by Jeannie Moon
INTERMIX BOOKS
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have control over and does not have any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
THE TEMPORARY WIFE
An InterMix Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
InterMix eBook edition / May 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Jeannie Moon.
All rights reserved.
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-62559-0
INTERMIX
InterMix Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group
and New American Library, divisions of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
INTERMIX and the “IM” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Special Excerpt from Unexpectedly Yours
About the Auhtor
For my dad, Frank Moon, who believed anything was possible if you believed in yourself.
Chapter 1
Very few things shocked Jason Campbell. Building a multibillion-dollar business, he’d met his share of power-hungry narcissists, and he’d never let anger influence his decisions. Until now. Now, he was pissed.
His parents’ latest scheme beat all. They had always played games with people, manipulated them for their own benefit. That was why he followed his own path and rejected his parents’ influence the minute he left home for college.
But this time . . . this time was different. They weren’t messing with a business associate or a rival at the club, they were playing with a five-year-old’s life, and Jason wasn’t going to let them win. Not this time.
He stood in the library of his parents’ home, the warm wood paneling a total contrast to the cold people who were lounging in the leather club chairs nearby. Late afternoon sun streamed in the windows, and Jason felt the pain of his sister’s death even more acutely now that he heard what they were planning to do.
“You can’t,” he said to his parents. “It’s wrong. Do you know what this would do to Molly?” His sister’s wishes had been clear, the will specific, and Jason knew exactly why Grace didn’t want Molly, his five-year-old niece, with her grandparents. It was the same reason he’d separated himself from the formidable and well-connected Will and Alicia Campbell—his parents were about as nurturing as a pair of pit vipers.
Molly was to be raised by Grace’s childhood best friend, Meg Rossi. But no matter what Grace may have wanted, that arrangement wasn’t acceptable to his parents, who’d started planning their offensive the minute the will was read. Jason knew he had to stop them.
“It’s already in the works,” said his mother. With her sleek blond bob and her perfect makeup, she sucked the olive that had been soaking in her third martini right off the toothpick. She looked anything but maternal. “I almost feel bad. She can’t afford a lawyer, so she can’t exactly put up a fight.”
“Who needs a fight?” His father blew out a stream of cigar smoke. “Nice, neat, done. Molly belongs with us. The girl means nothing. All she wants is the trust fund, anyway. Hell, she’s tried to get at our money before by going through you.”
“She wasn’t after money. Jesus, Dad.” Jason was so sick of that story. Meg was like a sister to Grace, they were inseparable, and to him, well . . . Memories of Meg came rushing back when he least expected them. Memories of how much she meant to him—of what they meant to each other.He knew she was no fortune hunter, and his father could say whatever he wanted, but it would always be a load of bullshit. He wished he’d had the nerve to tell his father that fifteen years ago. Shaking off the regrets of the past, Jason tried to focus. He had to get back to the issue at hand—his niece and his sister’s wishes
“Look, Grace knew how she wanted Molly raised. Living here wasn’t part of it.” Jason remembered the long talk he, his sister, and her husband had when Molly was born. They wanted their child to have a normal upbringing, away from the iron gates and servants of the estate. This life had been so toxic that Jason and Grace, both of whom had trust funds that could rival the GNP of a small country, had decided to make their own way in the world. Even their brother Josh, who was still in their parents’ world, worked like a dog to get ahead rather than rely on his inheritance.
His parents didn’t care, though, and they were going to snatch Molly back into this hellhole and destroy anyone who got in their way. That included his late sister’s best friend, Meg Rossi, who had been making every effort to involve the Campbells in their grandchild’s life since Grace and her husband, Mark, died in that car crash.
Molly didn’t really know his parents all that well because his sister had limited their contact to holidays and birthdays. Meg had given the Campbells more access to their grandchild than they’d ever had, and her reward was going to be a court fight that could bankrupt her.
“Darling,” his mother sniffed, “I don’t know what your sister was thinking. We are Molly’s family. Megan shouldn’t have ever been brought into this. Honestly, you’d think she’d be thankful. She’s not married, and she’s a teacher, for God’s sake. They live in a tiny little town house. The child goes to public school. This is not acceptable for anyone with Campbell blood.”
There had to be a way to stop his niece from becoming a pawn in his parents’ game, but he didn’t see how. They seemed to have every angle covered.
His analytical brain started working the problem.
