Chapter Seven
Hunter
“I need a job.”
I stood in the book-lined library in front of my father’s old mahogany desk, head bowed, just as I’d stood before it many times in my childhood and stormy adolescence. Only this time it wasn’t my father staring at me from the other side of the desk. It was my younger brother.
But it was strange how much of my father I saw in my brother’s coolly assessing brown eyes and sardonically curved mouth. Maybe, I thought, that was why Austin and I had never gotten along well. Maybe there was just too much of my father in him.
Au looked at me, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. The corner of his mouth lifted in that patronizing smirk I hated.
“No shouting at me to vacate your chair today?” he inquired, his voice smooth and bland. Despite his carefully cultured tones, I still had the sense that he was jeering snidely at me, and I felt myself bristle. But I kept my head down. It pained me to admit it, but I wasn’t the alpha male in this situation. I wasn’t in charge here. Au was.
“No,” I answered. “As I said, I need a job.”
“And I told you already, Hunter, that the board of directors—“
“I’m not asking to be the CEO,” I blurted. “Not even a middle manager. I’ll take any position, Au, no matter how menial. I just…I really need a job.”
He tilted his head to one side, studying me. “How interesting,” he said thoughtfully. “Now why would you need a job precisely? Have you forgotten you’re a billionaire in your own right? You don’t need to work at McDonald’s to pay your bills, you know.”
“I know. I just…” I blew out a heavy breath. I couldn’t explain that I needed to prove myself to Char, to make her see I wasn’t just a spoiled rich kid anymore. That I wanted to work, to strive, in order to make myself a better man for her and for Diana. “I want to make something of myself, damn it. That’s all.”
“Indeed. And what could possibly compel the bad boy of Pinecone to want to change?”
He was openly mocking me now, and I really wanted to reach down, grab him by his silk Hermes tie, drag him to his feet, then punch him in the jaw. But he’d made it clear enough in our last conversation that any more violent behavior from me would lead to me being in jail again. I didn’t doubt he wouldn’t hesitate to press charges. After all, knowing what I did about him, I was a risk to him right now, and he’d probably be safer with me in prison.
The fact that my own brother wouldn’t hesitate to throw me in jail a second time made my heart ache, but I ignored the pain and answered as calmly as I could.
“I guess prison changed me.”
“Prison? Oh, really? Is that all?”
It was clear that he was jabbing at me in an attempt to find the chinks in my armor, so I refused to let him see any. I knew I couldn’t keep my daughter a secret forever, but I wasn’t ready to tell him about Diana just yet, especially since I suspected he wouldn’t hesitate to use her as a weapon against me.
“That’s all,” I said stubbornly.
“Hmmm.” He rested his chin on his steepled fingers and frowned in thought, as if thinking long and hard about my problem. “I suppose we could find you a position in the mail room, big brother. Would you like that?”
The thought filled me with rage, but I fought to not let it reflect in my eyes. Even so, I could hear my father’s voice inside my head, just as clearly as if he were in the room with us.
A Kensington, working such a lowly position? A Kensington would rather die first!
I silenced the voice and answered steadily. “I told you already, Au. I’ll gladly take any job you can give me.”
He nodded at me, as if I’d passed some sort of test. “All right, Hunter. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” The words stuck in my throat, but I managed to spit them out anyway. I turned toward the door, but Austin’s voice stopped me.
“Oh, by the way, have you seen the papers today?”
He held out a copy of the Pinecone Gazette. It had been Kensington Media’s first media holding long ago, and it was your basic small town newspaper—two pages of local news, and a few more pages of high school sports events and the like, studded heavily with ads for local businesses. It was not the sort of newspaper I ordinarily troubled myself to read—it was as far from the New York Times or the Washington Post as you could get.
I took it from him, mildly curious, and glanced down at it.
My blood froze to ice.
Because there, on the front page, were numerous pictures of myself, Char, and Diana feeding the ducks together. And all those photos were arrayed beneath a massive headline: “SECRET BABY?”
Au looked up at me, his mouth curving in that hateful smirk. “It really seems as if there is something you haven’t been telling me. Tell me, Hunter. Is this truly your child?”
I didn’t bother to answer. I stared down at the photos, feeling the world cracking open beneath my feet.
Oh, my God, I thought. Char is going to kill me.
If Jacob doesn’t do it first.
***
Charlotte
“What the hell is this?”
