Morgan returned to the office and pulled out his cell phone. “Damn,” he said as he noticed his battery was low and placed it on the quick charger. Morgan placed his iPad on its cradle as he sat, dialed the number and nervously waited for his video call to connect.
“Morgan, darling, you look stressed. Is everything all right?” Victoria asked, frowning.
“Not even a little bit.”
Victoria nodded slowly and sat back in her chair. “So Kathleen told you.”
“Wait, what?” Morgan sat forward and stared into the screen. “You knew?”
“That Kathleen Winston, heiress to the Winston Construction fortune, is an investigator for OSHA? Yes, I just found out.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” he yelled.
Victoria tilted her head to the right but remained quiet. Morgan took a deep breath and released it slowly. “My apologies, Mother. Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” he asked, his voice calmer.
“Remember when you came to me all excited and said that you were marrying Bonnie?”
“What does that—”
Victoria presented her right palm to the screen, stopping Morgan in his tracks. “Do you remember?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do.”
“Do you remember what I told you?”
Morgan went blank-faced. He was in no mood for games, but he knew if he didn’t go along he would never get the answers he needed. Morgan nodded. “That Bonnie was my mistake to make.”
“Do you know why I said that?”
Morgan shrugged, not interested in the past but knowing he had to listen if he wanted her help. “Not really.”
“Because you’re just like me. I know everyone seems to think Alexander takes after me the most but in reality, it’s you. If I told you what a silly little thing I thought Bonnie Ford was, you would’ve ignored me and married her that much faster. Fortunately, she showed her true colors before I had to intervene.”
“So you let me fall for someone out to destroy our family instead?” he asked, feeling his anger rising.
“I didn’t let you do anything, son, and you started falling for Kathleen before I even met her.”
Morgan ran his hands down his face and shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Mother.”
“I knew something special was happening between you two the day I walked in, and you were arguing over the training programs. The way she held her own with you, I knew she was something special.”
“She was something special, all right...she’s a liar.” The words stung his throat as he spat them out and he felt like he was betraying Kathleen even thinking such a thing.
“Morgan, she was doing her job.”
“And you’re okay with how she went about it?” His brows snapped together.
“No, but I understand now why she did it.”
“This coming from a woman who would threaten to banish us from the house if she ever caught us lying to her.” Morgan threw up his hands in frustration. “You’ll need to explain that one to me, Mother.”
Victoria spent the next thirty minutes explaining to Morgan everything she knew about Kathleen and her situation, from the specifics of the complaint against the Kingsleys, her motivations and zeal to seek justice for those she believed were being mistreated, to the remorse she felt for being wrong after confirming that the accusations were baseless and hurting people, specifically the man she loved.
“Her mother? She did all of this because of her mother?” His tone was flat. Morgan wasn’t sure how he felt in that moment.
“Yes, son, she did. You remember how that felt, don’t you? How the loss of someone so important in your life makes you change how you view the world and the people around you?” Victoria’s expression closed up, and she reached for a glass with red wine in it. “Do you remember, son?”
Morgan’s mind flashed back to the day, several months after his father’s death, when he’d written a hateful letter to his mother accusing her of loving her company and freedom more than her family because all she seemed to want to do was work. He’d lost his father, and their world was turned upside down. Victoria moved the family to a secluded ranch to ensure their safety. Only, in Morgan’s young mind, this was a bitter betrayal. He thought it was his mother’s way of getting them out of the way so she could focus on her business.
His father’s loss, the sudden move and his mother’s disappearance into work changed his idea of how wives and mothers should act. Morgan recalled vividly the night he’d left her the note. She came into his bedroom while he pretended to be asleep, kissed him on the forehead, returned the note to him and whispered, “I love and forgive you, son.” They’d never spoken of the incident until now.
“Mother, I was a young, dumb kid when I wrote that note,” he said, lowering his head and feeling ashamed.
“Look at me, son.”
Morgan slowly raised his head and held his mother’s loving gaze. “You were a child who lost his father and thought he was losing his mother too. I understood. You went from having the mother you wanted to getting the mother you needed. A mother who had to lead and protect her family and couldn’t be there every day.”
“Everything just changed so quickly.”
“I know it did and I’m sorry that had to happen. However, it shaped you into the man you are today. A man I’m very proud of too,” she said, smiling before taking another sip of her wine.
“So you think the death of Kathleen’s mother did the same for her.”
“Of course it did.”
Morgan took a deep breath and released it slowly. “What should I do?”
“You don’t need me to tell you what to do, sweetheart.”
“Oh, you’ll interfere in everyone else’s love life but not mine,” he said, feeling happy now that the mood had lightened.
“I didn’t interfere with—”
“Mother, please, stop it. Alexander and China?”
“That’s been simmering for years.” She gave a nonchalant wave.
“True. Okay, Mia and KJ?”
“Your brother met Mia because he had to do community service,” Victoria defended herself, sipping her wine.
“Community service that you initiated with your friend the NBA commissioner,” he accused, raising his left eyebrow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Okay. But we all know you brought Brooke back into the company so she and Brice would stay together.”
