Serenity (Inevitable Book 5)

by Janet Nissenson

  “I hate to say it, son, but I’m afraid she’s not going to leave you a choice pretty soon. You’re going to have to force her hand, which means going to trial. Maybe if you prepared the kids ahead of time, told them the general facts, you could spare them the worst of it.”

  “Maybe,” agreed Matthew hesitantly. “But, you know what? Let’s forget all that bullshit for the moment. You and Mom are only here in town for a few days, so let’s enjoy every minute we have together, okay?”

  Wade gave a thumbs-up. “You got it, Matt. I’m going to go help myself to seconds. This is all delicious.”

  Matthew had been thrilled when his parents had asked if they could spend the week off they had for Spring Break with him in San Francisco. Hayley and Casey were also off school this week, and Lindsey had unceremoniously announced a month ago that he was in charge of the kids this week while she jetted off to the Caribbean for a getaway with her girlfriends. Instead of booking his parents into a hotel for the week, Matthew had insisted they use his bedroom while he slept in the spare twin bed in Casey’s room here at the condo. That meant Sasha wouldn’t be able to spend the night at all this week, especially since she still insisted on staying at her own place when he had the kids.

  But he had been adamant about her meeting his parents, assuring her that they would adore her as much as he did, and she’d reluctantly agreed to join them all for dinner a few evenings ago. As expected, Wade and Maureen had taken an instant liking to Sasha, and persuaded her to come along on additional outings. It was Friday morning now, and Matthew had ordered in brunch before their outing to the Muir Woods National Monument. He was officially on vacation this week, though he’d been fielding emails and phone calls on a daily basis, and had even snuck in a couple of video conferences. When you were the CEO, he supposed with a sigh, you were never really on vacation. Still, he was grateful for any time he could spend with his family, and wished that his brother and sister had also been able to make the trip.

  Over the years, and especially since he’d taken the company public and entered the billionaires club, Matthew had done his utmost to help out his parents and siblings. He’d bought his brother and sister each a house, and when his parents had stubbornly insisted on staying put in their own home, had had it extensively remodeled for them. All of his family members had new cars, and the boat he had purchased for his parents was Wade’s pride and joy. There had also been numerous vacations he’d treated them to, and very generous birthday and Christmas gifts. And because they were all reluctant to let him do more than what he already did, Matthew had secretly set up trust funds for his parents, brother, and sister, so that they would always be financially secure.

  While his father re-filled his plate with the sumptuous brunch buffet that the caterers had set up on the dining room table, Matthew sipped his coffee as he observed the four other people in the room. Casey was chatting animatedly with his grandmother and Sasha, happily chomping on a plate of bacon at the same time. At one point he offered Sasha a piece, who gave a little shudder in response, causing Casey to grin mischievously. Maureen seemed to genuinely like Sasha, and they had had several conversations so far about the merits of herbal remedies and supplements versus traditional prescription drugs. Matthew had been surprised at the extent of Sasha’s knowledge, and had asked why she’d never finished obtaining her certification as an herbalist.

  She’d given a half-hearted shrug. “I’m not sure I really know the answer to that. At the time, money was something of an issue, though I guess I could have borrowed it from one of my parents or applied for a loan. But I think it was just taking too much time away from the other things I loved - my yoga classes and massage practice - and I had to make a choice. I managed to learn quite a lot in the classes I did take, however, and I still attend workshops and lectures occasionally to keep up with things.”

  “If you ever decide that’s something you’d like to pursue, you know that money wouldn’t be an issue, right?” he had told her. “I would happily finance that for you, Sasha, so all you have to do is ask.”

  “Thank you,” she’d replied gently. “I appreciate your offer, Matthew. But I’m very happy with my life just as it is right now. I don’t like complications, and I go to great lengths to keep things simple and stress free. So, thanks but no thanks.”

  Matthew’s gaze narrowed now as it fell on Hayley, who was curled up sullenly in a corner of the sectional sofa, fixated as usual on her cell phone. She’d griped loudly about having to get up so early this morning, and even more so about traipsing around in “some damp old woods”. She had barely eaten, and aside from greeting her grandparents with a sulky “good morning” hadn’t spoken a word.

