My One And Only

by MacKenzie Taylor

  "No, dear. He's a Montgomery. He's got the curse."

  "The curse?"

  "Oh, yes. It's genetic."

  "Deirdre, I've known this family for ten years. No one has ever told me anything as interesting as a family curse."

  "We don't discuss it often, but trust me, dear, it's real. There's not a Montgomery alive who is capable of stability."

  "Is that why Harrison never married Ethan's mother?"

  "No." Deirdre tapped one finger on her knee. "He would have married her, I think. I don't know how long they could have stayed married, but Harrison wanted to marry Lina."

  "But he didn't."

  "Father wouldn't allow it." Deirdre pursed her lips at the memory. "You never met him, Abby. You can't possibly understand what the man was like."

  "Harrison hardly ever talks about him, but I've heard things."

  "I imagine you have. There were plenty of Father's board members who were determined not to let Harrison have control of the company."

  "Your father left it to him?"

  Deirdre's laugh was harsh. "Oh, good Lord, no. First of all, Father had no intention of dying at all, much less making Harrison his heir at the company."

  "The will—"

  "There wasn't one."

  "My God, you're kidding!"

  "No." Deirdre drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. "Father seemed in good enough health when he died. Nothing could have prepared us for his heart attack."

  "What about your mother?"

  "Oh, he'd killed her years ago."

  "Deirdre!"

  The other woman waved a hand in dismissal. "Sorry. That sounded grim. What I mean is, Father had the same curse as the rest of us. He wasn't about to settle himself on one woman. But his generation did its wandering more privately, if you know what I mean."

  Yes."

  "Father went through a string of lovers. It broke Mother's heart. I think she really loved the old bastard, though I can't for the life of me figure why." She shrugged. "I suppose that's why she had five children with him. It felt like a way to keep him bound to her."

  "How did she die?"

  "She was weak, really. I never remember her being well. Mother spent most of her time in bed after Letty was born. I don't think she died as much as she just stopped living one day."

  "And that left the five of you alone with your father."

  "And the nannies. Yes. Although he did remarry briefly."

  "Constance?"

  "Harrison told you?"

  "Once."

  "Hmm. Harrison liked Connie. She was young, nearly Harrison's age then. I'm not really sure why she married Father, to tell you the truth. She never seemed particularly interested in his money."

  "Harrison still sends her a stipend."

  "Well, yes, but when Father died, she inherited everything because there was no will."

  "I've heard the gossip, but Harrison and I never talked about it."

  "Harrison doesn't like to discuss it. He and Connie struck some sort of deal. For reasons I've never been told, she was perfectly content to disappear to the house Father owned in Palm Beach, and to surrender control of the entire fortune and the company to Harrison. She signed over all her stock to him, which gave him control of MDS."

  Abby couldn't shake the feeling that something about the conversation was eluding her. It danced at the edge of her conscience like the dust mites bobbing on the periphery of her vision. "Where did Ethan's mother fit into all of this?"

  "She worked here." Deirdre narrowed her gaze. "You really don't know any of this, do you?"

  "It was Harrison's personal business. I didn't feel right about discussing it with anyone but him—and the topic has always been off limits."

  "But you want to talk about it now?"

  Since Ethan, Abby admitted to herself. Since she'd spent most of the weekend trying to figure him out. "Things are different."

  "Because of Ethan?"

  "Yes."

  Deirdre nodded. "I thought so. Just be careful."

  "Now you sound like Harrison."

  "With good reason. Lina entered the picture a couple of years before Harrison graduated from college. Father and Connie were separated by then, and she was living in Palm Beach. Harrison worked summers and holidays at MDS. That's where he met Lina. She was a secretary for someone down in Accounting, I think—or maybe it was Development. Whatever. She and Harrison met and it was one of those summer-sizzle kind of things."

  "I've heard this part of the story," Abby said. "They were practically inseparable."

