Susan Mallery - Lone Star Millionaire

Cal set his cup on the coffee table. “Does the name Janice Thomas mean anything to you, Mother?”

“No.” She took a sip. “Should it?”

“Yes, actually it should. Unless Tracey has a couple of kids that I don’t know about, Janice was the mother of your only grandchild.”

Mrs. Langtry drew in a deep breath. Her dark eyes, so like her son’s, didn’t waver. She took another sip, then nodded. “So you found out about the child. I suppose it was foolish to hope that unfortunate incident wouldn’t come to light. Oh, well, you know about it now. No harm done.”

Sabrina felt Cal start to burn. The heat of his anger singed her skin. She placed a hand on his forearm and gave a quick squeeze. His glance of thanks told her that he had been about to lose control.

“I don’t know which comment to address first,” he said, his voice low and controlled. “Your calling it an ‘incident’ or the statement of ‘no harm done.’ You played with lives, Mother. You kept information about a woman’s pregnancy from me. You kept my child from me.”

She dismissed him with a wave. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You were what, twenty-two? Did you actually want to marry the little gold-digger? I don’t think so. Your father and I knew exactly what had to be done. Janice Thomas didn’t want to marry you, she wanted money. Under the circumstances, it was simpler to pay her off. I don’t regret it for a moment, and you shouldn’t, either. We were prepared to set her up for life. It’s hardly our fault that she died.”

Sabrina knew that Cal’s mother was cold, but she hadn’t expected to feel the frost seeping into her body. She was stunned by the woman’s callous words and had to consciously keep her mouth from hanging open.

“We are talking about my daughter and your grandchild. You had no right—”

The older woman set her coffee cup on the table and glared at him. “We had every right,” she said, cutting him off in mid-sentence. “Your future was set, or it would have been if you’d ever bothered to settle down. You were going to run Langtry Oil and Gas. You barely knew the girl, so don’t try to tell me you lost the love of your life. The truth is, you haven’t thought of her once in the past thirteen years. All this righteous indignation over what? She was money-hungry trash. She got what she deserved.”

Cal set his teeth. “I’ll admit I didn’t fall in love with Janice. I take issue with your comment that she got what she deserved, but that is not the point. I had a child and you kept that information from me. You let your own grandchild be adopted. I’ll bet you didn’t bother to keep track of her.”

“No. Why should we? All this fuss. What’s the point? The past is over. You wouldn’t be interested in a child with a mother like Janice. I don’t know how you found out about her, and I don’t really care. If you want a child so much, marry someone suitable and have one. Stop chasing around with those young girls. You and your sister. Whatever did your father and I do to deserve such children?”

Cal rose to his feet. “Nothing, Mother. You two did nothing.”

“Where are you going?”

“Why does it matter?”

“You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you. Something with the child. This is why we didn’t tell you about Janice all those years ago. You would have married the mother, or at least taken responsibility for the child. We saved you that, but you’re not grateful. You don’t understand. You’ve never understood.”

“You’re right, Mother. I don’t understand. And yes, I’m going to go get my daughter, and I’m going to do my damnedest to be a good parent to her. But that’s something you wouldn’t understand.”

Sabrina didn’t remember standing, but suddenly she was at Cal’s side and they were leaving the room, closing the door behind them. Mrs. Langtry continued talking, her words fading as they moved away. Sabrina was grateful. She didn’t want to hear anything else. She was too shocked. Knowing that Cal’s mother was a cold woman was very different from experiencing it firsthand.

They crossed the living room and waited in front of the elevator. Cal pushed the Down button.

“Cal?”

Both he and Sabrina turned toward the soft voice. Tracey Langtry stood in the shadows. She was a beautiful female version of her brother, or she had been at one time. The morning light was not kind, highlighting the lines on her face. Her lifestyle had not allowed her to age well, and she looked far older than her thirty-eight years.

Worn jeans hung on too-narrow hips.

“Cal, I need some money. I’ve used up my allowance.”

Cal didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared impatiently at the closed elevator doors as if willing them to open. “Who is he this time?”

“Oh, he’s lovely. A race car driver. Very good, very young.” She giggled. “Very nice in bed. I—” She hiccupped, then covered her mouth. “I like him a lot.”

Sabrina realized the other woman was drunk, and it was barely ten in the morning. She considered herself fairly sophisticated, but this was too much. She took a step away from Tracey and toward Cal.

“There’s a race and he needs the entry fee. Plus, traveling around gets so expensive. Please, Cal, just ten or twenty thousand. You won’t even miss it.”

He didn’t answer. The elevator doors opened and he guided Sabrina inside, followed her and pushed the Down button. As the door closed, he didn’t bother saying goodbye.

They reached street level and walked toward the limousine. Sabrina didn’t think the silence between them was especially awkward, but she felt obligated to think of something to say. Something to tell Cal that she didn’t judge him by his family. But she couldn’t find any words. Not without making a difficult situation worse.

After they were settled in the car and he’d given the driver instructions to return them to their hotel, he finally looked at her. Something dark and painful lurked in his eyes.

“When I was a kid, I used to pretend that I’d been left on the doorstep by Gypsies and that one day they would come back to get me. At this point I would be grateful just to have been adopted. I’m not happy to have that gene pool floating around in my body. I could turn into one of them at any moment.”

“If it was going to happen, it would have happened already. You’re safe.”

“You think so?” He turned toward the window. “I’m not so sure.”

“Cal, you’re a good man. If you were like them, you wouldn’t care about your daughter. You would have let her go into foster homes or arranged boarding school. You’re making an effort. That counts.”

She wanted to tell him that she admired him. When she thought about all he’d been through as a child, of the horrible life he’d had, she was amazed that he’d turned out as well as he had. It was a testament to his character. Sometimes she forgot there was a real person behind the handsome playboy facade, then something like this came along and reminded her.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he continued. “But I’m not sorry you were there. Lord only knows what I would have done to that woman if I’d been alone.”

She wasn’t sure if he was talking about his mother or Tracey, and realized he probably meant both of them. She didn’t doubt that in a couple of days he would tell her to send his sister a check. Maybe not for the amount she’d requested, but for enough to tide her over until her next trust fund payment.

“Every family has dirty laundry. You’d be shocked if you knew some of my secrets.”

He looked at her and smiled. “Yeah, right. You have secrets? What? That you went to bed without flossing twice all of last year?”