I had just placed a plate of fried eggs and bacon in front of one of my regulars when I heard an angry male voice. Oh, no, not again, I thought. But when I looked around, I saw not Hunter but Jacob bearing down on me, furiously waving a newspaper in his hand.
I had no idea why he was waving it at me since my mornings were always hectic. Getting Diana ready for preschool and making myself decent was all I had time for. Anyway, who read papers anymore? In the rare moments I had to catch up with current events and mourn my lost dreams of a journalism career, I used my phone to surf the web just like everyone else. Papers were so last century.
But there was Jacob, waving what appeared to be the Pinecone Gazette of all things, and looking absolutely enraged about it. I sent an apologetic glance at Howie—sorry about all the angry men in my life—and went toward Jacob in an attempt to steer him out of doors.
He planted his feet stubbornly, standing right in the middle of the diner, and thrust the newspaper at me. “Tell me this isn’t true.”
I took it, bewildered, and looked down at the headline. The enormous words “SECRET BABY?” hit me like a hammer, taking my breath away, and the photos of the three of us spending time at the park drove the remaining oxygen from my lungs. I’d thought that park was completely empty, but someone had been watching us. Someone had been lurking behind the bushes and taking photos. Someone had been stalking me.
Again.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. I couldn’t lie to Jacob, not after everything he’d done for me, everything he’d sacrificed to help me. Anyway, now that he’d seen this, he’d know it was true just by looking into Diana’s face. The Kensington features were stamped there in miniature, after all. “It’s true.”
“You and Hunter—the two of you—“ He seemed to realize he was spluttering and got control of his voice. “How could you, Char?”
“Could we possibly not talk about this in my workplace?”
He lowered his voice slightly. “The man is a felon, Char. And what he did—back in high school—if you knew what he’d done—“
“I slept with him before he was a felon,” I retorted.
“But you’re spending time with him now, aren’t you? I mean, look at these photos. The two of you, having fun together—with Diana—ugh. I swear I’m going to kill him.”
I caught the dark blue sleeve of his parka. “You are not, Jacob. Look, promise me you won’t do anything stupid. The two of us were talking. That’s all. He has a right to know about Diana, and I couldn’t keep him from finding out anyway. He was bound to figure it out sooner or later.”
“Just talking,” he said scornfully, looking down at the photos of us laughing together. “Sure.”
“Honestly, I’m not getting back together with him, Jacob. Not that we were ever together in the first place really. It was just a one-night—“
“You don’t have to tell me what kind of man he is,” he cut in, holding up his hand to stop me. “I already know, Char. Trust me. I know.”
I thought maybe now that Jacob had gotten some of the rage and betrayal out of his system, he might leave quietly, but unfortunately the door swung open again at that moment, letting in a cold blast of air…and Hunter Kensington.
Jacob spun around furiously, yanking his arm away from my restraining hand. “I knew it!” His voice rose to an angry pitch, and everyone in the diner who wasn’t already staring at us lifted their heads from their breakfasts and looked at the unfolding drama. Nothing ever happened in Pinecone—at least nothing of significance had happened since Hunter’s arrest—and now here was Hunter, once again at the center of a very salacious situation. “The two of you have been seeing one another!”
He strode toward Hunter, murder in his eyes. I tried to hold him back by his hood, but he broke loose and lifted his arm, clearly about to throw a punch. Hunter didn’t flinch, didn’t lift a hand to defend himself, just stood there waiting for the blow to fall.
All at once Howie was shouldering his way in between them. Good old Howie. He was a massive guy, even if he wasn’t in the best physical shape anymore, and he caught Jacob’s fist in his big, callused hands and wrenched it down easily.
“There won’t be any fistfights here, gentlemen,” he informed them, shoving the two of them apart. “Get the hell out of my diner, the both of you, or I’ll call the cops.”
Hunter’s gaze shifted to me, and I looked back at him, answering his unspoken query with my eyes: We’ll talk later. He nodded slightly, then turned toward the door and disappeared out into the bleak February day. Jacob glanced back at me, then growled audibly and left as well.
I stood there shaking. Howie approached me and laid a sympathetic hand on my arm.
“You need to get the drama in your life ironed out,” he said not unkindly. “I can’t have angry young men coming into my diner and brawling over you. Bad for business, you know. Take the afternoon off and get your life straightened out, Char. And for God’s sake, keep the drama out of my diner from now on, all right?”
