From Mistake to Millions

by Andrea Laurence

  Harley made his way to the maître d’s stand, and Jade was surprised when they were immediately escorted back to an intimate corner table. She settled into the chair across from Harley and accepted the menu that the maître d’ handed her.

  Her gaze had barely flicked over the selection of seafood and steaks when another man approached the table and introduced himself as the restaurant’s sommelier. “May I offer you something from our extensive wine list?” he asked. “I highly recommend the 2014 Opus One, which is a lovely red blend, or the Silver Oak cabernet sauvignon.”

  “Do you like red wine?” Harley asked.

  She nodded. “Whatever you like best,” she said. In truth, she wasn’t sure if she liked red wine or not. She hadn’t drunk much wine in her lifetime. She occasionally had a glass of white wine at social functions, but that was about it. Especially after things went down with Lance. Somehow consuming any kind of addictive substance had made her uneasy for the first year or so. But she was willing to try whatever was appropriate for tonight. It was part of the experience, she supposed.

  Harley looked over the wine list for a moment and ordered a bottle of something she couldn’t pronounce. The man seemed pleased, disappearing for a few moments and returning with Harley’s selection.

  The sommelier went through the ritual of opening the wine and pouring a small sample for Harley to try. Once he approved, the man poured a glass for each of them and left the bottle on the table.

  Jade casually picked up the wine menu and found what Harley had selected. It was a four-hundred-dollar bottle of wine, and didn’t even come close to being the most expensive choice on the list.

  “You’ll get used to it,” he said with a smile as he seemed to notice her reaction.

  Jade looked at him and frowned. “Get used to what?”

  “Your new life. If it turns out that you’re the true Steele heiress, a lot of things are going to change. It took me a while to adjust, too, especially after spending so many years overseas. I was accustomed to living in such rough conditions that just coming back to the States was luxurious. Then once my company took off and I found I had more money than I could ever spend, it took time to adjust to a new way of looking at the world. I had always had a poor man’s perspective. In some ways I still do, but I tried to broaden my horizons. If I wanted something, I could have it. I could eat at nice restaurants and wear expensive suits. I can spend more than I paid in rent money for my old apartment on a single bottle of wine. The key for me is to never take it for granted.”

  Jade wasn’t sure if she could ever do that. “Don’t you feel like an imposter?”

  “Every day of my life. I thought for the longest time that people would see through it all and kick me to the curb as though I didn’t belong. But it never happened. The same will happen to you, Jade. You might feel out of place, but you’ll fit in soon enough. I’d say you already would fit in if you’d take a deep breath, take a sip of that ridiculously expensive wine and allow yourself to relax.”

  She shook her head and looked back down at the menu. “I don’t know about it being that easy,” she said, but forced herself to take a deep breath, anyway. “I’m not so confident that my life is going to change, Harley. Even if you get the proof you need and the Steeles turn out to be my real parents, that doesn’t mean they’re going to welcome me with open arms. And even if they did, I doubt they’re going to give me a room in their mansion, hand me a checkbook and immediately rewrite their wills to include me. I might end up like the distant cousin that only gets invited to Christmas dinner. After all this, I’ll probably live the same middle-class life I’ve scratched out for myself.”

  Jade reached for her glass and took a healthy sip. It was lovely. Better than the twelve-dollar-a-bottle stuff she was used to having from time to time, as well it should be.

  It worked its magic on her quickly, however, especially on an empty stomach. The splash of cabernet warmed her and relaxed her muscles. Perhaps that was why the rich liked wine so much, she thought. It helped them deal with the stresses of their wealthy, complicated lives.

  Harley looked at her across the table with exasperation in his blue eyes. “You haven’t even met these people yet and you’re already planning their inevitable rejection. Care to tell me why that is?”

  She didn’t know for sure. “I don’t know what to say, Harley. I just can’t buy into the fantasy. My whole life I’ve fought to do the right thing and make the best choices, and it always seems to fly back in my face. I don’t know why this would be any different. Maybe a part of me knows that if I expect the worst, I might be pleasantly surprised for a change.”

  “Is that how you feel about me? About us? That if you expect all of this to end badly and it doesn’t, at the very least you won’t be disappointed?”

  Jade narrowed her gaze at him. He was looking so handsome in his suit, even as he pressed her about unpleasant topics. She studied the lines and angles of his face for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. It was easier to focus on the broken, offset nose, the evening stubble along his jaw and the dark brown eyebrows that framed his face than on the two of them and what was going on between them.

  “I don’t know how you and I are going to end, Harley. But yes, there’s certainly a part of me that knows better than to give too much importance to it. You’re going to crack the case and go back to DC, while I stay in Charleston and work through my identity crisis. Thinking what we have is anything more than a fun indulgence to scratch that itch for old time’s sake is a recipe for heartbreak, don’t you think?”

  He didn’t answer, but studied her face intently as she spoke. Jade wasn’t sure if he agreed with what she’d said or was irritated by it. Finally, he nodded and reached out to pick up his wineglass. “What shall we drink to tonight?”

