She placed her hand on my arm and continued, "I promised Carter I wouldn't tell you I knew who he was, but it's obvious you know. I noticed you never told Mom his last name. That's not like you. If there was a chance of Mom liking Carter before she actually met him, you name-dropping Fitzwilliam was the way to go."
I nodded. "He told me before I left. But I thought he didn't want to come back here because of the paparazzi. I had no idea his life was at risk. Or maybe it isn't? It seems they only wanted his father dead, not his family."
"Here's the other piece of paper. It's a letter written after Carter's dad disappeared. It's by Senator John White, who I think might have been the one on the phone with Dad when I overheard the conversation. I still don't know because all Dad said was 'senator.' I tried to warn Carter when I was there, but every time I tried, you ended up popping up. Therefore, I kept my mouth shut."
The corrupt Senator White and his wife, who happened to be a senator herself, had been in the paper lately for various illegal activity. Some of it involving terrorists.
I read the words as another wave of emotion hit me. I felt sick to my stomach.
"He was a child and they wanted to murder him. But why? What could be so important as to kill people, especially a baby and then try to target a little boy?"
Bea exhaled and leaned back on the small couch. "I've thought about this for a long time. I don't know why they were after Senator Fitzwilliam, but I think they meant to only have him killed. But once he disappeared, they had no idea if Carter's father told him anything. To cover their asses, they set about trying to find him and Carter and make them disappear permanently."
My eyes burned and I let a wail loose, not caring if anyone heard. Bea's arms wrapped around me and she let me weep. I had only known Carter for two-and-a-half months, but it felt like these people were after my family. They wanted to kill the man I loved, and I hated them for that.
"Is that why you became obsessed with the disappearance of the Fitzwilliams as a kid? You overhead Dad on the phone talking about it?"
Bea nodded. I always thought my sister was different than most kids, a bit more mature for that reason. Now I understood the weight she was carrying on her shoulders—a secret no child should hold.
"Bea, I'm sorry. I wish you had confided in me."
"And risk popping the magical bubble my little sister lived in? I loved you too much to ever do that. I was jealous of your joy and happiness, knowing what I did about Dad and the Fitzwilliams. No matter how many fights we had over the years, I would never burden you with that. But now that you're in love with Carter, I felt you needed to understand what was at stake."
After learning this, I was thankful Carter hadn't come home with me to meet my family. But would I ever be able to go back to be with him? Was it too dangerous? I didn't want Carter hurt or worse, killed because I was selfish enough to want to see him.
There was noise coming from the bathroom downstairs. A male and a female voice.
Both Bea and I jumped from the sofa. She grabbed my hand and dragged me up the stairs toward the meeting room. We sat quietly at the top of the stairs and listened as a very familiar voice became clear—Derrick.
THIRTY-TWO
Carter
I felt like a stuffed pig and everyone was salivating for a taste.
"When I last saw you, you barely came up to my hip," an older woman said in a gold shimmering dress and a pile of salt and pepper hair piled on her head in a tangled bun. I assumed she meant for her hair to look that way as I witnessed her touching it several times in the large mirror that hung over the fireplace.
My uncle was the attorney general, and I had met him only two days ago. He nodded along with the woman.
I liked my uncle Dashiell Fitzwilliam. My dad used to call him Dash, and he asked if I would do the same. I did. I could tell he missed my father because when he looked at me, he had the same faraway expression my grandmother had when she first saw me two days ago.
It was a shock meeting my grandmother and an even bigger surprise when she wanted me to immediately come back to DC to meet the rest of the family. She promised I would be protected and the crazy thing was; I believed her.
Or, maybe I hoped to see Olivia.
My uncle knew everything that happened to my father. He was the one to suggest that we go into hiding and the only one that knew where me and my father lived. It was hard for him to keep the secret from his mother, but he didn't want anything to happen to us.
Dash explained he had vowed he would work to bring down the men who did this to his family. That's why he became the attorney general.
