“I’ll make sure of it because there’s no way in hell I’m letting you touch it.” Noah tried to contain the rage, but it got the better of him. “I’ll protect Annabelle and all that’s hers. I run this ranch. I’ve been here with her from day one.”
“The paperwork is in order, signed by a judge,” Tom added.
For the first time, Roxy spoke up. “What happens if I refuse to move to the ranch?”
Everything in him went still. He never considered she wouldn’t want her piece of the ranch.
Part of him wanted her to walk away.
Buried under his anger, he conceded she was entitled to claim what belonged to her by blood.
“Noah and Annabelle will split your share. Noah will be granted sole guardianship of Annabelle.”
Lisa glared at Tom. “That’s ridiculous. She’s fifteen. She can’t live with a grown man who isn’t even related to her.”
Tom cleared his throat. “John felt Annabelle would be better off with two adults in her life, a man and a woman raising her. A judge agreed.”
The hard truth sank in. In the eyes of the law, Annabelle was his sister. However, if Lisa pulled out a DNA test, the courts would know that Annabelle wasn’t John’s child either. John must have suspected that Lisa would try to take Annabelle back to get control of her inheritance, and if Noah had to go up against Annabelle’s mother alone, he’d have a harder time convincing a judge to let him, a bachelor with no kids and no blood relationship with her, be her guardian. Not when her mother was around. But John’s adopted son and his daughter fighting for custody of their sister all with their father’s blessing . . . They stood a chance.
“Annabelle, may I have a word with you in the other room?” Roxy asked.
Noah leaned forward. “Roxy, you have no idea of the circumstances . . .”
Roxy held up her hand to stop his next words. “I have a very good idea of the circumstances. After all, I know what it feels like to be abandoned by a parent.”
That shut Noah up and canceled out some of his anger. He really had no idea what happened to make John stay away from his own daughter all these years.
“You don’t know anything,” Lisa spat out as Roxy walked out of the room without commenting.
Chapter Eleven
Roxy stood in the living room, waiting for Annabelle to follow her out, and took in the garish burgundy-and-gold-patterned sofa. The chairs, covered in some expensive silk fabric, made her eyes hurt. Nothing in the room looked comfortable. In fact, the room appeared unused. Too bad, it had a beautiful marble fireplace. Large windows overlooked the side yard garden and fountain. Though the crystal lamps were beautiful and cast a soft glow over the room, the wall color looked like putty, tan with a tinge of green. Yuck.
“Um, you wanted to talk to me.” Annabelle stepped into the room, her hands clasped in front of her.
“I do. You’re very pretty,” Roxy said to break the ice.
Annabelle’s black dress was simple with cap sleeves, fitted over her softly rounded breasts and down her torso to her waist, where the skirt flared out and dropped to just below midthigh. The perfect dress for someone so young. Her blond hair hung to the middle of her back. Rhinestone clips held the sides away from her peaches-and-cream face. She wore the barest amount of makeup with a swipe of clear lip gloss on her lips. The resemblance to her mother ended with the attributes she couldn’t change.
Lisa’s makeup was overdone, her lipstick a deep wine to accentuate her full lips. Her hair was curled and tousled, cut short to just below her chin. Roxy guessed she was going for the sexy “just tumbled out of bed” look. Her too-tight clothes and ostentatious jewels simply said, I’m trying too hard to show you I’ve got money to burn. I want every man after me and every woman to wish she could be me. Again, Roxy knew the type all too well.
“Thanks,” Annabelle responded, but not like she really cared one way or the other.
“You look like your mother.”
“I’m nothing like her.” Annabelle’s direct gaze dared her to contradict that defensive statement.
Roxy laughed, enjoying Annabelle’s spirit. “I know what you mean. It still pisses me off when people assume that because I look like my mother, I must be just like her.”
