The Legacy Collection Box Set
Page 14
Abby jumped in, physically standing between Nicole and the door. “I have to agree with Dominic on this one, Nicole. Not today.”
A red haze blurred Nicole’s vision as a sickening possibility grabbed hold of her. It couldn’t be. “Just who the hell is in that limo? Who, Dominic?”
Nicole pushed past Abby and Dominic and rushed down the stone stairs to the vehicles. She marched over to Dominic’s limo. The lies end today. She opened the door—and slammed it just as quickly.
“Get me out of here now, Jeff,” Nicole said from within the safety of her own limo.
He floored the gas and hit the control for the gate ahead to open. Although he was driving forward, his attention remained on the scene unfolding in the driveway behind them. “Are you sure? Because there is a whole crowd of people running after us . . . even some older woman.”
Nicole clutched her stomach with both hands. “I’m sure. That woman is my long-deceased mother. Unless you want to see me completely lose my mind, I’d beat them to the gate.”
He sped off. “Are you sure that was your mother and not a cousin or a—”
“Twin? No, that was my mother. There are some things you just know. Oh, my God, my mother is still alive. I should be happy, right? I mean, she’s not dead. Why isn’t she dead? Dominic said all of his investigators reported she’d died in Italy over ten years ago. Why would he lie?”
Jeff interjected in his infuriatingly reasonable tone, “These sound like questions we could get the answers to if we turned around and asked.”
Nicole burst into angry laughing, crying tears. “My mother is not dead.” My mother is not dead. She repeated the words in her head as they birthed even more unwelcome realizations. “She just didn’t want me, either. I liked her better when she was dead.”
They cleared the gate and Jeff took several random turns in case anyone was following. No one was. “Where do you want me to drive to?”
There was really only one place left to go. “Take me to Stephan’s office building.”
Jeff glanced back at her in his rearview mirror. “I’m not sure you should go like this.”
The cold anger bubbling in Nicole’s stomach left no room for debate. She had to know. “Dominic said Stephan had another reason to help me—a reason that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with getting back at Dominic.”
Jeff asked, “And you think he’s going to tell you?”
Nicole folded her arms across her chest. “Oh, he’ll tell me. I’m going to wring the truth out of that bastard.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Nicole must be really good in bed, because you, my friend, have become delusional.”
“Leave Nicole out of this.” Stephan hissed. “Can you remove the virus? I don’t care how much it costs, is the process reversible?”
“I don’t think you get what I’m telling you. I don’t want to reverse it. I bugged his system to become famous within the world of hackers—within the world of anonymous hackers. Not to become infamous for being stupid enough to try to get back into that program to undo it. This isn’t a game. There isn’t an off switch.”
“Things have changed. I can’t go through with this anymore.”
“Nothing has changed for me. When Dominic uploads his software next month, it’s going to be so full of server issues he’ll be the laughingstock of the software community. And I will be set for life.”
“I can’t let you do it.”
“It’s too late, Stephan. It’s done, and I’m not taking the fall because your dick found your conscience for you. Don’t call me again. If I get caught, you’re the one who will pay the price. I’m the little guy in this drama. Who do they want splashed across the news for being put in prison? Some computer geek no one knows . . . or you, Stephan? Think about it. If we’re caught, I’ll probably end up working for some government agency, helping them look for software vulnerabilities, while you rot in jail. Don’t call me again.”
The phone line went dead.
Stephan caught his reflection in the mirror across the room and hated what he saw. How had he gotten to this place? When had saving the environment and then his family turned into this?
He’d become the man he had set out to destroy.
If only Nicole had been as cunning and contemptible as he’d once thought her to be, he could have walked away from her at the end of this. But, no. She had to be the kind of woman a man feels he must protect—even from himself.
She didn’t really hate her brother, and that made what he had done so much worse.
He was going to have to tell her.
Somehow.
Nicole was finished with the lies. Finished with the games. Either Stephan had feelings for her, or he didn’t.
She stormed into his office.
“I love you,” she said defiantly. “I have loved you since you pestered me to go out on a date with you seven years ago. I loved you even when I thought you hated me. And these three weeks together have been some of the best times of my life. But I need to know if you are lying to me, Stephan. Is any of it real? Do you love me or is this some sick game of revenge against my brother? I need to know the truth. I deserve the truth. Dominic thinks this is all about him. Tell me he’s wrong.”
She stood before his desk, finally releasing a breath, and waited.
Nicole felt like she’d been kicked in the chest when he didn’t answer. He just sat there looking guilty as hell. “You . . . bastard. When were you going to tell me?”
He lifted an awkward shoulder. “It didn’t matter in the beginning why I said yes, did it? You were using me as much as I was using you.”
“And what exactly did being engaged to me get you?” He almost said something, but she interrupted him. “No, I don’t want to know. I’m done with all of it. You, my brother, all the lies. I can’t handle all the lies.”