Think.
“So using your reasoning,” Jason began, “if Meg were married and lived in a McMansion she’d be acceptable?”
“Well, no . . . ” His mother crossed and then uncrossed her legs while practically twisting her fingers into knots. “We’d still want Molly with us, but I’m sure the courts would view it as a more stable environment than what’s in place now. God knows how many men are there in a given week.”
A sp
asm tightened his jaw. Just the way his mother talked about Meg made him want to hit something. Meg may have been single, but he was fairly sure she didn’t have a parade of guys in and out of her place. He remembered the girl she used to be, his first love, with her bright smile and eyes that sparkled when she looked at him.
That carefree teen was long gone. He hadn’t talked to her in years, but the last time their paths crossed, Jason had noticed that Meg had become more aloof, more cynical. Of course, that could have been the effect he had on her, but he did know she worked hard, made her own way in the world, and obviously Grace entrusted her with the most precious thing in her life. Meg didn’t deserve to have her name being dragged through the mud.
His parents’ tactics didn’t surprise him, though. They always made the Rossi kids feel like second-class citizens, but Jason envied Meg’s family. While her dad managed the Campbell estate, her mother taught school. Meg and her brother and sister seemed to have everything—stability, love, and the chance to be themselves.
It was the exact opposite with him and his siblings. There was no nurturing support in his family—unless it came from a string of nannies, and his parents had done such a thorough job establishing their power base in the community, there were few people who were willing to risk getting in their crosshairs. As a result, there weren’t many close friendships, because too much could have gone wrong. There was a lot of feigned cordiality and polite indifference, but, to put it bluntly, people were scared shitless to make a wrong move around any member of his family. His father had ruined more than a few fortunes, and his mother was the queen of her social circle, moving other women around like pieces on a chess board. His parents were made for each other. They were supremely confident and felt fully entitled to do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted.
Jason wondered how they slept at night. He also wondered how they managed to raise three kids with morals. Well, maybe two. The jury was still out on his brother.
“Jay.” His father stretched his arm across the back of the chair. “You and your sister turned your backs on the family, on your legacy, and your brother may be part of the firm, but I don’t know that he’s ever going to settle down long enough to produce an heir. Molly gives us the chance to pass on what it means to be a Campbell. Don’t get in the way of this. You’ll regret it if you do.”
It took a bit, but when his father’s words registered, he felt his blood pressure start to rise. “Are you threatening me?”
Puffing on his cigar, his father’s mouth turned up at the corners. “I don’t think I’d call it a threat. Consider it a friendly warning.”
There was a protracted silence, and Jason was sure his father, always so fucking cocksure of everything, felt that familiar thrill of victory.
Not this time. “Well, thanks for the warning, Dad, but I’m good.”
“I guess, but let me explain things to you, boy. You tech guys may be cutting-edge and all, but I could buy that company of yours and still have enough money left over to do it again.”
That was the long and short of it, right there. It was all about buying and selling. Money. Power. The fact was, Will Campbell probably could have bought his son’s company, but he wouldn’t know what to do with it. Jason had two PhDs from MIT in computer systems and security. His firm designed software and operating systems that kept hackers from breaching banks and investment firms. Firms like his father’s. So while Will could buy Jason’s company and not think twice about the cost, Jason could take down the server at his father’s firm with one well-placed virus. He wouldn’t know what hit him.
He had to do the same with protecting Molly. There had to be a strategy, something he was missing. Something that could protect his niece and give Meg Rossi the support she needed to fight his parents.
And then it hit him. Something so simple, he almost laughed. Something his parents would never see coming. The only problem would be Meg. Somehow he had to get her to trust him, and he didn’t know if she would. Ever. He’d broken her heart into a million pieces when she was only sixteen; getting her to put her faith in him wasn’t going to be easy.
***
“They’re trying to take her away from me.”
Megan Rossi twisted her fingers while her sister Caroline rubbed her back. Meg should have known the Campbells wouldn’t respect their daughter’s will. They didn’t respect anything or anyone. And now they wanted Molly, and there was no way to stop them.
Caroline had come over as soon as Meg was served with the papers petitioning for full custody. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything she could do. As brilliant as her sister was, Meg needed a lawyer, not an engineer.
“Do you think they’ll go through with it? I mean, they’ve been threatening for months, but it’s not like you’ve kept Molly from them.”