For the first time since entering the room, Annabelle relaxed her rigid shoulders. They faced off over the gold-leaf-metal-and-marble coffee table. “I don’t know what your mother looks like, but to me, you look like John. It’s the eyes. That same strange golden color.”
“The eyes, skin, and hair color are him. The rest”—she swept her hand down her lush curves that many men and women coveted—“pure Candy.”
“Your mother’s name is Candy?”
“It’s been Candy since she was sixteen years old, ran away from home, and moved to Vegas. But that’s not what I want to talk to you about. I’m going to ask you something and I want an honest answer. Not what you think I want to hear, or what you think Noah expects you to say, but the truth.”
“Okay.” Annabelle’s wariness returned.
“Do you want to live with your mother?”
Annabelle’s mouth scrunched. “John left me a lot of money, didn’t he? I mean, I know we’ve lived a good life—there never seemed to be any kind of financial issues. The ranch does really well from what I’ve heard.”
“None of that answers my question.” Roxy waited for the girl to get to the point.
Annabelle turned to the six-foot-tall windows and stared out.
Roxy gave in to the girl’s need to talk out her thoughts. “I don’t know the financial situation with the ranch. I’ll go over the accounts when I have time. Based on what I’ve seen and the money John sent to me over the years, I’d say you’ll probably never have to worry about money.”
Annabelle glanced over her shoulder. “Even though I only got twenty percent?”
“Yes.” Roxy didn’t hear any disappointment in Annabelle’s voice, so answered the question directly and didn’t ask if she felt cheated.
“My mother wants to control that money. If I go with her, she’ll probably spend it all before my eighteenth birthday.”
“While a judge might grant your mother custody, it’s unlikely he’d give her control of your inheritance because it’s tied to the ranch, which Noah and I will run. But if she did gain control of the money, she can’t spend it all. Most of the money is probably tied up in this house, the property and buildings, and the horses. I don’t know if John owned anything else, but your mother can’t spend what isn’t liquid.”
Annabelle’s eyebrow shot up. “Huh?”
“Cash. She can’t make Noah and me sell the house or other assets to get more cash. So even if she burned through your cash, you’d still have other assets to your name.”
“Um, okay. So, if I stay here, you and Noah will be my guardians?”
“Yes.”
Annabelle turned and faced her again, studying Roxy intently. “You’ll have to move here and live with us.”
“Yes.”
“If you don’t, Noah will be my only guardian and my mother will have a better chance of taking me away from him.” An unspoken question underscored Annabelle’s statement.
“Yes.” Roxy didn’t offer any other information. This had to be Annabelle’s decision. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
Annabelle asked her own. “Do you even want to live here with us?”
I don’t know. She’d always wanted John to want her to live with him. This wasn’t what she had in mind. She had her own life, and now that he was gone, he gave her what she’d always wanted but not the way she wanted it. She didn’t want it to be like this. “If I want my inheritance, I have to.”
“That didn’t answer my question,” Annabelle shot back.
Roxy smiled. Annabelle reminded her of herself when she was much younger. At fifteen, Annabelle didn’t have half the life experience Roxy had at that age, but she did have a good head on her shoulders and was capable of so
mething most teenagers couldn’t accomplish—she thought about someone other than herself.
“I will live here on the ranch.” The certainty in her words surprised her. Roxy hadn’t really had time to think about John’s request and what it would mean to her life. But she wouldn’t leave Annabelle if she didn’t want to go with her mother. Not like John left her with a mother she didn’t want to live with.
“Listen, Annabelle, as guardian, I’ll expect you to go to school and get good grades. I’ll oversee your life like a parent. I’ll be responsible for the things you do and the choices you make. If I think you’re not making good choices, you’ll hear about it. If I think you’re being a snotty brat, you’ll hear about it. You don’t know me, but take this to heart, I won’t put up with any BS.”
“So you’re a hard-ass, who’s going to ride me unmercifully, like Noah.”
