“But you and I both know that there’s only one way to get to Sutton Winchester,” Graham continued, “and that’s through his wallet. We’re not going to get a tearful reunion out of him. Hell, we’ll be lucky to get him to acknowledge us privately, much less publicly. I’m sorry that we have to rob your trust funds to make it happen, but money is all we’re going to get out of our father, so you’d better be damn sure that we’re going to get it.”
The room was awkwardly silent for a moment as all the potential siblings sized one another up. “Very well,” Eve said at last. “I’ll have a discussion with Father about the will. When the new DNA test results are ready, perhaps he will be willing to move forward with updates. But not until then.”
“Fair enough,” Graham answered.
“Well, then, if there’s nothing else, I’m sure we all have businesses to run.” Eve pushed up from her chair, and everyone else followed suit.
“We’ll see ourselves out,” Carson said as they spilled out into the hallway. He was certain the sisters had plenty of talking to do among themselves. As did the brothers.
They moved silently through the offices until they climbed into Brooks’s car and slammed the doors shut.
“Now what?” Carson asked.
“I think that went well,” Graham said. “I think we wait on the results and see what they do next.”
“You were too soft on them,” Brooks complained to Graham. “That Eve woman is just your type. She had you eating from her hand.”
“That Eve woman might be our sister, man. That’s gross.”
“Well, either way, she’s your type and you didn’t go in for the kill.”
“There wasn’t need to. We got our point across. Like she said, they’re being punished for their father’s actions. I’m not going to push harder until we have to.”
Carson listened to the twins argue. He wasn’t sure how he felt about their plans to get revenge against Sutton. “I don’t know about all this,” he said.
Both brothers turned toward the backseat to look at him. “What do you mean?” Brooks asked.
“I mean…what’s the point? We don’t need the money. We’re not going to get a dad out of this. We’re just going to make our sisters hate us, and when Sutton is gone, they might be all we have left.”
“He dumped our mother, Carson. He left her pregnant with infant twins to care for. He needs to be punished. Tell me another way to do it and I’ll do it,” Graham offered.
There wasn’t another way and he knew it. “I don’t know.”
Brooks’s expression softened as he looked at Carson. “This isn’t the kind of thing Mom raised us to do, I know, but her memory demands vengeance. If you don’t want our mother’s blood money, funnel it into the hospital. Buy equipment that will save children’s lives, if that’s what helps you sleep at night. But it’s happening and you need to get used to the idea. We’re going to get our pound of flesh from Winchester.”
* * *
Georgia was surprised by a voice mail from Sutton at the office when she returned from lunch. She thought that he was meeting with the Newport brothers today, but the message indicated he was calling her from home. He wanted to speak with her and give her his donation check personally. If she was available, he would send a car to pick her up.
She had no idea where the Winchester home was, but she was pretty sure the “L” didn’t go there, so she made arrangements with his secretary to be picked up within the hour.
She knew she’d made a promise to Carson that she would tell him when she went to see Sutton, but it would have to wait until tomorrow. He would be tied up with his brothers and their scheming, she had no doubt, and tonight she was spending time with her mother. She was leaving in the morning for Detroit, and Georgia was planning to make a special dinner.
It took quite a while to get out to Sutton’s estate, but when she arrived, she was stunned by the extravagance of it all. Large iron gates protected the winding driveway that led to the giant gray mansion. It sprawled on forever, easily housing twenty people or more instead of the five Winchesters she knew about.
The driver circled the courtyard fountain and pulled up to the front steps. He opened the door and let Georgia out. An older man in a suit was waiting for her at the entrance.
“Miss Adams,” he greeted her with a polite smile. “I am Christopher, the butler. Mr. Winchester is expecting you.”
“I thought Mr. Winchester would be in the office today,” she said.
“Normally he would be, but he’s not feeling well.”
Georgia followed Christopher up the marble staircase to the second floor of the mansion. They headed toward a set of double doors at the end of the hallway. “Are we going to his office?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. He’s not well enough to leave his bed today. You’ll be meeting with him in the master suite.” Christopher pushed open the double doors and moved ahead.
She wasn’t too keen on the idea of being in Sutton Winchester’s bedroom, but it was too late to do anything about it. As she looked around, it hardly seemed like a bedroom anyway. It was almost like an apartment in itself with its own seating area, dressing area, a desk and a wall of French doors that led out to a private balcony overlooking the pool and tennis courts. Up ahead, another set of doors led to the bedroom itself.
Christopher opened the second set of doors. “Mr. Winchester, Miss Adams is here to see you.”
“Good, send her in. And have some tea sent up.”
Christopher disappeared, leaving Georgia alone in Sutton’s bedroom. The minute she laid eyes on him, however, all her worries disappeared. This was not a man luring her here for seduction.
He looked even more sunken and thin than he had a few days ago. The circles under his eyes were darker. There was an IV in his hand and some medical equipment tracking his heart rate and other vital signs nearby. An oxygen tube was inserted into his nose and wrapped around his ears.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to rescind my offer to be your lover, Georgia.” He said the words with a smile, but there was no twinkle of amusement in his familiar green eyes.
