WHERE TO START?

Maybe at the end?

My gaze held tightly to Lennox’s as years’ worth of memories swirled, creating a cyclone that threatened to blow our fragile relationship to pieces. I’d never intended to share this part of my life. That’s not true. I would have done anything to truly share it—with Adelaide, Lennox, and Alexandria. That was before.

After it ended, the way it ended… it was never anything my son needed to know… until it was.

Until now.

When Adelaide left me the final time, she’d made it perfectly clear that we were done, forever and always. The only solace I found in her goodbye was the pain I saw in her beautiful blue eyes and sadness I heard in her voice.

If that makes me more of a bastard, then I guess I am. I would have moved heaven and earth for that woman, but she never allowed it. I couldn’t have given her the life she had. Instead, I could have given her more. Not in money. I would have given her the love and respect she deserved. I did for years… until I couldn’t.

Honestly, I couldn’t blame her for leaving me, not after what I told her. It was one thing to be in love with a man with a dubious past and equally questionable present. That could be easily overlooked as long as the particulars were arbitrary. It was another—too much—to learn that the objectionable past intersected with hers.

Who the hell was I kidding?

It hadn’t intersected: it had collided.

I walked away that day with my head held high, knowing that I’d done what I had to do. I’d done not only what was expected of me, but what was required. I couldn’t face a future with Adelaide without telling her the truth—the whole, painful truth. It turned out to be more than she could handle.

Outwardly I was stoic. It was inside that I ached… more than ached. When she told me to leave, when I walked away, Adelaide Montague took what was left of my heart and humanity.

Angelina was gone. Lennox was running Demetri Enterprises, and my Adelaide had told me to go, never to return. When I thought life couldn’t get worse, it did.

The markets crashed. My justification began to disintegrate before my eyes. Every move, every decision, everything I’d done, everything I’d agreed to, was for Lennox’s future and for Demetri Enterprises. In my mind, the two went hand in hand. I’d built one, neglecting everything else for the other. And then, in two months, the value of it all dropped over fifty percent.

Only on paper, the newscasters said. That wasn’t the truth. I understood how businessmen in the 1920’s found solace in jumping from their office windows. More than once, the thought crossed my mind. I’d endured too much: Angelina’s death, Adelaide’s rejection, and the drop in Demetri holdings. Lennox was married and had what was left of Demetri Enterprises. I was no longer needed.

I’d said I was moving to London for the company. After all, it was a global financial crisis and if we were to survive, Demetri needed to be at the epicenter.

That wasn’t the entire truth. I wanted to be away. I couldn’t face the day-to-day emptiness any longer. Lennox had Jocelyn. Silvia was content with them and her own life. For the first time in my life, no one needed or cared what I did or where I went. It was the coward’s alternative to jumping to my death. I’d seen too many men take their last breaths. I couldn’t do that, but I could fade away.

For years I did. I tried to forget the two women in my life—the two who had left me—and distance myself from the son who didn’t know me. It wasn’t his fault. I’d never tried. That wasn’t who I was.

In the beginning, I worked diligently to distance myself, geographically as well as emotionally. I deleted the applications that allowed me visual access to Montague Manor. The cameras were outdated and the software was archaic by today’s standards. Who’s to say the cameras weren’t eventually found?

Old man Montague, as Vincent had called him, never had cameras installed in the master suites. He was looking at the main living areas as well as office space in the home and at Montague Corporation. It pained me to view even the ones of the main floor, seeing Adelaide wandering aimlessly from room to room, always with a glass in her hand.

Never did I see the woman in my memories. The smile she wore while in her home was faux, a cheap imitation. I’d seen the real one, the designer original, the one that lit up her blue eyes. I’d heard her laughter and knew that what she showed to those who should be closest to her wasn’t genuine. It was too painful, like the twisting of a knife. I couldn’t watch any more of it.

Now, with the recent turn of events, I wish I could. Then again, I doubted the system could even be supported by today’s networks, not without a remodulation of the entire system. It wasn’t like I could send a crew to Montague Manor and announce that their home-security cameras needed to be upgraded.

Though many memories of Adelaide replayed in my head, one that never left me was of her concern over her daughter’s future. She was continually concerned over her father’s wishes for Alexandria’s future, her predetermined marriage to be exact. From all of Adelaide’s accounts of Alexandria, I never doubted the girl’s ability to fight. It seemed as though she’d been doing that most of her life, ever since I took away her defender.

That thought ate at me, over and over, through the years.

And then Lennox suffered a tragic loss. Of course he didn’t turn to me. I’d never turned to him.

It was a long shot, a pipe dream, a way to unite us once again. Leading two people to the same resort was easier than being sure they’d connect. Neither of them suspected a thing.

I’d taken Adelaide’s daughter’s defender from her when she was too young to understand. Lennox had lost the women he held most dear. Bringing the two of them together was perhaps a shot at redemption, one last attempt to right a wrong that in reality could never be righted.

