by Lilly Wilde
“Maybe she …” I started.
“Maybe she what?” Aiden asked.
“I don’t know. I’m just shocked by this.” I’d wanted to say something to reassure him, but I was absolutely clueless as to the words that would do that.
“Dianna has Lyric all ready to go,” Aiden said. “I’ll see you in a few.”
“Okay,” I replied and returned the phone to the cradle. I never imagined Sienna making such a bold move. I’d criticized her position as the family matriarch on many occasions. I’d hoped she grow a pair, but I’d never expected anything as extreme as leaving her family.
*****
Stepping onto the jet, I found Aiden, Dianna and Lyric already in their seats. Lyric reached out as soon as he noticed me. My eyes rested on my son for a moment, wondering if he’d ever escape the burden of being a Raine. Aiden had once told me his name was just that—a burden. At the time I’d blown it off as total bullshit, but then the more I glimpsed of his world, the more I understood the encumbrance of his surname.
Not only had I given new life to it, I’d married into it. It was easy at times to forget about it, though. To just live in the moment with Aiden, blocking out the rest of the world, but it was always there and it would always be there. I understood more and more why Aiden had hidden his true identity in the past—why he didn’t want me to know about this part of his life.
I wondered what type of man Aiden would have been if he’d been just a normal guy. Would he have been as brilliant? As confident? As frustrating? I sighed as I settled into my seat. I felt Aiden’s eyes on me, but I focused on fastening my seat belt and then stared straight ahead.
“Hello, Mrs. Raine. My name is Teresa, and I’ll be one of your flight attendants today. Can I offer you something to drink or perhaps a snack?”
“Nice to meet you. A glass of wine, please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “Would that be a red or white?”
“Either is fine,” I replied.
“Would you like anything else?”
“No,” I said.
“Teresa, bring Mrs. Raine some cheese and fruit, please,” Aiden said.
“I said I didn’t want anything else,” I said, turning to him with a frown.
Aiden ignored me and gave a nod to Teresa.
“Are you okay?” he asked, once she’d stepped away.
“What do you think?”
“You can’t possibly be upset with me,” he said, clearly shocked that I was blaming him for his mother’s disappearance.
“I told you this would happen. I told you.”
“Can you not do this right now?”
“Not do what? I asked.
“You’re about to point every finger you can at me.”
“It’s not like your hands are clean in this,” I said.
“My mother is an adult. I can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t choose to do. And what happened to your supporting me? Or maybe you’re still bothered that I didn’t tell you everything beforehand—is that it? If you’re unaware of every detail of everything I do, you go on a rampage.”
“That’s not true,” I said.
“Sure it is, and I’m pretty sure that if the tables were reversed, and I asked the same of you, it wouldn’t go over very well.”
“You wouldn’t bother asking, you’d spy on me. That’s what you do. And you know, I don’t understand why you insist on doing things under the table, anyway. Why can’t you be upfront? One would think you would’ve learned a lesson by now.”
“And what would that be?” he asked. “To make sure everything I do is Aria-approved?”
“Whatever, Aiden. Do what you want. You will anyway.”
“And we’re off.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“That this will evolve into another one of our showdowns. Can we postpone this one for later in the week?”
“You’re an asshole. And FYI, I don’t intend to waste my breath arguing with you now or later in the week.”
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.”
“Good. And when it suddenly dawns on you how badly this has all backfired—and trust me, it will—don’t come to me seeking forgiveness, because I’m not giving it.”
“Then we won’t have a problem, because I won’t be asking.”
He shook his head and pulled out his phone. I reached for my laptop. I had no idea how long we’d be in Chicago and I wanted to do as much work as I could. Besides, it would keep me distracted. Anything to keep from focusing too much on the purpose of this trip. Sienna had been missing for four days, and she wasn’t returning any phone calls or texts. I was dreading whatever awaited us when we landed in Chicago. I knew it wouldn’t be good.
My husband and I didn’t talk any more to each other the entire flight. I could sense we both wanted to say something, but per our usual obstinate selves, we didn’t. Instead, we concentrated on work, our son, or our electronic gadgets, as Dianna quietly observed us through disappointed eyes.
Chapter Six
Allison answered the door and rushed into Aiden’s arms. “You’ve got to find her!” she said, looking up at her brother with large, sad eyes.
“We will, Allie,” Aiden said. “I’m sure she’s just letting off some steam.”
“By leaving? She’s never done this before.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Aiden said, his irritation with the current state of his family apparent.
“This is a horrible mess. Why did you have to do this, Aiden?”
Aiden slowed his steps and spun toward his sister, a scowl marring his face as he looked down at her. “Not you too, Allie. Please. And what are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were still in New York.”
Allison shook her head in disbelief. “My mother is missing,” she said. “Where else would I be?”
“Where’s everyone else?” Aiden asked, ignoring Allison’s question.
“Sloan and Nick are in the family room,” Allison said.
“And Dad?”
“He’s locked himself in his bedroom. He won’t come downstairs. He won’t even open the door for us. He’s been up there since he came home and found Mommy gone.”
