Chapter 1
July—Ruban Crossing, Mississippi
“Casey, darling, you should never wear black. It makes you look like a crow.”
Before Casey could take offense at what her half brother, Miles Dunn just said, he took a seat with the rest of the Ruban family, who were gathering for the reading of Delaney Ruban’s will.
She picked a piece of lint from the skirt of her black silk dress and tilted her chin, reminding herself that she wasn’t going to cry.
Not now, and especially not in front of Lash Marlow, her grandfather’s lawyer.
Although he was sitting behind his desk and watching each arrival with a focused, predatory gaze, Casey was aware that he was also watching her every move.
And it had been that way with them for more years than she cared to remember.
In spite of her love for her grandfather, Delaney Ruban, and in spite of Delaney’s hopes that she and Lash might someday marry, Casey had been unable to bring herself to comply.
She’d been a willing student of Delaney’s tutorial with regards to the Ruban empire, but she refused to give up what passed as the personal portion of her life.
It didn’t amount to much, but it was all she had that she could honestly call her own.
Even more important, she didn’t love Lash Marlow and had no intention of spending the rest of her life with a man who measured the value of a person by monetary worth.
She shifted nervously in her seat, wishing this day to be over. As Delaney’s closest living relative and the heir who had been groomed to take over the vast Ruban holdings, she knew the task that lay ahead of her, right down to how many family members would be looking to her for sustenance.
Not for the first time since her grandfather’s stroke six weeks ago did she wish her father and mother were still alive.
And, if Chip Ruban hadn’t taken his wife, Alysa, to Hawaii for their tenth wedding anniversary, they might still be.
But he had, and they’d drowned in a boating accident off the coast of Oahu, leaving their only child, six-year-old Casey, as well as Alysa’s ten-year-old twins from a previous marriage, to be raised by an absent and overbearing grandfather who quickly pawned off those duties to someone else.
Alysa’s mother, Eudora Deathridge, was moved into the mansion and given full authority and responsibility of her daughter’s children. And although she was Casey’s grandmother as well, Casey found herself grasping for space in a lap already too full for one more small, six-year-old girl.
With the instinct of a child who knows where she is loved, she turned to Joshua Bass and his wife, Matilda.
The butler and the cook. The kitchen became the center of her universe.
In Tilly Bass’s loving arms, she learned to trust and love again.
On Joshua’s shoulders, she saw the world in which she lived from a new and different angle, and in doing so, learned not to be afraid of reaching for the stars.
They became the surrogate parents she had needed, and now, twenty years later, they were the anchors that kept her life on a straight and honorable path.
And while Tilly and Joshua nurtured and loved her, at thirteen years old, Casey suddenly became the focus of Delaney Ruban’s world. He had looked up one day and realized that he wasn’t getting any younger, and since Casey was his son’s only child, she was, of course, to be his heir.
He looked for the child he’d all but ignored and found a girl on the brink of womanhood. Elated that she’d grown up so well without much of his effort, he decided that it was time she branched out past the familiarity of her school, her friends and Tilly Bass’s kitchen.
And so it began. The treat of accompanying him on business trips became the first step in a lifelong education.
Before long, Casey was spending all of her summers with him at his office.
At first, she blossomed under his tutoring.
Her grandfather had never given her anything but presents, and now he was sharing his time with her.
It took the better part of Casey’s teenage years before she realized Delaney’s reasons for spending time with her were selfish.
Someone must step into his shoes when he was gone. He’d decided it would be Casey.
And now, at twenty-six, Casey was about to become CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation with holdings in everything from cotton mills to racehorses. Thanks to the last ten years of Delaney’s coaching, she was more than up to the task.
A low murmur of indistinguishable voices hummed behind her like a worn-out motor, rising and falling with the advent of each new person to enter the room.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
It wasn’t the job that daunted her. It was those who were gathering.
They were the ones who would be waiting for her to fail.
Someone else touched her on the shoulder. She looked up. It was her sister, Erica.
