Chapter Five
Reynolds looked like death was ready to pounce upon him any second.
All the years we spent crawling our way to the top, undoing the mistakes and damage from our father, I’d never gotten the chance to come face-to-face with the man behind it all.
The events, the charity galas, the fundraisers for some new bullshit cause, and the showcases for new jewels and diamonds—not once did we have the luck of bumping into Reynolds.
Perhaps once in his lifetime, before his business became an empire, he wined and dined with the high class of our society, too. But by the time we were making an impact, he no longer needed to prove himself. He could simply write a check for whatever the cause and it was enough to still be hailed a hero among the people.
Sitting at a dinner table meters away from him, he was not the monster I created in my head. He was not the man who was once plastered on every business magazine and voted most eligible, handsome bachelor of the United States.
The man sitting at the table, being spoon-fed by a carer, was nothing more than a husk of a man.
“What did you say your name again was, son?” Lexington asked between mouthfuls. “You look awfully familiar to me. Can’t quite place you, though.”
“Jaxon,” Evelyn answered on my behalf. “Jaxon Dade.”
Her father hummed. “Dade… one of the boys from Dade Diamonds, I am presuming?”
“Yes,” she replied for me again, pushing the uneaten food around her plate. “He and his brother run the company.”
“Oh, yes. Frank Dade, isn’t it?”
“Close. Frederic,” Evelyn said softly. She reached for a glass of water, her slight fingers trembling as she brought it to her lips and gulped half the glass in one go.
“It’s the strangest thing. Have we met before?” Lexington asked. “I feel like I know your face.”
It’s because I look like my father, you batard.
I gripped the knife in my hand tightly until my knuckles blanched white.
“Maybe you read about him in a magazine,” she said. “Jaxon was Forbes Man of the Year for two years running. You love to read Forbes. You’ve likely seen him there, Dad.”
It was enough to plateau him, turning back to being fed his dinner.
Me and my brothers decided to forgo our father’s family name the second he stopped trying to keep his family together. He was as much of a parent to us as a fucking tree.
We took our maman’s family name in her honor.
Also, we did not wish to build a business, a new legacy with the old name and its failures attached to us.
I wondered if Lexington knew my former surname, would it click or had the bastards’ health declined so much that his mind was as useless as his body?
“How is your little company going, anyway?” Lexington asked, water dribbling from the corner of his mouth. “Last time I bothered to check in on our ‘competitors’, you were making a bit of a splash in the South American market.”
“I guess you could call it a bit of a splash,” I said with a clipped tone. “But I believe it’s impolite to discuss such manners at a dinner table. Business is for the office, non?”
Evelyn cleared her throat. “Dad, there’s actually something I need to tell you.”
Lexington weakly threw his hand up. “Impolite? Nonsense. We are both businessmen, are we not? Our lives are our business. Tell me, did you ever manage to secure that sponsor with that Dubai firm?”
“Dad…” Evelyn tried again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I feigned boredom.
“Don’t act coy,” Lexington said. “Last I heard, you or your brother flew out to Dubai nearly five times last month.”
I took a sip of my Merlot. “Seems like you’ve been keeping an eye on our little company.”
Lexington laughed, the noise rattling in his chest. “I merely like to keep up to date with the market.”
The other male at the table, who spent the entire time staring at me with equal parts of disgust and curiosity, slammed his hand down on the table. “For crying out loud, Dad. Evie is trying to talk to you. Could you shut up about business for more than five seconds and listen?”
Silence fell across the table.
Evelyn’s cheeks flamed.
“I’m sorry,” Lexington sighed. “Tell me what’s going on in your life, my darling Evie.”
She cleared her throat. Her eyes drifted up from her plate. Her shoulders drew so tightly together that it was any wonder her bones weren’t snapping.
Without thought, my arm lounged across the back of her chair, fingers brushing against her exposed neck. Evelyn’s entire body turned to stone. Her hair was bundled up, curls trying to break loose from the gold clip. She suited her hair down. However, the sight of her bare neck and the smoothness of her skin was a beauty no man could deny.