I was worried about coming here tonight and he knew that, so he made sure I had all the protection I needed in case anyone tried to hurt me.
"I'm sorry but I don't remember you."
"I'm your aunt Trixie. Your mom's sister." Her eyes grew soft and unfocused. "She was my baby sister and when she died, I felt as if I failed her. I just . . . Excuse me for a moment."
Trixie patted my chest and walked away, swiping at her cheek. My uncle excused himself too, going after my aunt. Most of the relatives I'd met over the past few days ended up in the bathroom freshening up. I reminded them of a painful moment in their lives, and I hated that my reunion wasn't a happy one.
I was ashamed to admit that I don't remember much of my mother. Over the years her memory faded. And since my father would never talk about her or my sister, I never knew if the few memories I did hold were real or a dream.
"Hello, I'm Whitney Love. I heard you are Carter Fitzwilliam, late Senator Fitzwilliam's son."
I turned around and found a woman about my age in a pink sweater and white skirt. Her fiery hair a stark contrast to her demure demeanor. Olivia only mentioned her once, but I searched her face for any resemblance to her sister.
"Yes, I am. You have a lovely home." I waved my hand around the large room.
Every home I entered since I got to DC was grander than the next. My grandmother's townhouse in Georgetown seemed more spacious than the airport we flew out of in Maine.
"It's not mine. My father lives here with his wife and my half-sisters."
I did my best not to appear too eager by swallowing my excitement. Glancing around the large room filled with leather couches, velvet chairs, and antique-looking wooden tables, I searched for the one person that brought me here tonight—Olivia
"I'd love to meet them."
She leaned toward me and lowered her voice. "I'm going to warn you. Stay as far away from my stepmother, Jane Love. She's the one that threw this party for my dad. Please understand I normally don't speak ill of people, but I think you've been through enough for one lifetime."
Did Olivia tell her she knew me?
Whitney continued, "Jane will use you for popularity. The woman would do anything to be trending."
"Does she know I'm here?" I glanced around but had no idea what Olivia's mother looked like.
"Yes, but lucky for you so is former President Higgins. My stepmother will follow the president around like a lost puppy."
My heart skidded to a halt.
"Are you all right? You seem pale," she said tilting her head.
"President Higgins is here? Is there a way I can leave without being seen?"
Whitney nodded and walked me toward a hallway. "Just go down here and turn left. You'll find a small set of stairs that lead to an office. Once you are in the office, go down another set of stairs to a bathroom. There's a small door that leads to a back exit. You can leave through the backyard. It will dump you into the alley."
I thanked her and quickly moved down the hall. Once I got to the office door, I knocked, hoping no one was there. To my disappointment, I heard a man speaking. I realized whoever was in there didn't hear my knock as he kept on talking. But as I was about to knock again, he mentioned my father's name.
I slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door a crack to listen to the conversation.
"When I find those papers,
I'm going straight to President Higgins. He's here and will be very curious to find out that Douglas Love, owner of Love Foods, tried to have Senator Lorne Fitzwilliam killed," the guy said.
"If you don't have the papers proving it, then how do you even know, Derrick?" a woman's voice said.
My jaw tightened. That had to be Olivia's ex-fiancé. Why would he be here? Every time Olivia mentioned him, she would sneer. Did pushing her away cause her to go back to that creep?
It hurt to think that might have happened, but it would be my fault if she had. If only I had been honest as to why I couldn't go with her, she might have understood. I didn't want to risk her life by getting her involved. And if she knew, then she was involved.
"I overheard him one night last year talking on the phone to Senator John White. I always wondered why he was so tight with various politicians, and now I know why. He did their bidding," Derrick said, followed by a laugh.
"Didn't he go to jail last summer for like, campaign finance fraud or something? I don't know. I don't pay attention to politics. It's boring."
