From Riches to Redemption Page 7

  She approached the site more slowly as she got closer. Despite how close it was, it had been a long time since she’d come back here. In part, because when Morgan had buried her daughter, she’d buried that part of her life with her. Or at least she’d tried to. River’s sudden reappearance in her life had changed everything.

  Morgan lowered herself down onto the bench and looked at the marble slab that marked her baby’s grave. It said simply Dawn Steele, with a single date. Her life had been so short there was only one date to put there.

  She reached down and ran her fingertips across the cold stone. The site was immaculately kept. The family gardener, Paul, was probably paid handsomely to maintain it in the strictest confidence. He was one of only a handful of people who knew about Dawn. Aside from her parents, only Lena had been around to know the truth. She’d brought her prenatal vitamins and ice cream each night before Dawn was born, then her collection of pills with her favorite sparkling water and a few fresh cookies each night after she was born.

  Since then, perhaps everyone except Paul had forgotten about this tiny grave and the child it was for. Suddenly, the thought of Dawn made her incredibly sad.

  Being around River again had done more than stir up old feelings of desire and regret. It had reminded her that there was more at stake here than just another successful charity project.

  That was what had caused the panic as she lay with River in the town house. The moment his hand brushed over her stomach, the reality of her situation came rushing in. She couldn’t let River touch her. See her. Not there, like that. He would see the scar in the bright afternoon daylight. He would notice the firm belly he remembered was soft and covered in faded stretch marks. He would want to know the truth and she couldn’t bear to tell him what had happened. He would hate her. Hate her and her family for hiding the truth from him.

  Back then, when she could still feel her daughter moving inside of her, she’d wondered if she needed to reach out to River. Whether he had been using her for money or not, this was his child. He may not have been the man she thought he was, but he deserved to know the truth. Then, before she could tell him he had a daughter, she was gone. What good would telling him do now? It would only cause him unnecessary pain. And even though she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she’d still loved River. She couldn’t intentionally hurt him.

  So she kept quiet. Looked to the future. And tried to forget.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said to her daughter’s tombstone as her eyes welled up with tears again. “You deserved better than what you went through. You deserved a life. Love. We both did. And I screwed it all up for us.”

  Six

  Not a word. Not a single word, work-related or otherwise, in two weeks! The land was purchased and leveled, the plumbing was run and the slabs were poured and in the process of curing for all three houses. Framing was going up tomorrow and the roofs after that. And yet, Morgan hadn’t spoken to him since she’d run from the town house that afternoon.

  River stood in the lobby of Steele Tools, trying to decide if he should go upstairs and confront Morgan. He did need to talk to her about some business-related topics, but he knew those could’ve been handled via email. The truth was that he was here on a personal mission.

  She walked out on him. In the middle of...well, the worst possible time to walk out. There was no explanation, no nothing. She’d run from his life once without another word. He wasn’t about to let that happen a second time. If she didn’t want him, if she had regrets about back then and now, she was going to tell him to his face without Daddy running interference.

  He straightened his tie and was about to head toward the elevator when he heard an odd sound. It was something akin to a sputter and a gasp mixed together. He expected it to be Morgan, but then he turned to his left and found he was suddenly face-to-face with her father—Trevor Steele.

  He expected the man to yell. Trevor had certainly done his share of that when he’d stolen River’s wife from his bed all those years ago, but now, there was only an eerie silence as the man stared him down.

  River was older now. Less intimated by a man like Trevor than he was back then. He wasn’t a kid anymore, playing at being a man. Instead, he grinned and stuck out his hand to greet him. “Mr. Steele! Good to see you again, sir.”

  The man narrowed his gaze but didn’t return the smile. “What are you doing here, River?” he asked in a voice so low River almost couldn’t hear it.

  That’s when he remembered what Morgan had said about her parents. They hated scandal. Trevor would probably love to beat River with his briefcase, but he wouldn’t because that would cause a scene. “You don’t know, sir? My company is working with yours to build houses for the less fortunate.”

  River watched as the muscles in Trevor’s neck and jaw tightened until he thought they might pop through his skin. “Is this my daughter’s doing?” he asked coolly.

  “Not at all. I believe my company was chosen through a downselect process overseen by one of your sons.” River smiled as brightly as he could manage at the scowling man. Trevor Steele’s firm policy of secrecy had bitten him in this case. “I’m not surprised they chose me. I took your advice and made the most of the bribe you gave me. I’m quite successful these days.”

  “A bribe?!” Trevor sputtered as he glanced around the lobby to see if anyone was nearby. “You keep your voice down when you throw around accusations like that. It was no such thing.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and eyeballed the older man thoughtfully. “What would you call paying me to leave and never speak to your daughter again, sir?”

  “I would call it softening the blow.”

  River laughed at the man’s internal justification. You can’t have my daughter, but here’s a hundred grand for your troubles, son. “Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?”

  “I sleep very well, or I did when I thought you were out of my daughter’s life for good.”

