Chapter 44
DEJA
Jane and I hadn’t spent much time together when I’d been in Chicago with my family before, but she’d insisted on taking Colin and me out to lunch to celebrate.
I hadn’t really understood what we were celebrating until they’d filled me in on the latest in the Thayer family saga, but now that they had, I was overjoyed.
Sitting next to Colin in an upscale cafe down the block from their building, I’d scooted my chair up until it was right next to him, one of my hands resting on his thigh while I reached for my mimosa with the other.
“So this is it, then, huh?” I raised my drink into the air and smiled at them both. “Congratulations, guys. That’s huge.”
Jane clinked her glass against mine, took a sip, and leaned back in her chair, studying me and her brother with a satisfied little grin on her lips. Colin picked up his glass too, toasting with me before sliding his hand over mine on his leg.
“We think this is it,” he corrected lightly. “As far as we know, it is, but things have a way of changing on a dime with our legal situation.”
Jane inhaled a deep breath, her head suddenly shaking. “No. Nope. We’re not being pessimistic today. Deja is right. This is a huge win, and from here on out, things are going to get easier.”
“Dad is still locked up,” he said with a slight grimace.
Her eyes flashed with surprise before sliding to me, like she couldn’t quite believe that he’d say something like that in my presence, but I got where she was coming from. A month ago, he wouldn’t have discussed any of this in front of me.
Now, he didn’t seem to mind that I was hearing it at all. He kept drawing lazy patterns on the back of my hand with his finger, his gaze still on his sister’s, but his posture relaxed, like he honestly didn’t mind that I was listening.
“It’s really starting to look like he did it,” he said. “Or is it just me?”
Jane blinked a couple times, sighing before she shrugged.
“Yeah, maybe he did, but Mallory was our last unturned stone. At least now, the press will report that the latest raid on our offices had nothing to do with Thayer and her trial will prove that none of us had anything to do with that money disappearing. That’s a win, Colin. ”
“Fair enough,” he agreed after a beat. “We live to fight another day.”
“Damn straight.” She grinned, glancing at me. “We’re finally at a point where we can try and return to some kind of normalcy. Whatever that looks like for us when we’re not fighting for Dad, or to find Mallory, or having meetings with lawyers about trusts every other week.”
I nodded. “Under any other circumstances, I’d say that normalcy is overrated, but I don’t think that’s true in your case. You guys deserve a few boring, uneventful years and to never have to speak to another lawyer again.”
Jane laughed and held up her glass for another toast. “I’ll drink to that. God, from now on, I’m giving the phone to Alex whenever any lawyer calls. Except Jacque. I’ll still talk to her.”
“She’s your sister-in-law.” Colin arched an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure that means you’ll always have to talk to her.”
“Sure, but she’s a human who just so happens to practice law.” Jane winked. “I’m not sure the same can be said for most of the other lawyers we’ve had to deal with.”
Colin chuckled and slid his fingers between mine, leaning a little closer to my side when he sat back on the chair. “They’re Mallory’s problem now. Thank God.”
“Absolutely.” Jane took another sip of her drink as our plates were cleared.
Once the waiter was gone, she turned to Colin with a slightly more serious expression on her face.
“I’ve been thinking. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to talk to Jacque about how to handle the boys’ trusts when we get the money back. ”
Colin’s grip on my hand tightened, and for a second, I thought this might be where he pulled away again.
I knew that getting their brothers’ trusts restored had been his primary goal for a long time, but I wasn’t sure that he’d discuss the family’s financial matters in front of me.
We’d come a long way, but that was a sensitive subject for absolutely everybody.
“Do it,” he said, releasing my hand to slide his arm around my shoulders and pull me even closer, as if he’d sensed that I’d been about to excuse myself to go powder my nose to give them a chance to talk.
“Once she’s put away and the offshore account is returned to us, I’d like it if we could set Isaac, Ryan, Holden, and Wyatt up with trusts, whatever is left, but it would be great if you and I could just pay off all their student loans and set at least Wyatt and Holden up for an easier transition into adulthood than the rest of us had. ”
“Agreed.” Jane flashed him a relieved smile, her shoulders squaring a little in a way that made me think she felt like a massive weight had just been lifted from them.
“God knows, if Wyatt and Holden can enter adulthood without the extreme financial pressures we faced, I’ll sleep easy for the rest of my life. ”
For just a second, the corners of Colin’s eyes tightened. “They’re still Thayers.”
“Yeah, but we’re the new generation of Thayers,” she said without skipping a beat.
“I know it’s going to take a while to sink in, but there won’t be any more raids, Colin.