  "That's one way of putting it," Deirdre drawled. "In less delicate moments, my sisters and I agreed that the two were screwing like minks."

  Abby laughed. "I'm sure Harrison appreciated that."

  "Harrison was too distracted by Lina's, er, assets to bother with the four of us."

  "And Lina was distracted by Harrison's money?"

  "That's what Father thought."

  "What about you?"

  "Well, at first, yes, that seemed logical. She was a little trashy, you know. Dressed a little wild and had the behavior to match. A far cry from the debutantes Father had picked out for Harrison's attention."

  "Maybe that's what Harrison liked about her."

  "No doubt. Lina had a reputation for being fast, easy, and cheap. She didn't really demand much of Harrison as far as we could tell. And in reality, he didn't have that much to give her. Father didn't hand us money. All we had was what we earned. Harrison was as cash-poor as any normal student— he just had a name that opened doors for him, and enough clout to get himself in trouble."

  "Or to get Lina in trouble?"

  "Or that. Lina was pregnant—not surprisingly— within a month. I knew about it first. Harrison and I were always close."

  "When did your father find out?"

  "A month later. Harrison announced that he was going to marry Lina."

  Abby's eyebrows rose. "So he did plan to marry her?"

  "Oh, yes. I'm not sure whether he thought he wanted the child, or if he just wanted to really piss Father off. But either way, he was going to marry her. I've always been sure of that."

  "Ethan thinks differently."

  "I can see why Ethan would. I doubt he ever took Harrison's word for anything."

  "Your father wouldn't allow the marriage?"

  Deirdre chortled. "You could say that. You should have heard the argument. Father was livid. First, that Harrison had done something as asinine as get Lina pregnant. And second, that he actually wanted to make the stupidity permanent by marrying her." Deirdre shrugged. "Personally, I think it would have been good for Harrison. He might have learned that standing up to Father wasn't the end of the world."

  The thought depressed Abby. "Wasn't it possible that Harrison actually cared for the woman?"

  "In his way I suppose he did." Deirdre gave Abby a shrewd look. "But Harrison is… different from the rest of us in that regard. He's not prone to passion. Only the rest of us have that affliction. Harrison is perfectly controlled all the time. How he ever managed to lose himself enough to get Lina pregnant, I'll never know." She stopped and thought that idea over. "I suppose that's why Father always believed the baby wasn't really his."

  "Did you believe it?"

  "No. Harrison was different with Lina. He seemed more relaxed. The façade was gone."

  "Less cold?"

  "You have to understand, Abby. Harrison could be positively arctic when he wanted to."

  "Like his son," Abby muttered.

  "What?"

  "Nothing. So your father said no."

  "My father bellowed no. He did everything but scream no. He told Harrison he'd cut him off if he married Lina, that he'd never recognize the child, and that he'd have Lina investigated and prosecuted on charges of extortion if he could prove that she'd slept with anyone other than Harrison in the past two months."

  Abby nodded. "So Harrison backed down."

  "In a way. To be honest, Abby, I thin
k he didn't want to know that Lina could have cheated on him. That probably played as big a role in the entire mess as his fear of Father."

  "What happened when Ethan was born?"

  "I don't know. I'm not sure Harrison does either. Lina disappeared for a while. She didn't come back until Ethan was three."

  "Ethan says she was ill by then."

  "Cancer," Deirdre confirmed. "She didn't want Ethan to live his life in foster care when Harrison could give him everything money could buy."

  But not the love he'd needed, Abby thought sadly. In contrast, her own life had been so much richer. "Harrison took them in that time?"

  "He did stand up to Father, much to everyone's surprise."

  "Surely your father wouldn't have—"

  "Yes, he would have," Deirdre said without hesitation. "I'm relatively certain Connie had something to do with it, but no one knows for sure. Harrison and Father had a ripping argument, and the next thing we knew, Lina and Ethan were living in the downtown apartment."

  "Harrison never lived with them?"

