The Reluctant Heir

by HelenKay Dimon

  A stiff wind blew over the lawn. Hanna shivered but she thought it might be a reaction to the confidence pulsing off Carter rather than the cold. He looked so sure, so in control. So perfect...for her. No wonder she loved him.

  Carter continued, “Eldrick needs to officially retire and step out or he can come back anytime.”

  Beth turned on her husband. “That’s not what you told me.”

  “We’re talking about Ms. Wilde right now.”

  Eldrick’s tone was so soft.

  Such garbage. “So condescending.”

  The sound of Hanna’s voice seemed to tick Eldrick off. This time he went after Carter. “This was all your fault. You weren’t careful. Dropping your pants and not using protection. What kind of man are you?”

  “A real one who doesn’t threaten women.” Carter’s voice stayed even. He never lost control. Standing tall and sure, he looked ready to take on any battle.

  Eldrick shook his head as he continued to spew. “You made the mess and, as usual, I had to clean it up.”

  Anger lit up the inside of Hanna’s head until she thought it might explode. “Gena was not a mess.”

  “I did you a favor,” Eldrick said, still talking to Carter.

  “Eldrick, the woman is dead.” Beth’s voice was sharp and biting now. Whatever tolerance she’d had, it vanished.

  “Which is a shame but not my fault, and I don’t appreciate the suggestion otherwise.” Eldrick kept talking at Carter, who stood there looking bored, as if the words bounced off him. “You never learn your lesson. I got you out of one entanglement and then you shack up with the other sister?”

  Hanna didn’t know how Carter could stand to listen to the man. She sure couldn’t. “Gena wasn’t an entanglement either.”

  “I think it’s time you leave the property.” Eldrick pointed in the general direction of the street. “Whatever you’re searching for, you’re not going to find it here. You have your check. Now run along.”

  When that didn’t work he took a step forward, reaching for her. Carter blocked the move. He stood right in front of her.

  “She is with me. You aren’t to go near her again.” This time Carter’s voice seethed with anger.

  Eldrick tried to look around his son’s impressive shoulders at Hanna. “He’s ungrateful. And unemployed. Did he tell you that? Never held a real job. Never contributed.”

  It was now or never. Eldrick’s usual hold on the conversation faltered. The concern on Beth’s face was tough to miss. Carter looked ready to go into battle for her. But this Hanna needed to do.

  She stepped around Carter, facing Eldrick head-on. “How did my father really die?”

  The question seemed to flatten him. He took a step back as his eyes darted to the side. “What?”

  She didn’t hold back. “We both know he didn’t fall off a ladder. The man built houses. He wasn’t sloppy.”

  “He made a mistake and paid a steep price.”

  She felt a hand on her lower back. She knew it was Carter and it meant he supported her. He didn’t even need to say the words to get her to keep going. “Taking a job from you, yes. But you didn’t answer my question.”

  Beth shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “He worked for us and died on the job. That’s all I know. You’ve seen the reports. You know the truth. It was an unfortunate workplace accident,” he said, showing he knew far more than he pretended to now. “Your mother already tried for a bigger payday and failed.”

  He could launch any accusation he wanted. Hanna intended to stand there and take it. “Did you push him?”

  “Of course not.” Eldrick looked over her head at Carter. “Usher her off the grounds or I will.”

  “What did you do, Dad?” Carter asked.

  “Nothing. The lawyers already—”

  “Eldrick?” Beth put her hand on his arm and looked up at him. “Just say it.”

  At the sound of her voice, Eldrick’s resolve seemed to crumble. He didn’t stand quite as tall and his words sputtered a bit as he spoke. “This has been resolved.”

  Beth’s perfectly manicured eyebrow lifted. “Apparently not.”

  “This is your last chance.” Carter’s hand flattened on Hanna’s back. He wasn’t doing anything to hide the fact they were together and she had his support. “You answer her or I’ll open an investigation. We’ll go through every report and all the findings. Bring in people who worked here. Do re-creations if we need to. Blow this wide and make it public.”

  Hanna loved him for who he was and she loved him for those words. It was a promise to her as much as a threat against his father.

  “It’s not anything,” Eldrick said.

  Carter swore under his breath. “The man is dead.”

  “Fine.” Eldrick brushed a hand down the front of his blazer. “There was a piece of equipment. It malfunctioned. End of story.”

  Hanna had been holding her breath and now it rushed out of her. The knot in her stomach that had been there since the day her father died eased. For a second, she could breathe without being hit with the weight of unfinished business. “I knew it.”

  “He was working on it and there was a burst of hot air that blew him off.” Eldrick waved his hand in the air as if the conversation were done. “That’s it.”

  “Why not tell the truth back then?” she asked. The secrecy only created more doubt.

  “It was an accident.”

  But not the same accident she’d heard all her life. “One your machinery caused.”

  “He fudged the story because it would have cost him otherwise.” Carter sounded tired and frustrated and two seconds from losing his control. “Right? You knew the machine was a problem. Maybe Hanna’s dad warned you, and you didn’t bother to get it fixed.”