The press will never have to camp outside our building again and, okay, when Dad eventually gets out of prison, things will probably get a bit bumpy again, but our own legal troubles are behind us. ”
He stared at her for a long moment before he finally blew out a breath. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We’ll just keep building, and once the truth comes out about Mallory, people will know that it wasn’t our family who hid the assets for so many years.”
“Exactly.” She grinned and tossed back the last bit of her drink, but as she started chatting to him about her plans for the rest of the day, I thought about everything they’d just said.
I’d known Colin had been through a lot, but I hadn’t realized just how deep this ran for him. In a way, it felt like he defined himself by what had happened and proving that he and his family were innocent—even if their father likely wasn’t.
Given the numbers they’d mentioned when they’d given me the details of what the authorities had found in the offshore account, he wasn’t well-off.
Compared to my family or even myself, that was.
I winced when I thought about the massive dowry he’d paid despite what a setback it must’ve been for him.
Before I could fall too far down that rabbit hole, however, Jane pushed her chair back and came over to our side of the table. “Right. I need to get back to the office, wrap up a few things there, and then I’m taking my kids someplace fun this afternoon.”
Colin let go of me and stood up, wrapping her in a tight hug. “Give the little ones lots of kisses from me, will you?”
“Of course.” She hugged him back, murmuring quietly to him before she let go.
“You should get back to your leave of absence now. Ryan has been coping just fine and you deserve a break after everything you’ve done for this family, little brother.
You kept our heads above water for so long and now you’ve saved us from drowning in the long run.
I don’t want to see you back at the office for at least a couple months. ”
He chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before she left him to come and say goodbye to me. She gave me a hug that rivaled the one she’d given him, holding me tight. “Take care of him for me, okay? Make him take a break. He needs it.”
“I won’t rest until it’s done,” I promised, hugging her back and smiling. I watched her leave. “You have a pretty amazing sister, you know that?”
“Yeah, she’s awesome. One of the strongest women I’ve ever met.” Colin was still standing when I turned back to him, and instead of sitting down again, he held his hand out toward me. “I can’t believe you came straight from the airport to our offices. You must be exhausted. Let’s get you home.”
Home.
The word made me tingle a little bit. Here, home meant his house, but he’d said it like it was mine as well.
Our home, a place where no family members would barge in at any given moment and we would truly be alone.
In my head, it was a beacon of peace and tranquility.
Hell, we could walk around naked all day and no one would know.
I placed my palm in his and smiled up at him. “I can’t wait.”
He smirked, tugged me closer, and slid his knuckles gently across my cheek. “I know what you’re thinking, and I approve, but we just have one quick detour to make on our way there.”
My eyebrows swept up, but I didn’t argue, too curious to know where he wanted to take me that was so important that he wanted to do it right away. Less than twenty minutes later, I found out when he led me into an exclusive high-rise right in the heart of Chicago.
We ascended in an elevator that felt as fast as the GlobalStar jet, but only once Colin had activated it with his fingerprint. Surprised laughter tore through me as I realized my fingerprint worked as well, and then we were walking into the luxury condo he’d bought me as part of the dowry.
My jaw went slack as I trailed in after him off the elevator, taking in the massive wall of windows that spanned almost the entire story. Natural light filtered in from everywhere, painting the modern tiles and countertops in warm gold.
“This is stunning,” I breathed as I looked around, almost too scared to touch anything even though this place was, ostensibly, ours. “Oh my God, Colin. What did you do?”
He grinned, those gray blue eyes lighting up with pride. “So you like it?”
“I love it.” It was every bit as luxurious as the homes I was used to, the view was spectacular, and the furniture made it feel cozy despite the modernity, but it also felt almost wrong. “I’ll admit that I like your townhouse better, though.”
He laughed. “No, you don’t. This place is a palace compared to that.”
“True, but I’m serious.” I strode over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “That’s where I want to be, Colin. With you.”
His hands slid to my hips, a slight furrow appearing between his eyebrows as he looked back at me. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then I suppose we can use this place as a landing pad for your family when they come to visit,” he said thoughtfully. “We’ll be splitting time between Chicago and Cairo for at least a few years after we get married and there’s plenty of space here for all of them.”
A thrill shot through me. “Does that mean the wedding is still on?”
“If you can forgive me for essentially running away.”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t run away. You ran to your family to help when they needed you, and it sounds like it was a darn good thing you did. Just like you ran to Egypt when my family asked, to do whatever they wanted just for me.”
A slight smile spread on his lips. He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me deeply, turning every bone in my body to goo. We finally broke apart just as things started to get heated, and he ran his nose along the length of mine before taking a small step back.
“How about a quick tour and then I’ll take you home?” he asked.
I nodded, inhaling a deep breath to clear my mind of the haze of lust, and then took his hand again. “Lead the way, fiancé. I can’t wait to take a real look around.”