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This morning, the table was strewn with bowls of fruit, plates of bacon, eggs and waffles. More food than either of them could eat. But as soon as Violet had handed him the file on his father, he’d lost all appetite.
“This can’t be real.” He set the file aside and rubbed the bridge of his nose where a headache was starting.
“Maybe,” Violet replied, her tone neutral. “Maybe not.”
“Have you read the whole thing?”
“Twice.”
“It’s ridiculous. My father grew up in California. I’ve heard him speak about his parents and his childhood in Los Angeles. He’s not some wannabe thug from Las Vegas.”
“That was my exact attitude when Scarlett brought it to my attention. I thought the whole thing was crazy and told her so.”
A chill formed in JT’s chest. “Who else knows about this?”
Her gaze sharpened as she caught onto his irritation. “Just Harper. She was there when Scarlett gave me the file. You don’t need to worry about her. She won’t say anything.”
“Do you have to share everything about me with your sisters?” His aggrieved tone made her flinch, but his resentment bit too deep for him to apologize. He’d barely gotten comfortable sharing bits of himself with Violet and it made him surly to think that her sisters knew a devastating secret about his father.
“They won’t say anything,” she said, using her fork to shred the uneaten waffle on her plate.
“I don’t know that.”
His logical side reminded him that behaving as if he didn’t trust her would create problems between them. But he couldn’t ignore his emotions as they sliced him with a double-edged sword of alarm and resentment.
“Well, I do.”
Hearing the conviction in Violet’s tone, JT let the matter drop, recognizing the true source of his disquiet was not Violet or her sisters. He didn’t want to believe his father had stolen someone’s identity.
Because if his father wasn’t just greedy or ambitious, but despicable beyond belief, couldn’t that badness have been passed down to his son?
Wasn’t JT the reason his mother had died? He’d been acting out, defying her, and she’d died of an overdose. His adult brain could reason that she’d chosen to take the pills, but he was haunted by the question of whether she’d been so upset with him that she’d taken too many. And there was no denying if he’d come home straight after school that day, she might still be alive.
He stared at the information contained in the file about George Barnes and Preston Rhodes and wondered what the reporter from L.A. knew. “When were you planning to call this Charity Rimes person?”
“I thought it was something we should do together. Perhaps even go to Los Angeles and meet with her in person.” She shrugged. “Or we could drop it entirely. Like you said, it’s ridiculous that your father stole someone’s identity in 1970.”
Violet was too forthright to be able to hide her confusion or disappointment at his rejection of the information she’d brought him. Nor could JT point to where this surge of loyalty was coming from. What did he think he owed his father? Preston had never done anything with JT’s best interests in mind.
“Let me think about it,” JT muttered and Violet nodded, the gesture stiff and jerky.
Because if they discovered his father actually was George Barnes, JT would then have to decide if he should send his father to prison or simply use the information to blackmail Preston into stepping down? Neither appealed to JT. He’d much rather defeat his father the old-fashioned way: by being a better businessman.
* * *
Violet finished applying her makeup and checked her appearance in the bathroom mirror. She’d done an acceptable job of hiding the dark circles under her eyes caused by her sleepless night, but nothing could be done about the churning in her stomach.
Right after breakfast, JT had headed to the barn where he’d remained for the rest of the day. As difficult as it had been to give him space when her instincts demanded she make him feel better, she’d stayed in the house and hoped he would forgive her for delivering such a difficult message.
Her wait had been in vain. At three she’d discovered that JT had already left for Titanium. He’d gone to work without letting her know he was leaving. That meant she’d have to be patient for a little while longer and hope uncertainty wouldn’t eat her alive.
Instead of heading to Fontaine Chic where she knew a hundred decisions awaited her, Violet detoured to Scarlett’s hotel and tracked her sister down in the casino. Scarlett would be eager to learn how Violet’s conversation with JT had gone and Violet needed a sympathetic ear.