  "No. That's when things turned strange. Even by Montgomery standards." Deirdre's tone was dry. "Lina would come to the house sometimes for family events. I think she enjoyed making my father angry. She resented the hell out of him, and from what I could tell, she didn't like Harrison much either."

  "Would you have if you'd been in her shoes?"

  Deirdre shrugged. "Hard to say. I suppose it depends on what the woman's goals were. Either way, she didn't live long after that."

  "And after her death, Ethan lived with Harrison."

  "Well, not actually with him. Ethan stayed at the apartment with a nanny. He rarely saw Harrison. Father died shortly after. I doubt Ethan remembers much about him."

  That, at least, was a blessing, Abby thought. The more she heard of the story, the more confusing and disconcerting it became. How could the Harrison Montgomery who'd gone to such great lengths to provide her and her sister with desperately needed stability be the same man who'd cast aside his own child? Something didn't fit. "Things never got any better, did they?" she asked.

  "No. The gulf grew steadily wider between Ethan and Harrison, and by the time Ethan reached adolescence"—Deirdre shook her head— "well, it was already beyond redemption. Harrison had no idea how to relate to him. Ethan was very angry."

  "And hurting," Abby pointed out. "He must have taken his mother's death very hard."

  "I imagine he did." Deirdre noticed Abby's frown. "Try to understand. I know you were close to your parents, but things weren't like that for any of us. I was closer to my nannies than I ever was to my father."

  "He was lonely, Deirdre. You have to understand that."

  "Of course I do. And thank God for Letty. She's the only one of us with a maternal bone in her body."

  "Ethan is still quite close to her."

  "She mothered him as best she could, but the older Ethan got, the more bitter the feud between him and Harrison became. It wasn't long before it became obvious to all of us that to side with Ethan was to side against Harrison."

  Abby knew that feeling all too well. "So he was left alone." Again, she added silently.

  "As long as Harrison controlled the fortune—" Deirdre held out her hands in a helpless gesture. "Let's just say that no one had the nerve to cross him."

  Abby thought that over. It seemed irrepressibly sad, somehow, that Harrison's vast and sprawling family was held together by fear and avarice, while she would have given anything for just one more day with her parents. It took her less than a heartbeat to recognize why she found Ethan so irresistible. That hollow look she sometimes saw in his eyes mirrored the one she'd once seen in her own. He was still the hurting, abandoned child who'd lost his mother and experienced no love from his father, and he was desperately yearning for someone to understand him. She could no more turn away from that than she could tear her own heart out.

  The fate that had flung her into his path was the same fate that was going to break her heart, she was almost certain. Because now that she knew most of Ethan's story, she was virtually powerless to turn him away. He might hurt her in the long run, but she couldn't push him away until she'd helped him fill that hollow place.

  If she had a brain in her head, she thought wryly, she should feel some angst because she was about to topple headlong into love with a man she barely knew, a man who gave her every reason to believe he wasn't the least interested in anything other than a passing affair. Since she'd waited long enough to fall this hard for a man, she should at least have had the sense to pick one more wisely.

  But strangely, the realization brought a certain kind of freedom. Seeing her inevitable tumble into heartache made it easier to accept.

  He really was making her crazy, Abby thought as she reached for the folder on her desk. The next time she discussed Harrison or Ethan, or the history of their relationship, she wanted the dialogue to be with them. Her fierce sense of loyalty demanded it. She flipped open the folder. "Whatever's going to happen," she told Deirdre, neatly dismissing the topic, "is between Harrison and Ethan now."

  "And you're stuck right in the middle."

  Abby handed her a report from the folder. "Only if I want to be." She smiled slightly. "And believe it or not, I have other things to do today than to keep discussing the two of them. This event is three weeks away."

  Deirdre accepted the report. "I've been thinking through the options of themes," she said.

  Abby stifled a groan. It was going to be a very long day indeed.

  ten

  "How long have you known her?" Ethan asked General John Standen that afternoon at the Chicago Metropolitan Veterans Center.

