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“Thought so.” Beth picked at the skin around her thumb. “Anyway, Neil told me two years ago. He said I deserved to know, and he was right. I asked Mom if it was true and she told me everything — the affair with Neil, her pregnancy with me, the way she and Dad made up and agreed that no one would ever know, that I would be just as much a part of the family as you andAiden.”
There was a lot Kate wanted to know: how Beth had felt when she learned the truth, why Neil had chosen to tell her after all those years, why everyone had continued keeping the secret from Kate andAiden.
But Neil was dead, killed before he’d had a chance to tell Declan what he’d been up to at WMG. Kate didn’t know how much time they had to stop whatever wascoming.
“Then what?” Kateasked.
Beth shrugged. “For about a year, it was nice. We hung out, spent time together, got to know each otherbetter.”
“You andNeil?”
Beth nodded. “We connected in a way I hadn’t with Dad. Neil was interested in me, in what I thought about things and what I wanted to do. He didn’t care whether I wanted to work atWMG.”
“And then?” Kateasked.
Beth plucked at a loose thread on the bedspread. “He started talking about WMG, about how it was stagnant, how it needed vision, new blood. He asked me what I thought about the company, about things that needed to change, asked me why I had fewer shares than you andAiden.”
“You didn’t work there,” Kate said. “The additional shares were part of the package for going to work at WMG, for sitting on theboard.”
“That’s what I told him, but he didn’t think it was fair. He said the company was a family legacy, and I’d been cheated out of my shares because Dad wanted to punish me for not being his,” Beth said. “And he said he’d been cheated too. That Dad had stolen the idea for WMG and made it his, that he’d frozen Neil out, making sure he would always be second to Dad, just like I was always second to you andAiden.”
Kate exhaled her frustration. “Dad wasn’t that spiteful. He loved you. He tried to connect with you. He wasn’t the best at it, and he definitely had a one-track mind when it came to business, but that was just Dad. And Neil… wasn’t Dad.” Kate shrugged. “He just wasn’t. Maybe he brainstormed the idea for WMG in the beginning, but he never had Dad’s discipline, his vision. Besides, no one forced Neil to step back when Aiden stepped up. He made that decision on his own, and I’m sure it was a business decision, just like the ones Dad made. None of it waspersonal.”
Beth glared at her. “It felt pretty personal. Which is why I listened when Neil suggested atakeover.”
“I knew it.” Kate shook her head. “I can’t believe you’d do that toDad.”
Beth stood, pacing to the wall of glass that looked out on the side of the house. Dawn was still a couple of hours away. The only thing visible was Beth’s ownreflection.
“That’s easy for you to say,” Beth said. “You were the golden child. Dad’sfavorite.”
Kate opened her mouth to protest, then changed her mind. She didn’t believe in favorites, didn’t believe her parents had them, but she’d seen firsthand that there was a unique chemistry between parents and their children. She’d been closer to her father. Beth had been closer to their mother. Aiden had walked the tightrope betweenthem.
“Just tell me what he wanted you to do,” Katesaid.
“He wanted me to sell him my shares. He said I’d get a spot on the board, that I’d be rich. No more begging Mom formoney.”
“What else?” Kate asked. There had to be more. Beth could have sold her shares to Neil with a minimum of fuss and no legaljeopardy.
“My shares weren’t enough, even with Neil’s. Dad made sure of that. Neil wanted me to help him pitch new leadership to the other board members. He said it would mean more coming from a Walsh, that WMG was a family company and the board would want to know one of us would be involved if the majority stockholderchanged.”
“So? Takeovers aren’t uncommon.” Kate studied Beth’s face in the mirror. She needed to see Beth’s reaction to her next question. “Why kill Dad? Why have him murdered when Neil could have accumulated shares on the sly and initiated a hostile takeover like anybodyelse?”
Pain flashed across Beth’s face. “I didn’t know about that. Not until after we both left the country. Not until I started digging on myown.”
“How could you not know?” Kate asked, her voice bitter. “It was all part of the sameplan.”
Beth spun to face her. Tears were streaming down her face. “I didn’t know! Neil must have known I wouldn’t do it. That’s why he kept it from me, why he made it seem like no one would gethurt.”
“Oh Beth… someone was always going to get hurt. You don’t think it would have hurt Dad, that it wouldn’t have hurt all of us, to lose thecompany?”
Beth’s face was flushed with shame. “I knew. I just thought… I was so mad, so hurt. It felt like you and Dad and Aiden were part of the same club, like you’d never really loved me. I thought if I could play your game, if I could play it better, maybe you would respect me.” She gave a little shrug. “It’s not love, but it’s better than nothing.” Her chin quivered. “I wouldn’t have hurt Dad. I wouldn’t have let anyone else hurt him. Ilovedhim. It wouldn’t have hurt so much otherwise. You have to believeme.”
Kate’s hand shook as she touched her forehead, trying to ignore the storm of emotion roaring through her: anger at Beth for being so stupid, at herself and Aiden for not seeing Beth’s attitude as the symptom of something bigger than it was, her parents for not being honest with all of them from thebeginning.
And under it all, a deep sadness that her father had died formoney.
Fornothing.
