From Riches to Redemption Read online

  At the moment, however, she was grateful for it. Having a mountain of wood between the two of them was almost enough to make her feel comfortable in his presence. Almost.

  Comfortable or not, it was time to take control of this situation. She might not be a Steele, but she’d been raised like one, and she wasn’t going to let River get the upper hand today. She sat up straight at her desk, lacing her fingers together over her leather blotter and crossing her ankles. This was the pose that flipped the switch in her brain to work.

  Then she watched River do the opposite. He unbuttoned his jacket and settled into the chair like he was at home on his couch. He made himself comfortable, sitting back and casually crossing his ankle over his knee as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Somehow, that didn’t seem fair to Morgan.

  Time to make him as uncomfortable as she was.

  * * *

  “Before we get started, I have one question for you, Mr. Atkinson.”

  “Mr. Atkinson is my father,” he noted with a sigh. Judging by Morgan’s tone, she was ready to finish their little chat from the party. He was glad he was at least in a comfy chair if she was going to lay into him first thing. This could turn into a very long or very short meeting depending on how the next few minutes went. “But ask away.”

  “What exactly are you doing here?” Her gaze fixed on him with a pointed expression on her face.

  “I’m here to talk about building houses for the poor. Isn’t that why you’re here?” He couldn’t help the sarcasm from slipping into his voice. It was one of the only emotions he had left where she was concerned.

  She studied his face for a moment. “I’m serious, River. Why did you sign up for this whole thing? If you only bid on this job to get your chance to tell me off, then just walk away now. This charity project is important to me. If you’re not genuinely interested in helping the community, I’ll find another contractor.”

  “Oh, I’m very serious,” he said. And he meant it. “This project is essential to me and my company’s five-year plan.”

  “So you’re just using the Steele name to make a name for yourself.”

  “I’ve already made a name for myself and my company, thank you, but I’d be a fool if I didn’t use the chance for some good press and free advertising. Hopefully, that will lead to great things in the future for me and my employees. But listen, I am fortunate enough to be in a position to do some good in the community. This was a great opportunity to do that and get the word out about Southern Charm. There’s nothing wrong with that. As the force behind this whole effort, Steele Tools does the exact same thing.”

  “We do it to help others less fortunate.”

  River watched her expression as she spoke. She really believed what she’d said. “Maybe you do. But your dad and his stockholders go along with it for corporate promotion and tax deductions, I guarantee it.”

  “So you really just want to give back? Give your company a little boost?” She didn’t seem convinced of it as she spoke. “You’re telling me that this whole thing isn’t just a ruse to see me again?”

  River laughed. Louder than he’d intended to. Enough to make Morgan wrinkle her nose up in irritation. That only made him laugh more. She really was full of herself. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’ve been over you a long time, Morgan. If I wanted to see you, there are easier ways than signing my company up for a summer of charity work for zero profits. So no, this isn’t about seeing you again.”

  He couldn’t help but notice a painful flicker cross her face for a moment before she pulled herself back together. Was it possible that he’d hurt her feelings? After everything that had happened, he’d wondered if she had cared about him at all. There hadn’t been one word, one email, one text after she left him alone in that honeymoon cabin that night. Just an envelope a few days later with a wedding ring inside.

  And for that half a second, he saw the face of the girl he’d once loved. The one overflowing with emotions and vulnerabilities. One that would’ve held out hope that her first love might still carry a torch for her after all these years. Then the poised, ice-cold princess returned.

  “Of course, you’re over me,” she said. “I was thinking more along the lines of you wanting to give me a piece of your mind. Maybe tell my father off?”

  “While speaking my piece might be therapeutic, no, it’s not about you, little girl. I didn’t even know that I’d be working with you when I started this process,” he lied. He couldn’t have her thinking otherwise or she might believe she had the upper hand in their situation. He might’ve been driven here out of revenge or even masochistic curiosity, but it wasn’t a pining for Morgan.

  “I’m a professional. I couldn’t have built my company up from nothing if I wasn’t. Besides that,” River continued, “you seem to be a hell of a lot more upset with me than I am with you, although I have no idea why.”

  She straightened in her chair, studying him with obvious disbelief. “Are you serious? You can actually sit there and tell me you have no idea why I would be upset with you?”

  “Wait a minute,” River said, holding up his hand before she could go any further. “You really are. Why would you be upset with me?”

  That was certainly an unexpected twist on the situation. Especially since he wasn’t the one whose family broke up their honeymoon and wiped their marriage from the books. He wasn’t the one who dutifully packed up and went home the minute his father snapped his fingers.

  “I’ve got a hundred thousand reasons to be upset with you, River Atkinson.”

  Ah. That. River had known the moment he cashed that check that it would come back to haunt him. That money was tainted. Dirty. And yet, that same money had changed the trajectory of his whole life. He wouldn’t apologize for making the best of a shitty situation.