“All right,” I answered numbly. “I’ll try.”
***
Hunter
“We need to talk.”
I’d been sitting on the iron park bench again, staring at the duck pond, so engrossed in my own glum thoughts that I hadn’t heard footsteps approaching. I jerked my head up and discovered Char standing there looking down at me.
I couldn’t read her expression, but I assumed she was angry about what had happened in the diner. Who wouldn’t be? Of course, it hadn’t really been my doing, but even so… “I’m sorry about that article in the paper,” I told her. “And for what happened in the diner this morning.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I apologize for my brother’s behavior. Finding out that you’re Diana’s father—well, I think it was a shock for him. He hates you.”
The awful bluntness of those words cut through me like a knife. Of course, intellectually I knew that Jacob hated me, but to hear it so bluntly—it hurt. After all, he’d once been my best friend in the world. I’d really never replaced him in my heart, never found another man I could call a close friend. In college, I’d become a loner and had assured myself I preferred it that way.
But deep down I knew I didn’t.
She settled down on the iron bench next to me, her thigh close to mine. We were silent a long moment, looking at the small duck pond. It was so cold that the edges of it were lined with ice, but the mallards swam in brisk circles in the open water, tipping their rears into the air every so often as they searched for food. The sky above was a bleak, foreboding iron gray, and the sun that had shone so brightly yesterday was nowhere to be found, concealed behind dark scudding clouds.
At last she spoke.
“I’m sorry I tried to keep everything from you,” she said.
“It’s all right.” I looked down at her in surprise. I’d expected anger, not an apology. “I understand why you did.”
“It’s not all right. It’s just…well, I’ve gotten used to thinking of Diana as mine over the past couple of years. My mother and Jacob have helped raise her, but even so, I thought of her as mine and mine alone. But honestly…she never was really just mine, was she? She’s yours too, and I should have let you know about her the moment she was born. But I was afraid.”
“Afraid she’d be known as a felon’s daughter?”
“Partly,” she admitted, and the matter-of-fact words struck into me like yet another knife blade. Because of course Diana was a felon’s daughter, and now everyone in town knew it. Before long, I thought glumly, everyone in the country would know. People loved a good scandal. I wondered how much hell my daughter would go through in her life because of my choices. “But also because of your family. Your father was still alive then, and I was afraid that if he knew she was yours, he might get custody somehow.”
“That was probably wise,” I agreed. “My father would have wanted her raised as a Kensington.”
“Yes. Which would have meant she should live in a mansion, not a ratty old bungalow. That she should have a nanny and go to the very best and most exclusive preschools. And wear the best clothes, and have the best toys, and…well. I would have lost her, Hunter. You know I would have.”
I thought about my father’s obsession with family and the amount of money he’d had at his disposal compared to Char. I nodded.
“You were right. Keeping the truth to yourself was the only way to hold onto her.”
“Yes. I did what I had to do, but I’m still sorry about it. It wasn’t fair to you. But now…”
“I won’t take her away from you, Char. You know that, don’t you?”
She looked up at me, and a little smile curved her mouth. “I do know that. Although when I came to know it, I can’t tell you. When I heard you’d been released from prison and were coming home, the first thing I thought was that you might take Diana away from me. But now that I know you…I don’t think you could be capable of such a thing.”
“You’re right. I couldn’t. Yesterday I saw how much she loves you. How much you adore her. I couldn’t ever take her away from you, no matter what. She needs you.”
“But she needs her father, too.” She reached out and gently placed a hand on mine. I realized my hands were clenched into fists on my thighs, and I consciously tried to relax them. “It’s not fair for me to keep her all to myself. At first, I thought that was what I wanted, but now I’ve realized she needs you, Hunter. And you need her.”
I’d never needed anyone in my life, and the thought that I needed someone now, let alone a two-year-old, was absurd, almost insulting. That must have shown in my expression because she laughed softly.
“It’s true,” she insisted. “You should have seen your face yesterday. Did you get a good look at the photos in the paper? Here, take a look.”
She pulled the newspaper from beneath her arm and held it out to me. I took it, curious. I hadn’t really looked closely at the paper when Au had shoved it at me this morning, but I took the time to look at the photos now. The three of us were smiling together as we fed the ducks, looking very much like a happy family. There were even a couple of photos in which we’d clearly been laughing.
I’d laughed with Char and my daughter.
I never laughed.
