Demanding His Brother's Heirs

“So our relationship, our marriage, it was all one big lie?”

Now she was getting the idea. “Have there been financial repercussions?”

She hesitated, but the brief flash of fear and desperation in her eyes was all the answer he needed. Cheating strangers was one thing, but to con his own wife, the mother of his children? “How much did he take you for?”

She lowered her eyes, and when she didn’t answer he asked, “Did he leave you in debt?”

With her lip wedged firmly between her teeth, she nodded.

“Considerable debt?”

Again, no answer.

“You can tell me the truth. It isn’t going to upset me or hurt my feelings. I accepted a long time ago the sort of man my brother had become. Nothing you can say will shock me.” Sadly, that was the honest truth.

She finally looked him in the eye, chin held high, and said, “I’m devastated financially. The only thing of value that I have left is my wedding ring. If it’s even a real diamond.”

At the mention of a ring Jason sat up straighter. Could it be possible? “Can I see it?”

“I have it right here actually.” She reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out the ring. Jason’s heart skipped a beat. And here he’d thought that was gone forever, too. Traded for cash or drugs or God knew what else. He’d be damned if Jeremy had had a conscience after all.

“It’s definitely real,” he told her.

“How can you tell?”

“Because this ring belonged to my mother.”

* * *

Holly was so screwed.

That ring had been her only hope to claw her way out of this financial abyss, but knowing that it had belonged to Jason’s deceased mother she couldn’t sell it now. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

“Jeremy was the oldest by seven minutes, so when our mother died it went to him,” Jason said. “It’s been in our family for generations.”

And that’s where it should stay.

With a heavy heart, she held out the ring to Jason. “You should have this back.”

“You’re Jeremy’s wife,” he said. “The mother of his children. It belongs to you now.”

If only that were true. She may have been his wife, but she obviously hadn’t had a clue who he was. “Please, just take it.”

Looking uncertain, Jason took the ring. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

The thick platinum band and enormous stones looked so small in his big hand. “Honestly, I figured Jeremy had probably sold it years ago. I never thought I would see it again.”

He slipped it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. With it went all of her hopes and dreams of a decent start for her and her boys. What would she do now? File bankruptcy? Go on public assistance? Live in a shelter? Or on the street in a cardboard box?

Jason must have sensed her distress. His brow furrowed with concern, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she said, pasting on a good face, the way she had for Jeremy, who’d never questioned the sincerity of her words. He’d believed anything she’d told him if it meant keeping the peace. Especially near the end.

Jason was clearly not at all like his brother.

“You don’t look fine,” he said, studying her, his eyes and his face, even his expression, so much like Jeremy’s, but different somehow. “If it’s money you’re worried about, don’t.”

Someone had to. And talk of her dismal finances was making her uncomfortable.

“My money issues are really not your problem,” she said, letting him off the hook, thinking that would end the conversation.

“I’m making them my problem,” he said firmly.

Whoa. His look said he wasn’t playing around, but neither was she. “That’s not necessary, but I appreciate the offer.”

It was as if he hadn’t even heard her. “I’ll take care of your debt and give you whatever you need to get back on your feet.”

Nope, not gonna happen. From the time she’d left her foster home until she’d married Jeremy, she’d survived completely on her own. It hadn’t always been easy, but she’d managed. It was clear now that trusting Jeremy with their finances had been a terrible mistake. One she wouldn’t be making again with anyone else. For all she knew Jason could be like his brother. He seemed genuine, but so had Jeremy. “I can’t let you do that.”

He watched her intently for several seconds, as if he were trying to decide if he could change her mind. Apparently he didn’t think so. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She would get by somehow. She always had. Of course, back then, she hadn’t had twin infants to consider.

“At least allow me to cover the funeral costs,” he said. “I owe Jeremy that much. And his children.”

If she let him it would shave off a fair chunk of her current financial responsibility. And maybe it would bring Jason closure. Everyone deserved that, right?