  Jade thought for a moment as she picked up her own. “To the future?” she suggested.

  He smiled. “To the future,” he replied, clinking his crystal glass gently against hers. “And being pleasantly surprised by everything it has in store for you.”

  “For both of us,” she corrected.

  * * *

  They returned to a disaster area.

  Harley was beyond furious as he watched Jade step gingerly through the remains of her living room in her nice dress and heels. While they were away at dinner, someone had broken in and done his best to try to scare Jade.

  As she bent down with trembling hands to pick up a shattered frame containing a photograph of her family, Harley worried that perhaps whoever it was had been successful. Jade was a strong, stubborn woman, but everyone had their limits.

  The cops had already come and gone, taking statements and photographs, but offering little to make Jade feel any better about her situation. As it was, the living room bore little resemblance to what they’d left behind only a few hours ago. It was the same in all the other rooms of her tiny bungalow—nothing seemed to be taken, but everything was torn apart. Overturned furniture, dumped out drawers, broken glass...even a message spray painted across her living room wall: Quit While You’re Ahead.

  Just looking at the sloppy red paint splattered across her beautiful little space was enough to send Harley’s blood pressure skyrocketing. She’d come back to Charleston to start a new life. To rebuild after Lance destroyed everything they had together. And now, something that had happened thirty years ago was threatening this new chance. He didn’t know that Jade would ever be able to live in this house alone and be comfortable. Even with all the best technology he could install.

  Damn the delays. If his guys had been here days ago the way they’d planned, the house would’ve been rigged with cameras rolling to catch the intruder as he approached. The system would have protected the house, and more importantly, protected Jade’s feelings of security. She’d argued with him that her neighborhood was safe and she didn’t need all that equipment. He doubted she would argue with him
about it now.

  “I don’t understand,” Jade said, as she dropped the photograph back to the floor and sat down on the couch. “Why would someone do something like this?”

  “To rattle you,” Harley replied. “If this is the same person who wrote the note, and I think it is, he’s escalating their threats. You haven’t dropped the case, so they wanted you to know they’re serious.”

  “But who cares?” she lamented. “Why would someone be so invested in me not finding my family? I’m no Princess Anastasia.”

  He shook his head and moved to sit beside her. “If we uncover the motivation, we may very well find out what happened to you as a baby and why. Whoever was involved doesn’t want the truth coming out. You’re just the driving force behind the investigation, and therefore, the target of their aggression. Simple as that.”

  “Simple as that,” Jade parroted with a flat tone and dead eyes that focused on the spray-painted threat.

  Harley didn’t like seeing her that way. It wasn’t like his Jade. She was a fighter, and this bastard had broken her. Harley’s hands curled into fists in his lap as he looked around at the mess. He felt helpless, something he almost never was. He always had something he could do to correct a situation. He wanted to beat the person responsible to a pulp, or drop them into the world’s worst prison, where they’d never be heard from again.

  But for now, he needed to figure out what he could do to help.

  As he was thinking, Jade leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his biceps and held him tightly. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “If I had come home alone to find this, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

  She was right. At least he was here with her. She wasn’t going through all of this alone. He was glad he’d followed his instincts when she’d received that threatening letter. Jade hadn’t been happy about him imposing on her life, but it had been the right choice.

  He turned to bury his face in the white-blond strands of her hair, and breathed in the scent of her shampoo. The familiar and fruity smell helped him relax, letting the knotted muscles in his neck and shoulders unwind. He didn’t need to prepare for battle. At least not tonight.

  “I’m glad I was here, too. I’m going to find out who’s doing this to you, Jade, and I’ll make sure they can’t hurt you ever again.”

  She didn’t respond, just clung more tightly to his arm. He’d hoped that he would get a chance to hold her again tonight, but this wasn’t what he’d had in mind. The mood was definitely shattered, along with most of her things.

  Jade said she would call her insurance company in the morning, but he knew they would do only so much. He would phone the office and have his assistant set up a cleaning crew to get the place put back together, while his team installed the security equipment that had arrived a day too late.

  But in the meantime...

  “Jade, pack a bag. We’re leaving.”

  She snapped out of her sad fog and sat up, turning to look at him with confusion furrowing her brow. “What?”

  “This place isn’t safe any longer. We’re not staying here tonight.”

  “Where are we going to go?”

  Harley thought about it for a moment, firming up the plans in his mind. “We’re going to my mother’s house.”

  “I don’t know, Harley. That would be weird. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea about us.”

  “She won’t.”

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  Harley sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Why was everything an argument with Jade? “You won’t be imposing. My mother’s house is huge. I paid for it. I pay someone to clean it. If you tried hard enough, she might not even know you were there.”

  “We can’t just get a hotel room here in town?”

  “No. I was staying with her until I came here. And now, so are you.”

  “But...”