  Beth tugged on Eldrick’s arm. “You put that man in a position to be hurt?”

  “That’s not what happened.”

  But it was. Hanna understood now.

  This was about liability. Whatever feelings he’d had for her father, and she doubted Eldrick had many since he only cared about himself and maybe a little about Beth, those feelings didn’t outweigh the fact that her father’s death was a nuisance to him.

  The realization made her want to scream and pound on his chest. That he could forfeit a life because it was cheaper than fixing equipment. Her mind couldn’t grasp that at all. She leaned into Carter’s side because she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her much longer.

  “We’re leaving.” Beth dropped her hand from Eldrick’s arm. Nothing about her tone suggested she wanted to hear an argument.

  Of course, Eldrick tried anyway. “I need—”

  “To come with me right now.” Beth started walking.

  Carter shook his head. “I’d listen to her.”

  “I’ll be back.” Eldrick waited until his wife’s back was turned to glare at Hanna again. “You need to be gone.”

  Carter slipped an arm around her. Put it on her shoulder and pulled her in even closer to his side. “She’s staying.”

  “Don’t fight me on this, Carter.”

  “From now on, expect a fight on everything.”

  Eldrick hesitated before walking away. In a few long strides, he caught up with Beth. They headed along the side of the house without saying a word.

  Hanna expected to hate Eldrick’s newest wife. She’d pictured one type of woman, a sort of female version of Eldrick. Once again, her preconceived notions had been wrong.

  “So, your stepmom...”

  “She’s turned out to be a surprise. Most of the women he married went along with his schemes, at least in front of us. They all left shortly after finding out some new horrible thing he did in the past. She’s sticking around, holding him accountable.”

  Hanna broached the one open question. “The nam
e thing?”

  Carter scoffed. “That’s odd even for my dad. What kind of man makes a woman use a different name?”

  “Do you think it means something?” Because Hanna did. She thought it was about Eldrick and his secrets. She wished she could be sure because once she exposed this last one she would turn all of their lives upside down. Before she took that step and launched one more emotional grenade at Carter, she’d think it through.

  Carter shrugged. “My father has to control everything.”

  “Not anymore.”

  This time Carter laughed. “No, not anymore.”

  Thirteen

  Later that night, Carter sprawled on the couch in the television room with Hanna leaning on his chest. By silent agreement they had started spending their nights in the main house. He’d insisted the furniture was more comfortable and she just rolled her eyes and went along with the excuse.

  Today had been long and trying. Finding out his father had contributed to her father’s death had not been an easy afternoon. Carter was starting to wonder if he’d ever have an easy one again. But this part he enjoyed, having her back rest against his chest. Listening to her laugh at some dumb joke in this lame buddy heist movie.

  Somehow, she’d eased the harsh news into the rest of the day. After an hour of being alone, walking the grounds while he watched helpless and in desperation from the window, she’d bounced back. It was as if hearing the news had freed her to move on.

  That made one of them. It knocked him down. He mentally struggled to understand why she didn’t pack her bag and run as far away from the Jamesons as possible.

  He slipped his fingers through her hair. “I love that you’re here with me. Despite all the bad memories, this house has always been special to me. With you it’s even more so.”

  “Sweet talker.”

  But he didn’t want her to think it was a line. He’d never expected her to love him. It was a gift. And with each day his feelings for her became clearer. She’d been so unexpected that he was still trying to get his emotional footing. She deserved more and not just when it came to them.

  “I feel like I should apologize for everything that happened to your family.” He kissed the side of her hair, inhaling the scent of her floral shampoo. “I don’t even know where to start.”

  She shifted, turning to look up at him. “I kept the baby information from you.”

  “Do you know if it was a boy or a girl?” He hadn’t meant to ask that. He wasn’t even sure where the question came from since he’d been blocking out any thoughts of the baby all day.

  She slipped her hand over his knee. “A little girl.”

  An image flashed in his mind and he pushed it out again. “Was she healthy?”

  “Yes.” Hanna flipped around. Her legs balanced over his as she sat sideways, facing him. “I can’t explain what happened that day. What one thing pushed her over the edge. I wish I could.”

  “Me, too.”

  She leaned her head against the back cushion of the couch. “The doctors I talked to explained that it’s like darkness. Not just a lack of light. It’s more like a weight and it shoves you down and spins tales in your head and convinces you there is no way out. Nothing, not sunshine or trying to be happy or any of the other things people talk about as possible ways through it really work. The darkness is relentless, joyless. It presses and presses until you break.”

  He brushed a hand over her hair. The silky strands slipped through his fingers. “Have you ever experienced it?”

  “I used to think depression equaled extreme sadness, but now I know that’s wrong. It’s a much bigger, soul-sucking thing.” She slid her fingers through his and brought their joined hands to her mouth.

  “Is it weird for you that we’re together after I spent that weekend with her?” He had been avoiding that question from the start. For him, the sisters were so different that he didn’t even connect them in his mind.

