He looked up from the baby reluctantly and said, “I had business in town. Your mother will be joining me on Saturday. She is anxious to meet this little man too.” He beamed down at Michael again with pride in his eyes. Alex looked both amused and surprised by the effect our son was having on his father.
“Oh, that’s… great Dad. Where are you staying?”
“They should stay here,” I said. Alex gave me an incredulous look but his father looked up at me and smiled.
“We would love that Victoria, thank you. I don’t know if Alex told you but our home here is undergoing some major renovations.”
He hadn’t told me, but asking them to stay seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I could tell by the look on Alex’s face that he didn’t agree. But, with a forced smile he said, “Of course you can stay here, I just wasn’t sure if you’d already made other plans.”
“Nope, no plans.” The older man was staring at the baby again. I knew Alex didn’t have the best relationship with his father, but it was so cute to watch him with the baby. He rocked back and forth gently in the chair and made faces at Michael as he did.
“Lunch is ready sir,” Karen said, suddenly appearing in the doorway.
“Thank you, Karen. Dad, have you had lunch?”
“No, and I’m famished,” the older Reigns said.
“Here, I’ll take Michael and put him in his crib,” Alex told him.
Mr. Reigns reluctantly relinquished him. Alex looked at me and said, “If you don’t mind taking my father in for dinner, I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Of course. Mr. Reigns, shall we?”
“Please Victoria, call me James.”
I didn’t think I could do that. I just smiled and he and I went out to the dining room together. The maids were serving the soup and we both took our places at the table. After Esther, one of the kitchen girls that Karen had recently hired, served our Lobster Bisque soup and left, Alex’s father said, “I’m sorry we didn’t make it home sooner to see the baby, Victoria. You’ll come to realize one day that this job of being a parent is a hard one… one of the hardest you will ever have to do. There is no real instruction, and unfortunately you’re going to mess a lot of it up along the way.”
“I can only imagine, sir.”
He smiled and said, “Alex seems so at peace with the baby in his arms, but I could tell when I came in that there was an issue he was worried about.”
I wasn’t sure how much, if anything Alex wanted me to tell him. “It’s his soon to be ex-wife,” is what I finally said, “She’s causing as much trouble as she possibly can for us.”
He drew his brows together and said, “What kind of trouble?”
“Um… I think maybe I should let Alex fill you in on all of that.” I wasn’t about to be the one to tell his father that his ex-daughter-in-law had tapes, possibly video that could be very harmful to his son’s and possibly even his entire family’s reputation.
“What is it you’re trying to get out of her, Dad?”
“I was just asking her what kind of trouble Cassandra was up to.” Alex looked at me and his father went on to say, “Don’t be angry with her, I could tell you were upset when I came in and I asked about it. All she would say is that Cassie is causing trouble. What is she up to? I can talk to Bill.”
Alex rolled his eyes and said, “Dad, I appreciate that you want to help, but this isn’t grade school. Talking to her father will undoubtedly not make things better in this case.”
“What is it that she’s done?”
While we ate, Alex told his father about Cassie refusing the settlements that his attorneys have offered her, coming into the house and being found in Michael’s room and lastly, installing a recorder in the basement and hiring Tracy to spy on us somehow. James Reigns listened quietly until Alex was finished. I could see his face going through a gamut of emotions, especially when he mentioned that she was in the baby’s room. When Alex finished his father almost looked sick.
“You have to have security around him… constantly!”
The way he said it gave me chills. It was as if he believed Michael was imminently threatened. “Dad, like I told Vicki, I don’t believe even Cassandra would stoop to the level of kidnapping a baby.”
“You don’t think so… but do you know so?” His father raised his voice and pushed back from the table. I could see the pulse throbbing in his neck. This was quite the reaction… one that surprised me and looked like it was shocking Alex.
“No Dad, I guess I don’t know… I’ve already increased security. Are you okay?”
James ran a hand across his face and said, “I just can’t believe it’s happening again.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
ALEXANDER
My father was acting so far out of character that I almost didn’t recognize him. First of all, showing up here was strange in and of itself. I had only seen my parents once in the past three years and that was at a friend’s wedding that we all just happened to be attending. My entire life, my parents had been a “force” to me. I was completely intimidated by them both. My father was so well-respected by everyone. I watched people practically bow at his feet my entire life and that left me awed by him. Most of the time though as I was growing up, he seemed distant and almost completely disinterested in me. Every Friday night I would have dinner at the big table with my parents. My mother would sit across from me, cold and distant as always and my father would say, “Talk to us about your week son.”
