Chapter 26
STERLING
S omewhere between the hand-rolled cigars, imported cognac, and congratulations on getting married, I’d lost track of Laney.
I’d been keeping an eye out for her, but my mother had whisked her away, and every time I turned around to go looking for her, someone else was cornering me, drink in hand, all grins and polished teeth, all with the same question for me—where had I found her?
“She’s elegant,” someone said.
“She’s sharp.”
“She’s a breath of fresh air.”
My personal favorite was, “Your mother seems obsessed. That’s decidedly unheard of.”
Jameson and Callum found me between conversations and started acting as my handlers, subtly ushering me from group to group in an attempt to move me from one side of the tent to the other. If we made it there, I might be able to slip out to go find my wife.
“Seriously,” Jameson muttered, adjusting his cuff links as he shook his head at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mom this happy. It’s disturbing.”
Callum grinned. “She was practically glowing when she told me Laney is exactly the daughter-in-law she’d always pictured. Something about not being a pretentious gold-digger. I’d give you the details, but I wasn’t listening.”
“You never are,” Jameson said flatly, but then he suddenly stopped walking.
He just froze mid-step, like he’d forgotten how his legs worked and couldn’t complete the action. His eyes were tightly fixed on someone or something in the crowd. His jaw slackened before it clenched.
Callum and I followed his gaze, and then I saw her too.
Sadie Shepard, the daughter of a well-known oil and mining tycoon.
We’d grown up with her, but I hadn’t seen her for years.
We’d attended all the same schools and events as children and all the same parties as teens, but I hadn’t seen her around much since we’d become adults.
Our parents’ relationship had always been rocky at best and they avoided each other as much as they could.
Sadie was walking straight toward us, moving in that way that said she came from big money. Every step was measured and elegant, her strides so subtle, it was like she was gliding. Her dress, however, was understated, the colors a little faded and a frayed edge at her sleeve.
To the trained eye, it was immediately obvious that it hadn’t been purchased for this party, which was as odd as it was striking. I would venture a bet that every other woman here was wearing her dress for the first—and only—time.
Similarly, Sadie’s shoes were practical, flat pumps that were slightly scuffed at the toes, her red hair swept up into a sleek, elegant bun that wasn’t quite as smooth as it used to be.
I didn’t know much about these things, but I’d experienced my mother’s army of beauty technicians coming in and out of the house on enough occasions to know Sadie’s hair hadn’t been done professionally.
Interesting.
I pasted a smile on my face as she approached us, her blue eyes as soft and sweet as ever. She smiled at Callum too, but didn’t even glance in Jameson’s direction.
“Sterling Westwood,” she said like we were still nineteen and she’d just spotted me on the quad at school. “The man of the hour. Where is your wife hiding? I’ve been trying to find her all afternoon. I hear she’s delightful, and God, I need to talk to someone normal.”
She kissed my cheek like we were friends instead of just former members of the same gilded childhood club. I glanced at Jameson, noticing that his face had gone slack. He didn’t seem shocked or amused by the sight of her. Just strangely haunted.
“Laney wandered off,” I said, clearing my throat. “Perhaps she’s gone on a walk around the garden.”
“Smart girl,” Sadie said, her lips curving into a sly smile. “Well, I suppose I’ll find her eventually. Congratulations, by the way. Word on the street is that you bagged a good one.” She shifted her gaze to Callum. “It’s good to see you, Cal.”
“Yeah, you too, Sadie. Have a good one.”
“Thanks,” she said, still ignoring Jameson as if he wasn’t even there. “I’ll see you guys around.”
She nodded faintly, turning and vanishing just as quickly as she’d appeared, drifting through the crowd like a ghost in last season’s Valentino.
I turned to Callum. “What the hell was that?”
He took a sip of his drink and shrugged. “You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?” I snapped. “No one tells me anything, and usually, I prefer it that way, but something seemed off about that entire interaction.”
“Sadie’s broke.” Callum let his gaze wander in the direction she’d disappeared. “I heard she’s even living in some tiny studio apartment now in one of those neighborhoods where you can’t leave your place at night.”
Jameson blinked, his face deathly pale and his usual nonchalance nowhere to be found. “What?”
Callum nodded with that knowing gleam in his eye that came from being the gossip of our family.
“She blew through her trust fund giving all her money to dog charities. Like, a lot of them. I don’t know.
I follow her cousin on Instagram and she’s posted pics of Sadie at various shelters, trying to get attention for them. ”
I raised an eyebrow. “She blew her entire trust fund on dogs? That’s unbelievable.”
Jameson smiled for the first time since he’d laid eyes on her, but it was a small one, just barely there. “That sounds like something Sadie would do.”
I arched an eyebrow, wondering why it sounded to him like something she would do.
Despite growing up in the same circles, we’d never been particularly close to their family.
To me, it just sounded idiotic that she would have given away that much money, but Jameson still had that slight smile on his lips, a faraway sort of look in his eyes.
Clearly, there was something there we didn’t know about, but I didn’t press him for answers. Whatever history was buried there, it wasn’t mine to excavate.
“Let’s get moving,” he said suddenly, bringing a hand up to clap me on the shoulder. “We still need to find your wife.”