I looked at the photos and wondered. Maybe I really did need my daughter.
And maybe, just maybe, I needed Char too.
I turned my hand over, palm upward, and tangled my fingers with hers. The two of us looked at our linked hands for a long moment.
“Diana isn’t just mine,” she told me softly. “She’s ours.”
I felt an immense wave of gratitude wash over me, so warm and intense I couldn’t put words to it. I wanted to say thank you, thank you, but instead I just turned to her and wrapped my arms around her. She slipped her arms around my neck, and we held each other for a long while.
I didn’t give a damn who might be lurking in the bushes, watching or taking photos. It honestly didn’t matter.
This moment was ours alone.
I breathed in the smell of her hair, the scent of strawberries, and knew it was my turn to come clean. She’d given me my daughter back, and now it was time for me to give her the truth. I owed her that much.
“I have to tell you something,” I whispered in her ear.
I felt her eyelashes brush my cheek as she blinked in confusion. “What is it?”
I drew in a deep breath, then spat out the words in a rush. “The embezzlement charges—it wasn’t me, Char. I didn’t do it. I swear.”
She jerked back her head and stared at me, looking shocked. “What do you mean, Hunter? You pleaded guilty, didn’t you?”
“I pleaded no contest, actually. And…well, you can’t tell anyone else. Promise me. Promise.”
She seemed to guess the enormous stakes here from my tone, because she nodded solemnly. “I promise.”
I’d never told anyone else the truth, and I didn’t know why I was telling it to her now, except she was the mother of my child, and she deserved to know I wasn’t as terrible as she thought I was. Admittedly I was no one’s notion of the ideal man, but I wasn’t a criminal, either. And somehow I desperately needed her to know that.
“Au…Au was the one who embezzled those funds from the charity,” I said at last, faltering only a little. “My father asked me to take the rap for him, so I did.”
She stared at me, her mouth dropping open. “You’re telling me that you went to prison to protect your little brother?”
I nodded.
“The Kensington devotion to family,” she said dryly, “is far more fucked up than I ever realized.”
The comment pulled a chuckle from me. “I suppose you’re right. But Au was only twenty-four at the time. He was just a kid. He didn’t deserve to have his life ruined over a stupid mistake.”
“Hey, I’m twenty-four, thank you very much. And I’m not a kid, I’m an adult. If you ask me, if Austin was old enough to commit the crime, he was old enough to go to jail.” She saw I was about to respond, and swiftly lifted her hands in a gesture of defeat. “But I can see you didn’t feel that way. That you still don’t feel that way. I… I’m just sorry your father managed to talk you into sacrificing yourself like that, Hunter. He shouldn’t have asked you to give up everything for your brother. It was wrong.”
“It’s all right,” I said, although it really wasn’t. It had rankled at me for years now—had my father asked me to take the fall for Au because he loved Au more? I couldn’t see any other reason for his choice, and in a way I understood it. I’d been far from the perfect son, while Au had been everything the old man could have wanted in a son. Au had been intelligent, personable, and a born leader, whereas I had been—
Well, the truth was that I’d been an asshole. Maybe I still was.
“It’s not.” Char sounded more outraged than before. “It’s the furthest thing from all right, damn it. Why are you still protecting him? Why not just expose him? You could clear your name…”
“Au is my brother, Char. I admit I don’t like him much, but I do love him. If it were Jacob, wouldn’t you give up everything to protect him?”
She was silent for a while, thinking about that.
“Yes,” she answered at last, her voice low. “I suppose I would.”
“Anyway…” I heaved a sigh, looking back at the mallards swimming unconcernedly in the water. Ducks had such a simple, uncomplicated life. Lucky them. “The truth is, I honestly think it’s turned out for the best. Au always had more of a head for business than I did, and he’s actually become quite a good CEO. I’ve been reading up on Kensington Media, and he’s doing a damn fine job with the company. Better than I would have, I imagine. Maybe that’s why my father made the choice he did, because he thought Au, with all his faults, would be better for the company.”
“But—“
“No buts, Char. It’s over, and nothing can change it now. There’s no point in dredging up old troubles. I’m out of prison now, and I have a chance to start over. A chance to begin again. And I’d like to make the most of it…with you and Diana.”
She looked at me for a long moment, her blue eyes brimming with tears. Her hand tightened on mine, squeezing so tightly it almost hurt.
“Why don’t you come over tonight for dinner, Hunter?”