“A date, yes. But Jade? There’s a lot of personal crap involved there. You don’t think that taking her is a bad idea? This is potentially her family she’s meeting for the first time. You’re there to get information. She’s there to see the life she’s missed out on. What if your objectives are at cross-purposes? She could panic and blow your cover. She could say or do something to get you thrown out before you can do what you went to accomplish. If it comes down to Jade or the job, what will you choose?”
“It’s just a bunch of rich people mingling and writing checks so they can feel better about themselves. I can’t imagine it being so dire that it would come down to me choosing between my case and Jade.”
Isaiah crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “Then you need to imagine harder.”
Eleven
Whoa. Money.
The Steele mansion was ridiculous. It was exactly what Jade would’ve pictured: a typical two-story plantation home, with a long driveway that led up to it, lined by oaks dripping with Spanish moss. It was white, with massive columns that reached for the sky and huge windows flanked by black shutters. There was a line of cars out front and a crowd of people walking up the stairs to the open entrance. There were valets in dark green suits greeting the guests and taking their cars to a grass lot around the side of the property.
When they pulled up, Jade found her heart pounding so hard in her chest she could barely breathe. This was it. Harley was fairly certain that her real parents were Trevor and Patricia Steele. Pictures she’d seen on the internet had only confirmed his suspicions. Jade was no doubt a younger version of Patricia.
In a few moments, she would walk through the front door of their home and lay eyes on them in person for the very first time. She would probably be able to pick them out of a crowd. But what would they think when they saw her? She didn’t know.
It was her idea to come tonight. She had sworn to Harley that she could keep her cool. Yet in the moment, she found she couldn’t make herself reach for the handle to open the passenger door. It wasn’t until the valet did so with a smile and offered to help her out that she started to move. Jade gathered up her small beaded clutch and stepped out of the Jaguar to face her future.
Harley came around the front of the car and took her arm. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Why?”
“You seem a little tense.”
She tried to smile and dismiss both their worries. “I’m just nervous. I’ll be fine.” She took a deep breath. “So, do we have a plan of action for tonight?”
“Observe. Try to talk to the family, especially Morgan, if we can. That’s it. I don’t intend to make a scene. I really just want to make the connection without their staff in the way. I’m certain once they realize the seriousness of the situation, they will fully cooperate.”
At the top of the stairs, they stepped into the grand foyer, where they turned in their tickets and were greeted by servers with flutes of champagne. They each accepted a glass and continued toward the sound of music and laughter coming from the far side of the house.
“Nice,” Jade said, after she took a sip of the champagne. It was dry, but had a sweet finish and enough bubbles to tickle her nose. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so good. I could get used to this.”
“It should be nice. Tickets to the party were ten thousand dollars a couple, and I’m not even sure they’re serving a meal.”
Jade came to a sudden stop and turned to look at Harley. There were easily a couple hundred people at this event so far. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “They’re raising money for charity and most of these people have the cash to burn and tax deductions to seek out. You’re not going to build houses for the poor charging twenty bucks a head.”
She nervously took another sip of her champagne and hoped the alcohol would calm her nerves. This was the life she very well could’ve been born to. It was a surreal thought. But not so surreal as the sight of the ballroom when they stepped through the wide French doors.
The room was huge, with gold and crystal chandeliers hanging overhead and thick velvet drapes framing each picture window. An orchestra was in the corner playing to the crowd on the dance floor, which was surrounded by dozens of round tables draped in gray and red fabric and topped with tall floral arrangements of bright red roses. Those were the Steele Company colors, of course. The sight was almost as overwhelming as the sound of music and hundreds of voices coming at them like a wave.
“Are you ready?” Harley asked.
Jade threw back the last of her champagne and set the flute on the tray of a passing server. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Harley smiled and led her through the crowds of people to one of the tables that had empty seats. He left Jade for a moment to go to the bar and get more drinks for them. When he returned, he sat beside her for a moment, seeming to want to give her time to acclimate.
“What now?” she asked.
He scanned the room thoughtfully. To their right was a big buffet display with hot and cold appetizers and a large bar. On the other side was the dance floor, where quite a few people had gathered. “May I have this dance?” he asked.
“I’m not a very good dancer,” she admitted.
“Neither am I. I just want us mingling. It’ll make it easier to track down the family.” Harley pushed up from his seat and offered Jade his hand. She accepted it and he led her through the maze of tables. They found a spot near the center of the dancefloor and blended in with the rest of the crowd. The music was slow and steady, allowing Harley to take Jade in his arms and rock back and forth in an easy rhythm.
Jade finally relaxed, with his hand resting warm and secure on her lower back. Things seemed easier when he touched her, somehow. It made her wonder how she was going to deal with what was to come without him.
“Have I mentioned how beautiful you look tonight?”
She gazed up at him and smiled. “Almost enough times to make me believe it.”
