Prologue

Once upon a time there was a young man who fell in love with an island girl, Kono. She was everything that he could ever want in a woman—beautiful, kind and in love with him. Dennis disobeyed his father’s wishes and moved to the island to be with the young woman. They had a home of their own, with a garden and a view of the ocean. Soon a little boy was added to their family, and they named him Reno.

Years went by and Dennis and Kono were living a happy life with their baby boy. Then, one day, Dennis realized that he couldn’t provide for his family anymore. He tried to get back into the good graces of his father. However, his father needed something from him. Dennis went to New York and carried out his father’s wishes.

When he went back to the island, his little family was there waiting for him. One night, as he lay in Kono’s loving arms remorse, ate at him. He had betrayed the love of his life.

‘All right, Father’. Dennis cursed his words as he cuddled into Kono’s willing arms. He regretted it even more as he tasted the surrender in her lips, as her legs locked at his back as he sank into her velvety flesh. How the hell was he going to leave her? Kono’s long, tanned legs, her long, beautiful, curly black hair, and how easily a smile claimed her lips, had had Dennis in a daze from the second he had met her. Now they had a baby boy, their little Reno.

He had put off his marriage to Issadora for as long as he could. His father thought he was in Brazil looking for business opportunities for the company. He was pressuring Dennis to propose to Issadora, but he always gave him the same excuse, Issadora wasn’t ready. He had managed to convince Issadora to go back to school for her masters, telling her that her education and skills would be a vital part of the growth of their empire. Issadora ate up his lies without questioning them. It helped that he was romancing her.

Dennis lay on his back, his fingers twirling Kono’s thick, silky locks between his fingers. He loved her, but he didn’t love her enough to give up his fortune. Maybe he could have both. Thousands of men had two families without the wives knowing about each other. That was what he was going to do. As long as he didn’t get caught, he had the chance to be happy.

“I love you.” Kono’s sleep-laden, thick voice filled the hot air.

“I love you too.”

“Reno is already three years old. We should get married and give him a proper home,” she said as she cupped his cheek.

“We will, soon.”

“I’m pregnant, Dennis, we are having another baby.”

Dennis sat up with a start. He felt as if he had been kicked in the gut. One illegitimate child was acceptable. A second one would be grounds for being disinherited. But, even with that fear lurking in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel happy about this new life. Dennis was reaching for his phone when it rang on the bedside table.

“Dennis?” Issadora’s voice rang out.

“Yes.” He smiled down at Kono and tried to look disinterested in his call.

“Dennis, I’m pregnant. We are going to have a baby.”

His heart jumped into his throat. “Great!”

* * * *

The confrontation his father was having with his wife and now three children was long overdue. DJ swirled the gold liquid in his whisky glass before throwing his head back and swallowing it in one gulp. He hissed as it burned on its way down, warming his insides. He got up from his chair and poured himself another glass.

“Don’t you think that’s enough?” His father, Dennis Senior, asked.

DJ looked up at the old man. For all his life he had hero worshipped him. Looking at him now, he didn’t see the man who’d raised him, the father who had given him everything he could ever need or want. DJ had fashioned his life to be just like his father. The only difference between them, he had thought, was DJ’s healthy appetite for women. However, DJ had learned a new truth. He looked at the other man in the room—sun-kissed skin, a tribal tattoo that travelled up his arm and peeked from the collar of his T-shirt, and a face that was so much like his own. How could it not be? DJ was staring at Reno Kanaloa Kent, the first-born son of Dennis Kent and Kono Kanaloa…and the brother he never knew.

All his life, he had felt the weight, the burden, of being the first born. He had been taught that the family business and welfare would all be dependent on him someday. He was supposed to be the patriarch. That is, until a tidal wave had rolled in from Hawaii to the shores of New York, and instantly that burden had been taken from him. A different man, probably a lesser man, would have been threatened by this. However, DJ couldn’t be happier. He had someone to share the family responsibilities with, a confidant, and a big brother.

“DJ, I said don’t you think that’s enough?” Dennis asked once more.

“I don’t think that you are in a position to tell me what enough is.” DJ threw back another shot and filled his glass once more. “Reno is twenty-three years old. You lied to my mother…or did you know?”

“Of course not!” Issadora exclaimed. “Do you think I would let my children’s siblings live on the other side of the country without looking into their welfare? Do you think I would have left your sister to whatever fate she is in now?”

“I’m here…no wait, you must be talking about the other sister. The one father abandoned and who has now disappeared. Her name is Rhyne, right?” Daniela slurred her words.

