“Primrose told you about me and Trey,” Violet said, wrapping her hands around her elbows in a loose self-embrace. “She chooses now not to keep a secret.”
Primrose must have told Violet that Poppy knew, though she couldn’t have revealed how the transference of information had come about. It was somewhat odd to be discussing Violet’s secrets while keeping Primrose’s. Still, it wasn’t just about Primrose. Preston might not want the whole household knowing what he’d done with the middle Granger Girl.
If Violet knew how the news had been spread, that it started with Primrose and Preston in bed, she’d be less surprised about their sister exposing the truth.
“I know you didn’t want the world to know your business.”
“I don’t care about the world,” Violet said, spinning around to glare. “The whole world knows my business because of you and Holden.”
“No,” Poppy said, shaking her head. “Nothing ever happened between us. You have to believe me.”
“He stood up there in front of the whole world and humiliated me because of you.”
“No,” Poppy said, shocked that her sister could still believe anything romantic had ever occurred between her and Holden. “Yes, he wanted to humiliate you. He did that because he found out about you and Trey. You know it’s true. Didn’t Trey ask you not to go through with it?”
“They’re fighting over some business deal, putting me in the middle,” Violet snapped, her frustration showing. “I wouldn’t give either of them information on the other. Though, of course, both of them accused me of it. Every time something went wrong in negotiations or…” She paused to inhale through her nose. “I don’t give a damn about their stupid businesses. Mom always taught me not to get involved, that it was best just to listen and agree, so that’s what I did.”
But their professional rivalry had spilled into their personal lives. Violet had been an easy target for the brunt of their frustrations.
“I was never with Holden. I had no idea he was going to say what he said at the altar.” Her sister didn’t seem to believe her and raised her chin in a disbelieving scoff. Poppy got closer to rest a hand on her forearm. “They didn’t believe you and took out their frustrations on you. Don’t do the same to me.” Surprised, Violet blinked. “I love Turner. Think about it. If I had any interest in Holden, why wouldn’t I be with him now?”
“You can sleep with a man, lead him on, and not actually want a relationship.”
“True. But what would my motivation be? I haven’t taken money from him. Grammie wouldn’t deny us anything if cash was what I wanted. If I wanted to hurt you, why would I deny it? The truth is, I always did my best to hide how much I disliked the guy. I never thought he was good enough for you. As long as I thought you were happy, I was willing to go along with it. But this isn’t happy.”
“No,” Violet murmured. “This isn’t happy.”
“None of us are happy here. We’re prisoners because he’s put us under siege. We have to get out from under him, to show that we’re not willing to be part of his twisted game.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Sort of,” Poppy said, her hand descending to her side. “You know he’s coming here tonight?” Violet nodded. “We should put it to him, everything we know. We tell him we know it’s all a lie, everything he’s sold to the press. We threaten to tell the media the truth of his motivation.”
Shaking her head, Violet took a step back. “About the affair? No. You can’t tell the world that I was unfaithful.”
“You just said that you didn’t care about the world. Right now, Holden is controlling the narrative that’s out there. The press won’t enjoy being manipulated and used, especially not for his financial gain. Holden Abernathy does not need any help in business… Does Trey love you?”
Startled by the question, it took Violet a second to pull her composure back. “I don’t know.”
“Has he told you he does?”
Violet squirmed. “I can’t think about being with Trey. I’ve barely seen him since the wedding… If we were suddenly together…”
“If you were suddenly together, what? People would suspect you had a relationship? The world, which you said you didn’t care about, doesn’t know how many times he’s been over here or how he’s been supporting you. You and Trey were an item for years. There’s no rule against rekindling an old relationship. You must still have feelings for each other.”
“It’s complicated.”
Poppy smiled. “I like hiding behind that excuse when things get tough too. I won’t patronize you with advice about love, I’m still figuring out how to live with it in my reality. What I will say is if Trey does love you, if this has woken him up to what it would be to live without you, he’ll support whatever you decide.” Though Poppy could see her sister’s conflict, it was clear Violet wasn’t yet convinced. “Every time Holden makes a statement to the press or cooks up one of his schemes, he uses me to humiliate you further. He’s using you to manipulate Trey. Exploiting this family and the people we care about for his own gain. And we’re letting him get away with it.”
“I can’t tell Daddy. I can’t.”
That was the crux of it. Their father had high expectations of his girls, but more than that, he saw it as his duty to protect them. Something he couldn’t feel he was doing particularly well during the whole siege situation.
“I bet Tiller knows,” Poppy said.
Violet was struck by another moment of shock. “How could he?”
“He always knows everything about us and keeps our secrets. We could talk to him, he might help with Daddy.”
“The whole world will know,” Violet said, squeezing her hands tighter around her elbows.
The whole world, as far as the eldest Granger Girl was concerned, really consisted of their parents. They were who she worried about. Being the oldest, she’d always been put on a pedestal by their mother and father. It wouldn’t be easy to confess she hadn’t lived up to their expectations.