  He debated what his father had told him earlier - about taking away Hayley’s phone for awhile in the hopes of teaching her a lesson. And the more he thought about it, the more he decided the idea had real merit. So when the time came to leave about a half hour later, he deftly plucked the phone from his daughter’s hands and shoved it in the back pocket of his jeans.

  Hayley was visibly shocked. “Dad? WTF? Is this some sort of stupid game? Give me my phone back!”

  Matthew shook his head. “No. At least not until we return home later. You need to spend some quality time talking with your grandparents while they’re here. They fly home on Sunday, after all, and you’ve barely spent any time with them. Besides, I doubt there’ll be any cell phone signal or internet reception in Muir Woods. That way you can be sure to fully enjoy the beauty of nature.”

  “Are you insane?” screeched Hayley. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! I need that phone, Dad. I’m expecting an important call from Sierra.”

  Matthew shrugged. “Seriously? It can’t be that important, Hayley. Sierra can leave you a message and you can call her back later. Today is about family time.”

  Hayley threw up her hands in frustration. “Screw that. I’ll just stay here then and use one of your computers to Facetime.”

  “My computers?” asked Matthew, chuckling. “You don’t mean the computers that I’ve very carefully password protected, do you? Each one a different and equally complex password. Oh, and then there are the security questions you’d need to answer if you somehow managed to crack the password. And since the questions are all very, very advanced mathematical equations, I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”

  She glared at him evilly. “This is so unfair,” she hissed. “I should have gone along with Mom on her trip. That way I’d at least be having some fun right now, instead of getting dragged along to boring old museums and hikes in the woods. Ugh!”

  “Your father’s right, pumpkin,” assured Wade cheerfully, calling Hayley by the nickname he’d always used for her. “Your grandmother and I hardly get to see you these days, so why don’t you leave that silly phone alone for a little while and talk to us instead?”

  Maureen draped an arm around her granddaughter’s shoulders. “Why don’t I go with you and help you pick out something to wear, hmm?” she suggested, glancing at the pajamas Hayley was still wearing. “And then we’ll go have a lovely morning walking in the woods. Maybe on the way home we can stop for a late lunch at that sushi restaurant you were telling me about the other day.”

  “Maybe,” mumbled Hayley sullenly, but she allowed Maureen to steer her in the direction of her room. Then her scowling gaze fell on Sasha, who had quite intentionally remained quiet during the entire incident, before asking her father in a haughty tone, “If today is supposed to be family time, then why is she coming along?”

  Sasha’s green-gold eyes widened in alarm, and she clutched her tea mug a little tighter. Maureen shook her head in dismay, while Wade opened his mouth to protest, until Matthew held up a hand to forestall him.

  “Because I choose to have her along,” he bit out angrily. “Because it makes me happy to have Sasha with us. And like it or not, Hayley, Sasha is here to stay. So you’d better start getting used to the idea, and you had
definitely better start minding your manners around her. Now, go with your grandmother and get ready. Otherwise, you’re not too old for me to hire a babysitter for you.”

  Hayley had paled visibly at her father’s tirade, and looked defeated as she let Maureen shepherd her to her room. Casey tactfully announced he needed to finish getting dressed, and made a beeline for his room. Wade gave Matthew’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

  “You did the right thing, Matt,” he assured him. “That little girl is definitely getting too big for her britches, and needs to toe the line. And being deprived of her phone for a few hours is nothing. Especially considering how rude she was to this beautiful lady here.”

  Sasha offered Wade a weak smile. “You’re very kind. But I don’t ever want to come between Matthew and his children. Or make trouble for him. I - I really think it’s for the best if I don’t go with you today.”

  “No!”

  Matthew and Wade uttered the denial simultaneously. In seconds, Matthew was at her side, taking the mug from her trembling fingers and wrapping his arms around her.