“I think you should be telling Daniela what enough is,” DJ said as he sat back down.

He was just about to tip the glass and drink the remainder of its contents when Reno spoke up. “DJ, that’s enough.” DJ’s hand froze with the glass on his lips. He wasn’t sure if Reno’s massive size, or that he was his elder brother and he had formed some immediate respect for the man, made him put the glass down.

“We need clear heads if we are going to discuss this. Daniela, I think you should go to your room,” Reno said.

“You won’t tell me what to do,” Daniela pouted.

“Go!” Reno’s cool but firm tone didn’t get any arguments from Daniela. “We’ll talk about what it is that you are taking and figure out a way to deal with it together as a family.”

DJ was in awe as Daniela left the room without a tantrum. “I could have used your help for the past seventeen years. Oh! That’s right. I couldn’t because our father had abandoned you.”

“DJ, it wasn’t that simple.”

“It wasn’t? Because to me, it does sound simple. Take care of your children. You abandoned them and now my sister is gone.”

“Don’t you think I know that? No one in this room is as tortured about Rhyne’s disappearance as much as I am,” Dennis shouted.

“I think Reno is. He was six years old when his sister was stolen from her bed and sold by her junkie mother. The one person who should have been there for him wasn’t.”

“I know the consequences my actions brought.” Dennis’ chest heaved as he sank into an armchair. “I went to Hawaii for some time off, a boy’s trip. Do you think I expected to meet the only woman I would ever love?”

DJ saw his mother visibly flinch and immediately felt sorry for her. As much as he would want to steer the conversation away from Kono, there was no way he could. Dennis and Kono—that was the genesis of the story, and the truth would only be clear if they started from the beginning.

“I don’t expect you to understand that DJ, leaping from one bed to another like you do,” Dennis said bitterly. “I was in love with a beautiful island girl. She was everything I ever wanted in a woman…strong, gentle, supportive, and determined to face every day with a smile. And when Reno was born, I thought I could never be happier. This was the family I always wanted. My family.”

“But I guess money was more important than family.” The steel in Reno’s tone slashed through the room.

“I was going to give it all up. I did for a few months. But my father froze my accounts and the money I earned as a bartender couldn’t support us. Do you know how demeaning it is for a man not to be able to provide for his family? So, I came back to New York. I didn’t tell my father about my son. I told him that Kono and I were done. I worked at the firm and every weekend I would fly down to Hawaii to see my family.”

“Is that where you went?” Issadora asked. “You told me you were going for business trips.”

“How did my mother fit in all this?” The look on his mother’s face tore DJ’s heart to shreds. She had been lied to, used to disguise his father’s true intentions.

“My father wanted an alliance with her family. We dated, then got married, then had you and your sister.”

“So, if you were here with Mother, and with Kono and Reno, when did you decide the double life was too much for you?”

“Before you were born. Father had just threatened to disown me. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to provide for Reno and Kono if I didn’t stay in his…good graces.” Dennis let out a labored sigh. “I came back to New York, and I made good with your mother.”

“What do you mean?” DJ asked.

“I went back to Hawaii and Kono told me she was pregnant. Then your mother called me to tell me she was expecting you. Issadora’s family was influential and could have ruined mine. So, I made a decision.”

“So, it was my fault,” DJ cut into his father’s story. He couldn’t believe it. The start of his life had led to the end of so many.

“It’s not,” Reno and Dennis said in unison, the one thing that they both seemed to agree on. Too bad DJ didn’t. “What he means to say is that marrying into your mother’s family money was more important than his poor family on the island.”

“It was my fault,” Issadora spoke up, her voice shaking. “I knew that your father wouldn’t commit without a push. So, I got pregnant intentionally.”

“So, he was sleeping with both of you at the same time.”

“You’re one to judge,” Dennis scoffed.

“The difference between you and me is that I wear a condom each time. Or wasn’t it invented when you were making your rounds?”

DJ had never seen his father as angry as he was now. His face contorted; Dennis took three large steps toward him. If it hadn’t been for Reno, DJ was sure he would have been sporting a black eye.

“Don’t you think I know that I broke my family? I destroyed Kono and turned her into…” Dennis shook his head, a tear rolling down his cheek, the truth too hard to say. “If I had been brave, my son wouldn’t have grown up in the environment he did. My daughter would be here, about to celebrate her twentieth birthday with you. She was born the same day as you. I barely spent two years with my daughter. Kono didn’t want anything to do with me once I told her about you and mother. I broke her heart, and my own.”