  The general stroked his chin. "Well, let's see. I think I first met Abby a couple of years after her parents died." He looked at the playing cards in his hand and tossed two onto the table. "Give me two."

  Ethan handed him the cards. The man next to the general nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Abby started coming in here real regular right after they were murdered."

  "Anybody know her father?" Ethan probed, and handed the man the three cards he'd requested. Ethan had talked to his investigator that morning. Charlie had run into more roadblocks as he tried to get to the bottom of Abby's past. Frustrated, Ethan had spent a grueling morning in the hotel pool, swimming three miles of laps to clear his head and think through the puzzling information. Finally, when his body was demanding a break from the pace of his workout, he'd remembered Charlie's mention that Abby's father had fought in the Vietnam War.

  He hadn't been able to shake that thought, nor the conviction that answers lay somewhere in that piece of information. So he'd come to the Veterans Center, where he knew Abby and Rachel were both heavily invested with the residents. If anyone would have answers, it would be these men who treated her like one of their own.

  The general frowned. "Seems like everyone knew of him, but it's been a while." He gave Ethan a dry look. "Once we get here, we don't always last so much longer."

  The other two men at the table nodded their agreement. "I've been here for almost ten years," one of them said as he tossed two pennies into the kitty. "And that's longer than most."

  Ethan tapped his own cards in frustration. Though he had no reason to believe Abby was lying to him, he was sure something was missing. Instinct told him she had carefully avoided telling him the entire truth of her relationship with Harrison. He tried to gauge whether or not his suspicion about Harrison's motives for being so generous to her and to Rachel was influencing his judgment, but he didn't think so. He'd built a career out of following hunches. And this one told him that Harrison at least had knowledge of the mysterious circumstances surrounding her parents' death.

  "I knew him," said a voice from behind Ethan's shoulder.

  Ethan glanced around to see Carter Jameson sitting to his left. He'd wheeled his chair over and was regarding Ethan with a piercing gaze. "I knew Abby's father."

  The general disagreed. "You couldn't have, C
arter. You haven't been here that long."

  One of the other men nodded. "He died over ten years ago."

  Carter Jameson shook his head. "Before. I knew him before."

  Ethan studied him for a second, then tossed his cards onto the table. "I'll have to fold, gentlemen. The colonel and I have something to discuss." He rose.

  "Wheel me outside," the colonel suggested, "and I'll tell you what I know."

  It was after 2:00 a.m. when his cell phone rang. Ethan was lying in the bed of his Chicago hotel room, mentally replaying his conversation with Carter Jameson. He'd seen Abby and Rachel for dinner that night, and though the tone of the conversation had been light, he'd sensed an underlying tension in Abby. When he'd questioned her, she'd given him a vague explanation of her meeting with Harrison that afternoon. Ethan suspected that Harrison had thrown some of the same warnings at her that he'd hurled at Ethan on Saturday. The day had obviously taken a toll on her.

  When he'd kissed her good night, she'd practically clung to him, and he'd known something was seriously troubling her. Abby was definitely not a clinger. Whatever was bothering her had her uncharacteristically on edge. Against his better judgment, he hadn't pressed her for information.

  He had, however, been unable to sleep. So the jarring ring of his cellular phone made him instantly alert. He sat up and snatched it from the bedside table. Abby's number flashed on the ID screen. Frowning, he punched the Receive button. "What's wrong?"

  "Someone was here." Her voice sounded breathless.

  Ethan gripped the phone. "What?"

  "Someone tried to get into the house. He broke the window."

  He was already out of bed and reaching for his pants. "Did you call the police?"

  "Yes." She sounded terrified.

  He managed to pull his pants on and step into his shoes. "Is Rachel with you?"

  "Yes."

  "Abby, are you all right? Is Rachel all right?"

  "If I hadn't—he was coming through the window."

  "Are you all right?" he asked again.

  "I hit him in the face—he was wearing a mask."

  "Did he hurt you?"