by MJ Riley
Did she really believe that he had only been pretending to have feelings for her? Where they'd been…what they'd done…it wasn't something you could feign. While he wouldn't go as far as admitting that he'd fallen completely for her, the fact that he still longed for her when it was her company that had ruined his life—it was no small indicator of exactly how strong his feelings were. “If you really have to ask yourself that, Charlotte, you're more like your father than I thought.”
At the statement, her eyes shimmered with moisture. Neither of them spoke for what seemed like an eternity. They only stared at each other, trying to figure out exactly how they had ended up where they were.
“David, you were after the company I devoted my life to. You know I can't let that stand.”
“I was trying to do it in a way that wouldn't hurt you. It's not something I'd expect you to understand.”
“I understand plenty.” The young woman dashed her tears away angrily. “You were willing to close down a company that provides millions of jobs to people worldwide simply to assuage your own pride.”
David had pondered the exact point more than once in the three days that he'd spent in jail, making the statement sting all the more. Perhaps, in hindsight, he could see the criminality of what he'd been trying to achieve. However, he believed that if Emerson lost the thing that was most important to him, it would hurt him the most—and he wanted the man to suffer.
But, Charlotte was right.
He'd been wrong to try and take down the entire company.
“I was wrong,” he finally admitted. “I was shallow and single-minded, and I admit that it brought out an ugly side of me. But…” he hesitated before going on, “it also brought me to you, Charlotte, and that's got to count for something.”
“Don't.” Charlotte flinched, shaking her head. “We're…brother and sister. We can't think about anything like that anymore.”
David only laughed, hollowly. “Right. Nearly forgot that little detail. And to think I could have remained blissfully unaware if it hadn't been for my own impatience. I look nothing like the man, after all—and thank God for that.”
“You don't look anything like us at all,” Charlotte said, as she gave him a small, sad smile. “David…”
He was leaning back against the bed, contemplating the ways he'd love to hypothetically murder Emerson Mathers. It was a pastime he often enjoyed, and it seemed that the justifications for the act mounted with each passing hour. “Yes, Charlotte.”
“Dad lied about everything. About the company, the patents, designing his own tech…even his relationship with your mother. He never even spoke of it.”
“Why would he?” David asked, snorting. “It's not like he ever even cared about her. Probably just thought of her as a way to pass the time.”
“Exactly. Why would he want to claim you after all this time?”
“Ha. He's hardly claiming me. More like he just wants to torture me.”
“What if he's just lying about your parentage, as well? Just to get the last word and to drive you to do something stupid?”
As if he hadn't been idiotic enough already. Even so, when she spoke the words, David felt a tiny spark of hope. The idea wasn't outlandish. Emerson had lied through most of his adult life. It wouldn't be a stretch that he would say something just to twist the knife in an already oozing wound.
But then, there was his mother to consider. Though she hadn't outright said that Emerson was his father, she'd practically admitted her guilt when she'd fled at his questions. Her expression when he'd posed his questions had been the most he'd garnered from her in over ten years. That couldn't simply be a fluke.
“My mother,” he said in a low voice, his stomach churning, “she didn't deny it.”
“But she didn't confirm it, either,” Charlotte said, arching her brow. David was surprised that Charlotte would challenge the claim since the evidence all seemed to fit.
Why would want to dispute the claim so desperately? Unless…unless she had some impetus for wanting it to be untrue.
The thought made his heart warm.
She still loved him. Even though the prospect of something dangerous and taboo currently sat between them, she still had feelings for him. And he for her.
What a peculiar world they lived in.
“Let's assume that we could somehow prove my parentage.” He humored her for a moment, sitting up. “I'm sure that Emerson wouldn't simply submit to the test. In fact, I'm sure that if he knew that you were here, now, he'd be extremely displeased.”
“I don't give a rat's ass what my father thinks,” Charlotte replied, her tone was extremely vehement—so much so that it gave him pause. It was strange. While they'd been together, he'd known Charlotte to be confused, upset, and angry when it came to her father. She craved his affection but was ultimately torn by the way he treated other people.
It seemed that some recent event had served as the final straw. Now, when she spoke of her father, he saw not even the tiniest ray of brightness in her eyes—only dark resignation.
“Charlotte,” he ventured, “why did you step from the position of CEO?”
At the question, Charlotte barked a harsh laugh. “Step down? Is that what they're saying?” She shook her copious blonde curls so they caught the light streaming in through the window. For a moment, David's breath caught at her beauty. “I was forced to defer. Now, someone my father favors is in power. He feels it’s safer that way, and he thinks I'm gullible and inefficient.”
Of course, Emerson would feel that way. He didn’t care how many jobs he created or how his products boosted the economy in impoverished nations. There would be no Christmas bonuses, charitable projects, or unneeded expenses. As far as he was concerned, the company existed as his own private funnel of cash. While, yes, Charlotte had run the company in the red, it had been for good causes. She'd begun to turn around the company’s reputation as a solely profit-run company.
