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He sipped his coffee. “As much as I’d love to go, I don’t think it’s a good idea. With all that’s happened lately, gathering the family in one place doesn’t seem like a very smart idea. Essentially, it would make us sitting ducks. We’d be an easy target for whoever has been terrorizing the Fortunes.”
Miles was talking about a series of events that had taken place over the last five months. It had started with a fire at the Robinson estate in Austin. The fire had injured Gerald’s son Ben, though he had recovered. Gerald’s company, Robinson Tech, had been targeted, causing the business to have to recall some of their software. The sabotage had even affected the extended family. Fortunato Real Estate, the business of Kenneth Fortunato, Miles’s other half brother, had experienced a downturn after being the target of rumormongering. Most recently, events had hit closer to home when Austin’s sister Savannah’s apartment had been vandalized.
All signs pointed to Gerald’s first wife, Charlotte Prendergast Robinson, as the perpetrator. After discovering some unsavory realities about Charlotte’s true nature, Gerald divorced her and had gotten back together with Deborah, his first and one true love. They met when Gerald was on the run from his past, but they’d split and lost touch before she’d discovered she was pregnant with his triplet sons.
No one had been able to catch Charlotte in the act. The family was concerned, as she had already proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with. Now that she had been excommunicated from the family, she’d made it clear she had no compunction about wreaking havoc on anyone related to the Fortunes, even if it meant hurting people in the process.
“Maybe not, Daddy,” said Belle, her pretty brow furrowed. “This is an important day for Gerald. He’s marrying the love of his life. He has more money than he knows what to do with. Since this day is so important to him and Deborah, don’t you think he will invest in the best security?”
“I’ll bet it will be on par with the Secret Service,” said Draper.
“I know,” said Belle. “Call me crazy, but I want to go.”
Miles looked furious as he sipped his red wine. “She burned down her own house, injuring her own son. A sociopath like that won’t rest until she seeks the ultimate revenge.”
Miles shook his head. Georgia, who was seated to his left, reached out and took her father’s hand. He squeezed hers in return, but the anger was still apparent in his eyes.
“I’m trying hard to embrace my new extended family.” Miles used his fingers to make air quotes around the word family. “I know you think it’s nice to think that we have found this wonderful, big family and that they are welcoming us with open arms. But don’t forget, I’ve lived all but the last six months of my life without them. You—” Miles spread his arms wide and gestured to his wife and grown children gathered around the table and then pounded his fist on his heart “—all of you, and Savannah and Nolan are my family. And you’re all the family I need. If anything happened to any of you because of them, I couldn’t forgive myself. I say we send Gerald and Deborah a nice gift and our best wishes for a happy life together, but we’re staying away.”
Miles was still trying to come to terms with the extended family. Not only was he a self-made man, he was also incredibly self-reliant. His birth father, the philandering millionaire Julius Fortune, had denied Miles at birth. Mile’s mother, Marjorie Melton, had raised him on her own. When Miles, who had shared his mother’s last name, turned twenty-one, Marjorie revealed his father’s identity. That’s when Miles took on the Fortune surname. He’d done it to prove a point. He didn’t want his father’s money. In fact, he set his sights on doing well in spite of his heartless father and the Fortunes.
Not only was he driven to achieve financial success, but he wanted a large family to hold close and shower with the love his own father had denied him. It was a subtle way of showing old man Fortune and the myriad others, I don’t need you. You didn’t love me, but I’m going to show you how love is done. In the end, you’ll be the lonely, broken one on the outside looking in. It was a silent and dignified middle finger.