She shoved her pride aside long enough to say, “That would be okay.”

He looked both sad and relieved. He was extremely attractive, but of course she would think that since he looked just like her husband, whose chiseled features and long lean physique had caught her eye the instant he’d walked into the party where they’d met. She’d never slept with a man on the first date, but she had gone home with him that night.

The sex itself hadn’t been mind-blowing, but it had been nice. What she’d really liked, even more than the physical part, was just being near him. She’d liked the way his lips moved when he spoke, the inquisitive arch of his right brow. She’d loved the feel of her hand in his. He’d made her feel safe.

At first.

Unfortunately, as her pregnancy had progressed and her condition had become more fragile, he hadn’t been able to cope. Instead of taking care of her, assuring her that everything would be okay, she had been the one constantly soothing his anxieties and fears.

She’d convinced herself that once the boys were born, things would go back to normal. But even after the twins were home from the hospital and out of danger, Jeremy’s temperament had continued to deteriorate until she’d felt as if she had three children and no husband. Some days he hadn’t even gotten out of bed, and he’d begun to resent the twins for taking up all of her time. He’d even accused her of loving the children more than she loved him.

She’d kept waiting for things to change, for him to go back to being the sweet, sensitive and attentive man she’d married. How could she have known that that man had never existed?

“If you hadn’t talked to Jeremy in so long, how did you know he’d died?” she asked Jason.

“I got a call from my attorney. For the first time in five years his allowance went untouched for over a month. I knew something had to be wrong.”

Holly’s jaw fell and her heart broke all over again. “He had an allowance?”

“You didn’t know,” he said, and she shook her head, feeling sick all the way to her soul.

She was beginning to wonder if Jeremy had told her the truth about anything.

“I apologize if I’m getting too personal,” Jason said. “But where did you think the money was coming from? Did he have a job?”

“He told me that he had been in a terrible car accident when he was a teenager that permanently damaged his back. He claimed the money was from a lawsuit settlement. But there was no accident, was there? And no settlement.”

Jason actually cringed, as if it pained him to admit the truth. “Not that I know of.”

Had any of it been real? Had Jeremy honestly loved her and the boys? Had he even been capable of that kind of love?

“Will you be staying here, in the city?” Jason asked.

The idea of how and where she would find an affordable apartment without a job or money filled her heart with dread. “I—I don’t know. Yet.”

“I’d like the chance to get to know my nephews. They are the only family I have left.”

“Of course. I would love that. I’m just... Suffice it to say that things are a little up in the air right now. But as soon as we’re settled I’ll let you know.”

Though she tried to put on a good face, Jason’s look of skepticism said he wasn’t buying it. He studied her with the same stormy blue eyes as his brother. So alike, yet not. “You have nowhere to go, do you?”

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, saying with a confidence she was nowhere close to feeling, “I’ll find something.”

“You mentioned selling the ring. Do you have any other resources? Was there life insurance?”

If only. But that wasn’t his problem. “We’ll get by.”

“I’ll take that as a no.” He sighed and shook his head, mumbling under his breath. “He left you with nothing, didn’t he?”

No, he’d left her with something. A big old pile of debt and two very hungry mouths to feed. She lowered her gaze, clasping her hands in her lap so he wouldn’t see that they were trembling. “We’ll manage.”

“How?”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“How will you manage? What’s your plan?”

Good question. “Well... I haven’t figured everything out yet, but I will.”

When she’d met Jeremy she had just moved to New York and had been staying with the brother of a friend back home in Florida, where she’d been raised. At the time, meeting Jeremy had felt like destiny. But now, with her life in shambles, if it wasn’t for her precious boys, she might have wished she’d never met him.

* * *

Though her tone conveyed the utmost confidence, Holly’s eyes told an entirely different tale. Jason could see that deep down she was scared—terrified even—at the prospect of supporting herself and his nephews. But she was clearly in no position to support herself, much less twin infants. And he was in the perfect position to help her. If she would only let him.