  Instead, he smiled. He knew that would get to her. “What’s the matter, Morgan? Did you think you were worth more than that? Should I have asked for a million to keep quiet about our indiscretion? I’m sure dear ol’ Daddy would’ve paid anything to get his little princess out of that mess. Tell me, did you panic when you realized the consequences of what we’d done? Did you wait for me to fall asleep that night and call him to come get you?”

  “Of course not,” she snapped. “I don’t even know how he found us, much less how he knew we’d gotten married.”

  River shook his head. “I’m sure he tracked your cell phone and credit card records, knowing every step you took. You might’ve thought you were an adult living your own life, but he just let you believe that. Trevor had you on a short leash the whole time.” He chuckled to himself and looked around at her well-appointed office. “And now you work for Daddy. He probably invented this whole job just for you. You probably live in one of Daddy’s houses and charge up Daddy’s credit cards. Sounds to me like he’s still got you on that leash.”

  Morgan’s eyes narrowed at him in anger. “You shut your mouth. You don’t know anything about the dynamic between my father and me.”

  “Don’t I?” he challenged. “The woman I met at that bar by the university was confident and independent. She wanted to go out into the world and make a difference. The girl who crawled from my bed with her tail between her legs was someone else entirely. Would you care to explain that to me since you think I don’t understand what happened on our wedding night?”

  Morgan’s pale skin flushed with a crimson undertone along her chest, throat and cheeks. It reminded him of his younger blushing bride. And their wedding night where the blush traveled lower than the low V neckline of the blue silk blouse she was wearing now. Then her jaw flexed tight to hold in the angry words she probably couldn’t wait to spew at him. She looked like she was about to blow.

  “My father cares very much about me,” she managed to say between tightly gritted teeth as she gripped her collar and held it closed to block out his prying eyes.

 
“No. I cared about you. I loved you. You’re just a prop in your father’s perfect family presentation. You have to fall in line or you’re cut from the spotlight.”

  “Not everyone wants to be in the spotlight, River. I would’ve much rather lived a life of my choice in the shadows than a life crafted for me on my father’s stage.”

  River shook his head. “I don’t believe you for a second. At any time, you could’ve stood up for yourself. You could’ve stood up for me. For our marriage. But Daddy’s money was too important to risk on a future with some poor boy with a little promise but no education. If he’d cut you off, what would life have been like for you? You would’ve had to really work for a living and make do without servants like the rest of us poor schmucks. Or from what I’ve heard, the way you would’ve been raised if you hadn’t been switched in the hospital.”

  River watched the blood drain from her face. He went too far mentioning that whole thing. He’d read about it in the papers, but he was sure she was still working through it all. He shouldn’t have let all his emotions out at once. They’d been bottled up for years, festering, with their only outlet being his company and building it to be the best it could possibly be.

  “It would’ve been easier if I hadn’t been switched,” she said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “When you have nothing, there’s nothing to take away.”

  “I’d heartily disagree on that point. I’ve lost plenty.” Morgan’s green-gold eyes met his for a moment before she looked away uncomfortably. “It may not have seemed like much to you, just a rebellious fling with an unsuitable boy, but it was everything to me.”

  Morgan sat silently, a frown transforming her face into a guilty expression. Her gaze dropped to the blotter on her desk. “We need to stop this. It isn’t going to change the past, so we might as well put it behind us and try to be civil.”

  “Of course.” River pressed his fingertips together thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t want to cause a scandal for the Steele family. Again.”

  “River...” she warned.

  “Like I said before, I want this project to be a success. We have some important work ahead of us. So you’re right, we can’t let our past interfere. Truce?” He arched his brow at her in a challenge. He knew he could behave, but silencing her sharp tongue might prove more difficult.

  Morgan breathed a sigh of relief and her practiced smile returned to her face. She seemed confident in her abilities. He almost missed her anger once it was tamped down. At least that was a real emotion.

  “Truce,” she said and offered her hand across her desk.

  Tentatively, River reached out and took it. Instantly a sizzle traveled up his arm and down his spine, exploding in his groin like a shockwave of arousal. He pulled away as quickly as he could and buried his hand beneath the desk to rub the sensation off his palm and onto his pant leg. It had been like that the night of the party, too, making him both eager and cautious about touching her again.

  They might be calling a truce on their fight, but the connection between him and Morgan was far from over.

  Three

  Three days later, her meeting with River still preyed on Morgan’s mind. They’d finally started discussing business and made headway on their project together, but it had been hard to get through it. At least for her. She couldn’t tell what River was thinking with that smug grin on his face all the time.

  Even as he’d smiled, Morgan had felt herself being twisted in knots. He brought out so many different emotions in her, she hardly knew how to feel. The hardest to overcome, however, was the attraction. She was not supposed to be attracted to River anymore. Not after what had happened. Not after what he’d done. And yet, her body and her mind disagreed on that point. She still wanted him. If she closed her eyes, she could feel his hands on her body again. The way she responded to him. The press of his lips against hers.