“Nice dress, Casey darling.” Erica’s eyes glittered sharply as she fingered the fabric. “I suppose it has a silver lining, too. Just like your life.”
“Erica, really,” Eudora Deathridge said, and gave her eldest granddaughter a none-too-gentle nudge as they moved past Casey to take their seats.
Casey let the comment roll off her shoulders, and as the women passed by her Eudora squeezed Casey’s arm.
It was nothing new. Miles and Erica had begrudged Casey everything from the day she was born—from being a Ruban, to being the one Delaney had chosen to follow in his footsteps.
In all their lives, they had shared a mother, but little else.
Lash Marlow cleared his throat, well aware that the sound added to the building tension. “I believe we are all here now. Shall we begin?”
Casey’s pulse accelerated. She gripped the arms of the chair, focusing on the man behind the desk and was struck by an odd, almost satisfied smile on Lash’s face.
Reluctantly, she accepted the fact that he was privy to secrets about their lives she wished he did not know.
It made her feel vulnerable, and vulnerability was a weakness Rubans were not allowed to feel.
She watched as Marlow shifted in his seat and straightened the papers in front of him. It was the will. Delaney’s will.
Fresh tears spiked her lashes as she struggled with composure, trying to come to terms with the fact that Delaney was dead.
He’d been such a large and vital man that overlooking his age had been simple.
But nature had not been as kind. Despite his ebullient personality and lust for life, the past eighty-two years had taken their toll.
And no matter how hard he had tried to ignore the inevitable, he had failed.
Ultimately, Lash began to read and Casey’s mind wandered, only now and then tuning in on his voice as it droned into the ominous quiet of the room.
Once in a while a low murmur of voices became noticeable behind her, and she supposed Miles and Erica were voicing their opinions of the bequeathals being read.
“And to my beloved granddaughter, Casey Dee Ruban…”
Casey shook off the fugue in which she’d been hanging and focused.
“…the bulk of my estate and the home in which she’s been residing since her parents’ death, as well as the controlling reins of Ruban Enterprises. But to inherit…”
Startled, her gaze slid from the papers in Lash’s hands to his face. What did he mean… to inherit? Have mercy, what has Delaney done?
“To qualify for the entire aforementioned inheritance, my granddaughter, Casey Dee Ruban, must marry within forty-eight hours of the reading of my will, and must live with her husband, in his residence and under his protection, for the duration of at least one year, or she will forfeit her birthright. If she chooses not to adhere to my last request, then the bulk of my estate will be deeded to my step-grandchildren, Miles and Erica Dunn.”
Casey stood. Rage, coupled with a shock she couldn’t deny made her shake, but the tremor never reached her voice. She looked at Lash: at his cool, handsome face, his blond, wavy hair, his pale green eyes. Her eyes darkened as she leaned forward, bracing herself against his desk.
“Surely I cannot be held to this!”
To his credit. Lash’s gaze never wavered. “I’m sorry, Casey. I know this must come as a shock, but I can assure you it’s legal. Your grandfather was of sound mind and body when this was written. I tried to talk him out of such an unreasonable clause, but…”
When Lash shrugged, as if to say it was out of his hands, she looked away.
Someone choked in the back of the room. Casey didn’t have to look to know that it was probably Miles, reveling in his unexpected windfall.
A red haze swam before her eyes and she willed herself not to faint. Marry? She hadn’t seriously dated a man in over five years. The only man who persisted in being a part of her life was…
She looked up. The expression on Lash’s face was too calm, almost expectant. How long had he known about this? Even worse, what had he and Delaney planned?
She swayed, staggered by the idea of being bound to Lash Marlow by law, as well as in the eyes of God, even for so much as a year.
Lash stood. His voice was low, his touch solicitous as he tried to take her in his arms.
“Casey, I’m here. Let me help you—”
She stepped back. The selfish glitter in Lash’s eyes was too obvious to ignore.
Damn you, Delaney, damn you to hell.
She walked out of the room, leaving those behind to wonder what the outcome might be.
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