“CJ Wesley,” CJ said, giving her a big handshake and another easy smile. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. This is my wife, Natalie.”
Daniel watched Christine closely as she and Natalie made their introductions. He could tell Christine was nervous but she was doing an admirable job of hiding it. That was encouraging.
Minnie came over with Marie. Daniel introduced his mother and Christine introduced her daughter and Marie introduced Daniel to everyone as “my anal!” which sent CJ into snorting peals of laughter. It should have been awful. All of these people were in Daniel’s condo where, prior to this, only his mother and the maid had ever set foot.
He didn’t know what to do. For all of his training on manners, Grandfather had never prepared Daniel for this—his brother was talking to his mother and Natalie talking to Christine and Marie being passed around and smiling big for everyone. It wasn’t bad. He watched all the pieces of his life collide head-on and it was...
Okay. This was okay. He could have his half brother and his mother and his—well, he wasn’t sure what Christine was. But he could have all of them here together and somehow, it worked.
Christine looked up at him, her eyes wide. She quirked an eyebrow and he could almost hear her saying, are you all right? And he realized he was standing off to the side, watching them, without being a part of the conversation.
Natalie noticed Christine’s distraction and turned to face him. “We should get started. Where do you want us?”
Yes, it would probably be best to cut the chitchat short and focus on the reason they were all here today. This wasn’t a party, after all.
“This way.” He led them back to his office.
While Christine had slept, he had arranged some lights and chairs. “Do you need me for anything?”
Natalie smiled at the setup. “We’ll go over the talking points and then take a run at it. But,” she added, looking up, “I want a tour when we’re done. We came all this way—don’t think you’re going to get us out of here without at least showing us around.”
He scowled at her. “You know you’re more than welcome to—”
She made shooing gestures, which made Christine giggle. “I’ve got this. Go have a beer with CJ.”
Right. That was probably what normal people did—grabbed a beer with their brother. Except Daniel had never done that. Not outside of the Beaumont Brewery and tastings with Zeb, that was.
Feeling awkward in his own home, Daniel found his brother standing by the window, looking down on Navy Pier.
“Damn, if I had any idea that you had a place like this, I would’ve invited myself a long time ago,” he said in a quiet voice when Daniel approached with two Beaumont beers in hand. CJ took one and said, “You don’t mind that I came, do you?”
“Of course not. You’re family.”
They stood for a moment, the silence uncomfortable. Or maybe it wasn’t. Daniel didn’t like the way he was suddenly unsure. Uncertainty was a liability and liabilities were dangerous.
CJ leaned to one side and looked over Daniel’s shoulder to where Minnie and Marie were singing. “Your mom seems like a nice person.”
“She is.”
For some reason, that statement made CJ smile. “I wonder about you sometimes, man.”
Daniel took a long pull of his beer, trying to figure out which way this conversation was going. “How so?”
CJ still had that easygoing smile, but there was a hardness to his eyes that Daniel recognized. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, CJ was a Beaumont, just like Daniel. “You do realize that I’ve never even been to your place in Denver? If it hadn’t been for Christine, how long would it have been before I saw this fabulous view?”
Daniel tried to shrug nonchalantly. “You’re welcome anytime. You know that.”
“Do I?” CJ chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I guess I’m not surprised,” he said, turning his attention back to the view.
“About what?”
“This,” CJ said, gesturing to the world below. “This is just how you are, isn’t it? You keep yourself removed from the rest of us—even those who care for you. You’re always distant and remote and watching.”
He’d argue that—but he couldn’t because it was true. Hadn’t he just stood on the perimeter of his own living room and watched everyone else talk—without him? Instead, Daniel heard himself ask, “Does it bother you?”
“What?” CJ asked, taking another pull of his beer.
“Well, your mom’s Mexican American but your dad—both of your dads,” he hurried to add, “are American. Does it ever bother you, trying to be both?”
CJ gave him a look of utter confusion. “No,” he said slowly. “It’s never been an either/or thing.”
Of course it wasn’t for CJ and Daniel felt stupid for having asked. But who else besides Zeb and CJ would ever understand?
Except even they couldn’t, of course. It was one thing to be one of Beaumont’s biracial bastards—but there was no way to compare Zeb being half black or CJ being half Mexican with Daniel being half Korean. Minnie was a citizen now—but she hadn’t been when Daniel had been born.
CJ took another drink. “I will say this, though—I’m still working on how to be a Wesley and a Beaumont. There’s been a hard line between those two things my entire life and it’s only since I’ve known Natalie that I’ve been able to think about crossing the streams. It’s a difficult thing, trying to carve out a place to exist where people said you couldn’t.” He was silent for a moment longer and then slid a sideways glance to Daniel. “Why?”
“No reason.” Unexpectedly, Daniel was glad CJ had come. His brother might not ever understand what it was like to be Lee Dae-Won’s grandson, but he knew what it was like to be Hardwick Beaumont’s bastard.
Because hadn’t that been at the center of Daniel’s entire relationship with his grandfather? He’d stained the honor of the Lee family name by being born. It was his duty to restore that honor—or else.
