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Candace took another step forward. “Second, we need to draft a letter to give to all of our current parents, letting them know about the issue and that you’re challenging these allegations.”
Asher had begun to pace, but he stopped. “Right. That will help ensure that your other current clients stay with you.”
The look he shot Willow’s way seemed to say that he and Harper would stick around as long as she wanted them there.
“You should also have your webmaster or webmistress add a note on your website,” he continued.
Alicia lifted her free hand. “That’s me.”
Willow shook her head. It all seemed like such a bad idea.
“Not everyone even checks Clamor reviews. We could just report it to the company and not say anything to the clients until after it’s repaired.”
“You sure you want to do that?” Asher asked. “One of your clients already brought it up to your staff. You think there aren’t others or that they won’t talk to each other? If I were you, I would try to get ahead of the story.”
He returned the tablet to her and held his hands wide as if his suggestion was so simple that one of her day-care kids could have made it. Nothing was simple about this situation.
“Doesn’t sound like the Colton approach to handling negative news to me.”
“Because it’s not. But, just like now, I wasn’t the person in charge of making those decisions.”
This time she was. He was reminding her of that. She wasn’t the infant inside her mother’s belly this time, who’d become homeless because of others’ decisions. Nor was she the pregnant wife who’d just found out her cheating husband was leaving her, too.
Tender Years was both her home and how she supported her family. She might not be able to control what someone tried to do to it, but she was responsible for how she responded to it. She planned to fight back. And with this much support, she wouldn’t have to do it alone.
Chapter 16
Asher hurried through the living room in the mansion, his boots making entirely too much racket on the shining wood floor for someone so late to dinner. Why couldn’t his family be like others that never found time to share a meal together? No, not the Coltons. Even with their busy schedules and the chaos swirling around them, they still managed to eat together several times a week.
Tonight, though, he would have given anything just to eat macaroni and cheese upstairs in his third-floor suite with Harper.
“It’s about time you got in here,” Rafe called out as Asher rounded the corner into the formal dining room.
Most of his siblings and a few of their future spouses were sitting in chairs spaced along the ornate table, his mother in her usual place at one end. Their dad’s empty se
at, at the head of the table, served as a constant reminder of his absence. No one dared take that spot.
Asher slid into the empty chair between his mother and five-year-old Evelyn, better known as “Evie,” the soon-to-be stepdaughter of his brother Callum. Asher forced a smile and tugged on one of the child’s long pigtails, earning a giggle. Still, all he could think about was backing out of the room and returning to his suite.
He wasn’t ready to face all of them and the mysteries swirling among them. Particularly now that he was aware of another set of happenings at Tender Years that could be connected to those involving his family.
“Where’s my granddaughter?” Genevieve asked before he could unfold his napkin.
He unhooked the baby monitor he’d clipped to his waistband and held it out to display that the power was on. “Already bathed and already down for the night. She had a long day, so she’ll be easy for you.”
Callum held up his arm to look at his watch. “Well, we’re just glad we didn’t try to hold dinner for you. Otherwise, we’d all have been eating cold fried chicken.”
Grayson pointed to the bones on Callum’s plate. “Don’t worry, brother. He had more than his share while it was still hot. And Jace didn’t starve, either.”
Jace glanced up from his plate, littered with bones, and set aside his half-eaten chicken leg. He lifted his hand to lick his fingers but wiped them on his napkin instead.
“Sorry. I couldn’t help it. Every time I eat one of Dulcie’s delicious dinners, I’m convinced she can’t top it. Then she does.”
Asher couldn’t help chuckling. With praise like that, Jace was probably winning over staff along with the rest of the family.
“You still could have saved some for the rest of us.”
“You snooze, you lose,” Callum answered for Jace.
