEGAL HEIRS 2

  And no one would know…

  Chapter One

  “My dad is getting married, did I tell you?” Charlotte asked Amanda as they lay under a huge umbrella on the beach. “To Belinda Rhodes, have you heard of her?”

  “You mean the diamond draped cowgirl who was on the cover of Town and Country magazine last month?” Amanda asked, signaling for another margarita.

  “That’s right, the San Antonio rose whose late husband owned the New Orleans Saints once upon a time. Not to mention mo
st of the oil in the state of Texas.”

  “Are you happy, sad, or don’t give a shit?” Amanda asked, taking two margaritas from the bartender who worked at the McCall House.

  “I’m pleased for my dad, and I’ve talked to her on the phone a few times. She’s a nice woman with a big ol’ Texxxxas drawwwwlll. They’ll be here any minute, she’s forty eight and she has two young kids.”

  “The Rhodes Ranch widow, damn, she’s a catch. I believe she gives my brother a run for his money, as far as her finances go. I read that she inherited more billions than you can count using all your fingers and toes,” Amanda said, licking the salt from the rim of her glass before she took a sip.

  “Her little boy is the same age as Atticus and the girl is fifteen. Guess what their names are?” Charlotte said, rolling her eyes which got Amanda’s attention immediately.

  They were lying on the sand beyond the lawn of the McCall House and Amanda turned on her side and flashed a wicked smile, “Something super southern? Clementine and Bubba? Magnolia Blossom and John Wayne?”

  “Pretty close,” Charlotte said, “Matilda Jane and Balthazar, but they call Balthazar… wait for it… Cuatro. As Belinda informed me, it’s pronounced Kwaaah-tro!”

  “What the hell is a freaking Cuatro?”

  “It means four in Spanish and he is Balthazar Rhodes the fourth, comprende’?” Charlotte said and raised her eyebrows waiting for Amanda’s witty reply.

  Amanda waved her hand in the air for two more margaritas, “Well isn’t she the queen of shitty kid’s names. Matilda’s kind of cute, and I guess Cuatro beats Balthazar any day of the week. She’s not some bleached blonde bimbo Barbie doll from Podunk, Texas who married money is she?”

  “Nope, her grandfather was LBJ’s godson. According to her, in Texas money marries money. By the way, you really are beginning to sound like Evangeline when you stick the knife in and turn it.”

  “Wash your mouth out with soap please, I am nothing like Evangeline. Look at all these kids, someone should nominate me for Mother of the Year, and who the hell is LBJ?” Amanda said, slathering more sunscreen onto her pale freckled arms.

  “Uh, Lyndon Baines Johnson, dummy, the former president of the USA, from Texas. You are beginning to remind me of the old lady in the shoe, are you keeping Beau for the entire summer?”

  “No, West and my mother have been in Geneva for six weeks basking in the healing waters. Which means Mother is having her yearly tune up, you know, having her ass lifted and her face tightened up. I swear if that ass of hers gets any higher it will be between her shoulder blades. I’m meeting them in New York next week, West is missing his boy big time. God, he’s crazy about that child, and Beau looks like him, doesn’t he? I mean, you would think Beau and Skyler would look more alike. Believe me, I am eternally grateful that neither of those kids look like crazy-scary Lizzie. Oh good grief, Ava!” Amanda called out to the group of children who were busy building a giant sandcastle, “Don’t put sand in your sister’s hair. Skyler come here, let Mommy put some more sunscreen on you.”

  Both little girls ran to Amanda and stood smiling while they were dusted off and re-coated with sunscreen. It amazed Charlotte that Amanda was so loving to Skyler; she had arrived on the doorstep the day of Jack’s first birthday party and Amanda had just taken her in. Not that she had any choice, she was JP’s daughter, born while her mother Lizzie was locked up in a Mexican jail. Amanda had been shocked at first, then she decided not to break up her family by holding it against JP. She was a bastard herself after all, since Evangeline had fucked around on Holden Bly the First and Amanda was the product of that affair.

  Skyler was the exact image of JP, but she had inherited Lizzie’s light complexion. The child was beyond adorable, with wide green eyes, a tiny nose, and the sweetest smile. She was what Charlotte’s mother used to refer to as a ‘tow-head’, her hair was silky and white like a baby bunny’s fur. Her mother, Lizzie, had fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution as an accessory in the Natalie case. She ended up in a Mexican jail for prostitution and drug trafficking and as she had done with Beau, she told the authorities to take baby Skyler to JP Thomas in San Diego. Both West and JP kept tabs on Lizzie to make sure she wouldn’t return to claim the children. Lizzie had managed to get herself the best possible guarantee that she wouldn’t be extradited back to the United States. She was now the wife of the one of the most ruthless and powerful bosses of a Mexican drug cartel.

  “So you’re okay with the guys going on this extended ski trip to New Zealand?” Amanda asked as she and Charlotte watched the little girls run back to the group of children.