I remember when I was little, I would get excited about telling them everything I’d done and learned throughout the week. But as I got older and I realized that they only asked me about my week because they felt obligated to… it stopped being fun or exciting to me. After that, up until the time I was taken and left at a boarding school in Switzerland, we ate our Friday meals in silence.
Dad’s interest in Michael was bizarre to me, especially since during my obligatory phone call when Michael was born, I hadn’t heard from either him or my mother. Now he stood here, looking like he was about to have a heart attack over threats to my son that have never even been made directly. He was frightening Victoria and making me suspicious of his motives.
I stood up and went over to my father who was pale as a ghost and suddenly looked his age. “Dad, have a seat…”
“No, we need to call the police.”
“Dad, there’s nothing to report right now. My attorney has already gotten a restraining order against Cassie… that’s why she hired Tracy to come in here, I’m sure. Michael is safe. You saw that for yourself. You must have also seen all of the security on the grounds when you got here… I’m worried about you. Please sit down before you fall down, okay?”
He nodded slowly and allowed me to help him into his chair. After I made sure he was in and all the way back, I scooted his chair up as if he were a child. This whole scene was bizarre. I sat back down and reached over and squeezed Vicki’s hand. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and I know my father’s babbling had to have terrified her. I looked back over at him. He had his elbows on the table and his hands in his hair.
He pulled his head up slowly and looked at me and then he looked at Vicki. His eyes suddenly looked vacant and for a fraction of a second I wondered if he was taking some kind of drug. He finally said, “Your mother and I never told you because you were so young when it happened and we didn’t want to frighten you.” He stopped there and several seconds passed before he said, “You had a brother.”
I stared at him, in shock. There was definitely something wrong with him. Maybe he already had a stroke and it affected his mind. “I had a brother, Dad? When? What happened to him?” I didn’t really expect a rational answer to any of it. They weren’t rational questions because none of this made sense.
“When you were about three, your mother and I had another child. His name was Christopher James Reigns. He was a beautiful boy… just like you always were. The old house was happy and full of people in and out all
the time. We had a nanny for both of you, but back then your mother only used the nannies if we were going somewhere that you wouldn’t be allowed or comfortable. She was a good mother, she was a happy person, we were happy.”
“So what happened to Christopher? Did he die?”
“We don’t know. I think that’s the worst part… the not knowing. I’m sure it was the worst part for your mother. She didn’t want to leave the house in case they called. Cell phones were still only car phones back then.”
“Dad, I’m sorry, but you’re not making any sense.”
He looked up at me and Vicki again as if he’d forgotten we were in the room. Then he wrinkled his brow. God, he looked so old all of a sudden.
“Let me start at the beginning. You were going to turn four and we were getting ready for your birthday party. Your mother always went over the top, she was so crazy about her boys, you know? We had people in and out, strangers, workers, there was going to be a carousel and a bounce house and a petting zoo. Normally the staff would do the shopping but your mother was so excited about the party and she wanted to take you with her and let you pick out your theme. So anyways, that day Christopher was left here with the nanny. I was at work and you and your mother had gone shopping. I remember it was exactly 3:02 p.m. when I got the call…” He was shaking and sweat was beginning to form on his brow. Vicki got up and went over to him. She crouched down on one knee so that she could see his face.
“You don’t have to do this now. You probably had a very long trip. You should go try and rest…” Dad smiled and put his hands on either side of Vicki’s face.
“You’re beautiful. I don’t ever want you to have to go through what Alex’s mother did. No woman should ever have her babies taken away… it’s not natural. My wife was taken from me the day that Christopher was.”
I could see that both he and Vicki had tears in their eyes. I suddenly got a chill. Whatever he is talking about really happened. Oh my God. “Dad, Vicki’s right, if this is too hard we don’t have to do this now, but I do want to know what happened, eventually.”
He shook his head. “I’ve put it off for over twenty-five years because it was too hard. I need to do this now.” He smiled at Vicki and patted the side of her face and then he said, “That phone call came from the police. Christopher was reported missing from his crib by the nanny at 2 p.m. They waited over an hour before they called me. That day there were twelve workers there that weren’t regular staff according to the security logs. Those people were all questioned and cleared. The nanny was questioned and cleared, all of the regular staff and even security were questioned and cleared.”
“Did you get a demand for ransom?” I asked him.
He nodded. “It was almost two whole days later when they called. The person that called used one of those machines that scrambles and changes your voice. They said they wanted two million dollars in cash. I wasn’t the kind of wealthy that you are son. Much of my wealth in those days was in assets… stocks, real estate, and business ventures. I told them I would get the money but I would have to have a day or two to get it together. They told me I had twenty-four hours or they were going to bury Christopher alive and we would never see him again. Your mother and I began scrambling to sell anything and everything we had that we could sell, the cars, boats… we pulled out every extended line of credit that we could, all of our savings, your savings… everything. By the twenty-second hour with help from some very good friends, we were able to make the two-million. We sat by the phone and waited. Twenty-four hours went by and nothing happened, and then forty-eight and seventy-two. They never called back and we never saw our son again.”