His biggest hurdle would be her pride, which she seemed to possess in excess. But he had learned long ago that there was a very fine line between pride and irresponsibility.

He heard the wail of an infant and realized it was coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table. Then a pair of wails, like baby stereo.

Holly sighed, looking exhausted and overwhelmed, and Jason wondered how long it had been since she’d had a decent night’s sleep. He could only imagine how difficult life had been for her lately, being a recent widow with twins. And then along he’d come to tell her that everything she knew about her husband was a lie.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

“Would you like to meet your nephews?” she asked.

His heart jumped in his chest at the prospect of meeting twins who were now his only family. “Of course I would.”

She pushed herself up from the couch, wobbling slightly before she caught her balance. She flashed him a weak smile and said, “Still a little woozy, I guess.”

And who could blame her? He rose, prepared to catch her if she fell over or, God forbid, lost consciousness again, as he didn’t have the first clue what to do with a screaming infant. Let alone two screaming infants. He followed closely behind her, and as she opened the bedroom door, it was obvious that both his nephews had healthy lungs. He never would have imagined that anything so small could make such a racket.

She switched on the light and Jason held his breath as he peeked over her shoulder into the cribs at his nephews. There was no doubt they took after his side of the family. It was like looking at photos of himself and his brother at that age.

Holly lifted one wailing infant and then turned to Jason and held the little boy out to him. “Jason, meet Devon,” she said.

Jason just stood there, unsure of what to do.

“He won’t bite,” Holly said.

Jason took the infant under the arms and he quieted instantly. He looked so tiny and fragile wrapped in Jason’s big hands, his blue eyes wide. And he hardly weighed anything.

“This little complainer is Marshall,” she said, lifting him from the other crib. She propped him on her shoulder and patted his back, which did nothing to stop his wailing. He must have been the feistier of the two.

“Marshall was our grandfather’s name,” Jason told her.

Holly turned to him, saw the way he was holding her son and smiled. “You know, he won’t break.”

“I’ve never held a child this small,” Jason admitted, feeling completely out of his element. In business he’d dealt with some of the most powerful people in the country, yet he had no idea what to do with this tiny, harmless human being. “He looks so fragile. What if I drop him?”

“You won’t,” she said, and he hoped her confidence wasn’t misplaced.

Noting the way Holly held Marshall over her shoulder, he set Devon against his chest, placing one hand under his diapered behind and the other on his back to steady him. But he realized as Devon lifted his little head off Jason’s shoulder to stare at him, blue eyes wide and inquisitive, he wasn’t as fragile as he looked.

Jason watched Holly as she laid Marshall, who was still howling, on the changing table and deftly changed his diaper, cooing and talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice, her smile so full of love and affection Jason kind of wished she would smile at him that way.

She’s your sister-in-law, he reminded himself. But damn, she was pretty. In an unspoiled, wholesome way.

Women, as he saw it, were split between two categories. There were the ones who wanted the traditional life of marriage and babies, and those who balked at the mention of commitment. He preferred the latter. For some people, marriage and family just weren’t in the cards.

Holly turned to Jason, held out her son and said, “Switch.”

It was an awkward handover, and Marshall hollered the entire time Jason held him. It was hard not to take it personally.

“Would you like to help me feed them?”

“I don’t know how.”

“There’s nothing to it,” she assured him with a smile. After all she had been through, the fact that she still could smile was remarkable.

Feeling completely out of his element, Jason sat on the couch while his nephew sucked hungrily on a bottle and stared up at him.

Although not by choice, children had never been a part of his life plan, so he usually did what he could to avoid them. But if he was going to be a good uncle, he supposed he should at least try to learn to care for them. If, God forbid, something were to happen to Holly, they would be his sole responsibility. And then, if something were to happen to him, if his illness were to return, who would take them?