"Yes, among various other things. His wife too, Senator Sofia H. White. That was a messed-up family. Anyway, the phone call was before that. I think in May? But Mr. White mentioned the letters about the attempted assassination of Lorne Fitzwilliam were safely secured in his office. He talked about being mad the killer used his gun, but at least he was smart enough to make it look like a break in. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I knew it meant there was evidence of Mr. Love's involvement."
"But why did you try to marry Olivia? She's so boring," the woman whined.
"Once I overheard the conversation, I knew I had a chance to get Mr. Love to give me the company. I'm not about to settle for a cash bribe. I want it all. What better way to make it look totally legal to everyone than to marry his daughter and have him leave me the company when he retires? That's when I started to hang around Olivia and her friends. She was so easy to seduce. As long as her parents approved, she'd marry anything that moved."
"Oh my God, Derrick, you're so smart! And she was stupid enough to fall for it. Then that stupid bitch had to run away."
"Doesn't matter. I'm going to bribe him anyway . . . once I find those papers, Kiki."
I couldn't take anymore. When I pushed the door open, it hit the wall with a loud crack.
"What the fuck? Dude, you scared the shit out of me," Derrick said.
"Oh my god! I know who you are. You're that lost Fitzwilliam guy. Clarence or Kane or something."
Derrick stood over the desk with various papers spread out before him. He was tall but thin. He had thick, dark brown hair, gelled back like an 80s stockbroker. His thin lips turned up in a smirk and I tried hard not to gag knowing they had been on Olivia before.
"It's Carter."
I closed the door behind me. I wanted to make sure the other guests at the party didn't hear when I made Derrick scream.
Moving to the middle of the room, I watched Derrick as my hands turned into fists at my side. Derrick came around the desk with his hand outstretched and a stupid grin on his face. He had no idea what he was doing. I was about to snap that twig of an arm and shove it up his butt.
"Carter. Stop."
Stunned by the sound of her voice, I snapped my head toward a set of stairs by the far end of the room. Olivia stood on the bottom step with Bea right behind her.
"Olivia," I breathed her name just as Derrick's voice went up with the same word crossing his lips. "Olivia?"
"Carter, don't do anything that you'll regret." Olivia moved off the stairs and walked toward me.
It had been less than a week since I'd seen her, but she looked more stunning than I remembered.
Derrick's pinhead swiveled between us. "Do you know Carter Fitzwilliam?"
"That's none of your business, Derrick," Olivia snapped at him.
"Is that any way to speak to your fiancé?" He turned toward her and opened his arms wide.
I wished Olivia hadn't stopped me before beating this guy to the ground.
"You just admitted to Kiki, to me, to Bea, and to Carter that you were using me to get my father's company."
His eyes widened. "Y-You heard that?"
"Ugh, you are so dumb, Derrick. Stupid as a bag of potatoes sitting in the middle of the floor of a gallery and being called art," Bea said as she folded her arms over her chest.
"Hey, don't talk about my man like that." Kiki walked over and stood beside Derrick.
"Just proved my point. Dumb." Bea waved her arm at Kiki.
"What did you hear, exactly?" Derrick stepped away from Kiki, edging closer toward the door.
It seemed Bea was right about Derrick. He was stupid. The man bumped into me as he was trying to escape.
"I don't think we're done discussing this, do you?" I said as I gripped his shoulder harder than was comfortable.
"Hey, bro, you're hurting me." He winced and bent to my touch like a good little wimp.
"What's a little pain between enemies," I said with a smile.
Derrick tried to pull at my fingers, but I was too strong for him.
"I didn't do anything to you. Now let me go."
"You hurt the woman I love and that's more than enough of a reason to make you cry," I said through gritted teeth.
Olivia gasped. When I glanced over at her, I couldn't tell if she was happy at my declaration or sad. I hoped she didn't mind me saying that with everyone around, but it's how I felt.
I should have told her before I left, especially after she admitted her feelings for me, but I was a coward. If my life had taught me anything, it's that running doesn't make things better, it only caused pain to fester until it was all you felt.