  “No buts. The threats are getting more serious, Jade. The only way to end them is to complete the investigation. I can’t do that and also protect you every minute of the day. My mother’s house is an old plantation property surrounded by twelve acres of wooded wetlands. It’s gated, alarmed, surveilled and completely secure. It’s a damn fortress with arches and columns. That’s the only place I would feel comfortable leaving you right now. I’m not even sure I want you to work for the next few days. You’re too exposed to the public there.”

  Jade took a deep breath, and as she let it out, he could see the fight draining out of her, too. “Okay. I’ll call in sick for a couple days. How much should I pack?”

  He didn’t want to say it out loud, but he couldn’t see Jade living here again, so everything? “At least enough clothing and toiletries to get you through two or three days. We can always come back and get more if we need to.”

  “More than three days?”

  Harley shrugged. “It all depends on my investigation. Until we know the truth, and the person responsible for this is in jail, I don’t know where else you can stay. They’d just trace you to your parents’ house. No one will know you’re with me, or where my mother lives. She’s as big of a black hole of digital data as I am. They won’t be able to find her.”

  Jade nodded and stood up to make her way to what was left of her bedroom. It should be easy to pack, with everything strewn on the floor, but he figured it would take her a while to get things together. Before she went down the hall, she stopped and turned back to Harley.

  He thought she might say something. Her eyes were overflowing with emotion, but instead of speaking, she just lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him in a ferocious hug. Jade’s face was buried in his neck as she clung to him. She didn’t say a word, but Harley got the message loud and clear.

  He hadn’t wanted it to happen this way, but he’d finally brought down the wall between the two of them. The last of Jade’s fortifications had fallen and she was letting him in, at last.

  And he wasn’t sure what he should do next.

  Nine

  When Harley said he’d bought his mother a plantation, Jade had been thinking it was a metaphor for a big house, or at the very least, an exaggeration. Then the iron gates opened and his Jaguar traveled down the road that led to the Rose River Mansion and she realized he was telling the truth. It was an actual 1800s-era plantation home.

  Unlike the typical White House style with two-story columns, Rose River was unique in these parts. She was no architect, but Gothic was the only word that came to mind, even with its traditional white wood siding and copper peaked roof. Like a cross between an old chapel, a house and a European chalet, it was so detailed that Jade figured she could stare at it for hours and see something new every time she looked. It was like something out of a novel, making her little bungalow look like a shack in comparison.

  As they parked and walked up the pea gravel path to the front door, she gazed at the ancient oak trees overhead, which were dripping with Spanish moss highlighted by the moonlight. Brick steps led to a grand porch with three cusped arches and clustered piers welcoming guests inside. As they climbed the stairs to the porch, however, Jade saw modern touches of Harley in the old house. There were video cameras beneath the eaves and technologically advanced locks on the front door and windows. Knowing him, the original glass had been replaced with bulletproof panes.

  Instead of using a key, Harley reached out to punch in a six-digit code, then pressed his thumb on a scanner to unlock the door. It swung open and he gestured for her to go inside ahead of him.

  Jade stepped into the grand entrance hall with its two-story ceiling, sparkling chandelier and spiral staircase. She couldn’t imagine living someplace like this. It was quite a leap from the tiny apartment Harley had shared with his mother back in high school. She knew he had done well for himself with his business, but this was on another level.

 
; “Is your home in DC like this?” she asked, as she studied the marble floors and intricate moldings.

  Harley shut the door and dropped their bags on the floor beside him. “Not even close,” he said. “My taste runs a bit more modern. I have a three-story town house in Georgetown. It’s over a hundred years old, but you wouldn’t know it.”

  “I’m sure you gutted all the charm out of it and added all your security features in the process.”

  “I didn’t have to,” he stated with a smile. “The previous owner was a higher-up in the CIA. It was completely renovated and locked down tighter than the Vatican vaults when I bought it.”

  “Sounds perfect for you,” she said smugly.

  “Harley, is that you, dear?”

  Jade turned in time to see Harley’s mother come through a set of French doors to greet them. Though she certainly looked older than when they’d last met, the years had been kind to her. She paused for a moment as she gazed at the two of them in the entry, then grinned widely.

  “Jade?”

  “Yes, it’s me, Mrs. Dalton.”

  The woman came forward quickly, scooping Jade into a big hug. It was just like the ones she remembered from her teen years, although now his mother smelled like Chanel No. 5 and was wearing sparkling diamond studs in her ears. She finally pulled away and studied Jade for a moment. “Lovely. Just lovely.”

  Then she turned to her son. “Harley Wayne Dalton, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing Jade here tonight? I would’ve had a room prepared for her. Now the housekeeper has already gone to bed for the evening. It’s past eleven.”

  “It was a last-minute decision, Mama. Her house was broken into and I didn’t want to stay there tonight.”

  “Oh no, that’s just awful,” she said in the thick Carolina drawl Jade remembered. “Of course you’re going to stay here, aren’t you? Since Gabby is asleep, I’ll run upstairs and get a room ready for you.” She paused for a moment, looking curiously at them both with arched eyebrows. “Unless you’ll just be sharing Harley’s room?” she asked with a hopeful twinkle in her eyes.