“Four days ago?” Aiden asked.
“Yes,” Allison replied.
“Shit,” Aiden said, letting out a sigh.
I glanced at Aiden, shaking my head at the chaos he’d caused.
“I don’t need any more from you, Aria,” he said and stepped past me.
I knew I shouldn’t be upset with him, but a part of me was. This all could have been avoided if he’d just kept his word to back away from Raine Industries, the one thing that had always hung over us like a black cloud.
“Dianna, it’s Lyric’s nap time,” I said. “Can you take him upstairs, please? Besides, he needs to be as far removed from this as possible.” I wondered if it would have been wiser to have left him in Boston.
“Yes, of course,” Dianna said. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
“You should get some rest, too,” I said. “Don’t overdo it.”
“I’m fine,” she replied. “And Aria?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be too hard on Aiden,” she said, concern in her voice. “He’s just trying to right some wrongs.”
“Thank you, Dianna.”
My gaze followed her ascent to the next floor. Would she always champion Aiden’s cause? I answered my own question—of course she would. She only saw the good in him, even when his actions were anything but.
I suppressed my slight irritation with Dianna and headed toward the family room with the others. Sloan and Nicholas were pacing back and forth as Aiden justified everything he’d done over the last several months. As I stood in the doorway, observing the Raine siblings, it suddenly occurred to me that, as dysfunctional as they were, maybe the life they’d had before I’d stepped into their world had been better. At least
they’d been a solid family unit … or had presented the image of one, rather. I couldn’t help but feel partially responsible for all of this.
After a few minutes of listening to them go at it with Aiden, I realized my presence was unnecessary. Aiden could more than handle his own with them. Instead of adding my two cents to their conversation, I thought I’d try my hand at coaxing Connor down, so I started upstairs, intent on fixing some of what was broken. Connor and I weren’t really on the best of terms, but he was my family now, and even though I figured he’d reject it, I wanted to offer him my help.
Standing outside Connor and Sienna’s bedroom, I took a deep breath and knocked. There was no answer, so I knocked again. Was he really in there? Maybe he’d slipped out unbeknownst to everyone in the house. I placed my ear to the door and knocked a third time.
“How many times must I tell you I don’t wish to be disturbed?” Connor asked, from the other side of the door.
I was about to reply, but for some reason I hesitated. As I stood there, silent, I considered walking away and leaving him to stew in his misery, but the nagging part of me that said I shouldn’t pushed me to speak. “Connor, it’s Aria. May I come in?”
I waited, expecting him to reply in the negative, but when the door opened to reveal a very unkempt, and seemingly inebriated man, I was startled.
“Suit yourself,” he said, creeping back into his bedroom.
I was taken aback by the disarray. Trays of uneaten food were on the bed, empty scotch and cognac bottles lay on the floor, and sections of the newspaper were tossed here and there. The room was dark, only half-lit by partially opened drapes.
“Still no word from Sienna?” I asked, clearing a space on the bench at the foot of the bed.
“Nothing.”
I’d hoped to persuade him out of his room, to be the voice of reason, but something in Connor’s tone held me mute. “She’ll be back soon,” I finally said. “I’m sure of it.”
“That makes one of us. In all the years of our marriage, she’s never done anything even remotely close to this.” He sat in a chair towards the rear of the room. “She’s finally had enough.”
So he knew he’d been pushing her all of these years. Did he not think she would ever stand up for herself? For what she wanted?
“Maybe she has, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to give up on the life you’ve built,” I said, glancing at the food trays. “But you know, I think she’d much prefer you greet her clean and sober.”
“I’m the most sober I’ve been in the last three days,” he said, holding up a glass of liquor.
“Okay, so maybe we should replace the alcohol with some water and also get some food in you. I can ask the cook to bring something up.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Why what?”
“Why do you care if I eat?” he grumbled.
“You’re my family, Connor. Of course I care.”
“You certainly have an odd way of showing it,” he said, grabbing a section of the newspaper from the floor and waving it at me. “Going along with the largest betrayal any son can commit.”
“I don’t know what you expected of me, but my loyalty lies with my husband,” I said.
He took a swig of liquor and then swirled the glass in his hand, staring at it. “As it should. Perhaps when you speak with my wife, you can remind her of that. You seem to be the only one she’s listening to these days.”
“So you’re still blaming me for this?” I asked, incredulous.
“You’re the only new factor in all of this, Aria. You do the math,” Connor said, obviously still in denial.
“Do you think I would suggest to Sienna that she leave you? That she walk out on her family? I wouldn’t do that.”
“You’ve clearly done something.” He tossed the paper back to the floor.
“The only thing I’ve done is listen to her. Maybe that’s something you should try doing every once in a while.”
“Is this your idea of helping me?” he asked. “Please close the door on your way out.”
I hadn’t intended to stir the pot with Connor, but he wasn’t making it easy not to. “I’m not leaving, so tell me what can I do to help?”