Victoria nodded her head slowly and held up her near-empty wineglass. “All I did was show a little kindness to two people who needed it. If my bringing Brooke home helped make it easy for your brother to decide something he’d already decided on, so be it.” Victoria finished off her wine as if she’d just made a toast to herself.
“So why not do the same for me?”
A wide smile crawled across Victoria’s face. “I have,” she said, ending the call.
Morgan sat back in his chair and smiled. Okay, Mother. I’ll show a little kindness. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number he’d been avoiding too long. When he heard the call connect, he said, “Hello, Bonnie, it’s Morgan. I’m returning your calls.”
“Morgan, thank you for getting back to me.”
“Is everything okay?” He could hear fear and relief in her voice.
“Well, that depends on you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, first let me do something that I should’ve done years ago.”
“What’s that?” Morgan’s interest was piqued.
“I want to apologize and thank you.”
“For what?”
“I was terrible to you. I had no idea what real love was or what I had—”
“Bonnie, that was a lifetime ago. You don’t need to—”
“Yes, I do. The love we had was special, Morgan, and I blew it over nothing...for nothing.”
“Yes, it was, but it was also a young love...a kid’s love. Neither one of us really understood that at the time.”
“I agree, and I’m sorry we didn’t have the chance to figure that out the right way and in the right amount of time too. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Of course, Bonnie. Everything worked out for the best.”
“Yes, it did, which leads me to my thank-you.”
“Thank-you?”
“Yes, if you had gone through with my harebrained idea, who knows where we’d be right now?”
Morgan laughed. “Who knows?”
“Certainly not as happy as I am now and I only pray you have or will find someone who makes you that happy too. So thank you.”
Kathleen’s face, her laugh, her smell and even her recent words of love and commitment to him filled his mind. I have. “You’re welcome. Now what else is going on? I know you didn’t just call me for closure.”
“You’re right. I didn’t call just for closure.”
“What’s up?”
“When we broke up, and after graduation, I went to work for my father. I dated a few of Daddy’s picks before I came to my senses. A couple of years ago I met a computer whiz named Bill Wright, and we eloped.”
Morgan wasn’t exactly sure why he was so shocked, but he was. “I hadn’t heard. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. Bill’s a private geek and we live a very full but low-key life now.”
“As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.” Morgan realized he really believed that too. Being happy with the one you loved really was all that mattered.
“I am. Well, I was.”
“What’s going on, Bonnie?”
“Dad’s sick, Morgan. He has heart issues, and he needs to retire.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me too. You know how much Dad loves working. As long as he follows the doctor’s orders, he should still live a full and happy life. Me and Mom aim to make sure of it too.”
Morgan smirked. “With you two in his corner, he doesn’t stand a chance. He’s going to be just fine.”
“Here’s the problem. Dad’s trying to convince my husband to run the company. He doesn’t want to, but Bill’s like you. He’ll do anything for family, especially since he lost his at such a young age.”
“I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with all this, but I’m not sure what any of it has to do with me.”
“You know how cutthroat this business can be. Even for a small oil refinery like ours. Bill won’t be able to handle it, and he’ll kill himself trying. We’re pregnant, and I don’t want my husband to lose who he is, trying to do something he can’t and doesn’t even want to do in the first place,” she explained.
“Why don’t you run the company? It sounds like you’ve been doing it anyway.”
“I am, but I’m having a baby, and I want to stay home. I’m done with working. I want to be a wife and mom now.”
“I get that, and I’m happy for you, but again, what does—”
“I want...no, I need, for you to buy our company.”
“What?” Morgan sat up in the chair and looked at his cell phone as if he were on a video conference call with her.
“Our company is small compared to some of the others, but it’s profitable and has been for the last few years. I made sure of it. We own just about everything. We have minimal debt on the books, and we have cash in the bank.”
“Your father wants to sell?”
“Not really, but none of us have much of a choice anymore.”
Morgan ran the back of his left hand under his chin. “Why sell it to us?”
“Not us, you. I’ve done my due diligence. Every company that you’ve personally brought into your family’s portfolio has been midsize and fetched a good price. You kept the majority of the staff—even the executive teams—and you’ve combined the company’s names with the Kingsley brand. What was the last one? A drilling parts and service company, I believe. I heard you made the Shield brothers one hell of an offer and Shield Parts became Kingsley-Shield Parts and Service. That’s a much better name, by the way. Yours is the only company my father would ever consider selling to. The Kingsleys are the only real good guys in this business.”
Too bad Kathleen didn’t know any of this before she pushed for her investigation to move forward. Focus, man; this isn’t about Kathleen.
“Thanks, but I can’t take credit for that. My cousin Kristen is the queen of branding.”
Bonnie laughed. “I remember. So, will you consider it?”
Morgan sat back quietly as he tried to consider her request and what it could mean for their company but his mind kept going back to his mother’s and now Bonnie’s words about love and happiness, and all he wanted to do was find Kathleen.
“Send me the proposal.”
“Really?” He heard pure joy in her voice, and that made him smile. Morgan was happy for her, and it was nice to know the old Bonnie was back.
“Yes, really. If everything is as you say, we’ll meet your price.”
“Thank you, Morgan, and whoever it is who’s managed to steal your heart...your adult heart...is a very lucky woman.”