She couldn’t help her gaze from widening at the sight of him propped up in his bed. “They said you were sick, but this is more than just sick, isn’t it?”
“Unfortunately. Please, have a seat.” Sutton gestured to a chair at his bedside.
“I thought you were meeting with the Newport boys today to talk about the test results.”
“That was the plan, but this damn cancer has other ideas. Eve is handling it.”
“Cancer?”
“That’s what they tell me,” he said with a defeated tone. “Stage IV lung cancer. They haven’t tested yet, but they’re pretty sure it’s spread. Probably to my lymph nodes. My doctor will be trying some things, but this is basically a death sentence. Some people would say it’s long overdue.”
“Does your family know yet?”
Sutton shook his head. “No. The girls know I’m ill, but not to what extent. I’m going to meet with the children in a few days to tell them everything once the plans are finalized. This is a very delicate situation, Georgia, and I need you to promise to keep my illness a secret. You can’t tell anyone, especially Carson. I need to tell them all this in my own way, in my own time.”
Georgia could only nod. Her heart was breaking on the inside for Carson. He’d only learned about his father the day before, and now he was going to lose him before he’d even gotten to know him. It didn’t seem fair that she was getting a second chance with her long-lost parent and he wouldn’t have the same.
A woman arrived in the room with a silver tea service just then. She laid everything out on the nearby nightstand, pouring them both a delicate china cup of hot black tea. She quickly prepared Sutton’s tea as he liked it, then handed him the c
up and saucer with a buttery piece of shortbread on the edge.
“How do you take your tea, miss?” she asked.
“One sugar and a splash of cream, please.”
The woman handed her a cup. “Is there anything else I can get you, Mr. Winchester?”
“No, thank you. That will be all.”
The woman nodded and disappeared as quickly as she had arrived.
Georgia studied her tea, taking a tentative sip as she thought over everything Sutton had told her. “Why are you telling me before anyone else? Why did you ask me here today?” She hated being burdened with this knowledge, knowing how it would affect Carson and his brothers.
“Because I like you, Georgia. You’re smart. You’re attractive. You’ve got a great head for business. If I was twenty years younger, you would be in trouble.” He sighed wistfully and shook his head. “But my mind and my body don’t really cooperate the way I’d like them to anymore. I asked you here today because I wanted to tell you this in person so you’d understand where I was coming from. Since you and Carson are together, I thought maybe you could help him process it all.”
Georgia was surprised by Sutton’s thoughtfulness. Despite his physical and emotional distance from his son, he seemed to know that this would be hard on Carson. And not only that, but he knew, too, that Carson wouldn’t turn to him for comfort—he would go to Georgia.
“I also wanted to give you something.”
Sutton reached over to his nightstand and pulled out a sealed envelope from the top drawer. It had Carson’s name written on the front in his handwriting. “This is the check I promised you for the hospital. I wanted to give it to you personally. Please see to it that Carson gets this when you see him next.”
Georgia took the envelope from him and slipped it into her purse. “I will.”
“He hates me, you know?” Sutton said matter-of-factly. “I’ve given him every reason to. I doubt that check will help, but it’s all I can offer. Cindy was a bright spot in my life. When I lost her, I gave in to the darkness once and for all. Honoring her memory by contributing to the children’s hospital is the least I can do.”
Georgia couldn’t help but notice the soft, sentimental expression on Sutton’s face when he talked about Carson’s mother and how he referred to her as Cindy. Was there more between them than just one more of his dalliances? She and Carson would probably never know. But she did understand how Carson felt.
“He doesn’t hate you,” Georgia argued. “He hates how you treated his mother.”
At that, Sutton laughed. “I bet Cindy told the boys quite the tale to keep them away from me. She probably did it to protect me. That’s why she left the company,” he said. “My wife at the time was threatening all sorts of chaos if I didn’t break it off with Cindy. I couldn’t do it, though. I didn’t care if she ruined me. But Cindy cared. She said she wouldn’t let me give up everything for her, and she left. All I could do was give her a severance package to ease the loss. She told me not to look for her. She made me promise, so I kept my word. I wish every day that I hadn’t. I would’ve known about Carson if I’d searched for her.”
Georgia perked up in her seat. “You didn’t know about Carson?”
Sutton shook his head. “No. I knew about the twins, of course, but they weren’t mine. When they started their business and became my main competitors, I knew who they were. I started to contact Cindy, then thought better of it. It had been a long time and she probably didn’t want me interrupting her life. When I realized there was a younger Newport boy, I figured he was the child of Cindy’s next lover. It never occurred to me…”
There was a sadness in Sutton’s eyes that she didn’t expect to see there. “I’d always wanted a son. I love my girls more than anything, but it pains me greatly to know that I had a child out there all these years and I didn’t know it. And now—” he gestured toward the medical equipment next to the bed “—it’s too late.”
