Chapter 13

Jessa

It felt like years since I walked up my parents' front steps. Though I had a beautiful, expansive apartment in the city, their bay-side mansion in Tiburon was home. I stayed there most weekends, and many of the nights we attended the same social events. It wasn't strange for me to be absent for a night but seeing as I had spent it with Dayton, I felt a certain weight of guilt as I walked up the front steps.

"There you are, honey. You really shouldn't let your father drag you into this whole corporate mess." My mother met me at the door, shooing away our butler.

"I don't have a choice, remember? I'm on the board."

She stepped aside as I lugged myself inside and then my mother became a flurry of action. She ordered up a late supper, chose a bottle of wine, and tried to shepherd me up the stairs to take a bath.

"I really just want to go to sleep," I told her.

"Nonsense. You need to put all that bad business out of your head. Plus, when was the last time you ate something decent?"

I sighed. "Father ordered in Contelli's for the entire office staff."

My mother pinched her lips. "And here I thought it would be prudent to save money."

Estrella had always felt an ownership in Lauren Corp due to her inheritance's part in the business' lifeblood. The only problem was she and my father never saw eye to eye, and lately, she had jumped on every little decision he made.

"Is there something on your mind or can I go to sleep?" I asked.

My mother looped her arm through mine and drew me into the study which thankfully had a warm, comforting fire. The city was already blanketed with fog and December rains sprinkled outside. California's winter wasn't very harsh, but I was definitely feeling a chill in the air.

She waited until I was curled up next to her and then my mother said, "I'm so sorry to hear about that ugly scene between Robert and your construction worker friend."

"Dayton is a bit more than a construction worker," I replied, stiffening. What had I missed?

"Oh, so you know?" My mother caught my hand and studied my face. "No, I don't think you do. Oh, darling."

"Mother, what happened?" I pulled my hand back and knotted my fingers together to try to ward off any panicked fluttering. "Is Dayton all right?"

"Well, yes. Though he's not allowed back on the building premises. It seems he had a bit of a run-in with Robert."

What was supposed to be a dismissive laugh came out as a nervous bark. "What business do those two have together?" I asked.

My mother arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was jealousy. This Mr. Miller is a very attractive man. And we know that Robert has a bit of a problem controlling his emotions."

"Is that what we're calling it?" I asked.

We both laughed a little; Robert's tantrums being a regular topic of gossip in our social circle.

"But, Jessa, you know that a man's attractive demeanor is not enough to erase his criminal past." My mother sat up straight, ready for any backlash I might throw at her.

I stood up, not ready to face Dayton's incarceration or how little it affected my feelings for him. It was enough that I was falling for someone outside my social strata; I knew for a fact my family would never accept anyone with a jail sentence on his record.

"Don't you believe that past mistakes can be forgiven?" I asked.

Estrella folded her hands primly in her lap and shook her regal head. "I would like to, but, in my experience, a past full of mistakes makes a man take a different path."

"And there's no going back?" I asked.

She sighed. "I believe that once a moral line has been crossed, he'll step over it again and again."

I sank back down to the sofa, at a loss for words. Worse than her already final decision about Dayton was my mother's conviction. She was so certain, so solid in her experience, that I wondered who she was citing as an example. My stomach clenched into a knot.

"Not every man is the same," I told her.

A sudden sheen of tears in my mother's eyes surprised me. "That is very true, my dear. It's very rare to find a man that won't lie, one whose emotions are right there on the surface for everyone to see."

I drew back from her. "Are you talking about Robert? He's awful, Mother! He got rough with me, controlling, and now he's attacking men out of supposed jealousy."

My mother shook her head. "Just one man. The man that police now believe stole your father's software and sold it to the competition."

The room could have flipped over, and I still would have been clinging to the couch, so hard I dung my fingers into the soft linen. "What are you saying?" I asked in a tight whisper.

"Your Mr. Miller fits the profile they suspected: someone with total access to the building."

I shook my head, unable to breathe. "But Dayton doesn't have a motive."

"He also doesn't have an alibi," my mother said.

My breath came in shallow draws. Dayton hadn't given an alibi because I was the one he was with. I grabbed my mother's hands, prepared to tell her the worst, but she stopped me.

"Whatever happened was not your fault, Jessa. He probably pegged you as an opportunity the first moment you met. It didn't help that Robert had to fly off the handle; he practically pushed you into the criminal's net. Still, I believe your father and Robert were protecting you today."

My hands turned to jelly and tears blurred my eyes. "Pegged as an opportunity?"

My mother reached out and stroked my hair. "He seduced you, didn't he? Horrible man. No one can blame you; he is so handsome and charming and, I don't know, believable. But he used you to try to cover up his tracks."