“Oh my God!” Vicki had her hand over her mouth like she was going to be sick. She was no doubt thinking about our son. I was trying to wrap my head around something that happened to alter the course of my entire life and I didn’t know anything about it. It was surreal, but it explained so much.
“Did you look for him?”
“Of course. We never stopped. I’ve had a staff of private investigators doing nothing but looking for him. Every male child’s remains around the age that he was are DNA tested and my investigators make sure that Christopher’s DNA is on file with every state agency…. we’ve never found a trace of him, anywhere.”
We all sat silently for the longest time. What was there to say? I had a brother and then I didn’t. My parents had two sons and then they didn’t. People or a person thought that they could put a price on a child’s life and the end result was the destruction of a family.
Vicki finally broke the silence by saying, “If you’ll both excuse me, I’m going to check on Michael.”
“Are you okay?” I hated the thought of her having this in her head now, worrying about our son every minute of every day.
She came over and bent down next to me. She kissed my cheek and pressed her mouth to my ear and said, “I’m okay. We’re all going to be okay. Take care of your father.” I nodded, but when she was gone I had no idea what to say to the broken man in front of me. I suddenly felt like I didn’t know him. Before, I was frightened of him, but I at least knew how to feel. Now I am at a complete loss.
“Do you want to go into the study and have a drink, Dad?”
He shook his head slowly. Finally he looked up at me and he said, “Your mother and I know that we were wrong. We know that we cheated you… we just didn’t know how else to deal with it. It was a protective mechanism, I suppose. I threw myself into work and your mother withdrew and you were left out there to flutter in the wind all alone. We were terrible parents and nothing I can say now can make that better.”
I got up and went over to the chair next to him. I sat down and said, “We can’t change the past, you’re right, but now that I know about Christopher I can at least understand what happened. I feel so bad for you and Mom. I’m sorry, Dad.”
My father did something then that I can’t ever remember him doing before. He reached out and hugged me. He pulled me in so tightly that he cut off my air, but that was okay, for the first time in my life I felt safe and loved in my father’s arms.
VICTORIA
When I left the dining room, I really thought that I was going to be sick. I couldn’t even imagine going through what Alex’s parents have been through and surviving it. I went up to Michael’s room and even though I had the monitor in my pocket and I could hear his even, unlabored breaths, I was still in panic mode until I saw him. He looked so peaceful and perfect and I was tempted to pick him up and hold him. I wanted to feel him in my arms, make sure that he’s real. I knew that was me being selfish, so I pet his soft little head and sat down next to the crib instead. I sat there and watched him sleep and I wondered what my life would be like if he was taken away from me now. I shivered and realized that was the only thing that could ever possibly convince me to take my own life. I sat there for close to an hour with those depressing thoughts running through my head and by the time Alex found me there, the sun had gone down around us and the room was dark.
He did the same thing I had done first; he put his hand gently on Michael’s back to feel the rise and fall of his chest and then he pet his soft hair. He knelt down next to me and laid his head in my lap. I stroked his hair gently wondering what he must feel like to find all of this out after so long.
“Are you okay?” he asked me after a while.
“I’m good baby. How about you?”
“I’m okay. It’s hard to mourn someone that you never knew. I feel so bad for my parents, and really guilty for all of the things I thought about them in the interim.”
“But like you said, you didn’t know. So, their behavior rightly felt strange to you, and wrong. But I keep looking at our little angel and trying to imagine their pain and I can’t even come close.”
“You’ll never have to feel that kind of pain… I’m going to make sure of it.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
VICTORIA
When I woke up the next morning, Alex was gone
and there was a note on his pillow. It said, “I have to work for a few hours and then meetings with lawyers. Call me if you need ANYTHING and take one of the security men with you if you go anywhere. I love you!”
“I love you too,” I said aloud to the room. I missed him already. I got up and picked up the baby monitor. There was no noise coming from Michael’s room at all. I grabbed my robe and when I pulled open the bedroom door, Karen was there talking to the new upstairs maid.
“Good morning, Victoria.”
“Good morning,” I said quickly, turning towards Michael’s room.
“He’s not in there.”
“What? Oh my God! Where is he?” That quickly I could feel my blood pressure go up and my heart race.
Karen’s face fell and she said, “Oh dear, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Mr. Reigns has him down in the sunroom.”
Maid To The Billionaire: Forever His (Part Three) (Billionaire Romance) Page 4