The idea was both humbling and terrifying.

This was the absolute last place he had expected to end up when he’d left home today.

Their bottoms dry and their bellies full, the boys fell sound sleep, and Jason helped her put them in their cribs.

“How often do you have to do that?” he asked Holly as she stood at the sink rinsing the empty bottles.

“Every three hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. They’ve never slept more than a four-hour stretch.”

That would be an average of eight times a day. Two babies, all by herself.

He had a sudden newfound respect for single mothers.

“How do you manage it alone?”

Her tone nonchalant, she said, “I’ve learned to multitask.”

He had the feeling it was a bit more complicated than that. How was she supposed to get a job with the boys to care for? Day care, he supposed. Call him old-fashioned, but he wanted to see his nephews raised by their mother, the way he and his brother had been raised by theirs. He had nothing but fond memories of his early childhood. Life had been close to perfect back then.

Until it hadn’t been anymore.

She finished the bottles and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Thanks for the help.”

“Anytime,” he said, and he meant it. “In fact, I’ll be back in the city next week and I was hoping I could spend some time with the boys.”

“You don’t live in New York?”

“After our father died I moved upstate.” The lake house had been in their family for generations and had been his favorite retreat as a child.

“Jeremy used to talk about us moving upstate, getting a house in a small town. A fixer-upper that we could make ours. With a big yard and a swing set for the boys. I can’t help thinking that was probably a lie, too.”

Sadly, it probably was. Jeremy had preferred the anonymity of living in a big city. Not to mention the ease with which he could support his drug habit. Something told Jason that wouldn’t have changed.

Jason always had been the one who’d strived for a slower-paced lifestyle. Ten years of working for his father had landed him on the business fast track, but his heart had never really been in it. Only after his father’s death had he started living the life he’d wanted.

“You and the boys should come and visit me,” he told her, surprised and hopeful when her eyes lit.

“I’d like that. But are you sure you have the space? I don’t want to put you out.”

At first he thought she was joking, and then he remembered that she knew virtually nothing about their family. Or their finances. Maybe for right now it would be better if he didn’t bring up the fact that her sons stood to inherit millions someday. It might be too much to take all in one night. And though Jeremy had been disinherited years ago, he would see that Holly and the boys were well cared for.

“I have space,” he assured her. Maybe once he got her there, once she saw how much room he had and how good life would be there for them, he could convince her to stay, giving him the chance to right the last wrong his brother would ever commit. He owed it to his nephews.

And to himself.

Three

Jason sat at the bar of The Trapper Tavern, the town watering hole, nursing an imported beer with his best friend and attorney Lewis Pennington.

“Are you sure you can trust her?” Lewis asked him after he explained the situation with his sister-in-law and nephews. “I don’t have to tell you the sort of people with whom your brother kept company. She could be conning you.”

Jason didn’t think so. “Lewis, she was so freaked out she actually fainted when she saw me, and she seemed to genuinely have no clue who Jeremy really was.”

“Or she’s as good an actor as your brother.”

“Or she’s an innocent victim.”

“With your flesh and blood involved, is that a chance you really want to take?”

Of course not. The day his brother died was the day the twins’ happiness and well-being had become Jason’s responsibility. “That’s why, when she’s here, I’m going to ask her to stay with me. Until she’s back on her feet financially.”

He’d left Holly his phone number and told her to call if she needed anything. She’d called the next morning sounding tired and exasperated, asking to take him up on his offer to visit, saying she needed a few days away from the city. In the background he could hear his nephews howling. He admired the fact that she wasn’t afraid to admit she needed help. And he was more than happy to supply it. That and so much more.

“My point is that you know nothing about this woman,” Lewis said. “Don’t let the fact that she’s the mother of your nephews cloud your judgment.”

“With a brother like Jeremy, I’ve learned to be a pretty good judge of character.”

“Maybe so, but I’d hide the good china, just in case.”

