Maggie woke up five minutes before her alarm went off the next morning, and she lay in bed and smiled at the ceiling, thinking about the night before. Rob had taken her to the diner, where they’d ordered endless onion rings and Coke, and they’d talked for hours. She told him every last detail of her life, including the name of her first goldfish, and he’d asked questions that showed he was really listening. They’d stayed until after midnight, then realized what time it was and left, each going home to get some sleep before work the next day. Rob had given her an incredibly sweet kiss on her doorstep, and she’d had to work hard not to giggle as she locked the door behind him afterwards.
It was going to be another day of hard work, so she dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, arriving at the hotel just in time to see a police car pull up outside. Oh, no. Had they discovered something else? Arsenic in the water this time?
“Excuse me, ma’am. Do you work here?” One of the officers approached as she was getting out of her car.
“Yes, I do. Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Rob Cunningham. Do you know where I might find him?”
“I just got here, so I’m not sure, but I’ll text him.” She pulled out her phone and asked him to come to the front of the hotel.
“Thank you, ma’am.” The officer glanced around. “Seems pretty quiet here this morning.”
“Most of the staff won’t get here for another half an hour.”
He nodded. “Did you notice anyone missing from the crew yesterday?”
“I was working with the housekeepers and wasn’t paying much attention to anything else.”
“All right. Thank you, ma’am.”
Rob came around the corner of the building and smiled when he saw Maggie, but a slight frown creased his brow when his gaze landed on the two officers. “Hi. What’s going on?”
“Mr. Cunningham?”
“Yes.”
“We just needed you to verify that this young man has been working here as a temp for the last week.” The other officer pulled out a picture and handed it to Rob.
“Yes, that’s Aiden Farmer. He was sent over by the temp agency.” Rob paused. “Although, come to think of it, he didn’t show up yesterday.”
“We’ve been working down the list of employees you provided, and we learned a few things about Mr. Farmer that have led to his arrest. Is Mr. Brody around? We’d like to talk to both of you.”
“Of course. I think he’s inside.” Rob motioned toward the officers to lead the way inside, then held out his hand for Maggie. She was glad to be included—her curiosity would get the better of her all day otherwise.
Andrew invited them all to take seats in the office, a concerned look on his face. “What’s going on, gentlemen?”
“We’ve been looking into the employees who have been working here recently, and this young man stood out to us.” The officer showed Andrew the same picture he’d shown Rob. “When we ran his information, we found out that his last name isn’t actually Farmer. It’s Brody.”
Andrew looked up from the picture, clearly startled. “Brody? Are you saying he’s a relative of mine?”
“When we brought Mr. Farmer—er, Mr. Brody—in for questioning, he said he’s your brother.”
Andrew leaned back, looking as though the air had been knocked out of him. “He does have my father’s nose,” he said at last, almost to himself. “I knew my father had a couple of mistresses, but I didn’t know about any other children.”
“Aiden is nineteen years old and lives on the south side of town,” the officer went on. “When we pressed him, he admitted to sabotaging the paint, and also to ruining the concrete. He wouldn’t tell us why, though. He said he wanted to speak to you.”
“He wants to talk to me?”
“You don’t have to meet with him if you don’t want to, sir. We have his confession—his motive isn’t as relevant to us.”
Andrew seemed dazed. “I think I do want to talk to him,” he said at last. “I have so many questions.”
“Visiting hours are until six,” the second officer said as he stood up. “I take it you’re pressing charges for vandalism.”
Andrew blinked. “Yes, I am,” he said. “And thank you for moving on this so quickly. I didn’t expect results so soon.”
“Your lawyer impressed upon us the importance of getting this done immediately,” the first officer said, his voice wry, as they left.
“Wow,” Maggie whispered to Rob. “A brother he didn’t know about?”
“That’s so wild,” Rob whispered back.
Andrew returned from walking the officers out and sank into his chair. “I don’t even know what to think,” he said at last. “I had no idea that I had a brother. And he’s been here sabotaging the hotel? Why?”
“It sounds like he’s planning to tell you when you go see him,” Rob replied.
“Yeah. Hey, would you come with me? He worked under you for a few days, so he’s got some answering to do to you as well, and to be honest, I’d rather not go alone.”
“Of course. When?”
Andrew looked at his watch. “How about in a few minutes? I’m not going to be able to concentrate on anything else until this is resolved. I’ll call Marissa really quick first . . . she’ll want to know.”
“No problem. Let me talk to the crew and make sure they know what to be working on this morning, and I’ll meet you out front.” Rob stood up, then bent and gave Maggie a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
“Good luck,” she said as both men left the room. It was time for her to get busy too—that kitchen wasn’t going to clean itself, even though she badly wished it would.