  And it pissed her off.

  She hated feeling off balance in her life and lately that’s all she was. At the moment, she was sitting in the gardens at her parents’ estate, sipping a glass of wine. She should feel at ease. But she was anything but. She was expecting another stressful visitor. This time, it was the woman who had lived her life for thirty years.

  The back door of the house opened up and their housekeeper, Lena, stepped out and gestured the petite blonde in Morgan’s direction. She made her way down the cobblestone path to the table beneath the vine-covered pergola that offered necessary shade in the oppressive summer heat Charleston was known for.

  “Please, have a seat,” Morgan said as she approached. “Would you care for some chardonnay? I pulled a bottle from the family wine cellar.”

  Jade settled into the chair, but she seemed stiff and nervous. “Perhaps that would help,” she said. “I’m more anxious about all this than I expected to be.”

  Morgan smiled and poured her a drink. “It will help. That’s why I’m already a glass into this bottle. I’ll ask Lena to bring another and in no time, we’ll be completely at ease with this crazy situation we’re in.”

  “Oh, don’t go to any trouble.”

  “It’s no trouble. She’ll be out with some nibbles in a minute.”

  Jade frowned and looked over her shoulder. She was uncomfortable with having staff wait on her, Morgan could tell. “Don’t think of them as servants. They’re household employees, that’s all. They’re really a necessity to keep the house running smoothly. My mother certainly doesn’t have the hours in the day to keep this massive house clean and everyone fed. She’s as busy as my father some days and he runs a company. They’re a godsend, Lena especially, and I assure you that my father pays them handsomely for what they do for us.”

  “Really?” Jade asked with wary eyes.

  “Oh, yeah. Lena has worked with us since before I was born. She’s like family, but I don’t think she stays out of loyalty. We make it worth her efforts. And besides that, if any of us kids ever treated her or anyone else around the house like they were lesser than us, we’d get our ears boxed.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Oh, believe it. My brothers have gotten it more than once for sassing the staff. It’s a delicate balance being from a family like this. You have every advantage, everything you might ever want, but you’re not allowed to act like it. Especially living such public lives as the faces of the company. But my parents won’t tolerate that kind of behavior even behind closed doors. We’re the same as anyone else.”

  Unless, of course, that someone else was a poor boy who wanted to love their daughter in a legally binding sense. It was one thing to treat others well. Another to treat them too well.

  Lena approached the table a moment later with a silver platter in her hands. On it was a plate of tea sandwiches, some cookies and another bottle of wine. It was already opened and ready to drink.

  “Oh, Lena! You read my mind,” Morgan said with delight. “I was going to ask you for more wine.”

  Lena chuckled and placed the platter on the table. “I’ve known you your whole life, Miss Morgan. There’s never just one bottle of wine. You all enjoy. Let me know if you need me to bring anything else.” She turned and disappeared as quickly as she’d arrived.

  “That would be hard to get used to,” Jade said as she watched Lena walk away.

  Morgan picked up her wine and took a sip. “You’d be surprised.” Even as she said the words, she heard River’s voice echo in her mind and frowned.

  Daddy’s money was too important to risk on a future with some poor boy with a little promise but no education. If he’d cut you off...you would’ve had to really work for a living and make do without servants like the rest of us poor schmucks.

  Perhaps she was more attached to her lifestyle than she’d allowed herself to admit, then and now. She had loved River, but the truth was that she hadn’t thought everything through. What would she have done after th
e honeymoon? When they moved into their cheap apartment and had to cobble together a life with furniture from a thrift store and boxed macaroni and cheese? How long would the love have lasted then?

  Thanks to her overbearing father, she’d never know.

  “I suppose if someone hadn’t plotted against us, I might feel differently,” Jade said. “It’s hard to imagine my life being like this.”

  “Isn’t your fiancé rich?” Morgan asked. She hadn’t spent much time talking to Harley Dalton socially, but the news stories about the kidnapping had mentioned his successful investigations and security company. He’d been able to pay a large chunk of Jade’s ransom and was on the trail of her kidnappers—something the police weren’t having much success with themselves.

  “Yes,” Jade said with a large sip of wine. She looked down at her engagement ring as though she still didn’t believe a rock like that was on her finger. “I’m still getting used to the idea of that, too. Fortunately, he’s self-made, so he understands that there’s an adjustment period. We’ve been staying at his mother’s estate for a few weeks now while he continues the investigation. She has a housekeeper, but I still find myself tidying up before she can get a chance to clean anything. I tried to buy generic granola bars at the store the other day and Harley kept taking it out of the cart and replacing it with the brand-name kind. It’s just a different mind-set.”

  “I feel the same way when I think of how my life was supposed to be. Where would I have ended up, you know?”

  Jade nodded solemnly. “The more I think about our situation, the more questions I have. Those are the kind that can never be answered, so I try to focus on the ones that can. Like who did this to us? And why?”