“Nicole, I—”
“What? Are you going to tell me that you love me, too?” She laughed without humor. “Why the hell not? Say it. Even if it’s a lie, it doesn’t matter. I don’t seem to know anyone who tells the truth.”
She spun on her heel to leave.
He beat her to the door. “Where are you going?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, but don’t pretend to care.” When he reached for her, she evaded his touch and snarled, “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me again.”
Dry-eyed, Nicole walked out of his office and took the elevator down to where Jeff and the limo were waiting. She was done crying.
“Where to?” Jeff asked.
“Aren’t you going to ask how it went?” she asked tiredly.
Pulling out into traffic, Jeff shook his head. “Not really. Nope.”
Nicole smacked the seat next to her. “Dominic was right. It was all about some stupid rivalry between the two of them. Stephan never loved me. I doubt he even cares about me. It’s all a game to them. That’s probably why Dominic kept calling me. He wanted to win and this time I was the prize.” Getting angrier the more she thought about it, she turned on Jeff. “You think you know everything. Am I right? Was this whole thing nothing more than a contest between two overinflated egos? Well? Nothing to say this time, Jeff? Where is your pithy advice?”
Jeff’s shoulders slumped a bit. “I’m sorry it turned out this way for you, Nicole. That’s it. I’m just sorry you have to go through this.”
Nicole relaxed into her seat. None of this was his fault. “Me, too, Jeff. Me, too.”
“Where is my father?” Stephan asked the uncle who greeted him an instant after a member of their house staff had announced him.
Alessandro’s easy smile was replaced by a quick look of concern, but he didn’t voice his questions. “Victor is reading in my study.”
Stephan started walking away but his uncle’s voice stopped his progress. “Stephan, I’m out here if you need me.”
If only I deserved his support.
Without turning, Stephan said, “I know. Thank you.”
Stephan stopped and stood humbly before his father’s chair, unable to meet his eyes, in a way he hadn’t since childhood—not since he’d broken a guest’s car window and gone to confess.
But this was worse.
Much worse.
“Dad¸ I need to talk to you.”
He didn’t have to tell his father how serious it was. Victor asked urgently, “What is it? Nicole? Did you two have a fight?”
Stephan met his father’s eyes with a sad shake of his head. “I wish it were that simple, Dad. I am going to tell you something that will change what you think of me.”
“Are you sure it needs to be said?” Victor laid the newspaper on the floor beside his chair.
“I have to tell someone.”
Victor stood and placed a supportive hand on Stephan’s shoulder. “It’s never as bad as we think it is.”
Oh, sometimes it is.
“I helped a hacker upload a virus to Dominic Corisi’s Chinese server. I used my connections to get his access codes.”
Victor sat down in his chair with a heavy thud, his face suddenly pinched and white.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. There was no defense for what he’d done, only an explanation. “I was angry about losing the deal and I thought he deserved it. As soon as Dominic puts his software online, he’ll lose everything.”
“Stephan.” He’d never heard such disappointment in his father’s voice, and it tore at him. “How could you do this?”
I’ve asked myself that same question a thousand times.
Stephan strode over to look out the study window, unable to see anything except his father’s pained expression, which would forever haunt him. “I don’t know, Dad. I got so wrapped up in winning that I agreed to something I knew was wrong.”
“Does Nicole know?”
It didn’t even occur to Stephan to lie. “She knows I used her to get back at her brother, but she doesn’t know more than that. No one does. There probably isn’t a way to trace this back to me.”
“So why are you telling me this, Stephan?” He’d expected his father to be angry. He was prepared for that. He didn’t know how to handle the regret he heard in his father’s voice, the unwavering love still evident in his tone.
“Because I won. I finally beat Dominic.”
“But?”
His father knew him too well.
“But I can’t live with the knowledge that I hurt Nicole by doing this. She has endured so many betrayals. She stormed into my office today and announced that she loved me. She wanted to know if I had betrayed her, too. I wanted so badly to say I hadn’t, but I had. I tried to undo what I’ve done, but it’s too late. I’m no better than her family was to her. She came to me for help and I used her.” Stephan turned and looked his father in the eye.
The two remained motionless and silent until Stephan couldn’t bear it anymore. He said, “Say something, Dad. Say anything.”
The older man rubbed one of his knees absently as if trying to ease an old pain. “I wish I knew what to say. I wish none of this were my fault.”
Stephan’s head shot back in response to the distasteful idea. “Your fault? None of this is your fault. You’re the kind of man I wish I were.”
His proud father shook his head sadly. “No, Stephan. We all have our flaws. Mine are becoming clearer to me with age.”
“What are you saying, Dad?”
Victor stood and faced his son. “You were a good son, Stephan. You did everything I asked when you were young. I thought you would take over the company when you were old enough, but after college, I saw you drifting away to California. Drifting away from me, the family, the business. All you cared about was making films with your friends. I saw no future in that.”
