Chapter2
The Carrington mansion sprawled over a considerable swath of carefully manicured land on three sides and backed up to a gently sloping hill that reached down to a beach, a dock and boathouse, and the Atlantic Ocean. The estate was one of the largest on Long Island, and easily the most beautiful.
All of the Carringtons lived there in the mansion. Carter Carrington, the patriarch of the family, had traveled for work often but had slowed much of his business dealings down as his years began to advance, and he spent more time at the home than he had in years past.
Pierce, the eldest of the three Carrington brothers, had a wing of the home to himself but spent much of his time in the city at his apartment on Fifth Avenue, working night and day as he took over the helm of the business that his father had worked so hard to build up over a lifetime. It was paramount to him that the legacy continue, and he was more than willing to take on the task and the role as the head of the family when the time came.
Lucas, the second-born son, was also in and out of the house, but he had a balance in his life between work and play, and he spent time in his wing and with his family when he could.
The two youngest of the Carrington family were twins Camilla and Ryder Carrington. They could not have been more different in every way, and they could not have been closer to one another. She was petite; having a slender form with feminine curves. Her hair was golden blonde and set about her shoulders in large curls. Her brother Ryder had pitch black hair and was a head taller than her, and where he was every bit the wild son, she was the angelic daughter. The only similarity in their looks was their eyes. Both of them had captivating crystalline blue eyes.
Camilla and her older siblings were not in the house the morning after Ryder’s incident with Ellen Hargrove at the hotel in Manhattan. Ryder was grateful to be alone. He sat quietly in the breakfast nook of the kitchen, nursing a large Bloody Mary and a fat lip that had developed after the senator had punched him in the jaw. He sipped at his drink through a straw and leaned back against the bench cushion where he was sitting, slouching slightly, his shoulders slumped down on the sides.
He’d made what seemed to be endless mistakes, but he knew that this one would be one of his worst in the laundry list of youthful careless sin he’d indulged in since he was a teenager. The swinging kitchen door banged open and Carter Carrington strode through it with a rapid step and a fierce look on his aged face. The normally pale skin under his carefully combed white hair was a shade of red that indicated to Ryder at a glance that the devil was coming and hell was right behind him.
Ryder looked up to a degree, but did not meet his father’s furious glare. Instead he stayed where he was. He didn’t feel like standing or even sitting up straight. His father stopped beside the table and threw down three newspapers, landing them sharply on the tabletop with a bang that made Ryder wince slightly.
With a glance, Ryder felt his stomach knot as he took in the images on the pages of the newspapers. There in full color were photos of him laying back in the chair with Ellen’s face buried over his groin, her bare back to the camera. The illicit images were blurred somewhat just over the truly sensitive areas, but it was still painfully clear enough to see exactly what was going on and who was involved in it. There were images of her backing away from Hargrove on the floor, still mostly bare bodied, with Ryder pulling his pants together. There were photographs of Hargrove hitting him and them crashing to the floor. There were stills of the fight they’d had, and of Hargrove’s face contorted in rage as Ryder left the room. It looked as bad as it had been to be there and be involved in it.
“Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing having illicit relations with a married woman? Especially in a public place like that hotel?” Carter demanded with a scorching tone.
Ryder sat still and silent. He shifted his eyes to his Bloody Mary and touched his fingers to the cold sides of the glass, feeling the rivulets of condensation that made their way down the side of it.
“Not only did you humiliate yourself, you have dragged our family name through the filth, and now everyone in the media world is after this disgusting story. To make matters worse, not only did you have sex with a married woman, you committed adultery with the wife of a friend of mine! You know damn good and well that Senator Franklin Hargrove is a friend of mine! This family has supported him in his political career for two decades! How could you do this to the family? How could you do it to me? I’ve sacrificed everything for you all of your life, and this is how you repay me!” His father’s anger was growing and there was a deafening thunder to his voice.
Ryder furrowed his brow and looked up at his father defiantly. “I wasn’t the only one in that situation, you know. It was mutual.” He stood up and stared his father directly in the eyes. “Yeah, she’s married, and yes, I knew it. I even knew whose wife she was, and that just made her all the more appealing to me because it was a dig at you to screw your friend’s wife. Don’t you stand there and act like I was the only one to blame. She hit on me first, she wanted it first, and I decided to give her what she wanted. Franklin Hargrove has a wreck of a marriage, and it was trashed before I ever came on the scene, so don’t lay all of this on me.” He snapped back hotly.
Carter gritted his teeth and his voice dropped to a low and menacing tone. “It was more than just your trashy, lurid tryst with her, you got into a fist fight with Senator Hargrove! A fist fight! Like you were in a common bar brawl! What in the hell did you think you were doing?”
Ryder’s head was pounding, and so was his lip. His father’s words came at him like lashes from a whip, but they didn’t hit him, at least not in the way his father had intended. There was no guilt, nor remorse. He only grew more bitter and resentful.