Marie squealed behind them and both men turned to look. “She seems nice—Christine, not the baby. Although the baby seems nice, too. As far as babies go, anyway.”
“Don’t read anything into it.” It was bad enough that Daniel’s mother was already seeing grandbabies. He didn’t need CJ joining in. “This was simply the best way to make sure she was protected until the dust settled.”
CJ gave him another long look and Daniel knew he wasn’t buying that line. “Whatever, man. You don’t have to justify your actions to me.” For a moment, Daniel thought CJ wouldn’t let it go. Then he sighed deeply. “Again, I’m sorry for crashing. Natalie’s settling into ranch life but... I think she needed a break and I sure as hell wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see Chicago.” He smacked Daniel on the shoulder. “Thanks for getting us that room at the Drake.”
“No problem,” Daniel said, more relieved than he expected to be at the subject change. “My driver will take you wherever you guys want to go after Natalie and Christine are done.”
“But until then,” CJ said, with a gleam in his eyes that Daniel didn’t necessarily like, “I’m going to hang out with your mom and see what I can learn about the mysterious Daniel Lee.”
Daniel groaned. But even as he cringed at the thought of his mother sharing baby stories with CJ, he felt a little excited about it, too. He wasn’t any good at having brothers—but even though the situation made him uncomfortable, there was something reassuring about the way things had played out.
Natalie and Christine were talking. CJ started rolling a ball to Marie, all while talking and joking with Minnie. And Daniel?
He was glad they were here. But more than that, he didn’t want to stand on the edge, watching from a distance.
What if CJ were right? What if it were possible to carve out a new space—a place where he could be both Daniel and Dae-Hyun? A place where he could honor his father and his grandfather and still be his own man?
Daniel looked toward his o
ffice, where Natalie and Christine were conducting their interview. He had dragged Christine through the mud two years ago. And yet she’d put her trust in him—that he could shield her and Marie, that he could take care of her. She made him want things he hadn’t thought he could want.
In her eyes, Daniel was almost...forgiven.
* * *
Christine waited awkwardly while Natalie set up tripods with phones and tablets attached to them. She would record from several different angles so they had options when Natalie spliced the video. Christine thought. She hadn’t understood all the technical terms.
“So tell me,” Natalie said, adjusting one of the devices. “How did you wind up here with Daniel?” When Christine didn’t answer immediately, Natalie went on, “I’m not recording. I’m just curious. I’ve been working with him for months now and he’s like Fort Knox. We can’t get him out to the ranch. CJ wasn’t even invited today but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to find out a little bit more about his half brother.”
“Honestly? I have no idea. One moment, there were reporters barking at the bank and I was afraid. The next thing I know, Daniel’s whisked me away on his private jet and I’m meeting his mother in this condo.” Natalie notched an eyebrow at her and Christine realized that might have sounded whiny. “It’s great—don’t get me wrong. But it all happened so fast.”
Too fast, it seemed. If she stopped and thought about it—like she was doing right now—everything was a blur.
Except for the part where Daniel took her to bed. And made her climax three times before letting her nap. That she remembered perfectly.
She desperately hoped that whatever was happening between her and Daniel wasn’t just really good sex. The kind of sex she wasn’t sure she’d ever had before.
The kind of sex she was not going to regret. Sleeping with Daniel was the same as wearing these expensive clothes or jetting around the country in his private plane. This wasn’t real life and it wouldn’t last.
She started to tell herself that she still didn’t trust him—but she knew that wasn’t true. He was right—she trusted him with her life, with her daughter’s life. She trusted him with her body.
But she didn’t know him. Even if what he had said was true, that she knew more about him than almost anyone else in the world—she still didn’t know who Daniel Lee was.
And she had to accept the fact that she wasn’t going to find out. She didn’t need to find out, either. She just needed to...get back to normal.
Back to her job at the bank while Marie was in day care. Back to the long nights and the housework that piled up. Back to the crushing loneliness.
Boy, she was really selling it.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but that’s just... Well, that’s not like Daniel. I assume. He’s family, but we know so little about him.” Natalie adjusted one of the monitors and asked, “Can you sit back just a few inches—perfect.” She sat in the chair opposite of Christine. “I tried to look him up, you know. Before I went digging for CJ.”
“You did?” Because Christine had also tried looking Daniel up and hadn’t been able to find anything. She’d assumed that was because she hadn’t been looking in the right places. “What did you find?”
Natalie leaned back in her chair, looking defeated. “Nothing. Not a damn thing. And it’s not because he never did anything newsworthy. It was like there was a Daniel Lee–shaped black hole where nothing existed. He’s still like that. I mean, I had no idea what his mother’s name was. And he stood up with CJ at our wedding!” she said, her frustration bleeding through.
Christine could sympathize. “I didn’t know I was going to meet her until she opened the door. I think she was almost as surprised as I was, frankly.” She debated whether or not she should tell Natalie what she had learned—but then again, what had she learned? Not much. “He told you what happened two years ago, didn’t he?”