Caroline was being logical, but there was nothing logical about what was happening. This was about control. In short, the Campbell family took what they wanted and never thought twice about it.
Meg had firsthand experience with that. “How am I going to fight this? They probably have ten lawyers on their payroll, each one dirtier than the last. I bet they’ve been gathering information since the day the will was read.”
Feeling overwhelmed, one tear dropped from her eye, and then another, and soon her sister was hugging her close. The grief was swamping her, the guilt that she wouldn’t even be able to carry out her best friend’s wishes was crushing her soul. Missing Grace was bad enough, but losing Molly now would be unbearable.
“All Grace wanted was for Molly to be raised in a normal home, not living the life of an heiress. Not being raised by the staff. Their argument is that since I’m not giving her a stable home, her family is better equipped to deal with her.”
“How are you not stable? You’re a teacher, a great job for a woman with a child, you’re well educated, you took every dime you had to buy your own home so she could have a nice place to live and go to good schools. I don’t get it.”
“They say they’re worried about how I will provide for her. There’s also been a lot of talk about security.”
“Security? What kind of security?”
“The little munchkin has a hefty trust fund. My Home Protect alarm system doesn’t quite equal the security on the estate.”
“Yeah, well, there were armed guards on the estate. I think that surpasses most home security,” Caroline said.
Meg nodded. There may have been an occasional pass by the local police, but no armed guards near her place.
There were other things, too, but what it all boiled down to was that they thought Meg wasn’t good enough to raise their granddaughter. They’d always hated that their precious Grace was best friends with the estate manager’s daughter. They’d tolerated it, thinking the relationship would burn out, but it never did. They weren’t about to let anything continue with Molly, no matter what the will said.
“I can’t lose her, I just can’t. But there’s nothing to stop them. You know what Mrs. Campbell said the last time Molly was there? That my single lifestyle was troubling them. They’re worried I have strange men in the house.”
“You? You just started seeing someone after, like, three years—ever since you dumped that banker. What was his name?”
“Eric.” Eric the asshole. “The point is, they’re even using the fact that I’m thirty and unmarried against me.”
“So if you had a husband they’d back off?”
“Maybe. But that’s not happening. Not any time soon.”
“I don’t know about that,” Caroline said. “Grant would marry you in a heartbeat.”
Meg sighed. Grant. The adorable and oh-so-sweet phys ed teacher she’d started seeing just a couple of months ago. They’d been friends since she started at Shore Primary School, but recently their relationship was starting to progress to a not-so-casual place. She liked him, but it was still too soon to think about marriage.
“What am I going to do, Carly?”
Meg
wiped at her eyes, but the tears kept coming and coming. Her sister’s arm stayed securely around her, but there was little anyone could do to console her. Caroline had offered up her savings, but she needed more than money. However absurd it might be for her to admit, she needed the security of a home and family for Molly. Only then might a judge look favorably on her retaining custody.
Thank God Molly was sleeping better, because the last thing she needed was to see her Aunt Meg so upset. The little girl had been through so much, and Meg had spent the better part of the last eight months seeing Molly through her loss. Settling her into her new home, her new school, and a new routine had been tough enough, but helping her through the grief was heartrending.
The nightmares had been the worst. For three solid months she had woken up screaming for Mommy and Daddy, and there was no consoling her. However, the past few months had been better, and while Molly still had dreams about her parents, the terror was gone.
In helping Molly, Meg healed also. She came to accept the loss of the woman who had been a sister of the heart since they were only eight years old. For twenty-two years they’d shared everything, and now Meg had the most precious thing in Grace’s life, but she didn’t have Grace.
Moving through the grieving process was different when you were helping someone else through it, too.
“Meg, you know we’ll all do what we can. Mom, Kevin, and I will help you through this.”
Meg nodded. She was thankful she had her family. Her brother played professional baseball and lived across the country, but she knew when he heard about this he’d be back here with a Louisville Slugger in hand to crack heads. He’d also be the one she’d ask to hire a lawyer.
But none of this solved the problem she had with her life. She was a teacher who didn’t make the kind of money she needed to fight the Campbells and their lawyers, and she wasn’t married, something that was going to be a factor in any argument in court. If she’d been related to the Campbells it might be different, but she wasn’t. Things hadn’t changed. She was still the house manager’s daughter, nothing more.