This was a side of Sutton that Georgia had never expected to see. He wasn’t a saint by any stretch of the imagination, but he wasn’t the monster he’d been painted to be, either. She felt a genuine pain coming from him as he spoke about his regrets. Perhaps she was right and his relationship with Carson’s mother had been more than just a sleazy affair. It sounded like love to her. She knew how that felt, and how much she was willing to do for Carson because she cared. Was Cynthia willing to go to such great lengths to protect Sutton from financial and corporate ruin?
“It’s not too late,” Georgia said. “You and Carson can still have a relationship. You just have to convince him to give you a chance. If all those things his mother told him about you aren’t true, he needs to know that.”
Sutton listened to her thoughtfully, then shook his head. “He won’t listen to me. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”
ELEVEN
“Mom?”
Georgia pushed her way through the front door of her loft, her arms filled with groceries. It was late enough when she’d left the Winchester estate that she’d had the car drop her at her neighborhood grocery store instead of returning to the office. She’d picked up a few things her mother liked, and got what she needed to make her famous lasagna for dinner. Misty had been asleep when she got home from Carson’s the night before, so Georgia had planned a nice evening for them to spend together before her mother took the bus back to Detroit.
She’d been feeling quite sentimental since she left Sutton. If there was hope for his relationship with Carson, perhaps there was hope for her relationship with Misty. Things had gone well so far.
She dropped the bags onto the dining room table and listened for sounds of Misty in the house. The last few days, she’d returned home to find her curled up on the couch reading one of her books or watching television. But there was no murmur of voices coming from the TV set or the radio.
“Mom?” she said again, but there was no answer.
Frowning, Georgia made her way through the living room. Everything seemed to be in place. The book her mother had been reading was sitting on the coffee table where she’d left it. The lamp was on nearby. Perhaps she’d gone upstairs for something.
She climbed up the stairs to her bedroom loft and stopped short when her eyes took in the sight. There it seemed like a tornado had flown around the room. All her drawers were open with clothes cast to the ground, her closet door was ajar, and her jewelry armoire had its now-empty trays tossed onto the floor.
Her first reaction was to be scared and worried for Misty. She ran into the closet, half expecting to find her crumpled, beaten body there. Nothing. Then she went into the bathroom, once again hoping her mother hadn’t been attacked when her apartment was robbed. Nothing there, either. Then she noticed among the chaos that her mother’s backpack and duffel bag were gone.
Along with Georgia’s nicer things.
She didn’t have much in the way of expensive jewelry, but she had some. At least, before now she had. Everything had been cleaned out of her jewelry armoire, even the cheap costume pieces. In her closet, several pairs of expensive shoes were missing with the empty boxes left lying on the ground. Her new iPad she’d left charging on the dresser was gone, too.
There was only one thing left that was worth anything. She always kept an envelope of cash and an emergency credit card between her mattress and box springs. It was an old habit, one that would allow her to disappear at a moment’s notice. With that money and the items in her purse, she could walk away and never come back. It was a remnant of her nomadic life as a foster child.
Georgia crouched down and thrust her hand beneath the mattress. She felt around, but her fingertips didn’t make contact with the envelope. Finally she lifted the whole mattress up, but that just confirmed her suspicions. The money was gone. Along with her mother.
She sunk down onto the bed, her chest tight with emotions she
wasn’t ready to face. It had happened. Everything Carson had warned her about had happened. She’d hoped that Misty was ready to be a mother, that she’d cleaned up her act, but Georgia had been wrong. Instead Misty had gained Georgia’s trust and abused it. How could she have been so naive?
Pushing herself up from the bed as the tears began to flow, she rushed into the bathroom. She turned on the cold water and splashed her flushed, heated face. The water stung as it mixed with her angry tears and dripped back into the sink.
Georgia braced her hands on the counter and hovered there. She wasn’t sure what to do now. Should she call the cops on her mother? She knew she should, but a part of her couldn’t do it. Even though she was heartbroken. Even though she felt like an abandoned child sitting in an unfamiliar foster home again.
She’d come to like her mother over the past few days, and even this hadn’t erased those memories. Somehow she couldn’t turn her mother in to the police. The things she’d taken might’ve been a lot to Misty, but they weren’t important to Georgia. They were all replaceable. Unlike their relationship. If they even had one.
As she stood up, her gaze fell on the nearby wastebasket. A small clear baggie with residue and a used hypodermic needle were in there among the tissue. Her mother was using again. That explained the sudden change. Had she taken the pizza money and decided to get high instead of going to AA? When she’d come home last night, was her mother passed out instead of sleeping? Probably so. Misty had let her addiction get the best of her and ruined what they’d started to build together.
Georgia was so disappointed. In her mother. In herself. She needed to talk to someone. Going back downstairs, she picked up her phone from where she’d left it on the dining room table. She quickly dialed Carson.
“Hey, Georgia,” he answered. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.”
Saying Yes to the Boss (Dynasties: The Newports) Page 12