And now all that was bound to be reversed.
“If it means anything, I think that the way you ran the company was what made me realize how wrong I was to try and destroy it.”
Charlotte gazed up at him, her gaze softening. “It does…mean something, I mean. Thanks, David.” When he flushed slightly, she looked away in embarrassment and quickly changed the subject. “We need a paternity test.”
“Right.” David frowned slightly. “But how can we get one without his consent?”
Charlotte scowled as she wracked her brain. “I've no idea. I don't even have access to his medical files. He leaves the country for all his medical work, usually. The broken jaw is one of the first things he's ever had treated in the city.”
“Where does he go?” David demanded, inwardly disgusted by the man's acute paranoia.
“The Bahamas somewhere, I think. I've never gone.”
“Well, perhaps you need to pay a visit to the islands.”
At David's small smile, Charlotte rewarded him with one of her own.
“I can't do it alone,” she said.
“Neither of you can do it without breaking some very real laws.” Charlotte and David jumped, turning to see Leah silhouetted in the doorway. If David was judging the look on her face correctly, she seemed to have heard quite a bit of their conversation. The corners of his mouth turned down.
“Christ, Leah, how long have you been there?”
“Not long.” The dark-haired woman had the decency to blush in embarrassment. “But long enough to hear that you're planning on visiting the Bahamas to dig up Emerson's medical records. Risky by any standards.”
Expelling a long sigh, David tried to be civil. The woman was, after all, supposed to be his attorney. “Do you have any constructive suggestions?”
“I have several, in fact. The first of which is a law stating that medical records in the Nation of the Bahamas are to be released to the next of kin in the event of a medical emergency. I have several books on the laws in the Caribbean. Perhaps, you'd like to emerge fro
m your cave so we can discuss them?”
With that, she shot him a winning wink before turning on her heel and disappearing back down the hall. For a moment, David just stared after her. She was certainly something else. By the time he looked back at Charlotte, she was scowling at him.
He merely shrugged and said, “What? She wants to help.”
“More like she wants in your pants.”
Charlotte was jealous. After all they'd been through in the past few days, she was jealous. This was priceless.
“Slow down, Charlotte. I'm supposed to be your brother, remember?”
Standing huffily, the young woman grabbed her bag as she made to head towards the living room. “I'd be willing to bet money that you aren't actually, so come on. We need to figure this out.”
And with that, she took off down the hall, her heels clicking against the ancient wood flooring.
David's head was spinning. He'd gone from thinking the woman wanted his head on a platter to plotting with her in the space of mere hours. What the hell was next?
Chapter Eight
She was still mad at him.
Sitting next to the man who may or may not be related to her, Charlotte buried her face in a magazine. It had been easy work for her to beg some time off from Causewell. The man seemed to feel so overwhelmingly sorry for her that—instead of her being at his beck and call—it seemed to be the other way around. Plus, there was the fact that the man frequently asked her questions about the policies that her father wanted him to implement. It was almost as if he didn't want to be a complete monster like the man who hired him. The possibility that he may be different from her father threw Charlotte for a loop.
She didn't want to like him. She wouldn't like him.
She had plenty to deal with already and plenty's name was David Marscomb.
Charlotte still hadn't decided how she'd felt about how he’d lied his way into the company and tried to take it down under her nose. Sure, he'd apologized for what he'd done, but he'd still done it. A man like David was smart enough to keep on lying until he reached his ultimate goal.
Somehow, however, she didn't think that he was lying now.
If it came to a contest of dishonesty, Emerson Mathers was far in the lead. Certainly, David was no angel, but her father won the solid gold kewpie doll when it came to manipulating the shit out of people.
It shocked her that she hadn’t seen it sooner. She'd known he was a selfish, paranoid person, but she hadn't thought he'd had it in him to completely destroy a family. Truly, she had never known her father. Now, she was sure that she had no desire to know him, either.
The only thing she needed to know was whether or not he'd been telling the truth about David's parentage. So, off they went on the unexpected holiday she'd originally wanted—though under completely different circumstances.
To add even more oddness to the venture, they hadn't come alone. Leah had insisted on tagging along to bail them out of any hypothetical trouble they got themselves into.
Now, there was a woman she could say for sure she felt absolutely clearly about: Leah was desperate. She kept batting her eyes at David and hanging onto him like she couldn't walk herself. It was pretty obvious and disgusting.
Moe disturbing, however, was the fact that David seemed flattered by her advances.
Well, let him be. They might be working together to figure out who his true father was, but Charlotte was through with him—romantically anyway. Brother or not.
The man had lied to her, cheated her, and tried to take down her life's blood. True, he had done it for his own heartsickness, but could she ever be convinced that he could be truly honest with her? It was a something she could never be sure of.
Consequently, she was still angry at him.