“Oh, poor you. We should all feel sorry for you, right?” DJ clenched his teeth, fighting the tears that were determined to betray his cool façade. “Your heart got broken. Well, Kono’s broken heart led to her death, and to my sister being sold off. So, forgive me if I don’t feel sorry for you.”

“DJ—”

“What I don’t understand is this—grandfather has been dead for ten years. What stopped you for looking from your children?”

“Shame and the fact that I am a coward.”

“Well, at least we agree on one thing,” DJ mocked. “You were my hero. My entire life, all I ever wanted was to be like you. But now that I know you, I’m ashamed to be your son.”

“That’s fine, you can be ashamed. The important thing right now is to find my daughter.”

“Why?” Reno asked. “So, you can take care of her? Daniela, the one living in your house, is as high as a kite right now. Neither one of you noticed. You can’t take care of anyone but yourself, Dennis Kent. I’ll find my sister on my own.”

“Our sister—though, of course, with Daddy’s money,” DJ smirked. “One thing you can depend on is that, unlike my father, I will support you in everything you want. So now, what do we do about our sisters?”

DJ didn’t know what shocked him more, that little Danny was dealing with the death of her addict boyfriend, by diving head first into alcohol, or that his father wasn’t backing down from this fight. There was so much this family had to do before it could heal once more. The first was realizing that they had dropped the ball where Danny was concerned. They needed to get her better. If they were going to find Rhyne and put their wrecked family back together, they all had to be one hundred percent whole.

****

Present time…

His romance life read like a story book—Once Upon a Playboy. It just didn’t end like one—at least not yet. There was still hope.

Maybe.

In this story book, Prince Charming was hypocrite and the demon he had to slay was Karma.

If he’d only known how much trouble his wandering eye and equally eager penis would get him into, DJ might have done things a little differently. He had been trying to run away from his father’s deception and had ended up just like him—in fact, even worse. His decisions, his unwise choices, were what brought him to this moment, alone, in a hospital waiting room, worrying his thumbs. DJ’s lips moved rapidly as a never-ending prayer danced on his tongue.

“It’s going to be okay…it’s going to be okay.” He had been telling himself this for two years now, and he had yet to believe it. Karma, that was the issue here. It was a formidable foe to him and a friend to everyone else. Look at everyone in his life. Lisette and his big brother Reno had managed to survive a betrayal that had once ripped their love apart and, three kids later, they were more in love than ever. AJ had managed to put down his playboy badge and be a loyal and faithful husband to Katherine. And Catalella…that girl had gone through a bad marriage and cancer and, as her reward for good karma, she’d got a wonderful husband and two babies.

This, however, was where all his bad karma brought him—to hospital, his clothes covered in blood, the woman he loved in surgery and shame oozing out of each and every one of his pores.

“Mr. Kent?”

DJ jumped to his feet at the sound of the nurse’s voice. He stared at her, his heart beating a mile a minute, his breath caught in his chest and an eerie fear claiming his heart.

“She’s not dead, is she? She can’t die again. I can’t lose her again.”

“Calm down sir, your wife is out of surgery. She is in recovery. I was wondering if you wanted to call your family. I could do that for you.”

Her family was his family. One thing was for sure, however. If her brother found out why she was in the hospital in the first place, it would be the end of him. But DJ couldn’t keep this from them any longer. Soon it would be all over the news, and if any one of them stopped by his apartment, the large yellow tape would tip them off.

“Do you mind doing that for me?” he asked.

“Not at all. For now, would you like to see your son?”

I have a son. DJ knew everything he needed to know about babies. It was something he had learned for his love. The moment she told him that she wanted a child, he’d moved Heaven and Earth to make sure that he obliged her. It was the least he could do, considering that it was his fault that they had lost their first child.

“Yes, I would like that.” Maybe after seeing their son, DJ hoped, he would be allowed to see his wife. He could tell her about their son, gush about the little things, like his toes and who he looked like. He wanted those moments; he was desperate for them. If only his trip to Nice had turned out differently. The city had brought him so much love and, in return, DJ had given it pain and betrayal.

DJ walked into the NICU, not knowing what to expect and yet preparing himself for the worst. The nurse made him wear a gown, gloves and a mask. He was dressed like someone going into a biohazard zone and not like a father going to meet his son for the first time. His eyes fixed on the swaying, dark ponytail at the back of the nurse’s head, DJ moved slowly, and when she walked into the high dependency room, he froze at the door. Fear, that’s what had him rooted to the spot. But then he urged himself forward, reminding himself that, at that moment, he was the only parent his son had. He had to do this for the baby and for Evie.