What sound would she make if I drove my teeth into her supple flesh? Would she moan as my tongue stroked the pain away? Would she beg me for more?
Blood surged straight to my cock.
“Please, do not get mad or stress out,” she said quietly. “I wanted to tell you for quite some time, but you got sick, and I didn’t feel like it was important.”
Her brother scoffed. “Oh yeah, because getting married isn’t important.”
“Who is getting married?” Lexington frowned. “One of your friends? Lola? Is she finally marrying that nice ice hockey player?”
Evelyn shook her head, the motion tight. “No, not Lola. It’s just… something’s happened… nothing bad, don’t worry. It’s just, I did something you might not be too happy about.”
Jésus putain de christ.
“We got married,” I said bluntly. “Evelyn and I are married. She didn’t wish to tell you because of your… condition. She wanted to wait until you were better, of course.” I smiled, the corner of my jaw ticking. “But I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Lexington stared at his daughter. “Evie, is this true?”
She exhaled, her shoulders slumping back into my touch. “Yes.”
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” her brother exclaimed. “Is this one of those shotgun weddings? Get married before the baby bump shows? Because that’s a pretty screwed up reason to marry someone.”
“Fucking hell, Flynn. I’m not pregnant.”
A vein throbbed on Lexington’s temple. “Your engagement to Laurence only ended a couple months ago, didn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s complicated. It all sort of happened so fast.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “This thing with Jaxon—we both got swept up in it.”
“You always tell me everything.” Lexington weakly rubbed his jaw. “Why didn’t you feel like you could tell me about him? Is it because he is our competitor?”
“You got sick, Dad.” She reached across the table for his hand. “I didn’t want to upset you. Like you said, Jaxon is our competition, and I wasn’t sure how you would handle it. We… we fell in love.”
“And got married.” Her father dared a glimpse in my direction. “Did you even bother to sign a prenup?”
She shook her head.
How delicious it was to see his anger writhing around under his calmly gray skin. Concern danced across his glassy gaze, and fuck, if it didn’t give me a thrill.
The old man should be worried, very fucking worried.
I was going to take everything from him.
And the icing on the cake, I’d take his precious daughter, too. Corrupt her all for my own pleasure and leave her broken by the end.
“I wanted you to know…” Evelyn held her father’s hand. “If anything ever happens to you, I’m going to be okay. Jaxon will be by my side now. He’ll keep me and the company safe.”
“You know, while I’m here, you will always have me to turn to for help, and don’t forget you have your brother.” Lexington turned to his son. “You and Evie, you are the future of the business now. The two of you can keep each other right. Keep the business going strong.”
“Of course, Dad.” The brother nodded. “You know we will.”
I swallowed a laugh. “Your children are far from ready to take over such a large company as yours. Neither of them have real experience in that world. Attending functions, drinking champagne, partying, and spending money is not the same as actually running a company.”
“Watch your tone,” Lexington snapped.
“Why? We’re family now, after all.” I grinned wickedly. “Like Evelyn said, you won’t be around forever.” I placed a firm hand on the nape of Evelyn’s neck. “And with me by her side, I can make sure that your life’s work remains what it is and more.”
Her elevating pulse throbbed against my touch, but she refused to move a muscle. “Think about it, Dad. When I step in until Flynn is ready, I will have Jaxon to help me. You’ve been worrying yourself sick about me doing it. Don’t try and pretend you haven’t. This way, you can stop stressing.”
“You said you would never marry for this, Evie.” His chest rattled as he inhaled deeply. “Just because I am unwell, it does not mean you have to do this.”
“I am in love,” Evelyn said without hesitation. “I love Jaxon. I realize it’s sudden and it seems like I’m maybe just rebounding from Laurence. But the feelings we have for each other, they’re real.”
She lied so beautifully.
What other wonders could such a wickedly pretty mouth do?