She buried herself in her magazine studiously, trying to ignore the way he chuckled at Leah's jokes. If the lawyer wanted him, she could have him. She was going to be too busy concentrating on how she was going to keep her father from converting the charitable company she'd worked hard to create back into a money-machine for his own private accounts. She didn't know if she'd be able to stand the sight.
Yet, as a secretary, she had little power unless she exploited the advice that Samson frequently sought from her. Just that morning he had sent her three different texts about rejecting ideas that the tech department had submitted to him. It was her father's paranoia acting up again. He was probably worried that Addy was somehow dredging up David's work and modifying it.
Quite the contrary, actually.
In the past few days, despite her demoted status, Adeline had been keeping Charlotte quite well-informed on what was going on in the tech department.
After removing a few fuses that threatened to burn out the devices, every single prototype that David had built was still perfectly functional. There was no need, really, for the company to be rid of them and lose all the money they'd poured into their development.
However, her father wouldn’t hear of keeping a single one. He might be greedy, but he was too paranoid over the potential harm the devices could cause the company to even consider the money that could be made. He'd ordered every single project to be locked in a vault and marked for termination.
His rash decision made Charlotte seethe.
The entire reason he'd cited for removing her from her CEO position was her carelessness when it had come to hiring David. Namely, it had been the billions of dollars she'd supposedly lost the company by devoting resources to devices that would be unusable.
But they still worked.
Mathers Incorporated could make all their money back, if only Emerson wouldn't be such a blind, pig-headed asshole. He was going to drive his precious company into the ground. That would please David most of all.
Sighing, Charlotte put down her magazine for a moment to gaze out of the window at the cloudless sky beyond. They'd left New York about two hours ago, which would make them halfway into their flight. For two more hours she'd have to sit next to David, pretending the smell of him didn't make her lightheaded and that she didn't feel his thigh against hers.
Embarrassingly, she found herself praying, above anything else, that her father had been wrong about him being part of their biological family. It was just because she couldn't stand the thought of him getting the last word when it came to anything, especially anything involving her personal life.
However, she suppose David wouldn't be part of her personal life anymore after this last joint venture. They'd part ways, and she'd have to watch him struggle to escape the charges her father was preparing to file against him. From what she'd heard from Addy, they were massive. If the Mathers Incorporated lawyer managed to get all of them to stick, David would be facing quite a long jail sentence.
And then what would happen to his mother?
David had called the nurse to look after her before they'd left, but all the while, mother and son hadn't made eye contact. From what little she knew about the woman's condition, it was obvious that she was severely detached from what went on around her. However, she was present enough to realize just how angry her son was at her for hiding such a large secret for so long.
Charlotte knew it was wrong of her, but part of her wished the woman would just open her mouth and speak the truth. It was obvious that she'd had intimate relations with Emerson, but that didn't mean they would have had a child together. In fact, she would think that if her father was trying to build up a reputable company, he would try to avoid something as tumultuous as sleeping with a married man's wife.
The entire matter was extremely perplexing and was made even more so by the hoops they had to jump through to acquire the actual medical records. To retrieve them from the private hospital where they were stored, Charlotte was going to have to convince the staff that her father was facing a life threatening situation in the States. Plus, she needed hard copies of the documents, as well as a blood sample.
It would be a bit difficult since all the records department wou
ld need to do to confirm or deny the claims would be to pick up the phone and call New York Presbyterian.
As loathe as she was to admit it, Charlotte knew that Leah had come up with a brilliant plan for this situation. Marshall would pose as an orderly at the hospital, answering the phone when they called. Leah and his mother worked as a consultant at the facility, so it had been simple to get Marshall in for the day. Now, they simply had to tell him what number to look for and they would be in.
The records would be in their hands as soon as they got his confirmation that her dear father was, indeed, waiting on triple bypass surgery.
She should be so lucky.
“Hey.” She looked back to find David addressing her, and her face flushed slightly when she realized how close he was. Funnily enough, he seemed to come to the same realization in a millisecond and leaned back to give her space.
“Hey,” she managed to say, regulating her breath carefully. “What is it?”
“I just wanted to thank you…for letting me come along. I know you didn't need to. You could have made the trip yourself. You didn't have to…to do me any favors.”
Well, he was certainly right there. She owed him nothing…but all the same, she couldn't imagine letting him sit at home, waiting with bated breath for her to dictate his future. Honestly, she didn't know what David would do if they discovered that they really were brother and sister.
She didn't know what she would do.
She would certainly consider herself insane for still being so attracted to him.
The plane suddenly banked left, changing course slightly, and her stomach lurched a bit. The young woman pressed her mouth shut, hoping she wasn't in for another series of nausea and vomiting. Recently, she'd been having on and off again discomfort—headaches, back pain, upset stomach. She was sure it was from all the stress she'd endured lately. She hoped there would come a day where she could get back to her normal self, even if David wasn't in the picture.
“Hey, you ok?” This time Leah spoke, and there was genuine concern in her gaze as she looked over at the blonde woman. “You look a bit green.”