Callum chuckled. “I still can’t really say that with a straight face. His wife. But yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
Flanking me like bodyguards, they stuck to my side as we headed for the back terrace. We were stopped a dozen more times but eventually we made it there. We found our dad holding court, surrounded by men with too much cash and too little shame.
They puffed on cigars and exchanged war stories of the corporate variety. We tried to keep moving past them, but unsurprisingly, Dad spotted us and waved us over, forcing me to politely accept their congratulations, offered as if I’d secured a merger with a rare unicorn.
One of Dad’s friends slapped me on the back. “The wife and I met her earlier. She’s a knockout, your girl. A real class act. How’d you manage that, Westwood?”
“Good timing,” I said smoothly.
Another of his friends chimed in, but mercifully, he turned to my brothers instead. “When are the two of you going to be settling down? Once the first domino falls, the rest soon follow.”
Callum gave a dramatic sigh. “Great, we’ve moved on to the part where everyone starts asking us when we’re getting married. That’s just splendid.”
“Especially you,” the man, who had a last name longer than most mortgage agreements, said as he jabbed a thumb at Jameson. “You’re second in line, Jamie. That means you’re up next.”
“Not a chance.” Jameson grimaced. “You’ll have better luck with Callum.”
“Way to throw me under the bus,” our brother muttered under his breath before he smirked at the older men. “Just because you’ve all done it doesn’t mean we’re going to get roped into it, gentlemen. I don’t need to clamp a ball and chain to this leg.”
Dad chuckled, raising his glass in my brothers’ direction. “Harrison will probably beat both of you to it.”
“He’ll marry a pop star or a down-and-out duchess,” Callum mused. “Or a duchess slash pop star. You’re going to love it.”
Dad didn’t laugh, but he didn’t disagree either. Honestly, I had a feeling Harrison would perpetually be fifteen in his eyes, untouchable and slightly golden. The baby.
I sipped my drink, eyes scanning the garden again. The grounds were starting to glow with the low light of early evening, lanterns lit like stars along the hedges. I should go find Laney now.
Strangely, the urge wasn’t from a sense of responsibility toward my new wife. I simply wanted her back by my side. Am I missing her?
I dismissed the thought out of hand. Nah, it’s not that. It’s just that I’ve made the rounds. I’ve shaken hands. I’ve fielded three separate inquiries about whether Laney has a sister .
Simply put, I’d completed my duties and now I wanted to enjoy the party with my wife. Unfortunately, the property was enormous. Looking out at the garden from here, I didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of a flame-haired woman in a red dress.
“Excuse me,” I said politely to the men and my brothers, ducking out of the conversation while they were keeping the older men busy with speculation about who they would wind up marrying.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Jameson scowl and take a big step back, clearly already planning his own exit strategy.
Leaving him to it, I skirted around the edge of the terrace, eventually finding my mother with her usual circle of designer-clad confidantes, sipping rosé and gently judging a new member vying to become part of their group.
I frowned when I realized Laney wasn’t with her, either. She had been the last time I’d seen her. I cleared my throat to get her attention, standing slightly off to the side so we’d be able to have this conversation in private.
“Mom,” I said quietly. “Have you seen Laney?”
Her smile slipped as she turned to face me, closing the few steps of distance between us. “Sterling…”
The way she said my name made something twist in my gut and my eyes narrowed. “What?”
She stepped further away from her friends, taking me by the arm and leading me to the corner, sympathy swimming in her eyes. “I didn’t know, sweetheart. If you had told me?—”
“Told you what?” My body went rigid, my spine snapping straight. “What happened?”
“She looked so sad,” my mother murmured. “So lost. One of the girls mentioned Bella Rhodes, Laney’s mother.”
“Bella?” I repeated, not really understanding why she was telling me this. “What does Laney’s mother have to do with anything?”
“She passed away, Sterling. Years ago apparently, but some of my friends used to shop at her store, and they knew her…” She trailed off, the way she always did when she ended up being on the wrong side of a conversation.
“Laney got so quiet after they mentioned Bella. I think it brought something up for her.”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest, simply turning on my heels and leaving her standing there as I raced off to find Laney. My pulse pounded in my ears. All this time, I’d never once thought to ask about her mother.
It hadn’t occurred to me. All I knew was that she lived with her dad and that her mom had passed.
That was it. That was all I’d cared to notice.
We’d never spoken about her mom and now some of my mother’s friends had carelessly broached the topic, possibly slicing her to the core and really hurting her with the unexpected words—especially considering that she was on the outs with her dad at the moment.
I cut through the garden, retracing every path she and I had walked on before, my gaze scanning for red silk and soft shoulders, for the curve of her neck, or the color of her hair. The party blurred around me, but none of it mattered if I couldn’t?—
“Sterling!” I turned to see Jameson jogging toward me, his dress shirt rumpled, expression grim.
“What is it?” I snapped. “Did you find her?”
He grimaced. “We’ve got a situation.”
My chest tightened. “What kind of situation?”
“The kind that involves your new wife,” he said, grabbing my arm and steering me toward the back hedge wall. “Come on. Garden. South side. Near the fountain.”
He didn’t stop to explain and I didn’t ask. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I simply had no way of knowing how bad it was really going to be.