  “I wouldn’t give Hayley the satisfaction,” he declared. “My father’s right. It’s time she learned that she can’t have her own way all the time. And that rudeness simply won’t be tolerated. You’ve gone out of your way to befriend her, Sasha, to be kind to her. And there have been far too many times when you’ve backed out of dinners or breakfasts or outings because you were afraid it would anger or upset Hayley. That ends now. She needs to start accepting the fact that you’re a part of my life, and that her little snit fits aren’t going to change that. So, please go with us, hmm?”

  Sasha nodded. “Okay.”

  Wade grinned and gave a celebratory fist pump, his hazel eyes twinkling behind the same pair of horn-rimmed glasses he’d been wearing for thirty years. “Excellent news!” he declared. “I would have been so disappointed if you didn’t join us, Sasha. And don’t worry about Hayley, hmm? I was just reminding Matt earlier that his sister Jackie acted up in a similar fashion when she was a teenager, and she worked through it pretty quickly. I’ll bet it will be exactly the same thing with Hayley. Next thing you know, the two of you will be the best of friends!”

  Sasha smiled politely at Wade’s enthusiasm, but Matthew could tell from the wariness of her expression that she was every bit as doubtful about his father’s prediction as he was.

  “Well, it sounds like Casey had a great time at your father’s this past week. What about you, Hayley? Did you have fun?”

  Hayley gave her mother a look that was part sneer, part disbelief. “Seriously, Mom? I spent an entire week surrounded by not one, but four science and math nerds. I felt like I was trapped at a Geekfest with no way out. Does that sound like I had any fun at all?”

  Casey cheerfully dunked an egg roll into sweet and sour sauce, just one of the dishes that Lindsey had ordered from their favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner. “I had a lot of fun,” he declared, biting off half the egg roll at once. “It’s always great to see Grandma and Grandpa. And the new show at the planetarium was awesome! And Grandma and Grandpa had never been to the Disney Museum, so it was like seeing it all over again.”

  Hayley rolled her eyes as she nibbled on a snow pea. “Like I said, it was just one big Geekfest. Meanwhile, you got to stay at a five-star resort right on the beach, sleep late, get massages, and drink margaritas all day. Now, that’s my idea of the ideal vacation. I should have gone along with you, Mom. I might have actually had some fun that way, as well as having an awesome tan right now.”

  Lindsey paused before replying, not willing to admit out loud that bringing Hayley along on vacation this past week would have definitely put a cramp in her style. In addition to lazing around the beach for a good part of the day, Lindsey had also treated herself to a whole array of spa treatments, bought a dozen new outfits at the designer boutiques in town, and hooked up with three different men - all of them gorgeous, and all of them anywhere from ten to twenty years younger than she was. Dragging her teenaged daughter to the Caribbean with her would have put a complete damper on what had been a fabulous getaway.

  “But your brother is right, honey,” replied Lindsey. “You hardly ever get to see your grandparents. They would have been so disappointed if you hadn’t been there.”

  “Oh, please.” Hayley gave her mother another of those scathing looks that made Lindsey long to slap her across the face. “Stop trying to dream up excuses, Mom. You just didn’t want me along to spoil your fun is all. Instead, I had one of the worst weeks ever. Thanks a bunch.”

  Casey, who seemed to be the only one at the table who was actually eating, took seconds of the vegetable chow mein, orange chicken, and honey walnut prawns. “Well, I had a good time and so did everyone else - Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Sasha. Hayley’s just mad because Dad took her phone away for a few hours one day.”

  Hayley stuck her tongue out at Casey, but Lindsey didn’t even notice. Not at the mention of that name.

  “Sasha was there during your grandparents’ visit?” she asked faintly.

  Casey nodded as he poured a generous amount of soy sauce over his heaping plate of food. “Sure. Oh, not the whole time. She probably just had dinner with us a couple of times, and maybe brunch once or twice. And she went to the museums with us and to Muir Woods.”

  Lindsey scowled. “That sounds like a whole lot of time to me. She didn’t sleep over, did she?”

  “Oh, God, are we back on this?” asked Hayley in dramatic fashion. “No, Mom. She did not spend the night. She never does when we stay with Dad. I guess they have to get their fucking done some other time.”