“Apparently you have my wife’s ear, so you need to convince her not to throw away thirty-two years of marriage over a business disagreement.”
“Do you honestly see it as simple as all that?” I asked. “You can’t possibly.”
“I see it for what it is. All of these changes. Aiden’s disloyalty. Sienna’s disappearance. None of this would have happened had it not been for you.”
“Honestly, Connor, this is not my fault. Aiden does consider my feelings in most things, but let’s face it, at the end of the day, Aiden does what Aiden wants,” I said. “And in your case, you may have thought you had him over a barrel, but you should know better than most that he always finds a way to turn the tables.”
Connor swallowed the last of the alcohol. “And I suppose you’ll deny that you had anything to do with my wife disappearing?” he asked.
“I don’t expect Sienna listens to even half of what I say, not that I say very much of anything in regard to your marriage,” I said.
“Perhaps you can’t see your hand in this, but I do, Aria. But none of that matters anymore. The end justifies the means.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“Isn’t this what you all sought? To see me defeated? You have what you wanted. Please just leave and go back to whatever it is you kids were doing to celebrate your triumph.”
“Is that how you really think?” I asked. “No one wanted this, least of all me. I care about this family. Why can’t you see that?”
“And my traitorous son?” he asked. “Does he presume to care also?”
“We all care, Connor. We just have a few things to work out.”
“There’s no working this out. The damage is more than done. I wonder with all of my son’s planning and plotting if he’d anticipated destroying our family.”
“Your family is still intact. Sienna will come back home where she belongs. You two will work things out and everything will be fine.”
Connor didn’t acknowledge my words. He grabbed the decanter from the nearby table and refilled his drink.
“Who would have thought? The one I groomed to take over, did just that,” he mumbled. “Didn’t expect him to take it from the man who made him who he is,” he added just before lifting the glass of alcohol to his lips.
I stood silently for a moment, watching Connor swallow the amber liquid. Clearly, he had no intention of laying off the booze. Having seen enough, I stepped toward him and reached for the glass. I wasn’t about to watch him drink himself into a stupor, nor would I sit and listen to anymore of his pity party. “Give that to me,” I demanded.
Connor looked up at me with wide eyes. “Anyone ever tell you you’re bossy?” he asked.
“All the time,” I said as I pulled the glass from his hand. “Aiden hates it at times. Well … actually most of the time.”
With the glass in hand, I walked to bedside table for the phone and called downstairs, requesting someone to clean the room and prepare Connor’s dinner. Next to the phone, I spotted the remote for the drapes. I pressed the button and watched as the thick fabric separated, opening to opposite sides of the room.
“What are you doing?” Connor asked, his hand shielding his eyes.
“I’m helping you. Now get up and get in the shower. I’ve had enough of this shit with you and Aiden, and since you two can’t seem to muster up the common sense to fix this, I will.”
Connor leaned back in the chair, crossed his arms over his chest and squinted as he stared at the window.
“Connor, if you want me to help, you’re going to have to do your part,” I said.
“Aria, I didn’t seek out your help. We both know I wouldn’t do that. And I don’t know what you seem to think you can fix but—”
“But nothing. I’m mo
re like your son than you realize, so if you think I’m taking no for an answer, you have a lot to learn about me. I plan to enjoy these first few months as a newlywed, and I won’t be able to do that with all of this shit going on. So perhaps I’m being selfish, but either way we need to resolve this so we can all get to a happier place. Now come,” I said, holding my hand out to him.
He stood with a huff. “Fine,” he said, moving my hand aside. “I’ll shower if it means I can get you off my back.”
He trudged off to the bathroom just as Fran, one of the upstairs maids, stepped into the room. She offered a meek smile as she started restoring the bedroom to its former self. Judging from the shocked expression on her face, the disorder was more than she’d expected.
Stepping toward the sitting area, I pulled my phone from my pocket and pressed the auto dial for Sienna. It was no surprise when the call went directly to voicemail, so I sent a text. Aiden had said his parents responded to me in ways they didn’t with their kids; it was time to test that theory.
I anxiously paced the floor, hopeful that a message would appear, but Sienna didn’t reply. With Connor still in the shower, I went downstairs to report to the others what I’d found and asked them all to come up in a little while to talk to Connor. Their reaction was no less than what I expected. Looks of bewilderment, curiosity and apprehension played across their faces … just as they had with Connor.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“No. We just didn’t know how we would go about reaching our father,” Sloan said. “This has never happened before, and he can be stubborn on his best day, so we expected even more of a challenge with something like this. I guess we’re surprised he responded to you at all.”
“Why? Because he blames me for all of it?” I asked dryly.
“Still?” Aiden asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Overall, how is he?” asked Nicholas.
“He’s a mess. He reeked of alcohol, and from the looks of the uneaten food, he’s been surviving on booze. And I could be wrong, but it looked like he was wearing the same clothes he had on when he was at our place in Boston a few days ago. I finally convinced him to take a shower, and I called Fran up to clean the room and bring some food and coffee.”
