CHAPTER 24
Skye Hawthorne. And Ricky. Skye Hawthorne was sleeping with Ricky.
He’s not my father. I clung to that as Oren and Eli ushered us away from Skye’s suite. Ricky Grambs is not my father. He also wasn’t a “lovely man.” Skye Hawthorne was caviar and champagne, and Ricky was throwing-up-cheap-beer-in-motel-bathrooms. He didn’t have two dimes to rub together. But he did have a claim—however tenuous—to me.
I felt like I was going to be sick. In fact, I could hear Skye saying with a billion-dollar twinkle in her eyes, I’m considering having another child. Was that her plan? Get pregnant with my half-sibling? Not mine. That thought wasn’t as comforting as it should have been, because any child of Ricky’s would be Libby’s half-sibling—and I would do anything for Libby.
“What were you thinking?” Oren snapped when we were sequestered safely in an elevator. “A woman who tried to have you killed is sleeping with a man who stands to inherit if you die—and you ditched your protection detail to put yourself in a room with her.”
I’d never thought of Ricky as one of my heirs, but I was too young for a will. His name was on my birth certificate.
“Why didn’t you know?” I shot back at Oren before I could rein in the storm of emotions churning in my gut. “They’re both on your list, aren’t they? How could you not know that they…” I trailed off, sucking in a breath that I couldn’t bring myself to let out.
“You did know,” Jameson concluded. Oren didn’t deny it. The second the elevator door opened, Jameson pulled me out. “Let’s get out of here, Heiress.”
Eli stepped to block him. Oren broke Jameson’s hold on my arm. I could feel the exact moment when the other people in the lobby noticed us. The moment they recognized me.
“She’s not going anywhere but school,” Oren told Jameson quietly. His expression looked perfectly pleasant. My head of security knew how not to make a scene.
Jameson crooked his head to look at me. He excelled at making scenes. There was an invitation in his green eyes—and a promise. If I went with him, he’d find a way to make us both forget what had just happened.
I wanted that. But girls like me didn’t always get what we wanted. I looked down. “Jameson.” My voice was quiet. People were staring. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone lift a phone and snap our picture.
“On second thought,” Jameson said grandly, “Oren’s right. Play it safe, Heiress.” The look he gave me then was one I felt through every square inch of my body. “For now.”
CHAPTER 25
Eli stuck to my side all day. Anytime I tried to get space, amber-ringed blue eyes stared me down. At one point, he informed me that Oren had tightened all security protocols—not just at Country Day but also on the estate. I wasn’t going anywhere without an escort.
When Oren came to collect us that afternoon, Alisa was in the back seat of the SUV. The first thing she did after I buckled myself in was hand me a tablet. I looked down at the screen and saw a photograph, one that had been taken at the hotel. Jameson’s eyes were dark and glittering, and I was staring at him the way a thousand other girls had probably stared at Jameson Hawthorne.
Like he mattered.
The headline read Tensions Grow Between Heiress and Hawthorne Family.
“This is not the message we want to be sending,” Alisa told me. “I’ve already arranged for damage control. There’s a memorial fundraiser at Country Day tomorrow evening. You and the Hawthorne brothers will be in attendance.”
Some teenagers got grounded. I got sentenced to black-tie galas. “Fine,” I said.
“I’ll also need your signature on this.” Alisa handed me a three-page form. I flashed back to the conversation I’d overheard between Libby and Nash, then read the bold print on the form: Petition for Emancipation of Minor.
“Emancipation?” I said.
“You’re seventeen. You have permanent housing and substantial income. Your legal guardian is willing to consent, and you have the most powerful law firm in the state behind you. We’re not anticipating any difficulties here.”
“Libby consented?” I asked. She hadn’t sounded happy about the papers to me.
“I can be very persuasive,” Alisa said. “And with Ricky in the picture, this is the right move. Once you’re emancipated, he has no standing to try anything in the courts.”
“And,” Oren added from the front seat, “you’ll be able to sign a will.”