“It’s okay, Dad. That was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
His father’s face tightened with anger. “No, it does matter. I should have let you be the man you wanted to be. You were happy in that life. Maybe you and Nicole would have married and had children by now if I had not interfered.”
“I don’t understand.”
His father continued, “The economy was taking a nosedive; I was tired. I wanted to retire and you were indifferent to the company . . . so, I approached Dominic. Andrade Solutions was already in the red. It wasn’t worth what I had hoped. Half of our family worked for me. Not like now, with Alessandro running his own business. I had convinced them all to follow me here to America and make this new life for ourselves. I had to give everyone enough money to start fresh. I owed them that. So I included Isola Santos in the deal. Dominic didn’t swindle me out of it. I sold it to him and split the money between the families.”
Stephan rocked back with shock. “Why, Dad? Why would you go to Dominic of all people?”
“He could easily afford to buy out my company, and I was angry with you. You were living your life carelessly. You’d found a woman the family adored, and you were propositioning her like some common tramp. I knew that involving her brother would end it between the two of you.” He looked away. “I wanted you to grow up.”
“All this time, I blamed Dominic . . .”
His father suddenly looked older. “I know. In the beginning, I thought having an adversary would be good for you. And for a while, it was. You moved home, and before I knew it you’d started your own computer company. I had no idea how strongly you and Dominic would clash, and by the time I realized you had genuinely cared for Nicole, it was too late.”
Stephan swayed beneath the news. This changed everything. He’d spent seven years obsessing over an event that had never happened. Dominic hadn’t stolen anything.
And more importantly—Nicole was innocent.
What have I done?
“I am sorry, Son. This is my fault.”
“No,” Stephan said. He was a better man because of his time with Nicole. He could hear her voice in his head. You’re thirty-one years old, Stephan, time to take responsibility for your own mistakes.
Stephan said, “You may have set this in motion, Dad, but I could have let Nicole explain back then instead of driving her off with my accusations. I could have stopped this obsession at any time over the last seven years. I did this. I took it too far.”
Victor asked softly, “You do love Nicole, don’t you?”
Truth was the antiseptic this entire situation required—even if it stung. “Yes, but our engagement was just a cover, Dad.”
“I know. Alessandro finally told me.”
“How did he know?”
Maddy.
“If you all knew it wasn’t true, why did everyone play along?” It didn’t make any sense.
Victor answered with a one-shoulder shrug. “Nicole is the kind of woman we’d all like to see you with. She’s got a heart the size of Italy and anyone who has been around the two of you for even a second can see you’re crazy about each other.”
Stephan slumped a bit in defeat. “She’s gone, Dad. I screwed up and lost her.”
Resting a supportive hand on his son’s shoulder again, Victor said, “That doesn’t sound like the son I know. You’ve never given up on anything you cared about.”
Stephan met his father’s eyes. “This isn’t something I can simply apologize for.”
His father nodded. “You’re right. How much are you willing to risk to get her back?”
Anything. Everything.
“I could go to jail for this, Dad.”
His father squeezed his shoulder. “That’s true and that’s why I can’t tell you what to do here. I won’t betray your secret, no matter what you decide.”
Stephan bit back a question. The answer didn’t really matter an
yway.
Victor caught his son’s expression and asked, “What do you want to know, Stephan?”
The question jumped out of him. “Why aren’t you yelling at me that I’ve ruined everything? We’ll never get Isola Santos back now.”
Shaking his head, Victor said, “Stephan, you think our legacy is really a rock in the ocean? How we treat our wives, our children . . . even our enemies—that is our legacy. You did something you never should have done, but you still have time to fix it. I don’t want to see you go to jail, Stephan, but I fear for who you will become if you don’t make this right.”
Stephan straightened and announced, “I have to stop the virus from taking down Dominic’s server.”
His father nodded slowly.
Stephan hugged his father tightly. He had never had more respect for his father than he did at this moment. Any good Stephan had left in him was because of the strength and integrity of the man who had raised him. If he survived this folly, Stephan was going to spend the rest of his life trying to live up to his example.
“Where are you going?” his father asked when Stephan stepped away from him.
Stephan paused at the door, not turning back from his course. “I’m going to see Dominic. He’s the only one who can stop this now.”
As he walked out the door, he heard his father say, “Now, that is my son.”
Chapter Twenty
Nicole sat in her father’s old leather chair behind his huge mahogany desk.
How did I get here? There must have been a time when I was happy.
She remembered back to before her mother had left, a time between her father’s fits of anger when she’d visited him here with her mother. She’d been so proud of her strong father. He’d commanded those around him like a king, and this chair had been his throne, one that he’d let her climb into and use to reach the intercom to order a glass of milk from the secretary. No, she hadn’t always been miserable.
That revelation didn’t provide the answers she desperately needed.
Why would her mother come back now and where had she been all this time?