“Everyone will support you,” Poppy said, taking Violet’s hands from her elbows to give them a comforting squeeze. “No one is perfect. Grammie is wild for anything connected to passion and love. You might think I’m the kooky one of our generation, but we all have her blood… The first step is getting Holden off our tails. After that, maybe you and Trey will have the space to explore whatever is between you.” Tightening her twisted smile, Poppy leaned closer to whisper, “You’ll be free and you don’t need a man, none of us do. Do what’s right for you, Violet. I’ll stand with you, always.”
“Me too,” Primrose said, drawing both of her sisters attention to where she stood just inside the open doors. “Poppy is right. I know you don’t want to tell Mom and Dad, but Dad will be able to help. Tiller will mobilize and we’ll ruin Holden as a family. I don’t care how much money he has or how powerful he thinks he is, he doesn’t have what we have…” Primrose walked over to join them. “We have family.”
The Maddox family had been a wonder to Poppy. The way they came together and supported each other, their close bonds, and unwavering love, humbled her. The Grangers didn’t seem to have that, not at first glance. Maybe having the Maddoxes around had influenced them to be less reserved and to be more honest about how they felt for each other. Or it could just be a desperate situation and they didn’t have much choice except to trust each other.
Primrose pulled both her and Violet into a hug, something the three of them hadn’t done of their own volition probably since their days playing with fairies in the grove. If it all went wrong with Holden, Poppy could find herself the focus of blame for coming up with the plan to take the fight to him. But they had to do something. Whatever happened, she’d have Turner. He’d give her every bit of himself, every ounce of his strength. No matter what, they’d get through.
TWENTY-THREE
“Just you and your sisters?” Charley asked.
Seated on Charley’s bed while her friend got ready for dinner, Poppy
was already dressed, though she couldn’t say she was ready.
“And my dad,” Poppy said. “And Preston and Tiller.”
“And you’re not freaking out?” The long pause without an answer took Charley’s focus from the mirror and the lip gloss. “You know you can handle anything.”
Inhaling, Poppy nodded. “I’m worried about Violet more than anything. I think his focus will land on her. But this was my idea, I don’t want her to be punished for it.”
“Guy’s an asshole,” Charley said, returning to her makeup. “I hope he comes for you, I really do. Turner will flatten him.”
From being annoyed about the relationship, Charley sure was coming to terms with it fast. Poppy felt blessed by that; Charley’s support meant the world to her.
“As hot as I might find that…” Poppy said, smiling at the brief expression of revulsion Charley’s reflection cast her way. “I don’t want that either. Holden has proved he doesn’t take humiliation lightly.”
“This is a big estate,” Charley said, stepping back to admire her makeup, though she was distracted by her hair. “We could just murder him and bury his body.”
Poppy exhaled a laugh. “Good plan, that won’t raise suspicion at all. CEO of a multibillion dollar company goes missing after last being seen entering the property of the family he’s been harassing for weeks. Nothing odd about that, right?”
“With the number of people we have here, we can all back each other up.”
The courts would never believe it. “It would be like an Agatha Christie whodunit.”
Spinning around, Charley raised her arms. “That would be fun.” She ran her fingers down through her hair. “This better work out tonight, if I don’t get my color done soon, I’ll lose maximum impact.”
“I can have a colorist here tomorrow,” Poppy said, leaving the bed to go over to her friend. “I’m so happy you’re here, Charley. I feel so much saner when you’re around.”
“If I’m your sanity, we’re in more trouble than I thought.”
Charley pulled her into a hug. It was nice just to appreciate a simple gesture. Especially when just a few days ago, she hadn’t been sure her friend would ever accept her again.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Turner said.
His unexpected comment interrupted their embrace. Poppy opened her eyes to see a reflection of him standing in the doorway.
“We’re having a moment,” Charley said. “Go away and leave us alone.”
Turner came striding toward them. “Have a moment later. The fucker just came through the gates.” With a hand on each of their shoulders, he separated them. “I’ve been looking for you all over.”
Although he was talking to her, Charley responded. “You didn’t look very well,” she said. “If Poppy wasn’t in your room, where else did you think she’d be?”
“Talking to my girlfriend here, Shrimp,” Turner said. “Don’t need your input.”
Charley’s hands rose to her hips. “Apparently you do. You’re going to be at this meeting thing with the asshole?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Charley said to her brother and stepped in close to point at his face. “You better look after her. This Holden guy is a piece of work and I don’t think his balls are big enough to actually stand up to any of the men. If he gets in her face—”
“You think I need you to tell me how to deal with him?”
“Yeah, I do,” Charley said. “Because you’ve known about this forever. Way longer than the rest of us. If you really loved Poppy—”
“Okay,” Poppy said, stepping into the narrow space between the siblings. “We’re fighting battles on enough fronts already. We shouldn’t be fighting them with each other too. Charley…” She gave her friend another quick hug. “I love you for defending me. If tonight doesn’t work, we’ll try it your way.”
As Poppy left her friend’s embrace, she backed up against Turner, hoping he’d take the hint and begin to retreat.
