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“I hope you don’t mind me calling you.”
He smiles wide and, even in love with Linc as I hopelessly am, I feel the effect of it.
“Of course not. Friends, right?”
I smile and then promptly burst into tears.
Hudson is around the desk in a minute and offering me a tissue as he crouches in front of me. “What’s wrong? Has that jackass hurt you?”
I dab my tears and shake my head. “No, Linc is perfect.”
That only makes me cry harder as I think of Linc and the way he’s been so kind, so loving and that I’m going to break his heart no matter what I do.
“I think perfect is a stretch, but okay.”
His words force a chuckle to my lips.
“That’s better, you’re too pretty to cry.”
Hudson moves to his office door and asks his secretary to bring in some coffee.
Once he’s seated in the chair beside me and the coffee is delivered, I have a better handle on my emotions. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Now tell me what’s going on.”
I don’t know where to start and the words stick in my throat, they’ve been buried so long that this feels like too big a step.
“You can trust me, Violet. I’m bound by client confidentiality, and I’m your friend. Whatever you say won’t go any further.”
“Okay.” I sip the coffee, letting the bitter taste envelop me. My tears were a release and I feel my backbone hardening again. “Ten years ago, Charles Coldwell tried to rape me.”
I look to Hudson, but he doesn’t react, just nods for me to go on.
“My mother got in between us and he raped her instead, while I ran and hid in the closet. We left the Kennedy estate that night and ran. My mother got a job as a waitress, and we rented a tiny apartment with the money she’d saved.”
“Go on.”
“Eric is the result of that attack. He has no idea of course, and I never want him to find out. It was my mother’s dying wish that I keep him safe, and I’ve failed.”
“How so?”
“A few nights ago, Charles Coldwell cornered me at a gala we were attending. He said he knows about Eric and he’s going to file for custody if I don’t help him force Lincoln from his position as CEO of Kennedy Enterprises and help him get his job back.”
“Piece of shit.”
“He is. I don’t know what to do. I can’t let him get Eric, I just can’t, and he has so much more funds and contacts at his disposal than I do. But I can’t help him destroy Linc either and losing Kennedy will do that. Plus, he threatened that he’d tell Heather and Linc about Eric. I need help, Hudson.”
“Well, that answers my question about whether Linc knows.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Well, we have a few options.”
“I’ll spend every penny I have if we can win this, but I’d still rather it didn’t go public. I don’t want my brother living with the fact he’s the product of rape. He’s been through too much already.”
“Don’t worry about the money. I’d do this for free anyway.”
“No, I can pay you.”