  “Sure, why not? Finn works hard, he deserves some time off,” Charlotte said, as she counted heads to make sure all the kids were accounted for.

  Atticus was seven and Hadley had just turned five the day before. West’s son Beau would be six in September, which was three months away. Jack was five and a half, Skyler would turn five in a month and Ava was four and a half. It made Charlotte’s head spin to think of all the babies that had been born so close together. When she counted Bly’s twins, Holden and Mia who were the same age as Jack, and Jude’s son, Keller, it was a staggering wealth of children.

  Atticus and Jack were out in the Gulf paddle-boarding with Finn and JP, and Hadley was yelling at her daddy that it was her turn. Beau was bossing Ava and Skyler around, telling them exactly how to place shells to decorate the sandcastle. Charlotte smiled at Beau’s cute French accent and once in a while he would mutter “merde!” which meant shit. Amanda would scold him then, telling him he shouldn’t use such words. Beau was growing up bilingual and he already knew a ton of naughty French words.

  “Can you believe how cute he is?” Amanda laughed, “West keeps firing nannies because Beau loves to cuss. I’m thinking one of these days he’s going to realize the child is picking it up from Evangeline. I gather that she and West love to fight and then make-up, and my mother definitely has a colorful vocabulary when she’s pissed off.”

  “So, are you unhappy that Finn and JP will be gone for the rest of the summer? I know you love JP like crazy when you two are together, but you never say you miss him when they go away to ski or surf on the weekends,” Charlotte said. She pushed her sunglasses up and stared out to the Gulf where Atticus and Hadley were both laughing and having the time of their lives with Finn. All three of them straddled the paddle-board, and Finn circled Hadley with his arm and rested a hand on Atti’s shoulder.

  Atticus was growing up so fast and in the last couple of months he’d become adamant that he could do everything for himself. Finn wanted to protect him, but still let him think that he was in fact becoming a little man. Charlotte wanted him to be her baby for as long as possible, and she had cried herself to sleep when he started calling her Mom rather than Mommy. Finn held her and told her it was alright, Atti was just going through a period of separation, but he would he would most assuredly always be devoted to his mother.

  “I got used to their ‘side job’ a long time ago sister,” Amanda said. “Do you mean that you haven’t? You were with Finn when he did the covert crap full time long before I ever knew JP.”

  “He stopped all that when we got married, what are you saying?” Charlotte sat straight up and her brow furrowed as she waited for an answer.

  “Oh fuck, did I just let something slip that I wasn’t supposed to?” Amanda said and her expression was one of wary surprise.

  “Are you telling me they’re still involved in all that Special Ops bullshit? That they never stopped, and that’s what Finn is going to be doing when he supposed to be snow skiing in New Zealand?” Charlotte’s voice was reaching a fevered pitch and Amanda looked like she wished someone would bury her in the sand.

  “What’s all this, my love?” Finn asked, standing above them dripping wet and gorgeous in his swim trunks.

  “Don’t you dare call me ‘my love’! Oh Finnegan, you have really screwed up,” Charlotte said and she jumped up, asked Amanda’s nannie to w
atch the kids, and stalked to the house.

  *

  Charlotte was throwing Finn’s clothes into his suitcase when he found her in their room. He caught her arm and spun her around to face him and her face was a mixture of blind fury mixed with hurt.

  “My love… Charlotte, let me explain, please,” he said, and it made her even more furious that he was as calm as could be.

  “I don’t want to hear it, there is no explanation that I’m willing to accept. You’ve been playing your fucking war games all along, putting your life in danger with no thought for any of us. Even if I don’t matter to you, what about our kids? They worship you, Finn. Have you ever stopped to think about them, how it would change their lives if you were killed? Say something!” she screamed and Finn closed the bedroom door and sat on the bed.

  “What I do is important, the orders I get come directly from the president. Do you want Atticus and Hadley to grow up in a world with mad men and terrorists?” he said, and pulled Charlotte down on the bed beside him but she turned her face away.

  “You lied to me and I made a huge decision based on that lie. You didn’t give up what you love so that we could live happily ever after. You got to keep both, me and the psychotic adrenaline rush of ‘taking out the bad guys’. I am so in shock right now, leave me alone, I think I’m going to be sick,” she said and barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up.

  “Charlotte, my love…” Finn waited at the door, he didn’t want to go in and provoke her further.

  Charlotte wiped her mouth then leaned her cheek against the cool marble of the counter by the sink. “Go, Finn. Go on and ruin us, I’m not going to forgive you if you do this. It will change everything, it will change us. Wasn’t it Hitler who said, ‘Let me have the children until they’re five years old and they’ll be mine forever’? Atticus won’t ever be happy without you now, you’ve done this on purpose. You’ll go away and break his heart if you get hurt or killed and never come back. And if you do come back he’ll be so happy you think I’ll forget your betrayal.”