Natalie nodded. “But that’s the other thing,” she said, reaching over and adjusting a light. “I honestly think he feels bad about what he did to you—and trust me, he is not the kind of guy to experience guilt. Before you came along, if someone had told me that underneath that handsome face, he was actually a robot, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”
Christine felt her cheeks heat as she dropped her gaze to her lap. “He’s apologized for dragging my name through the mud. I guess all of this,” she said, waving her hands over her clothes and around the room and toward Natalie, “is his way of making up for it.”
Natalie didn’t say anything and Christine glanced up to find the other woman staring at her. “Well,” she said slowly, “I’m glad to hear it. Are you ready to get started?”
Not really. She understood why she needed to do this interview, but that didn’t make it any better. She was so loath to have her name out there in any capacity that it was almost physically painful to say, “We might as well get this over with.”
“Okay,” Natalie said as she reached over and tapped the screens. Then, in what Christine recognized as Natalie’s television voice, she said, “Ms. Murray, how would you describe your relationship with your father?”
Thirteen
Christine woke with a start, her heart pounding. Fragments of a dream where she was being interviewed not by Natalie but by her father—“Tell me about your relationship with me,” he asked—floated through her mind. It took a moment to remember where she was.
She was in Daniel’s bed. After his family had left and Marie had gone to sleep, he had carried her back to his bed and made love to her again. She’d felt safe and happy and beautiful.
She flung out her arm at the same time a noise hit her ears. The bed was empty.
Now fully awake, she got up and fumbled with her nightgown. As she dressed, she strained to hear the familiar sounds of Marie’s cries and checked the clock.
2:00 a.m. Right on schedule.
Except the sound she heard wasn’t Marie. She tiptoed out into the hall and saw a dim glow in the living room. She saw Daniel sitting on the couch, bathed in the blue light of computer screens. He was speaking Korean and sounding angry.
Quietly, Christine went to check on Marie. But for once, the little girl was sound asleep in the middle of the night. Christine felt awful for being awake when her daughter was out like a light, but...
She slipped back into the living room. Daniel turned and, without missing a beat in whatever he was saying, held out his hand for her.
She took it and sank against his side of the couch. He had a headset on, so she couldn’t hear the other half of the conversation—not that she would’ve understood it, anyway. Daniel’s laptop was open and he was toggling between several screens—all of which were filled with numbers and Korean writing she had no hope of understanding.
But he tucked his arm around her shoulders and she nestled in, letting the flow of his words lull her into a daze. It was silly to think that this felt right. The last time she’d thought things felt right between her and a man, it had been with Doyle and see where that had gone? And besides, this wasn’t her life. In a few short days, things would go back to normal and she would be okay. Really.
“Sorry about that,” Daniel said some time later as he pulled his headset off and closed the laptop. “I didn’t mean to wake you, but it was a meeting I couldn’t miss.”
“It’s all right.” They sat for a moment longer before she asked, “Would you tell me something about yourself?”
She expected him to tense up and pull away. But he didn’t. “Like what?”
She snuggled in deeper. He was so warm. “Anything. No one knows anything about you. Natalie said she didn’t even know your mother’s name before today.”
He sighed and she wondered if he would avoid this topic—again. Then he opened the laptop. After several clicks, she found herself looking at a website. It was in Korean, but there were pictures. An older man scowled out at them, looking harsh and unforgiving—and vaguely like Daniel. With a few keystrokes, the pa
ge was translated into English.
“This is my grandfather,” he said in a soft voice. “Lee Dae-Won. He was the founder of Lee Enterprises, and he helped industrialize Korea after the Korean War.”
Christine stared at the man. “He doesn’t look very happy.”
“In Korea, it’s not common to smile for pictures.” He chuckled. “But you’re right. He wasn’t the jolliest of men. I spent every summer with him, whether I wanted to or not. I was his only grandchild.”
They sat in silence while Christine skimmed the text. Lee Enterprises had been founded in 1973 by Lee Dae-Won. It started with one factory making parts for transistor radios and from there had spawned an empire—factories, real estate—a little bit of everything. “Wow,” she said when she read that the company was valued at $200 billion. The number was almost too big to be real. “So your grandfather was one of the richest men in Korea?”
“Pretty much. And as much as he hated it, I was his only heir.”
There was something in his voice that made her pause. “Why did he hate it?”
“Because I was his great shame,” Daniel said, leaning his head back. “Not only was I born out of wedlock, but my father was American. For three months every year, my grandfather did his best to make me into the perfect heir. He wanted me to marry a good Korean girl—from a family of his choosing—so the line would continue. That was the only way he thought I could redeem my bad birth.” He sat up and smirked at her, as if what he’d just said wasn’t that important, when Christine had the feeling that it was everything. “In the end, I won. I refused to marry and when he died, I took control of the company.”
This, Christine realized, was the Daniel Lee–shaped black hole Natalie had been referring to. “No one knows this about you?”
“No.” He turned his attention back to the laptop. With a few more keystrokes, he pulled up a different page. “Because, in Korea, my name is Lee Dae-Hyun. He didn’t allow me to be Daniel when I was with him.” Christine stared at the website. There was his name, listed on the board of directors. But there was no picture and no biography.
Billionaire's Baby Promise (Mills & Boon Desire) (Billionaires and Babies, Book 79) Page 14