"But, but you talked about true love."

My mother inched closer and hugged me tightly. "I am so sorry, honey. I should never have judged your taste in men."

"But Robert is so, so..."

"Honest," my mother said. "Robert is the kind of man that doesn't hide his feelings and is incapable of lying to those that know him best."

I shook my head. "He's cruel."

"Jealous," my mother said, firmly. "And completely in agony over the mistakes, he made with you. You know you're the only one that can help him get a handle on himself. You'll make him a better man."

My tears flowed freely. "You still think I can marry him?"

"I think you put Robert in his place when you dumped him, and now you'll be able to come back together on solid ground," my mother said.

I swiped my tears away and shook my head. "No. Why does he deserve a second chance and Dayton doesn't? Have the police actually charged Dayton with the theft?"

My mother sighed and leaned away to pour us both a glass of wine. "There's no money trail yet, but they've connected him to Lawrence Anton."

Dayton knew my father's competition? My heart stumbled in my chest. What if my mother was right about him?

I knew life could look off-center from the opulent comforts of my parents' mansion, but this was impossible. I couldn't reconcile the Dayton I knew from our intimate moments with the Dayton my mother was describing. It seemed possible, though, and that little bit of doubt gnawed hard on my heart.

"You think Lawrence Anton forced Dayton to do it?" I asked. "Maybe he offered him an obscene amount of money."

"I don't think your Mr. Miller is motivated by money," my mother said.

I nodded. At least that sounded right, but how did my mother draw that conclusion?

"Mrs. Estrella? Your husband is on the line," our butler announced softly from the doorway.

"Is he staying on his yacht tonight?" my mother asked. The butler nodded, and she waved him away.

"You don't want to talk to Father?" I asked.

My mother handed me my glass of wine. "This is more important. You are more important. Don't you see, darling? With your father's life coming apart at the seams, you need to start thinking about yourself. Robert can offer you stability, security, the knowledge that you will always remain in the life you are accustomed to."

"Is Father really in that much trouble?" I asked.

The board meetings had been bleak, but my mother seemed to speak about a wildfire consuming his whole life. She wanted me safe and out of the way.

"I wouldn't know, dear. Your father has refused to let me advise him on his business for years. And since he has decided to stay elsewhere more and more, I really don't think I can help him."

I wanted to ask, I could feel the chill when she spoke about my father, but the thought of Dayton loomed too large in my mind. Had he really used me to cover his tracks while he stole my father's crowning achievement?

"Remember that summer when you and Robert were twelve?" My mother changed the subject with a brisk sip of her wine. Then she smiled. "He spent every day for a week being your squire because you wouldn't even let him be a knight."

I had to laugh. Robert and I had grown up together, seeing each other at every lawn party and country weekend. He was the very first boy that I knew had a crush on me one hundred percent.

"He told me that weekend that I should marry him," I remembered. "He said he'd make me a queen someday."

My mother beamed. "See? Don't you think it's possible that you let this Dayton cloud your thinking? It's easy to see the worst in someone when you're trying to see the best in someone else."

"But what if I don't want to be Robert's queen?" I asked. "What if I'm not ready to be anyone's?"

"Honey, I'd hate to see you hold out hope for Dayton. His family is not known for their reliability," my mother said.

I stopped and very carefully had to put down my wine before I stained the linen sofa. "What do you mean? You know Dayton's family?"

She stopped then took another slow sip. "Oh, Jessa. You really didn't know? He didn't say anything?"

"Say what?" I asked.

"His name is Dayton Miller, but he's not just any regular Miller. Miller as in the name of your father's corporate headquarters. The name on hundreds of prime pieces of real estate." My mother put down her wine and reached for my hand. "He's every bit as wealthy as you are and more. The only difference is I refuse to let you make a mess out of your life like his mother is allowing him to do."

I couldn't swallow. I couldn't blink. My eyes burned, but no tears would come. "He's, he's rich?"

My mother sniffed. "Wealthy. Old money. And he's the sole heir though I hear he tried to denounce his inheritance. His mother took off for Europe and left him with everything, despite his stubbornness."

"And you knew this?" I shot off the sofa again and looked down at my mother. "You didn't tell me?"

She stood up and placed her delicate hands on my shoulders. "I didn't think of it. Robert is the one that put it together. Robert's the one that's been looking out for you this whole time."

I waved away the mention of my jilted fiancé. All I could think about was the lie after lie that Dayton had told me. He'd betrayed me from the very first moment, and, worse than that, I had fallen for it.

I'd almost fallen for him.