Lifting his chin, he spoke coldly. “I don’t care what’s in the press. I don’t care what happens to your precious family name. I don’t care that I got into a fight with him or that I screwed her. I screwed her on purpose because I knew exactly who she was and she wanted it. She wanted it bad. I had sex with her because I knew if you ever found out it would piss you off, and I love that it did. Hargrove isn’t a friend of yours, he’s just someone with power in the government who you like to have on your side. He’s a business associate; just someone you give money to. Look how much more you care about him and your precious reputation than you care about your own son.”
“You’re wrong!” Carter shot back at him. “You’re wrong and you’re reckless! I’ve had it with you and your wild, untamed ways! I’ve had it with your irresponsible behavior and your careless selfishness. You don’t care about anyone else. You don’t even care about yourself! You aren’t concerned with anything that you should be! Not your family, not your family name or our businesses, and certainly not your own future, which is the most vital part of it all!”
Ryder narrowed his eyes and growled at his father. “Don’t kid yourself, father. The family name is all you really care about.” He turned and began to walk toward the kitchen door that Carter had come through.
Carter’s hand shot out like an arrow from a bow and he clamped his hand around Ryder’s muscled arm. His eyes were like icy steel as he glared at his son.
“I have spent nearly my whole life working hard to build up the massive fortune that this family has, and if you don’t start acting like your older brother Pierce and taking it seriously, you’re going to lose your entire inheritance. You might not realize it, but that inheritance is at a billion dollars right now. Just for you; a billion. Your siblings all have that same inheritance coming as well, but yours is the only one in jeopardy! Are you willing to throw away your home, your birthright, and a billion dollars for the rash and impulsive lifestyle you’ve been living?” It was crystal clear by the look on Carter’s face that he meant every word of what he was saying.
For the fraction of a moment, fear and panic shot through every vein in Ryder’s body and he felt his heart skip a few beats. Flashes of his life in their family mansion faded to images of him alone and penniless on a street somewhere in Manhattan. The mental images left almost as quickly as they had come. His father was bluffing. He had to be. There was no way that he would send one of his own children out into the world with nothing, cutting him off completely.
“Don’t try to threaten me like that. You’d never do that. We mean too much to you for you to ever to do something so drastic.” Ryder turned to leave again, but his father pulled him back.
Carter’s face was deadpan. “You’re right, you do mean everything to me, and that’s precisely why I will do it. I promise you, on my word, you will be out of the house, out of your inheritance, and out of this family if you do not get married and settle down with a wife within three months. I’ve had all that I’m willing to take from you, and this stunt with the senator’s wife is the last straw.
You have reached the end of my lenience and forgiveness. You’ve reached the end of my patience. You are finished. I don’t believe that anything but a wife will settle you and stop you from this rampant path of self-destruction that you are on, so that’s the contingency. You must get married within three months and settle down, or it’s all gone, and so are you.”
Ryder’s heart nearly stopped in his chest as he stared at his father. “You’re serious…” he trailed off realizing the truth of his own words.
“Yes, I’m dead serious.” Carter answered him coolly. “Three months from today.” He let go of Ryder then and turned away from him, walking out of the kitchen without another word or a second glance. He had said it, and it was done, and Ryder knew with every fiber of his being that his father had meant it. He was going to have three months to get married or he was going to be gone.
He stood stock still, staring at the door his father had just walked out of. The only thing he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears, and the only thing he could feel was an electric tingle moving through his body, stiffening him in place.
The door on the other side of the room opened quietly and soft footsteps caught his attention. He turned, awakened from his reverie and looked over at the blonde goddess standing near him. Camilla’s face was twisted in worry and fear. She went to him and took his hands in hers as tears began to fill her blue eyes.
“Ryder!” She pleaded in a soft voice, “I heard what father said. I was coming in to talk to you and heard him in here with you. Forgive me, but I listened at the door. Please, Ryder, you have to listen to him!”
He shook his head in frustration. “I’m not going to listen to him! There’s no way! He’s threatening to kick me out of this family if I don’t bend to his will and live my life the way that he thinks I should, according to his guidelines and his rules. Well, it’s my life and I don’t care what he says, and I don’t care what he does. If he wants to kick me out, then fine. He can. It’s my life, and I’m going to live it the way that I want to, no matter what anyone else tells me, and no matter what it costs me.”
Ryder gave her hands a squeeze as the tears in her eyes rolled down her cheeks. “I know I’m not going to lose you, no matter what. I know you’ll never forsake me, no matter if I live by his rules or not.”
She shook her head and began to weep. “No, you can’t! You can’t leave! I couldn’t bear to live here without you. You can’t leave me! Please, find some way to fix this with him and stay with me! You know I’ll always be there for you, but I can’t let you just get kicked out of the family and lose your inheritance and move away from here! Ryder, we’ve never been apart! You can’t let him do this to us. Please, just listen to him! Do what he’s telling you to do! You’re the most important person in the world to me, and I’d be devastated if you left!”