He followed the nurse to an incubator that looked more like a bread bin. And in that pod of life was a tiny baby hooked onto so many wires and tubes. His son was a few weeks premature, but this wasn’t what he expected. DJ thought he would see a very pink, large boy, screaming his lungs out and giving the nurses a hard time because he was just so lively, because he was a Kent. However, the baby he saw before him was pale and, apart from the small rise and fall of his chest, he didn’t move at all. His eyes were taped closed, his foot had an IV line taped to it, and there were wires that started from his chest and ended at a beeping machine next to his pod. His head was covered in a blue beany and his bum in a diaper three times his size.

DJ had always dreamt in detail the moment that his and Evie’s child would come into this world. Happiness, joy and excitement, those were the words he thought he would use to describe this moment. Instead, it was just fear. This was his fault; the universe was punishing him for his sins.

His life was like a fairy tale, and this is how it read—Once upon a playboy…

* * * *

Evie smacked her mouth, trying to get rid of the cotton ball taste and sensation. The sterile scent that assaulted her nostrils told her that she was in the hospital. The pain in her belly echoed her worst fear. She had lost her baby…yet again. Maybe it wasn’t her fate to carry a child of her own. However, she had managed to deliver DJ’s son and bring him into the world. DJ’s son was her son, not born from her womb but as good as her flesh and blood. After the accident, Evie knew that carrying a baby was a near impossibility, words her doctors had echoed to her time and time again. But she had proved them wrong. A night of passion, love and madness had resulted in a baby boy cradled in her belly. This miracle had only brought a new problem.

Evie had blown into New York like a hurricane, intent on destruction and vengeance. She wanted revenge against her brother, her so-called father and, most of all, the man she had given her love, her heart, and almost her life to. His cavalier and reckless handling of her love had resulted in the death of their first child. It was rational that she would want another to replace the one lost. But Evie should have known that life wasn’t that easy, that love was a war she wasn’t equipped to fight.

Dennis Rogers Kent…a curse and a blessing. During their courtship, she had only known him as Dennis Rogers, a photographer with a weakness for beautiful girls. Dennis Rogers, in turn, knew her as Eyvette Rosalind Ross, the only child born to her mother, Elizabeth McCrery, a redheaded Irish widow who had a tongue that matched the color of her hair. Evie knew nothing about her father—well nothing except the fact that he was black. Eyvette had been a meek little girl, green to the ways of men and those of the world as a whole. She had been sheltered by her mother and, although she had rebelled against it at an early age, she wished she had stayed under her mother’s wing

Look what her desire to experience life had left her—two children dead. Two pregnancies with nothing to show for it. A man who was no doubt at the bedside of his mistress and the child she had borne him, while she lay here in pain, both physical and emotional. Her soul was torn to shreds by his actions, and he didn’t even see fit to come and see her for a second. Eyvette had walked away once before, and she was sure she could do it again. Maybe, just maybe, the loss of her children was God’s way of telling her that she didn’t need to be tied to Dennis Kent. Dear Lord, she prayed that there was a reason why she was doomed to face two great tragedies in one lifetime.

She would walk away again, just as she had once before.

A knock on the door pulled Eyvette out of her memory. She dried her wet cheeks and cleared her throat of any noticeable emotions and said, “Come in.”

DJ stepped in; his expression as tortured as Evie’s. The uncertainty in his eyes grabbed her attention. Never in her life had she seen Dennis Kent ever doubt himself. His ego and pride always seemed to be at the forefront—like they were their own personalities in physical form, and they would precede him each time he walked into a room.

Was DJ’s uncertainty a sign of remorse? Or maybe he was mourning their dead child. Either way, she couldn’t bear looking at him. Evie stared at the wall, trying not to picture how her children would have looked if they had lived. No doubt they would resemble their father, with dark, thick hair from their grandmother’s Italian heritage. She was sure they would get her dark skin. She would never get to see them, or who they would grow to look like most. Unless she held a séance, but she didn’t know of any practicing witches or mediums. This was a crazy and desperate thought, even for her.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“I came to see how you are doing,” DJ said.

The warmth from his body radiated into hers when he placed his hand over hers. For a second, Evie almost let that warmth deceive her, like it had done throughout that year. She pulled away, not in the right frame of mind to engage her head in a war against her heart. A war it would most definitely lose.

