Page 97 of Angel

My mum first met him after Evangeline’s birth, when Javier landed a contract on the Rosedale estate staff as a horse trainer.

Their secret affair resulted in my birth.

‘I was wrong to cheat on Reese; I know it now. Hell, I paid for it for most of my life. When Reese discovered the truth, his fury was explosive. He banished me to Tabitha’s farm in Leiper’s Fork to deliver you away from high society. By the time I returned to Nashville, Javier had vanished with no trace.’

‘Mama,’ I whispered, sympathizing with the pain in her eyes.

‘I raised you, looked into Javier’s eyes on your face, saw his exact smile on you,’ she murmured, a tear escaping down her cheek. ‘I kept going because of you, and that he was part of you. Which is why you moving out of this house killed me. I no longer had a piece of him with me each day.’

A profound sadness washed over me.

I abandoned my chair, kneeling beside her to wrap my arms around her.

‘Reese has punished me every single day since,’ she choked out against my neck. ‘I have no freedom. I can’t even leave this property without his goons trailing me. If I refuse his demands, he dangles Javier’ memory in my face, threatening a public scandal.’

‘He’ll never expose the truth,’ I countered, rubbing her back. ‘It’ll taint his own precious reputation too.’

‘Never underestimate what that monster is capable of,’ she warned.

I smoothed my jumpsuit, hardening my resolve. ‘On that note, where is he today?’

‘He’s in the city,’ she said, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. ‘A marathon onslaught of meetings to finalize the thoroughbred division sale.’

‘Is he now? Good. Please excuse me, Mother, but I need the ladies’ room,’ I declared, standing up.

Turning to the doorway, I spotted my mother’s shadow.

‘Bull?’

The burly security guard stepped into the glass room.

‘Please fetch us a fresh fruit platter from the kitchen,’ I stated.

The man’s mouth twitched with an ugly sneer, but still he gave a curt nod and exited toward the back of the house.

‘What are you up to, honey?’ Elsa asked in a sotto voce whisper, her keen mind catching my sudden energy shift.

‘Not sure yet,’ I said, winking at her.

‘Be careful,’ she murmured, eyes glinting with a conspiratorial gleam, straightening her spine. ‘I’ll keep him distracted if he returns too quickly.’

I shot her a grateful smile, and then darted down the east wing, slipping into the auxiliary security monitor room.

My fingers flew across the digital control panel, turning off the closed-circuit camera feed to my father’s private office.

Next, I glided down the hallway and entered Reese’s wood-paneled study.

I dropped to my knees behind his massive mahogany desk, hunting through the brass-locked drawers.

In the bottom cabinet, tucked beneath a set of property deeds, I found a legal letter from one of the country’s largest primary lenders.

I scanned the document, my eyes widening, my lips quirking.

‘Huh!’

I stuffed the folded paper down the front of my silk blouse, into my bra.

Hurrying back outside to the monitor station, I flipped the camera feed back to live status before anyone detected the glitch.