“I know this probably isn’t the right time to say this,” he said, “but I need to get it off my chest. The music and the champagne are making me brave.”
Jade stiffened in his arms. “What is it?”
“I should’ve fought for you,” he said. “Back then. I’m sorry I didn’t. I know you always feel like you aren’t good enough, and I understand what it’s like because I’ve never felt like I was good enough for you, either. That’s why I didn’t fight. I wanted to. I wanted to drive to Clemson, knock on your dormitory door and kiss you until you couldn’t even remember Lance’s name. But I thought you’d be better off without me.”
She didn’t know what to say. What would she have done if he’d followed his heart? How would their lives be now?
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen tonight. Or next week. I’m not sure about a lot of things. But I know I don’t want to make the same mistake with you twice. Jade, I...”
The song that was playing ended. That’s when the band leader called the Steele family to the stage and they started to make their way to the front of the ballroom.
This was the moment Jade had been waiting for, and yet she wished she could put the whole party on pause to hear what he wanted to tell her. He looked reluctantly at the gathering and gave her a sad smile. “To be continued,” he said.
Jade squeezed her eyes shut in frustration for a moment, then tried to focus on what was going on with the group gathering onstage. They were easily some of the most beautiful people she had ever seen in person. It was as though they’d all walked off the cover of a magazine. She easily recognized Trevor and Patricia from their photo. They were standing together, sharing a quiet moment of conversation. Trevor was tall and lean with graying, honey-gold hair and dark eyes. Patricia had Jade’s same white-blond hair and high cheekbones. She was very slender, like Jade, and carried herself with unmistakable poise.
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Their children were gathered near them. Three sons, all handsome, all spitting images of their father. It looked as though two of them might even be identical twins, although Jade couldn’t be sure. Perhaps it was just their flawless tuxedos and bright smiles that made them appear so alike. Then she turned her gaze toward the woman one of the sons was speaking to, and that’s when Jade realized it was none other than Morgan Steele.
Jade froze in place, taking in every feature of the dark beauty. Morgan was a marked contrast to the rest of her family, with her thick, almost black hair and green eyes. In that moment, she looked so much like Jade’s mother that Jade felt a punch of jealousy to her stomach. She had always wanted to fit in, to look like the rest of her family. Morgan fit in perfectly and she didn’t even know it.
And yet she fit in with the Steele family, as well. She had a different look to her, but she also had their regal carriage, their elegance and their confidence. Morgan wore her emerald gown and sparking jewelry as if they were made just for her. She would fit in anywhere she chose to and people would flock to her.
Then there was Jade. She’d felt so pretty in her dress tonight. And in an instant she might as well have worn a T-shirt and jeans to the party.
She’d come here tonight in the hopes of finding out where she belonged. In her mind, she’d thought that somehow seeing her biological family would make the pieces click together and suddenly her life would make sense. But it didn’t. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to sit around the worn kitchen table at her parents’ house and play a board game with them and her brother. They had never made her feel like she was an outsider in the family. Jade was the only one who seemed to notice the differences.
They’d never said it, but it had to have hurt them to have Jade pursue her real family so doggedly. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t been the best parents a girl could ask for. They had been. She wouldn’t trade them for the world, and she hoped they knew that.
She wanted to go and tell them that right now. To walk away from all this before she couldn’t turn back.
The longer she stood watching the family mingle, the more she realized this wasn’t what she wanted. This was a mistake. Someone didn’t want the truth to come out, and now she wasn’t so certain that she wanted the truth to come out, either. Maybe it was better to leave well enough alone.
“I’d like to welcome everyone,” Trevor Steele said as he stepped forward with the microphone in his hand. “My name is Trevor Steele and I’m the current CEO of Steele Tools. This is my beautiful family.” He gestured toward the others on the stage, beaming with pride as the crowd applauded. “We are all so thrilled to have you here with us tonight to make a difference for those in need. I’d like to invite my incredibly talented daughter, Morgan, the head of our community outreach program, to step up to the microphone to tell you all a little about why we’ve gathered here tonight and what you can do to help.”
Morgan moved gracefully across the stage, accepting a kiss on the cheek from her doting father as she took the microphone. “Write a big check,” she said with a grin, and the crowd laughed.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time tonight. They got to dress up, mingle with their peers and feel like they were giving back and doing something good. The room was charged with positive energy. And Jade had never wanted to get out of a place more in her life.
* * *
“Harley, I’ve changed my mind. I want to go home.”
He stiffened, turning to her with a stunned expression on his face. “You what?” he whispered, trying not to draw attention to them while Morgan spoke onstage.
“I want to go home. I think this whole thing was a mistake. I—I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.”
Damn it. He knew bringing Jade was a potentially bad idea, but he couldn’t say no to her. She was his weakness and now she would potentially ruin his chance to get to the Steele family. He’d barely laid eyes on them, and had come nowhere close to actually speaking to any of the Steeles. “You’re just nervous,” he soothed. Harley reached for her elbow and led her off the dance floor.