***
Rob rode over to the police station with Andrew. At first, Andrew was silent, and then he started talking like he couldn’t hold it back any longer. His life wasn’t any of Rob’s business, but Rob sensed that he needed a sounding board.
“My father . . . well, he was something else.” Andrew chuckled, but it wasn’t out of humor. “He wined and dined other women like he was a twenty-five-year-old bachelor right up until he died, but he never gave my mother much to live on. He seemed to think that being his wife ought to be enough for her. And when he died, he left his two mistresses large bequests in his will. My mother was gone by then—makes me wonder if he’d left her anything if she’d still been alive.”
“And this brother of yours?” Rob asked. Sure, it wasn’t any of his business, but he was curious.
Andrew shook his head. “I have no idea. My father never said anything about having other children. But that reminds me.” He hit a button on his steering wheel. “Call Matt Kingston.”
“Calling Matt Kingston,” the car’s automated voice replied.
A moment later, Matt’s voice came over the speaker. “Hello?”
“Hi, Matt. This is Andrew. Listen, can you look something up for me?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“Aidan Brody. He’s nineteen, probably lives here in Topeka.”
“Is he a relative of yours?”
“Um, looks like he’s my half brother.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s a surprise.”
“You’re telling me.” Andrew exhaled loudly. “And it makes me wonder if I have other siblings running around out there somewhere.”
“Would you like me to look into that for you?”
“I was hoping you could, but I didn’t know if you worked exclusively with family history and genealogy. Those who have gone before.”
“You mean dead people?” Matt chuckled. “No need to be politically correct. Yes, that’s my specialty, but I can look at other resources to locate people who are still alive. And since your father has passed away, some of his records should be available on my genealogy resources too.”
“I’d really appreciate it. Anything you can find out about Aidan, his mother, and any other siblings who might exist.” He paused. “Or am I being nosy?”
“I’ll only look at public records, nothing that would compromise any privacy. Things that would turn up in a basic Internet search.”
“Thanks, Matt. I guess I could hop on the Internet myself, but I’m so swamped getting the hotel ready, I appreciate you taking care of it.”
“No problem. In fact, I’ve been Googling while we’ve been talking, and I already have a little information for you.”
“That was fast. What did you find?”
Rob felt like he was intruding on a private conversation, but he supposed that if it was too private, Andrew wouldn’t be having it with him sitting right there.
“Aidan Farmer Brody, son of Sarah Farmer, father listed as Scott Brody. Aidan is nineteen years old, graduated from Topeka High last year, and I have an address and phone number.”
Rob saw Andrew’s hands tighten on the steering wheel when Matt said “Scott Brody.” Instead of responding to that, though, he said, “Any listed siblings?”
“Not yet, but I’ll keep looking.”
“Okay. Why don’t you send me a text with whatever you find, and I’ll check in later?”
“Sounds good.”
Andrew hit the disconnect button and turned left into the police station parking lot. “Family reunion time,” he said as he climbed out of the car.
When Aidan Brody was brought into the visiting area, Rob could see his similarity to Andrew right away, now that he was looking for it. When he’d met him on the job site, he’d thought Aidan was just a temp worker and hadn’t noticed it.
“So, Big Brother Andrew,” Aidan said, tilting his head to the side and studying his visitors. “Nice of you to finally give me the time of day.”
“If I’d known who you were, of course I would have made time for you,” Andrew replied. “Truth is, I didn’t even know I had a brother until this morning.”
“What? Are you serious?” Aidan scoffed and leaned back in his chair. “All my father could ever talk about was you—Andrew this and Andrew that. You mean he never once brought me up to you?”
Andrew shook his head. “I’m sorry, no. But he and I didn’t spend much time talking. We weren’t very close.”
“Huh.” Aidan folded his arms across his chest. “The way he went on about you, I thought you were the golden boy.”
“No, not so much.” Andrew rested one elbow on the table that separated them. “I’ve just got to know, Aidan—why didn’t you just come see me and introduce yourself? Why go through all the hassle of pretending to be someone else and getting a job on the crew and sabotaging what I’m trying to accomplish?”
“Because you have everything, and I have nothing,” Aidan spat. “My father only came to see us once a week, but you had him all the time. You run a huge company, you have that great hotel, you live in a giant house—and I have nothing. And when he died, we weren’t even invited to the funeral. I lost a father too, but you’re the only one who got to mourn him.”