"Wait. But you're Carter Fitzwilliam. She was stuck in Maine with some crazy mountain man. So, are you the mountain man?" Kiki tilted her head and for some reason, counted on her fingers.
"My God, Kiki, you actually pieced that together? Perhaps I've been too harsh on you over the years. You aren't ridiculously dumb, only a little dumb. My apologies," Bea said.
Kiki lifted her chin and smiled as if she won first place in an idiot contest.
"Bro, it's not like I found the papers anyway. No harm, no foul. We good?" Derrick gazed up at me as if that was the only thing I cared about in this room.
"I'm not angry at you about those papers. Screw the papers." I surprised myself by uttering those words.
Olivia moved with hesitant steps. She wasn't staring at Derrick with worry in her eyes, but at me. I had treated her terribly when she first came to my cabin. When she opened herself up to me before she left, I ignored it and told her to go home, alone.
And yet, she still gazed at me with care in her eyes.
I wished her to leave me in peace the first two weeks, and it seemed I got part of my wish. She left but there would be no peace for me.
"Carter, I saw them. I saw what was on the papers. It was the—" Olivia was cut off by the door behind me swinging open.
There was a man standing there. Elegant, dignified, and casually strolling in the room with his hands in his pockets as if this were his office.
He was the last person I ever wanted to meet—President William Higgins.
THIRTY-THREE
Olivia
"Don't let me interrupt you. I believe you were about to tell Carter about my letter," President Higgins said as he closed the door behind him and then locked it.
My mind raced with possible exits. Downstairs through the door next to the bathroom. If I had to, I could lead everyone upstairs and out to the small terrace. There would be no easy way down, but if we had to, we could jump.
I wouldn't let President Higgins hurt us. How could he? The man was outnumbered. We were younger and stronger than him. There must be more he was hiding. And as my eyes scanned his body, I saw what he had—a gun in a holster under his dinner jacket.
"I need to use the restroom. Bea, Carter, would you please come help me?"
Bea grabbed my han
d and pulled me back, but Carter stood there, staring at the President. Why wasn't he moving?
"What sort of bladder problems do you have, Olivia, that you need two people to help you?" Kiki asked like a moron.
"I believe she wished to escape with her friends. Ms. Love must have seen the gun I have." He reached inside his dinner jacket and pulled it out, waving it in the air like it was a prize. "She wanted to save her friends. I guess you two aren't her friends. That's good to know." The President pointed the gun at Kiki and Derrick.
"Whoa, Mr. President, we won't hurt you. This is about Olivia's dad . . . it doesn't involve you," Derrick added, and I wanted to strangle him. Since he first walked into this room, I've wanted to strangle him but more so now. Maybe with added slapping just to make him cry.
"Yes, Mr. Love, that greedy idiot could easily be bought. I remember when I asked him to teach me about shooting guns since I heard at a party back when I was president that he collected guns and knew how to shoot. He was almost salivating to do whatever I wanted. I told him about a plan that could make him lots of money. A special drug I was working on, actually, it was a bunch of scientists I paid a good deal of money to who were really working on the drug. It would be released with a company I wanted to create in the future."
It was like something from a movie where the villain does a long-winded speech which gives the hero or heroine enough time to escape. But Carter hadn't moved and every time I inched closer to grab his hand, President Higgins pointed the gun at me.
I had to stand there and listen to how it took at least a decade for a new drug to come to market and billions of dollars. His goal in life was never to be president—that was only a means to an end—but to be the most powerful drug manufacturer.
"Funny thing I learned as president, no one touches the drug manufacturers. Sure, the people can cry foul and they can get the occasional lawsuit, but lawmakers won't touch them. They can get large swaths of the population hooked on drugs and still be allowed to sell those drugs. People get angry at terrorists, but the real threats are the legal companies making a profit on people's health."
Lost and Found (books 1-3): Small-Town Romantic Comedy Page 22