  “Hayley!” exclaimed Lindsey in outraged shock. “Do not say those things in front of your brother!”

  Casey grinned. “Relax, Mom. I have heard the word before, you know. And I’m fourteen now, not four, so I sort of figured that Dad and Sasha are, uh, having sex. But Hayley’s right, she never stays overnight when we’re at Dad’s.”

  “But he introduced her to your grandparents,” she fretted, almost as if she was thinking out loud. “He brought her along on family outings, the sort of things I should be doing with you. It’s not right, you know. Not right at all.”

  Lindsey grew increasingly agitated the more she dwelled on the matter, enough that she refilled and drained her wine glass twice within a very short period of time. Sensing her discomfort, Casey quickly changed the subject and practically wolfed down the rest of his food, excusing himself shortly thereafter.

  Hayley, meanwhile, was preoccupied as usual with texting one or more of her friends and barely spared her mother a glance, even as Lindsey began pacing back and forth through the kitchen, her high heels tapping out an almost frantic rhythm.

  “He’s getting more and more serious about her then.”

  Hayley heaved a sigh worthy of the grandest diva, and impatiently set her phone down on the kitchen table. “Yeah, seems like it. So what? It’s not like you didn’t hook up with someone on your vacation.”

  Lindsey waggled a warning finger at her smart-mouthed daughter. “Watch it there, young lady. You don’t get to judge me. And don’t forget our deal. You’re supposed to be thinking of ways to break those two up, and help me get your father back. I haven’t exactly heard any great ideas lately.”

  Hayley shrugged. “You really need to give this up, Mom. Dad seems happy, and even if he wasn’t all gaga over Sasha - which I personally don’t get, I mean she’s got a good body and a pretty face and all but she’s just sort of quiet and boring - I don’t think he has any intention of ever coming back to you.”

  Lindsey was so angry she felt like picking up the takeout containers of Chinese food and hurling them at the closest wall. It would be oddly satisfying, she thought furiously, to watch the chow mein noodles slither down the wall, or the sweet and sour sauce cling to one of the kitchen cabinets.

  “You’re wrong,” she bit out, her cheeks flushed from a combination of anger an
d too much booze. “I know I can get him back. We just haven’t thought of the right approach yet. And since you don’t seem interested in helping me, I’ll have to call in the big guns. In fact, I’m going to go call her right now.”

  Lindsey flounced off a bit unsteadily on her stiletto heels, way past tipsy at this point, and fumbling with the speed dial on her phone at the same time, until she reached her home office. Whenever she needed a sounding board, or someone to take her part, or simply go out and party with, the first person she called was her closest friend Nicole Prince. Lindsey had first met the thrice-divorced Nicole almost ten years ago, when she’d been dropping off her then-stepdaughter at the same school Hayley was attending at the time. The two women had bonded instantly, and been BFF’s ever since. Nicole, in fact, had been one of the three friends who’d just accompanied her on this recent vacation to the Caribbean, and she was well aware of Lindsey’s dilemma.

  “You’re not going to believe this one,” Lindsey burst out as Nicole picked up the call. “Now he’s actually introduced the bitch to his parents. That sounds serious, doesn’t it? Oh, God, Nikki, he’s going to find a way to divorce me and then marry that - that yoga teacher. What am I going to do?”

  On the other end of the line, Nicole’s voice was calming, sympathetic, and coldly calculating. “Here’s what we’re going to do. First thing tomorrow - well, after Pilates and our mani-pedis, of course - we’re going to figure this out. We’ll come up with a plan to lure Matt back to you. Or at least to get him back in the house. And be prepared, Linz - you might have to prepare yourself to fight dirty.”

  Even as she poured herself a tumbler of vodka from the well stocked liquor cabinet in her office, a slow, satisfied smile crossed Lindsey’s face. “Honey, I learned how to fight dirty from the time I was four years old. If it means getting Matt to call off this stupid divorce and have him move back in here where he belongs, I say the dirtier the better.”