  “I try not to think about that part.”

  “I don’t compare you.” He stressed each word because he needed her to believe him. “You’re distinctly Hanna. Not a substitute. Not the ‘other’ sister. Just Hanna.”

  She kissed the back of his hand. “Thank you.”

  “You knew that, right?”

  “I think I needed to hear it since I’d spent so much of my life in my sister’s shadow.”

  There was more. Feelings he hadn’t expected. New priorities he’d tried to ignore but they refused to be pushed aside. “I’m not a guy who sticks around and fights through things.”

  She smiled. “I’ve heard.”

  “From?”

  “You.” She dropped their joined hands to her lap. “You’ve been pretty honest that settling in is not your thing.”

  Not before. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  He looked at the long stretch of life in front of him and he no longer saw travel and moving and switching houses and being alone. He thought about his brothers and the estate. About her.

  Maybe this was how it happened. He’d made fun of his brothers for falling so fast. For acting like they’d lost all sense. He kind of understood it now.

  “I think putting down roots could be the new me.”

  When she didn’t laugh or run out of the room, he kept going. “The idea of making the estate into something new, an event space, a place for parties. Something other than a home. A place that employs lots of people and offers opportunities. That sounds good to me.”

  “And you would run it.”

  “Yeah. I’d build it and expand it and live here.” But when he envisioned the plans, he saw her. Them eating dinner and lounging around like they were doing now. “You still married to the idea of living in New York?”

  She lifted her head just long enough to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Why, do you need someone to clean this place?”

  He laughed. “Yeah, a team of people, but what I’m really saying is I don’t want you to go.”

  Her fingers tightened on his. “That’s a big statement.”

  The biggest, because what he was really saying was he wanted her here, for a long time. Forever.

  “What I feel for you is big.” They sounded so serious as they sat there whispering. He couldn’t help but lighten the mood. “Admittedly, maybe not preteen crush big.”

  “Ugh.” She buried her face in her hands. “You knew about that?”

  The embarrassment and mumbling were endearing. She could be hot and sexy and sweet and charming. The combination blew his control to pieces.

  “The teen me might have ignored you. The grown-up me is so much smarter.”

  She lifted her head and started frowning. “What is that sound?”

  The buzzing didn’t let up. Carter reached for the remote and clicked on the number to show the security feed. “The box at the entry gate out front.”

  “Isn’t that fancy?” Then she leaned forward to study the screen. “Wait, is that your stepmom?”

  The image didn’t lie. Beth stood there, without Eldrick or anything but a purse and stared at the house. “That can’t be good.”

  “At least she’s alone.”

  Carter lifted Hanna’s legs off his lap and stood up. “That’s what I mean. We’re all doomed if she left him.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “She’s the reason he lives in Tortola.”

  * * *

  He went downstairs to retrieve Beth and ushered her into the television room about ten minutes later. Her usual put-together style seemed to be failing. A lock of her hair fell across her forehead and she kept playing with the metal band of her very expensive watch.

  She stepped into the room, saw Hanna and the last of her blank expression fell. Beth’s attitude morphed from I’m fine to I’m barely holding it together in a few seconds. “I’m sorry to disturb you.” />
  “Come inside.” Hanna stood up and gestured for Beth to sit on the couch. “Are you okay?”

  “She left my Dad.”

  Carter knew because he heard the terrible news on the walk up the stairs. He nearly tripped in response. He could hardly wait to hear Jackson’s and his brothers’ reactions when he sent them a group text.

  “Oh.” Hanna shot him a grimace over the top of Beth’s head as she helped the older woman sit down. Not that Beth needed an assist but her hands did shake and Hanna seemed concerned.

  The watchband clasp snapped as Beth opened and closed it. “He lied about everything.”

  “It’s what he does.”

  Hanna shot Carter a look that said he should be quiet. He just shrugged in return.

  Beth didn’t appear to hear him anyway. She sat there, shaking her head as she stared at her lap. “All those promises that he was a new man. How loving me changed things.”

  “I actually think it did.” That got her attention. Carter didn’t say the words just to comfort her. He really did mean them. “The father I grew up with would never step away from the business, even temporarily, and move to an island to make someone else happy. You mean something to him.”

  “How am I supposed to trust him?”

  He had to look at Hanna because the pleading in Beth’s eyes proved to be too much after today’s events. “You’ve got me there.”

  “Carter.” Hanna stared at the empty space on the other side of Beth on the couch. “Sit down.”

  That much closeness struck him as unnecessary. He doubted Beth wanted his company but Hanna’s glare didn’t exactly give him a choice.

  “I just wasn’t sure where to go. We were here this afternoon, so I remembered this address.”

  “It’s fine.” Carter wasn’t sure what else to say, so he went with that.

  “Do you have a bag?” Hanna asked.

  Carter did not like where this was going. He could sense his world turning upside down. Again.

  Beth shook her head. “I left it at the condo.”

  “What condo?”

  “Dad kept a place here,” Carter said, answering Hanna’s question.