He stayed put. “I love you, Shrimp.”
The younger woman was more suspicious than surprised. “I’ll still think you’re a jerk if Poppy gets hurt again.”
“I will be,” Turner said. “And it won’t happen.”
He took her hand and led her out of the room and down the stairs, but stopped about halfway to turn to her.
“What is it?” Poppy asked when he didn’t say anything. Laying a hand on his cheek, her concern rose. “You don’t have to come in with me. If you want to go to dinner with your family—”
“I won’t let you down,” he said, hooking an arm around her waist to pull her against him. “I’m trying to figure out how to convince you that you don’t need to be there.”
“What?”
“He shouldn’t have the right to look at you, much less breathe the same air as you. Charley is right, I should’ve done something about this as soon as you told me.”
“What could you have done?” she asked, appreciating the sentiment though it was unnecessary. “You didn’t even know you loved me until a week ago.”
Her feelings had been apparent to her since the beginning. Even though Turner had fought his, she suspected he’d had an inkling that she meant more to him than his consciousness would admit. In spite of that, neither of them had been in a position to do anything about Holden’s insanity. Anyway, it hadn’t reached fever pitch—not counting the declaration at the altar—until he’d put out the ridiculous bounty.
So much made sense now that Poppy was aware of Violet’s affair. At least she could take solace that she wasn’t crazy. Holden’s confession of love had been unexpected, completely out of the blue, but it hadn’t been about her. She hadn’t missed any mixed signals or led him on without knowing. Holden was using her, probably like he’d used Violet to get closer to the family fortune.
“Do you trust me to go in there alone?” Turner asked.
Dinner, for the majority of the family, was taking place in the dining room as usual. Rather than invite Holden to join them, the new information had led to a change of plan. They were supposed to be meeting with Holden in the drawing room, at the other end of the house.
“My father only just found out about this today,” she said. “I don’t know how he took the news, it was just Violet and my mom in there with him when he learned the truth.”
“Pres will be at this thing with the asshole.”
“Yes,” she said, coiling her arms around his neck. “You want to support me, but I want to support you too. We should do this together.”
“If Abernathy speaks to you, if he so much as looks at you… Candy-Cane, I’m not sure I trust my restraint. He’s put you and your family through so much… Pres is used to keeping his shit together in front of these Richie Rich types, he’ll watch my back.”
But if she went in there and Holden focused his wrath on her, an army wouldn’t have the strength to hold Turner back. As Poppy considered his request, Primrose suddenly came rushing into the first floor hallway, pausing when she noticed them on the stairs.
“Daddy’s going crazy,” Primrose said.
Going around Turner, Poppy hurried down the stairs with him just at her back. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Primrose said, hurrying through the gallery to cross the width of the house. “He told me and Violet to wait in the library. We’re sitting there and next thing we just hear Daddy shouting.” She stopped in the rounded hallway outside both the drawing room and library. “What should we do? Should we go in?”
It was strangely quiet, eerily quiet in fact. Poppy caught a glimpse of the pale Violet standing in the middle of the library. She didn’t know what to do. If her father had asked the women not to go in, Poppy didn’t want to disrespect him, especially while he was no doubt feeling so raw about the whole situation.
Without really thinking, her gaze appealed to Turner.
Stroking her hair, he pulled her in for a quick kiss then nudged her toward the library. “Wait in ther
e, all three of you.”
Protecting sisters was his specialty and Primrose definitely didn’t need to be told more than once. She took Poppy’s hand and dragged her into the library. Before Poppy could even turn around, the sound of the drawing room door opening and closing carried to her.
He was gone. Turner was in there. In the lion’s den, in the midst of the chaos. Clark Granger wouldn’t like to be manipulated or to find out his daughters had been used as pawns. If they’d thought about it for more than a minute, the Granger Girls might have realized that their father wouldn’t want them in such a contentious situation.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Violet said, actually hugging Poppy when the three of them came together.
“How did Daddy take it?” Poppy asked.
The three of them walked in sync to the curved window seat.
“He was calm. He didn’t say much,” Violet said as they all sat down. “I told Mom first, she helped me figure out what to say… I talked, Daddy listened, and then he just looked at Mom. She sent me out of the room and told me to get ready for dinner.”
“They were talking in their room for a while,” Primrose said. “Then Daddy went down to Tiller’s office. They stayed in there until Holden arrived.”
“What did Mom say after Dad left her?”
“Nothing,” Violet said. “I got ready and went down to her room. She was on her own. She just said Daddy would handle it.”
“That’s it?” Poppy asked.
Primrose nodded. “That’s all she said to me too. When we came downstairs, she went into the dining room and Daddy came out with Tiller to say we should eat dinner with the family. He kept insisting even when I said we wanted to help… We were still talking about it when Holden arrived at the gate. Daddy told us to wait in the library.”
“When we heard him shouting, Primrose came to find you.”
“What was he shouting?” Poppy asked, though there was no time for an answer because Grammie came in, interrupting the conversation.
Found (Lost & Found Book 2) Page 20