  “As far as your precious daughter is concerned, I am out of her life. No worries there,” River added with a bitterness he couldn’t hide. He still wasn’t sure what had sent her running and kept her silent for the last two weeks, but he was going to get to the bottom of it. That is, if security didn’t toss him out of the building before he got the chance.

  “Good. Keep it that way.” Trevor started to turn his back and walk away.

  “Of course, she doesn’t know the truth,” River called after him.

  Trevor froze and turned back to River. “What truth?”

  “I’m not sure, but she seems really upset with me about that money. Almost like it was my idea.”

  Trevor stiffened at his words. He had lied to his daughter and now River was calling him out on it.

  “At first,” River continued, “I thought maybe she was just angry because I took the money you offered. Honestly, I quarreled with myself about accepting it, but when it came down to it, I had nothing else left. Then I wondered if maybe she thought she was worth more than a hundred grand to me. But talking to you now, I think I’ve realized the real issue. She thinks I made you pay me to go away. Like I was just after her money the whole time and hit you up for cash to go away quietly.”

  Trevor crossed his arms over his chest. “You did take the money and go away quietly, River. That’s a natural conclusion for her to make under the circumstances.”

  River shook his head. “No. No, I think she believes it because that’s what you told her. You lied and told her I demanded money to agree to the annulment. I’m sure it made it easier to get her away from me if she thought I was just some poor scum after whatever cash I could get. I couldn’t possibly have really loved her, right?”

  Trevor looked down dispassionately at his watch and shrugged. “If that’s what you want to believe—if that makes losing her more palatable for you—then fine.”

  “I should tell
her the truth. She deserves to know you lied to her to break us up.”

  “I have an important meeting to get to. I don’t have time to argue with you, River. But know this,” Trevor said, leaning in close to him. “You do not want to start unearthing the past. Morgan has spent years trying to get over everything that happened. It has been a long time now and it seems like both of you have done well on your own. I can only hope that you will be smart about this and let sleeping dogs lie. Nothing but pain will come from stirring things up. Good day, Mr. Atkinson.”

  Trevor marched across the marble lobby floors, leaving River alone, stewing in his aggravation.

  There was probably some wisdom in the older man’s words. Things might be better left alone. But they also might be better if everyone knew the truth. That all depended on Morgan.

  Taking a deep breath, he headed toward the elevator and pressed the button to head up to her office.

  * * *

  Greg Crowley blew through the back door of his father’s home with a scowl of irritation on his face. He’d spent another day downtown trying to get some day-labor work for cash under the table and had come home with twenty bucks in his pocket. Not exactly where he pictured he would be after his ten-million-dollar payday only a month or so ago.

  He chucked his ratty backpack onto the kitchen chair and went into the living room. His elderly father was sitting in his recliner, watching television. That was basically all the man had done for the last twenty years since Greg and Nancy’s mother passed away. Watch TV and collect his pension.

  He turned to the television in time to see they were talking about the Steele kidnapping case again. That’s all they seemed to talk about on the local news these days. Or maybe it just seemed that way because of his conscience. Either way it made him nervous. “Turn that shit off, Dad. No one wants to hear about some rich girl’s problems.”

  “Meh!” his father groaned and didn’t budge his remote thumb an inch.

  Rolling his eyes, Greg returned to the kitchen for a can of beer and carried it with him back into his bedroom. It was the same bedroom he’d grown up in. With the same damn twin mattress that had been lumpy and awful then, much less now. Living with his father again hadn’t been ideal, but now this was his only haven. The only place in the world he felt safe.

  No thanks to Buster.

  Maybe Greg was naïve. He’d known Buster for over thirty years. That seemed like the kind of friendship that could be considered trustworthy, even if they shared a common bond of being criminals. He was wrong. After they made off with Jade Nolan’s ransom money, Buster insisted they lay low for a bit. By the time Greg looked up from his hiding place a week later, he realized Buster was long gone and so was the money. Every damn cent.

  He hadn’t even wanted to go along with this whole plot. Not back then, and not now, either. It was Nancy and Buster who had been gung ho about it. His sister had gotten the idea after the Steeles were admitted to St. Francis, then discharged for false contractions. Nancy knew they would be back to deliver their child soon enough. That gave them just enough time to formulate their plan. Kidnapping the Steele baby outright wouldn’t fly. Someone had already abducted their eldest a few years before and it was in all the papers. They needed a different angle and they found it.

  It seemed simple enough. Swap the babies. Send the Steele infant home with an unsuspecting couple. Their home wouldn’t have security, alarms, cameras or nannies watching the child 24/7 like they had at the Steele mansion. They would then kidnap the Steele infant from the regular couple, then call the Steeles, inform them of the switch and demand the ransom money.

  It was a simple enough payday. No one got hurt. The baby would be returned, the parents would get their correct children back and they could all retire with pockets full of Steele family cash.

