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After handing the photograph back to Laurel, Jack pushed a hand through his hair in a gesture that eerily resembled Jackson’s habit.
“That’s something else I regret about my life,” he confessed. “I never really got to know my kids. Any of them,” he added, looking straight at Jackson. “I know I’m a stranger to you, but trust me, your siblings feel much the same way about me. I had another grandson once—Danny’s boy. He was kidnapped four years ago when he was just one. They never found him. I’m sorry to say I hardly knew him at all. Danny and his wife never got over the loss. She committed suicide and he’s living in Hawaii like a hermit.”
Laurel was shocked by that revelation, and she knew Jackson must feel the same way. “I’m so sorry for your son. What a horrible thing to happen to your family.”
Jack sighed heavily. “It isn’t the first time I’ve been through a similar experience. Wealthy people have to be extremely careful when it comes to their children, I’m afraid. I told you about Danny’s son to warn you to stay on guard with yours from now on, Jackson. Once word gets out that you’re my son, and that you’ve got some money, you’ll have to take reasonable precautions.”
Jackson frowned. “But I don’t have that kind of money. I’m a job foreman for a construction company. I do all right, but it’s hardly—”
“As of today, you’re a multimillionaire,” Jack interrupted. “I’ve had my attorneys draw up the papers. You’re getting the same amount your siblings got when they reached their majority.”
Jackson was on his feet now, shaking his head fiercely. “I did not come here for money. I don’t even want your money.”
Holding up one hand, Jack spoke patiently. “I never said you did. But it’s only fair. I’m as much your biological father as I am my other offsprings’. I never did anything else much for them, either, but I made sure they and their kids would be taken care of after I’m gone.”
Jackson didn’t back down. “Look, I mean it. I don’t want it. I wouldn’t know what to do with that much money, and I don’t deserve anything you’ve earned. Give it to your other kids, if you want, but I make my own way.”
Jack studied him in apparent bemusement while Laurel wondered if she, too, should rise. She was still trying to digest Jack’s announcement, still trying to decide how she felt about it. The one thing she knew for certain was that whether Jackson took the money or not, her feelings for her husband would not change.
“You know, you sound just like I remember Carl Reiss,” Jack mused. “He raised you to be much like himself, didn’t he?”
Jackson answered stiffly. “I’m proud to say that he did.”
Jack nodded. “You should be proud. God knows I’ve done a number on the kids I raised. But the deal’s already done. The money’s already in your name. You can give it away or put it on the ponies or whatever you want, but I’m not taking it back. Your mother told me you’ve always wanted to start your own construction business. You could do that, have something to pass down to your boy. Or you could come to work for me? No, I didn’t think you’d like that idea.”
His own construction business. Jackson’s dream. For the sake of that dream, Laurel hoped he wouldn’t be too hasty about getting rid of this wholly unexpected inheritance.
“Anyway.” Jack rose to face his long-lost son. “I’ve told your siblings about you, and not a one of them expected me to do anything else. Despite the mess Sheila and I made of their home life, they’ve all turned out okay. They want to meet you—at least Trent and your sisters do. Danny—well, he’s not socializing much these days. Trent’s taken over the reins of my company and the responsibility of looking out for his younger siblings. He was the first to insist that I make things right for the son I denied for so long.”
Jackson was obviously torn by a desire to escape and a reluctant curiosity about his siblings. Laurel suspected he had decided to think about his newfound wealth later, in private.
“You said Danny’s a widower,” she said to give Jackson time to collect himself. “Are the others married? Do they have children?”
“Trent’s divorced. Married himself a manipulative witch just like his mother,” Jack added in a mutter of disgust. “He’s still smarting over that mistake. Ivy, the youngest, is married to Maxwell von Husden, king of Lantanya. They have an infant son.”
“I remember reading about that marriage,” Laurel murmured. “It made all the headlines.”
Jack nodded, looking almost smug about having royalty in his family. “My other girl’s also married and expecting. Katie. The next youngest. She married Peter Logan.”
“Leslie Logan’s son,” Laurel said. She remembered hearing about that union, too. The Crosbys and the Logans had always been fierce business rivals and the gossip columnists had been intrigued by the Romeo-and-Juliet aspect of Katie and Peter’s courtship.
“That’s who she wanted. Never thought I’d see the day…” He shrugged, then continued. “Anyway, I’d like to give a little reception for you to meet your brothers and sisters, Jackson. Just family. Bring your wife and your boy, and Donna and Carl will be welcome to join us, as well, if they’ll come. You can all have a nice time getting to know each other and comparing notes about what a bastard I am.”
He sounded almost proud of his reputation, Laurel thought in exasperation. She didn’t expect ever to grow as fond of Jackson’s biological father as she was of Carl, and she knew Jackson would never have that sort of closeness with Jack Crosby, either. But they were family, and lately she had come to understand just how much that meant.
“I’ll think about it,” Jackson muttered.
Jack nodded. “You do that. Get back to me soon, though, will you? I’m not getting any younger. I’d like to do something right for my kids before I check out.”
A week later Jackson, Laurel and Tyler stood outside the door of Jack Crosby’s mansion once again. This time they were there to meet most of the rest of the family, three of his four half-siblings and two spouses Jack had told them about. Donna and Carl had declined the invitation to join them, hardly to Jackson’s surprise, but they had encouraged him to go.
“Who knows, Jay,” Carl had said, “maybe you’ll get to be friends with your brothers, if nothing else. A man can’t have too many friends.”
Knowing that everyone was waiting inside, and e
yeing the extra security guards posted around the property in response to the presence of royalty, Jackson still wasn’t sure he wanted to go through with this. What the hell was he supposed to say to a king, even if the guy was his brother-in-law?
He still hadn’t sorted out all his feelings about the developments of the past month. Too much had happened at once for him to adjust to the changes easily.