If I understood what Adelaide had said, if Alexandria married someone other than the young man her grandfather wanted, the Montague fortune would be given to Adelaide’s husband.

I’m a selfish bastard, but that scenario didn’t sound unappealing. My hope was that if that happened, that bastard would leave Adelaide. She would no longer be of any use to him. If that happened then I could offer her a new life—if she would have me.

It had been years since she’d learned my secret. Perhaps time truly did heal all wounds.

It had all worked even better than I’d planned… until now.

Something had happened and I was at a momentary loss. It was time to come clean with Lennox and offer my assistance. It was time that father and son stopped working opposite sides and became a team. If one Demetri could accomplish the things each of us had, then together we could be unstoppable.

“Dad, what is it?”

“Do you have anything stronger than water in this office?”

Lennox’s eyes narrowed. “Are you ill?”

“No.” I stood and walked to the windows. The early evening traffic was starting to build. It was late in London, yet here I was in New York. “I need to tell you something, something I should have told you before.”

“Is it about the company?” he asked, standing.

I ran my hand through my hair. “In a way, but not like you think.”

“Fuck, Dad, I’m not thinking anything. Say something. I have a shitload of things going on right now. If you can’t tell me, then go back to London and we’ll talk another time.”

“I wanted you to meet Alexandria.”

Lennox took a step back. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“She needed you. You needed her. I don’t know why you let her go back to Savannah, but you need to go get her.”

His eyes widened. “I don’t know what the fuck you know about Alex or Savannah, or any of the cryptic shit you said at the house a few months ago, but I tried. I went to her house. It isn’t a house—”

“It’s a castle,” I said, completing his sentence. “Is she there because she wants to leave you?”

“No!”

“Then why?”

Lennox turned a small circle. “Why the fuck do you care?”

“I’ve cared for a long time.” I took a deep breath. “Alcohol?”

Lennox nodded and walked toward a sideboard. Pushing a button, a panel in the wall moved, revealing a well-stocked selection.

I lifted my brow. “Nice. I approve.”

“Hmm.”

His back was toward me.

“I guess I don’t say that enough.”

Lennox turned toward me with two tumblers of amber liquid in his hands. “Never, actually. I went for straight up.”

“Lennox, I was never a good father.”

“Or a husband… do you want me to go on?”

I took one of the tumblers. Swirling the liquid, I contemplated my reason for flying to New York. Two swallows or was it one? The smooth oak-flavored whiskey only burnt for a second before it was gone. I handed him back the glass. “I’ll take another.”

Lennox didn’t answer as he turned and refilled my drink.

“There have been two women I’ve loved.”

His shoulders moved. “Too bad Mom wasn’t one of them.”

When he turned back my way, I said, “If you were anyone else, you’d be lying on the floor right now.”

He extended the drink. “Go for it, Dad. I’ve had a shitty few days.”

“Your mother was my first love. You don’t understand what happens to people when life interferes, but it never took away our love. I loved your mother until the day she died. When she died she took a part of my heart with her, a part that will always be hers.”

Lennox took a deep breath, swirled his drink, and tipped the crystal to his lips. Equally as quickly, his tumbler was empty. “I do know.”

My chest ached at his tone. “I’m sorry. You do. And you’re too young to live with that. That’s why Alexandria was—no, is—good for you.”

Lennox refilled his glass and asked, “The second? During, before, or after Mom.”

I shrugged. “During but after.”

Gulping the fiery liquid, he slammed his empty tumbler on the counter and walked back toward the chairs where we had been sitting. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t give a fuck who you cheated on Mom with.”

“During, because I never stopped loving Angelina. I met the second one after your mother and I divorced.” My cheeks rose in a sad smile. “Angelina even knew. She asked me. She said she could tell I was happy in a way I hadn’t been for a while. You may not understand this, but she approved. We loved one another enough to want the other to be happy.”

“So you didn’t cheat?”

“Not with anyone who mattered. That’s all I’ll say on that.”

Lennox shook his head. “What did you mean that you wanted me to meet Alex? We just randomly met. It wasn’t arranged. I didn’t even know who she was. She didn’t know who I was. Did she?”

My head moved from side to side. “I don’t think so.”

“Then what?”

“I knew she needed someone. You needed someone. It seemed like a good idea.”

“How could you possibly know what she needed or needs?”

“She needs you. Tell me what’s happening and let’s help her together. I don’t know her stepfather, but what I do know is that I don’t trust him. From what I’ve seen and heard, Alexandria is a smart young woman. Because of that, she’s a threat to him. She’ll need more than smarts to get out of the trap that was set for her when she was young.

“I know you have no reason to trust me or turn to me, Lennox, but I can help. I want to help.”

“I’m going to ask this one more time. Why?”

“Adelaide Montague.”