Jason shot him a look.

“At least let me run a background check, search for a criminal history.”

“If you insist, but I doubt you’ll find anything.”

“When is her train due in?”

Jason glanced at his watch. “An hour.”

He’d offered to drive to the city and pick up her and the boys at her apartment, but she’d insisted they take the train. And when he’d tried to talk her out of it, she’d only dug her heels in deeper. Though he barely knew her, he could see that persuading her to do something she didn’t want to do was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

“If she’s so destitute, why not just pay her debt and set her up in her own place in town? What woman wouldn’t go for that?”

The kind who was too proud for her own good. And as much as it annoyed him, he couldn’t help but respect that. “I offered to pay all the debt Jeremy left her with and help her get a fresh start.”

“And?”

He took a long swallow of his beer, then set the bottle down on the bar. “She wouldn’t take a penny.”

Lewis’s brows rose in surprise. “Seriously?”

“She wouldn’t budge.”

“She’s independent?”

That was putting it mildly. “You have no idea.”

“Attractive?”

Immensely. “That’s irrelevant.”

Lewis grinned. “Are you attracted to her?”

Hell yes, he was. Who wouldn’t be? “She’s my sister-in-law. My feelings are irrelevant.”

“Not if you plan to live under the same roof with her. Feelings have a way of happening whether we want them to or not.”

“My only concern is for my nephews.”

“What if you ask her to stay with you and she refuses?”

“Obviously I can’t force her.”

“That’s not necessarily true.”

Jason frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You have leverage.”

“Leverage?”

“Your nephews. You could threaten to sue her for custody.”

“On what grounds? She seems perfectly competent to me.” Not to mention the damage it would cause the twins, first losing their father, then being ripped away from their mother.

“If she’s as destitute as you claim, the last thing she’ll want is a legal battle. The threat of one could make her more likely to cooperate.”

Or put her right over the edge. He did worry that getting her cooperation would be difficult, but he couldn’t imagine ever taking it to that extreme. However, if there was any validity to Lewis’s suspicions, Jason could be downright ruthless if it meant keeping his nephews safe. But there was no need to jump the gun. Unlike his father, who had been quick to judge and considered anyone he didn’t know well a potential threat, Jason preferred to grant people the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. But he knew he could never convince Lewis that she was telling the truth, so he didn’t even try.

“How is Miranda?” he asked his friend.

Lewis sighed and rolled his eyes. “All whacked out on hormones again.”

Lewis and his wife had been trying unsuccessfully to conceive a baby over the course of their three-year marriage. They had tried every method, be it Western medicine or holistic, with no success. They were now on their third IVF attempt in nine months, and it had been emotionally taxing on them both. Though more so on Miranda, Jason imagined. Lewis had a teenage son from a former relationship, someone to carry on his legacy.

Jason found it ironic that Jeremy, who’d lacked the integrity to care for his own sons, had had no problem at all conceiving a child, while good people such as Lewis and Miranda, who had everything to offer a son or daughter, were helpless to make it happen.

“When is the next procedure?” Jason asked.

“Next Friday,” Lewis said, eyes on the thirty-year-old scotch that he swirled in his glass. “And regardless of the outcome, it will be our last.”

“What?” Jason set down his bottle a little harder than he’d meant to. “You’re just going to give up?”

“After three years the perpetual disappointment is taking a toll on us both. We’ve begun to look into foreign adoption instead.”

“Another time-consuming process,” Jason said and Lewis nodded.

“But when we’re approved, at least there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Have you considered a surrogate?”

“Only to have her change her mind after the baby is born? It would destroy Miranda.”

Yes, it probably would. “I’m sorry, Lewis. I wish there was something I could do.”

“We’ll get through this.”

Jason didn’t envy their situation. Though it had taken years of introspection and soul searching, he’d come to terms with the fact that he would never have a family of his own. Now it would seem he’d earned one by default.