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Bizarre, more like it.
Had she made the wrong choice, allowing him into her life?
No clear-cut answer came to her soul-searching, and she finally resolved to live with the uncertainty. Of course it hadn’t been wrong to consent to the Vivicor acquisition when Nick—a brilliant businessman—endorsed it wholeheartedly.
He’d been right about the issue of trust. It would come if it was meant to come, but in its own time.
Work and the familiar routine of her nursing duties acted as a godsend to her stormy spirit. She enjoyed Colleen’s tour of the Family Center and working with Eric on intake exams. Afterward, she drove through Harbor Town, feeling reflective.
She drove past Sutter Park, seeing the town’s festive Christmas tree and the kids ice-skating in the outdoor rink. It wasn’t a familiar sight to her. Liam and Colleen had been full-time Harbor Towners for a period of time in their youth, attending high school there following Derry’s death. Marc and Deidre, however, had spent only their childhood summers in the picturesque lakeside community. Maybe being there in the wintertime was partially responsible for this discordant feeling she possessed, like she was returning home, but also a stranger in Harbor Town.
Her mother wanted this to be a homecoming. Deidre had lost count of the number of calls she’d left unanswered from Brigit Kavanaugh. Maybe their mother-daughter rift was responsible for her present feeling of nostalgia and lo
ss.
Wanting to snap herself out of her gloomy mood, Deidre parked at the Starling Hotel. Marc, Mari and Riley were leaving later that afternoon for Chicago. She’d already said her goodbyes yesterday, but seeing her brother and his family one more time would be a dose of good medicine.
She walked along the plush carpet, her attention fracturing when she heard a man speak from one of half a dozen private alcoves branching off the luxurious main lobby of the hotel. She came to an abrupt halt, recognizing the voice.
Nick sat in an armed, wingback chair that angled away from Deidre as she approached, his long, jean-covered legs sprawled before him. Deidre could only see him in partial profile. She walked toward him, excitement and anxiety at the unexpected encounter making her heart thud rapidly.
“The important thing is that she’s seeing the importance of being more cooperative. No, we won’t get any of those results for a week or more,” he said.
Deidre paused in her silent tread on the plush carpet, realizing his cell phone was pressed to his ear and that he was in the middle of a conversation. She hesitated, preparing to retrace her steps to give him privacy.
“You’re not going to get them to speed up the results any, John. Confidentiality is crucial in the health care field,” Nick said.
John. He must be speaking to John Kellerman, DuBois Enterprises’s chief legal officer, she thought as she eased backward. Kellerman had never tried to disguise his contempt for Deidre.
“I told you yesterday where I stand on the matter. I’ve witnessed nothing so far to even hint she had any part in coercing him to change his will.”
Deidre stopped dead in her tracks. Nick was talking about her.
“According to her, she had no idea Linc had plans to alter his will,” he said, then paused, listening. He straightened in the chair. “I’ll do what’s best for DuBois Enterprises. You know that... No, I’m the one who has to be satisfied, John. Not you. I’m the one whose interest and shares were decreased by the new will. As the injured party, I’m the only one who can legally contest the will, if it should ever come to that,” Nick said, his voice quiet but sleety with anger. He paused. “I recognize it might not have been the wisest choice Lincoln could have made for the company. Lincoln’s state of mind when he changed the will is a separate issue from whether or not Deidre Kavanaugh is truly his daughter and whether or not she had any part in manipulating him to change his will in her favor. I’m inclined to doubt the latter. We’ll just have to wait for the lab results. As for the rest, I’m not certain what to think yet.”
A man and a woman passed in the lobby behind her conversing loudly. Deidre hardly noticed as she listened to Nick talk about her as coolly as he might the daily stock market news.
“No. Deidre told me the name of the facility. GenLabs, in Carson City,” Nick said.
Deidre inhaled sharply. Nick sat forward abruptly, his gaze latching on her. She turned and rushed toward the lobby exit.
“Deidre...wait!”
She ignored his command and hurried toward the front doors, stumbling when she crashed into a man entering the lobby while talking on his cell phone. She mumbled an apology and soared out of the hotel toward the parking lot. Just before she slammed her car door shut, she heard Nick call out to her again. She ignored him, her brain awash with anxiety over what she’d just heard.
By adding me to his will, Lincoln cut Nick’s inheritance? she thought numbly. Nick had just mentioned the genetic testing to Nick Kellerman so coldly, as though something that had become crucially important to her very identity was a business factoid to be shared and bartered.
She’d made a mistake by being honest with him. Thank goodness she hadn’t yet broken her word to Marc and signed anything at Nick’s request. By the time she pulled into Cedar Cottage’s drive, her heart was beating a rapid, furious tempo against her breastbone. She sat gripping the wheel for half a minute after she shut off the car, trying to calm herself, willing the queasiness in her belly to diminish. Again, her appetite had been poor this morning, and now she was paying for it. She opened the car door, gulping in the cold, fresh air coming off the lake.
“Deidre.”
She swayed next to her car, glancing back. Nick was getting out of his sedan. She’d been so disoriented she hadn’t noticed him pull in behind her. He was coatless, and his expression was tense.
He slammed his car door shut and stalked toward her. Something volatile felt like it was going to explode from her chest. She raced through the yard and up the front steps of Cedar Cottage, nearly making it to her front door when Nick caught her elbow. She spun around and yanked at her arm, but he held firm. Words burst out of her throat like she’d been storing them under pressure.
“I can’t believe you told him about the testing! I told you that in confidence.”
“You never asked me to keep it a secret, Deidre,” Nick said, towering over her.