“I don’t know Noah, or anything about the relationship you two share. All I can say is, you do the right thing, and I’ll back you one hundred percent. When you do well, I’ll be there to cheer you on. Screw up, and I’ll be all over you.”
“Sounds just like Noah.” Annabelle expressively rolled her eyes with her arms folded across her chest.
“Then you know what to expect. Let’s go back inside and you can tell Noah it’s settled.”
“I never answered your question.”
“Yes, you did.” Roxy closed the distance and stood close.
“I want to stay with Noah. This is my home. My mother can make things really hard, and she’d make Noah’s life a living hell to get her way.” It sounded just like her and John’s relationship with Candy. Which is why John wanted her to protect Annabelle.
“So for Noah’s sake, you’d go with her, even though you’d regret it and you hate her.”
An immediate rush of denial filled Annabelle’s eyes, but Annabelle held her tongue.
“Don’t worry, it’s not a mortal sin to hate your mother. Believe me, I know. Remember one thing,” Roxy began.
“What?”
“Don’t ever put someone else’s happiness before your own. Making yourself miserable won’t necessarily make the other person happy. If you went to live with your mother to save Noah the trouble of fighting for you, how do you think that would make him feel?”
“Angry. Maybe sad.”
“Right, so you’d be unhappy, he’d be angry and sad, and the only person who’d be happy is your mother as she tries to get her hands on your inheritance. Think about the decisions you make and how they affect you and the people around you. Make good choices for you.”
“What if there are only bad choices?”
“Make the best choice of the bad and work to find something better. This is your life, Annabelle. If you don’t stand up for yourself and ask for what you need, who will do it for you?”
Annabelle shrugged, but Roxy had made her think. In this case, Annabelle had made the right decision. Roxy hoped when faced with another difficult choice, she would do so again.
“Who decorated this room?” she asked to ease the tension and move to a less intense line of discussion.
“It’s hideous.”
“Let me guess, your mother?”
“John changed a few of the other rooms. This one is pretty bad, but it’s not as bad as my room.”
“Good lord, is it possible to decorate worse than this?”
Annabelle laughed and knocked shoulders with her.
Roxy remained unsure of how she’d manage moving to the ranch, keeping or losing her job, and harder still, dealing with Candy when she found out John left Roxy half his estate—and a teenager.
Chapter Twelve
Noah ignored Lisa’s stare and leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and running a hand through his hair in frustration. He expected John to name him guardian of Annabelle. Noah accepted the responsibility wholeheartedly. But John had gone and thrown Roxy in the mix and complicated things.
Would she stay?
His protective instinct flared to life in his chest.
She had to say yes. She’d be out of her mind to give up 50 percent share in the ranch.
Then again, maybe he was crazy for wanting her to stay. For Annabelle’s sake.
Yeah, right.
The thought of her under the same roof sent a thrill through his system that temporarily overrode his anger and surprised him with the force of it. No denying she was stunning. He still felt the zing of electricity that shot up his arm when they shook hands. The dress she wore covered her from shoulders to knees, but did nothing to hide her curvy figure.
Tom noticed, too. The man hadn’t taken his eyes off her chest, since she arrived.
Noah doubted any man could walk by Roxy and not want her.
She was going to be trouble with a capital T with so many men working on the ranch.
Great, just what he needed. Someone else to babysit besides Annabelle.
But damnit, if she refused to live on the ranch, he’d end up in court fighting a nasty battle with Lisa.
He hoped it didn’t come to that.
Frustrated, his thoughts all over the place, Noah ground the heel of his hand into his left eye and tried to massage out the headache pounding along with his heart.
“I can’t believe John would do this to you and Annabelle.” Since attacking him didn’t work, Lisa attempted to make him an ally. “This place should be yours, and he just leaves it to that woman. No one knows her. You’ve run this ranch with John since you were a boy. You can’t let her get away with this.”
He agreed with most of what she said, but he also understood John’s wishes.