Andrew held up a hand. “Now, listen up. I’m really sorry that you grew up without a father, but you have to understand that I did too. He spent his time building his empire, counting his money, and impressing people with his power. My parents were divorced when I was young, and he let my mother keep his name, but that was about it. As far as my company goes, I built that. Yes, I inherited his estate when he died, but he left a pretty nice amount to your mother, and you might want to talk to her if you haven’t seen any of that.”
Rob wondered why Andrew wasn’t mentioning the other mistress. Maybe he was trying to be kind.
“So, you’re trying to tell me that you’re some poor, picked-on kid who grew up in a mansion and had everything you ever wanted, but you didn’t have a daddy?” Aidan’s voice was bitter. “I feel so sorry for you.”
“My father had a mansion. I bought a house for myself and my mother when I became an adult—I’d worked hard and planned smart. But no, I did not grow up in a mansion—I grew up humbly, and no, I had very little of what I wanted. I don’t know what you’ve been told, but you’ve been misled.”
“Are you saying my mother lied to me? I grew up hearing stories about how my father had to go spend time with his other family, how he was bringing you all presents and taking you on vacations . . .”
“I don’t know why your mother told you those things. Maybe she thought they were true. Fact is, my father was one of the most selfish men I ever met, and if he behaved differently when he was around you, then you had the far better childhood.” Andrew leaned back. “Are you telling me that you wanted to sabotage my hotel to get some kind of revenge on me? Is that what this is about?”
“Maybe I wanted things in your life not to be so perfect for once,” Aidan mumbled.
“And now that you know my life wasn’t perfect, does that change anything?”
Aidan didn’t reply for a long minute. When he did, it was to mumble, “I miss my father.”
Rob could understand that. From what he’d gathered, Scott Brody had only been gone for a few months, and if he’d been a kind father to Aidan, it made sense that Aidan would still be mourning him.
“Hurting my business isn’t going to bring him back,” Andrew said. “There’s nothing that can bring him back, but we sure could have gone about this differently. If you’d just walked up to me and introduced yourself, we could be getting to know each other right now instead of facing off in a prison. You didn’t think this through, did you?”
Aidan shook his head. “I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.”
“Now that I know you exist, of course I want to talk to you. But not like this—not as a visitor sitting across a table in a cement room.” Andrew stood up. “When you get this mess straightened up, come see me for real, and we’ll talk.”
“Aren’t you going to get me out of here?”
“Is that what you were hoping I’d do?” Andrew puffed out a breath. “Aidan, you misrepresented yourself and came onto my property under false pretenses. I think you owe Rob an apology for that, by the way. You destroyed property. You tried to ruin my hotel. And you think I should get you out of here? You broke the law!”
“Sorry, Rob,” Aidan muttered.
Rob didn’t reply. There was no need—it wasn’t a sincere apology.
“I’m not going to sue you or try to get even with you, but I am going to let the law run its course,” Andrew continued. “I’ll likely be asked to testify in court, if it gets that far, and I won’t be unkind. I might even recommend community service instead of jail time, if I’m asked. But you’re an adult now, and you made a choice. I hope you learn from it, and I hope that at some point down the road, we can try again. Please believe me—this is the kindest thing I can do for you.”
Rob followed as Andrew left the room and walked back out to the car.
“You know what? I used to pray for a brother.” Andrew paused before climbing inside, his keys clutched in his hand. “Every night, I’d kneel down by my bed and pray for a brother. I kept it up even after my parents’ divorce—I had no idea why that made my mother squirm.” He shook his head. “If I’d known that kid existed, even though he’s so much younger than I am, I would have bent over backwards to be the kind of brother I’d dreamed of being. Baseball games, ice cream cones, hiking together … what harm would it have done for my father to tell me I did have a brother? He’s listed on Aidan’s birth certificate—this wasn’t a secret. My mother knew my father was unfaithful—the entire town of Topeka knew my father was unfaithful. What harm would it have done just to tell me?”
“I really don’t know,” Rob replied. He had no answer to give—his father was so very different from how Andrew described Scott. Rob had no frame of reference for a man who treated his family so badly.
Andrew looked down at the pavement for a few minutes, then back up. “We have a hotel to build,” he said at last. “We’ve moved up the opening date, we’ve changed things around, we’ve adjusted and compromised, and now we have an orange dining room floor. We’re going to make this work regardless, and it’s going to be a success. And when people read the name ‘Brody’ on the outside, it will stand for a hundred and fifty years’ worth of strong men and women, not the pride of one or two generations who didn’t know what they had and threw it all away.”
“Let’s do it,” Rob replied. He’d have Andrew’s back until the end.