Her father blinked, tears catching in his bottom eyelashes. “I didn’t get to walk you down the aisle.”
That was enough to bring Evelyn to her demise. Teardrops trailed down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” She held his hand tightly. “I didn’t want to put your health at risk. The doctor said to try and minimize your stress. It’s why we had no one there. If I couldn’t have you, I wanted no one else.”
He nodded, wiping away his own tears. “Are you happy, Evie?”
Her pulse skipped under my touch. “Very happy.”
“Then that’s all I can ask for.” Lexington drew his attention back to me. The corners of his eyes were bloodshot. Perhaps death was finally coming to take him. “If you make my daughter happy, then that’s all I can ever ask from you.”
I drained my wine.
The rest of the dinner went by without a problem. Lexington turned his attention to his son, asking him questions about his degree and life at university. It turned out, lying came easily for both Reynolds’ children.
Flynn webbed stories about his last year’s classes, painting himself as the model student, while everyone, including Lexington, at the table knew it was the furthest thing from the truth. Flynn Reynolds was the black sheep of the family. His escapades made the tabloids weekly. Photographs of him with a different woman every week, attending parties and getting completely shitfaced.
It wasn’t a secret that the young man spent a couple nights in a jail cell last year after getting behind the steering wheel of a stolen car while under the influence.
He was lucky that those involved walked away with broken bones and not lost lives.
“I guess this has made your decision for you, Evie,” Lexington announced after dinner. We sat in the parlor room, the fireplace roaring despite the August sunshine blaring outside. Flynn propped his shivering father into the armchair right by the fireplace.
I stood by the window, trying to suck in any air that managed to squeeze through the small opening.
Evelyn sat on the arm of her father’s chair, the furthest she could get from me. “What do you mean?”
“Your decision to remain in New York,” he said. “I can’t say I’m not happy about your choice. Europe is awfully far from home.” He placed his hand on her knee. “This way, you and your brother can stay together.”
“Europe?” I asked.
Lexington nodded. “Evie was considering moving to Europe when she took over the company. A way to be closer to our European market. I wasn’t thrilled when she mentioned it. I thought it was perhaps because she was brokenhearted and wanted to get away.” He chuckled until he wheezed. “I now see the reason she was so unsure was obviously because of you.”
“Where do you live?” Flynn interrupted. “You’re not about to whisk my sister away?”
“Ontario,” I said tightly. “Your sister will only be across a border.”
“I’m not moving,” Evelyn blurted. “I mean, we never discussed me moving there.”
“We never discussed me moving here, either,” I drawled. “I have a company to run back home.”
“And I will soon have a business to look after here in New York,” she said tightly. “I need to be here to be close to Dad, and be ready for whenever he needs me to step in.”
Lexington patted her knee. “Don’t fret. The two of you can take the house in lower Manhattan.”
“But you need me here in the house with you,” she said. “What if something… what if you need help?”
The dancing around the true severity of his illness was applaudable. Were they truly waiting until the day of his funeral to announce his death? Hope that no one noticed that he simply was never to be seen again?
“That’s what the nurses and Poppy are for,” he said. “You and Jaxon will take that house. That way you can be close to home and the company. I’m sure you don’t mind, Jaxon?”
I clicked my tongue. “I can do most of my work from a computer, so location truly doesn’t matter, I suppose.”
“There,” Lexington declared with a grin. “You will take the house in Tribeca, and once the pair of you are settled, we will announce your marriage with a party.”
“A party?” Evelyn and I said in unison.
“I may not have been there to walk you down the aisle and see you get married, young lady, but you deserve to have a celebration to honor your love to each other,” he said firmly. “We will throw a party. A proper way to announce your news. Wherever you like, no expenses spared. No arguments.”
Evelyn looked across the room. Our eyes met. She hated every single thing about what was happening—it was written all over her sinfully beautiful face.
I grinned and raised my wine glass to her. “I think a party sounds like a magnifique idea.”