Once they were clear of most of the crowd listening to the speeches, he stopped and turned to her. “It’s totally understandable to be anxious about something like this. This is a big deal. I won’t even pretend to know how big it is for you. But running away isn’t going to change the truth, Jade.”
She pulled away from his hold and hugged her own waist apprehensively. “It may not change the truth, but I’m starting to think it’s better this way. Things worked out the way they should’ve. The family seems so happy. I don’t want to mess that up for them. Or hurt my own parents more than I already have. I’ll call the hospital myself and tell them I’m dropping my claim against them.”
“It’s too late for that. Come on, Jade, think about the people who broke into your home. They were trying to stop you from finding out the truth. If you give up now, they win.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s been thirty years. This isn’t my life and it never will be. I’d rather let it lie.”
Harley squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to shake some sense into her, although he wouldn’t dare. He had to find a way to reason with her. There was no way to stop the train once it left the station. Whether she wanted it to, whether he dropped the investigation... The hospital administrators knew there was an issue now and they would get to the bottom of it.
He reached out and gripped her upper arm, feeling she might run from the ball like Cinderella if he didn’t. “I can’t let it lie, Jade. This is my job. A job I was hired for because of you. And I was hired to find out the truth. I’m going to do that whether you want me to anymore or not.”
A flash of pain danced across Jade’s pale face before she jerked herself from his grip. Her dark eyes grew glassy as she slowly shook her head in disbelief and heartache.
“Jade...” He reached out again.
“No. Don’t,” she argued, stepping out of his reach. “You have your priorities and I have mine. I thought I might rank higher on your list, but that was foolish of me. I wasn’t Lance’s priority, either. He was more interested in getting high and you’re more interested in the thrill of the chase.”
The crowd applauded loudly and the orchestra started playing again. They both turned to see the Steeles step down from the stage and return to mingling with their guests and donors. If Harley was going to talk to Morgan, he needed to do it soon. If he could just convince Jade to give him ten minutes... Just ten minutes could make all the difference in the world.
He turned back to her with pleading eyes. “That’s not true.”
She shook her head more adamantly. “We’ll see about that. Go on, go be the badass who saves the day. But I’m going home, Harley. Home to my own house. I’ll ask one of the valets to call a cab to pick me up.” Jade spun on her heel, a blur of crimson beading, and then made a beeline for the ballroom entrance.
Harley reached out for her, about to chase her down and beg for her to wait a little bit longer. That’s when he saw it. His moment. His chance.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied Patricia Steele setting her empty champagne flute on a nearby table. If he could pick up the glass before a waiter got to it, he could get a DNA sample and confirm his suspicions even if the family wouldn’t cooperate. They’d answer the phone when the hospital’s attorneys called, he was pretty sure.
He tore his gaze away from the glass for a moment to see Jade slip out of the ballroom and toward the front of the house. If he moved fast enough, he could get the glass and reach Jade before she could arrange a ride back to her house. She wouldn’t be happy with him for grabbing the glass after she’d asked him to stop investigating and leave the party, but that was a risk he was willing to take. An opportunity didn’t come wrapped in a bow like this very often.
Darting through the crowds of milling people, he reached the
table and snatched up the flute. Holding it as though it were his own, he slipped away and headed toward the door. He looked around to make sure no one was watching, then tucked it in his coat’s inner breast pocket. It would go in an evidence bag the first chance he got without a crowd of witnesses.
But first, to catch up with Jade.
This evening was not going at all the way he’d hoped. It was supposed to be a night of breakthroughs. They were supposed to connect with her family and usher in that happy reunion. He had even been on the verge of telling her how he felt about her when they were out on the dance floor.
If the speeches had come even a minute later, the words that had been lingering on the tip of his tongue would’ve gotten out. He would have told Jade that he loved her. And maybe then, when the fear got to her, she would’ve known that he was doing this for her. Not in spite of her.
Harley made his way through the house. He paused at the registration desk near the entrance. “Did a woman in a red dress come by here just now?” he asked. If she’d hidden in the restroom instead of going outside, they wouldn’t have seen her.
There were two women at the table and they both nodded. “She went out about a minute ago. She seemed upset,” the older lady said with a look of disapproval.
He went past them and down the front stairs to the circular driveway, where the valets were mostly sitting idle. Jade was nowhere to be found. “Which way did the woman in red go?” he asked.
The group of men all pointed to the far side of the house. Perhaps she’d gone that way trying to get better cell phone reception.
Harley jogged to the end of the building, expecting to see her there calling for a ride. And she was. But before he could say anything, a white van pulled to a stop in front of her. The door flew open and in a blur of red, Jade was pulled inside by two men in dark clothes. The door slammed shut and the van’s tires squealed loudly as it took off from the driveway and roared down the narrow lane away from the house.
From Mistake to Millions Page 13