Everything inside of him that had been tense began to soften and give way. He felt her sorrow and anxiousness, her pain and worry. He knew that her heart was breaking at the thought of him leaving their home and departing from the family. All of the strength and love inside of him that he had for his twin sister welled up and choked him. He couldn’t stand to see her in such a state of pain and worry.
“Ah Kami.” He sighed heavily and frowned. “You’re the most important person in the world to me, too. You know that. I just can’t stay here and live under his thumb. I’m not going to change who I am, not for him, not for anyone. This is me, and he is part of the reason that I’m like this. He made me this way and you know it.”
She shook her head and threw her arms around his neck, openly weeping into his chest as sobs began to shake her small body. “You can’t! You can’t leave me here! I’ll do anything to help you, only please just listen to him and stay! Find a way to stay!” She sobbed harder and he held her close and rested his cheek upon the top of her head, pressing his lips together into a thin line as he stared off into the space behind her.
There was no one in the world who could have made him do what they wanted, no one who could bend his will or change his mind, except her. There never had been, except their mother, and their mother had been dead a long while. Camille looked like their mother. Her voice sounded almost like their mother’s voice, and her mannerisms and ways were the same. It often touched his heart that they could not have been more similar as mother and daughter, and nothing else reached as far into him as either one of them did. Since their mother had died, Camille was the only person in the world who had profound influence over him, and she almost never used it.
Her pleas to him to stay and to listen to their father were a rare request from her. He didn’t feel that he could say no to her, because if he did, he would be letting down the one person who meant the most to him in the world, and he just couldn’t do that. Not even for his own selfish anger and desire. Not even if it meant he’d have to give in to his father’s ridiculous demands.
With another heavy sigh, he leaned back and reached up to lift her chin so he could look into her eyes. They were awash with tears and her face was a reflection of her broken heart. “Okay, little one. Okay. I’ll… I’ll figure something out. I’ll find a way to make it work. I won’t leave you.” He relented, and dejected about it though he was, he just couldn’t tell her no.
“Really? You will? Oh Ryder, that would mean everything to me.” She whispered and sniffed lightly, blinking in relief.
“I will. I can’t let anything come between us, especially father. I’ll never let anything come between us. I promise. You’re my best, forever.” He managed a small smile for her and she gave one back to him.
“You’re my best forever too. Thank you, Ryder. It means everything to me. Thank you so much.” She hugged him tightly once more and he bent and kissed the top of her head.
She let him go and walked over to the table, looking down only long enough to scoop up the newspapers piled there. She wadded them up unceremoniously into a disarrayed roll and stepped over to the recycling bin in the cupboard. With one movement, she dumped them all into it, brushed her hands together for a moment, and closed the cupboard, walking out with a sweet smile over her shoulder to her brother.
He watched her go and thanked everything in heaven for her. She never judged him. She never thought poorly of him. She never let him down or turned away from him. It was her devotion and dedication to him and to their bond that formed a need in him to never let her down either, and to always be there for her, should she need him. He was more grateful to have her in his life than he was anyone else.
That acquiescence to her pleading request left him with one problem. His father was only going to let him stay in the family if he got married and settled down within three months. Frowning in frustration, he slid his hands into his pockets and peered out of the window that overlooked the ocean beyond the beach outside. He was going to have to come up with something. Some middle ground between what his father was demanding, what he wanted, and staying true to his promise to Camille. He had no idea how he was going to do it, but he knew that he had to try to find something.
He walked out of the back door of the kitchen and headed down the grassy hill toward the beach and the sea. When he reached the line where the manicured lawn gave way to sand dunes dressed in scattered plumes of slender dancing grasses, he slipped his shoes off and left them beside a wooden post.
Ryder looked down at the sand before his feet and stepped into it, sinking a little as the grains shifted beneath his weight. The wind blew over the waves that curled in toward him, wrapping coolly around him, passing over him, tugging at his clothes and his hair, filling his lungs with salted release. His problems were anchored in the back of his mind, but the rush of the wind in his ears drowned out his thoughts, giving him a peaceful reprieve, even if only for the time that he stood in its path.
He took a deep breath and slid his hands into his pockets. As he exhaled, he began to walk, one foot in front of the other, turning to one side and strolling along the edge of the surf that washed in, going on and on, step by step, leaving the Carrington house and his father and his worries behind him. He walked so long that the wind-swept time away too, right along with everything that plagued him.
There was nothing but him, and the waves of the sea, and the wind, and each step before him, one at a time. If the answer to his troubles would not come to him on its own, he would find it. Not for himself, but for his sister. He might be a reckless wildcard with no regard for any rules but his own, but he was a man of his word, and he had promised her.
It was a promise he would find a way to keep.