God, he didn’t know if he could work with her day in and day out and not touch her. Hell, he didn’t know if he could work with her at all. The last thing he needed was another woman coming into his home and changing things, disrupting his life, and telling him how to run his ranch.
“John didn’t leave me a choice. He wanted her to live here. He gave her part of the ranch. And didn’t say a damn word to me about it.”
“He left her half. For god’s sake, Noah, the man was out of his ever-loving mind. We don’t know anything about her, and she gets half.”
Noah didn’t hear anything in that tirade that said Lisa was concerned about Roxy being legally responsible for the care of her daughter. No. Lisa didn’t want Annabelle to lose out on a bigger piece of the ranch. A piece Lisa would do everything possible to control.
“John wanted it this way,” Noah said by way of explanation. “It’s that simple.” And damn complicated for him, Annabelle, and Roxy. They were the ones who had to live with John’s decisions.
“Contest the will. He was sick longer than anyone knew. Obviously, he wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Actually,” Tom interrupted. “She’s been named in the will since she was born. John’s updated it several times over the years, like when Annabelle was born. I’ve seen all the versions my father completed. Originally, everything went to Noah. When Roxy was born, they shared the ranch sixty-forty. When Annabelle was born, John changed it to the current split.”
“I don’t care what the DNA test says, maybe we can prove she isn’t his daughter.” Lisa tried to come up with anything to change the unchangeable. John was named as the father on Annabelle’s birth certificate, but one DNA test would prove otherwise. DNA didn’t lie.
Maybe he should just pay Lisa and send her away and out of Annabelle’s life again. He could afford it. But could he afford the headache? Give Lisa an inch, she’d keep coming back until she got the whole damn mile.
“There’s a reason John didn’t want her.”
Noah’s heart squeezed with that statement. Lisa hadn’t wanted Annabelle. Not really. His biological father hadn’t wanted him. Not enough to be faithful to his pregnant wife, to stay and work it out after he was born, or to find Noah now for an adult relationship. Not even to have a beer and say he was sorry for not being there Noah’s whole life.
John wasn’
t like that. He cared enough to leave Roxy half the ranch as some sort of apology for whatever happened between them.
“Doesn’t matter,” Tom stated. “Noah and Annabelle aren’t his blood relations. Roxy is.”
Lisa opened her mouth to protest further, but Tom stopped her. “As his biological daughter, contesting the will would open the door for her to make a case against Noah and Annabelle.”
“Why would I do that?” Roxy entered the room with Annabelle. “Aside from the fact that John raised them, and this is their home, it’s just stupid. They are his family. I don’t care what the DNA says about them or me. DNA tells you where you come from, but it doesn’t say who you are.”
Noah sat back surprised by her comments. She was right, and he should remember John felt that very same way.
Roxy looked him in the eye. “Annabelle and I talked. We’ve come to terms with the whole guardianship, and she understands I take that responsibility seriously. She wants to stay with us on the ranch.”
Noah didn’t know how he felt about that us. “I never thought she wanted to leave.”
“I asked her what she wanted. As someone not given a choice where I live, I thought she might like her say.”
Noah understood her implied reprimand. John demanded she stay here to get her inheritance. More than that, he’d never asked her if she wanted to live here.
Noah should have asked Annabelle and not assumed she’d want to stay. Lisa might be a class-A bitch, but she was still Annabelle’s mother. So he gave Annabelle a choice. “Annabelle, honey, do you want to live with your mom?”
Annabelle’s eyes went wide. He hated to put her on the spot and conceded that Roxy asking her to leave the room for the private talk was a much better solution. But he needed to hear her say it.
Her eyes darted to her mother, but never really settled on her. She bit her bottom lip, and said, “I want to stay here.”
“Let’s make that happen,” Tom interjected, and pulled out the papers. “Noah, Roxy, if you’ll sign here taking over guardianship, we’ll make it official.”
Dirty Little Secret Page 6