“I’m great.”

“You just had surgery, so I guess you are in pain or... discomfort.”

“Despite stating the obvious, why are you here?” Evie turned to him, looking past his glassy eyes as she held onto the anger gnawing at her heart.

“Do you remember the day we met?”

Did she? That day played over and over in her head. DJ had sat at a table at the café she worked at, having his breakfast alfresco. His jet-black hair curled at the base of his head. His five o’clock shadow enhanced the piercing honey-brown color of his eyes. His olive skin made a huge contrast to the white flannel sweater he wore. Evie had been watching him, obsessively studying him for a moment, when he turned his smile to her. To this day, she could not put in exact words how she had felt. Her heart had blossomed, like a rosebud under the gentle caress of the sun’s rays. He smiled...dear God, did he smile. The warmth of it took over his face, crow’s feet forming at the corner of his eyes, and his full, kissable lips held their frame just for her. She melted right there and then. Evie found herself in the palm of his hand. Malleable clay for him to manipulate however he wanted.

“I was a foolish, little girl, Cherie. I promise that will never happen again.”

“When I first saw you, you reminded me of someone—Catalella.”

“Uh-yes! Who could forget the childhood crush that led your fancies to be hooked on me?”

“You could never be Catalella, and she could never be you. You have a sweetness that she could never manage. You could charm a snake,” he chuckled.

“And so, I did.”

“The first thing I remember about you is your eyes. They called to me in a way I thought impossible. Love at first sight was a myth I had heard about and an ailment I was determined not to catch. The sun’s rays fell with romantic affection—”

“—upon my glowing face? Yes, I know. You told me before.”

“You left me breathless.”

“Apparently not, because you lived to wreak havoc on my life and destroy the lives of those, I loved more than my own life...including yours.” Since the day she’d met him, Evie knew one thing. DJ was his own worst enemy, and his father’s past was a cross he shouldered through every stoic mile of his life.

“You reached into me in my darkest hour and pulled me into the light.”

“No.” Evie pushed herself into a sitting position and cried out when her belly felt like it had ripped open. “It is you who reached into the light—my light—and pulled me into the bottomless pit of darkness. I used to smile every day for no apparent reason. It used to infuriate my maman, but I was happy just being alive. Now, facing each day is a struggle. The darkness haunts me.”

“Catalella says—”

“Yes, her. A woman I have so much in common with, from my last name, hair, skin tone and our failure in taking control of our own lives. It infuriates me that my life is so much like hers, and she is happy while I am... not.” Evie watched as DJ cringed within himself. “Shame has taken the shape of a man I am in love with.”

* * * *

DJ missed the sweet girl he’d met at a cafe in Nice. Her soft emerald eyes, and a pout he desperately wanted to kiss. Evie had no mean words in her dictionary. She put other people’s wellbeing ahead of her own. That girl had died that night…

Three years ago, Evie had faced him with a declaration that had sent fear rocking through his very soul.

I’m pregnant.

DJ knew the pain of abandonment. His father was always working. Empire first, was his motto. His brother and sister had been abandoned. Reno’s scars always kept him wary of their father, and their sister…she had been stolen in the dead of the night and had yet to be found.

It took him a split second, that night, to decide his next move. He wasn’t going to become his father. He wouldn’t subject his child to the same hatred, betrayal and loneliness that had accompanied Reno for the majority of his life. He ran out of his apartment without his shirt and shoes. He chased Eyvette’s car down the road and reached it just in time to see her skip the red light and a truck take out her Porsche.

No…no… No! The whisper had become a scream as he dropped to his knees and buried his face in his hands. The ache remained, even now, but how could he maker her see?

“I thought you had died that night. I’m not just talking about your good nature. I thought your life had ended and, in so many ways, mine had too.”

“I think that would have been a far better choice than what I am going through now.”

“Why did you come to New York?” DJ had asked her this so many times. And each time she had deflected with an excuse or a recount of how much he had hurt her and didn’t deserve to ask any questions. However, he had hoped that she had come back to town for him, because she loved him and didn’t want him thinking that she had died.

“You want to know why I came to New York? I’ll tell you. We can sit here and swap stories of what we have been up to since you left Nice.”

“If that is what you want.”

“But first I have to ask, what happened to Ava?”

“Ava is gone, she isn’t coming back. What happened after the accident?”

“Healing…physically that is,” Evie said as she turned her back to him.