  Hurricane Hugo hadn’t been a part of the plan, but it made things easier. Nancy had no trouble swapping the infants’ ID bands in the chaos. She had access to the names and address of the couple that would take the Steele daughter home with them. Everything was going according to plan. Until it wasn’t.

  Greg never expected everything to go so spectacularly wrong. He couldn’t have even imagined it because he hadn’t realized how bad his sister’s drinking had become. Or how serious her depression had gotten. She hid it well behind a cheery exterior. But the next thing he knew, his sister was dead and the Steele baby’s location was lost with her.

  When Nancy went into the ground, he thought—or hoped at least—that that would be the end of it. For years, he watched his parents struggle with losing Nancy. The stress of it eventually killed their mother. Greg tried to move on with his life and put his criminal phase behind him. And he’d succeeded. He’d had a steady job, a nice enough apartment and a lady friend he went to dinner with from time to time.

  Then Buster showed up one day pointing to an article in the newspaper about some big hospital mix-up thirty years ago. Now they had the piece of the puzzle they were missing—Jade Nolan was the Steele heiress. Buster was convinced this was their chance to get the payday they were owed at last. Greg wasn’t as enthused. He would’ve rather the woman just keep her mouth shut and let it go. He’d sent threatening letters and even ransacked her house to scare her off the case.

  But as always, Buster got his way. Greg quit his job to help Buster plan. He wouldn’t need the work once he was rich, right? Then they kidnapped the Steele woman and for once in his life, he thought things were finally looking up.

  As Greg looked around his childhood bedroom, he realized that his whole life had been a waste. Whatever he’d wanted to be, whatever he’d hoped to become had been taken from him. Taken by Nancy. Taken by Buster. Even taken by those mixed-up babies at the hospital. He couldn’t blame any of them for what had happened. At least not Nancy and Buster. It was too late for that with his sister in the ground and Buster vanished.

  But it wasn’t too late to blame the Steele family. They dangled their wealth and privilege around town, just daring people to take a chance at getting a cut for themselves, then crushing anyone who tried.

  For a while, Greg thought he could start over again. Maybe he could get the job back and give that lady friend a call. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that time was long gone. He was fifty-six, unemployed, broke and sleeping on a lumpy twin bed in his father’s home. He had nothing to offer and nothing left to lose.

  And that made him dangerous.

  * * *

  Morgan looked up from her computer to find River standing in her doorway. She glanced at her phone, wondering what had happened to her receptionist and gatekeeper, then remembered she had left early today for an appointment.

  Of all the days...

  “That’s not excitement to see me,” River said as he stepped into her office and shut the door behind him. “It’s almost like you’ve been hiding from me for two weeks and finally got caught.”

  “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been...busy.” That was a terrible answer, but the best Morgan could come up with on the spot. She sighed and shut her laptop down, then she stood up and came out from behind her desk. She was hoping to intercept River before he sat in her guest chair and got comfortable, but he just sauntered over to the conference table and leaned against it instead. He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his gaze at her.

  “Busy? Busy doing everything to avoid talking about what happened is more like it.”

  Morgan’s tight lips twisted as she sought out the right words to respond. She had decided that honesty was not the best policy in this case, especially after all this time, but she hadn’t come up with a better story, either. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “It was rude.”

  “Rude?” he chuckled. “Rude is saying you think I’m ugly. Or that dating me was the dumbest thing you ever did. Making out with me and then abandoning me with a serious case of blue balls is something else
entirely.”

  She shook her head. “Were you always this crass and I just didn’t notice it?”

  “No. But I also wasn’t this angry back then, either. I hadn’t met your father yet, of course, so my young idealism was still intact. But I just ran into him in the lobby. Seems you were right and he didn’t realize I was working with you on the housing project. He was really excited to see me,” he added with an upbeat tone despite the sarcastic bite of his words.

  Morgan had been hoping her father would remain out of the loop concerning River, but unfortunately that hadn’t worked out. She was certain she’d be hearing about his concerns posthaste. “No, I hadn’t mentioned it. It didn’t seem like a good idea, especially coming from me. Contracts were already signed at that point. He isn’t involved with the project, so I was hoping it wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t very well explain to my brothers that there was a problem without telling them more than they needed to know.”

  “Your family and their secrets. It’s not healthy the way you all keep them.”

  Morgan shrugged and slumped against the table beside him. It wasn’t the best idea to stand this close to him, but it was better than looking him in the eye. When he looked at her that way, she was tempted to tell him everything she knew, and that was dangerous. “I’m sure we don’t have any more secrets than any other family. Ours just tend to be on a larger scale. More dramatic than most. I guess it just comes with the territory.”

  “You mean with the money.”

  She shrugged. “As they say, more money, more problems. And I guess more secrets.”

  River sighed, standing silently beside her for a full minute before he spoke again. “What happened at the town house?” he asked quietly.

  There were so many things she could say. Should say. And yet, she couldn’t voice any of it out loud. Maybe later. Once the houses were built and their project together was at an end, maybe then she could tell him about Dawn. Then, when he hated her, they could go their separate ways.