Page 59 of Falling for his Step-Sister

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jonas turned awayfrom his computer to look out the window. It was storming again, the second time this week. For weeks he had been practically living at work, and he didn’t think that would change anytime soon.

It had been over a month since his uncle had finally broken down and confessed to stealing in order to cut a deal. It had been a great one for the old man. He was sitting in a cushy federal prison and would be there for five years. The company he had left behind was in shambles and would take a lot longer than that to get it back on its feet and gain the trust it had lost.

Jonas had made some great strides in that department, but only because he was working nonstop to make that happen. The more time he spent working, the less he thought about the redhead that was still on his mind.

His anger at Buzz had dissipated over the last month since he had last seen her. Looking back on it, he had realized that in the beginning, she was just doing her job … just not conventionally. If he hadn’t tried to scare her from the closet and had sex with her, she might have gotten an interview—an interview that he wished he had released before his Uncle Harvey had gone to the press, even if it hadn’t helped him in the long run. Maybe Harvey wouldn’t have fought it for weeks before giving up.

Now that he knew her real name, which was Beatrix Lovely, he had been able to find out so much more about her, including that her stepmom was indeed married to Harrison Dean. He would have known that if he hadn’t skipped the wedding. Also, that her older sister, the one he had met as she made breakfast, was married to Kaine Hawthorn, one of the very companies that his uncle had stolen money from. On top of that, her other sister was married to Clifton Scott V of the Scotts and had money invested everywhere. Happily, not with Raiden & Son’s Financial.

He had read every article she had ever published, and his sister had been right; nothing she had reported before was anything close to the scandal that his uncle had created. It seemed the woman had gone above and beyond to get his story. And failed.

After the night in his hotel room, she had never once asked him a question about his job. Not that she asked in the hotel room, but she had been distracted then, after all. It seemed she knew that after what had happened between them, she had to let go of that hot, juicy story, and she had.

Then she hadn’t just blurted out her relationship to Louisa in front of the girl when she knew Louisa wasn’t ready, letting everyone think she was after a story and not the genuine person she actually was. All to save Louisa’s feelings.

After all that, he had told her she was just like her mother, a manipulative person who didn’t have a heart. Buzz hadn’t walked away from the one sister she barely knew; she had taken her in the moment Louisa needed her.

But he had burned that bridge, and no matter how much he wanted to rebuild it, he hadn’t heard from her once. She was suddenly absent completely from his life. For weeks afterward, he had thought she would show up someplace: at work, on his jog, when he went shopping, somewhere. But nothing.

Now he was resigned to the fact that it was over, and he would never see her again.

“Hello, Son.” George Raiden walked into the office, followed by Jonas’s personal assistant on his heels.

From the panicked look on her face, it seemed the man just walked in, and she hadn’t been able to stop him.

“Dad,” he stated and smiled at Jill, letting her know it was okay.

“We have to talk, Jonas.” His dad sat down and then didn’t say anything, as if it had taken everything inside him to get him there and was done.

“Have you talked to Louisa lately?” Jonas asked.

Jonas hadn’t heard from Frankie or Louisa since they’d gone to Chicago. Not that he really expected to. His relationship with Louisa was fragile, and with Frankie, nonexistent. All he knew was what his dad told him since Louisa had called him a few times.

“A week ago. She’s looking for a job, but no luck so far,” George replied absentmindedly.

“I can give her a job here. Both her and Frankie if they want them. They can move back in with you,” Jonas said, something that he wished both his sisters would automatically know. There was always a place for them in the family company, and more importantly, in his life.

George’s eyes instantly went to his lap. “No, they can’t. I’ve decided to not stick around here anymore. The house is for sale.”

“What?” Jonas sat up in his chair, shocked.

“Yes, decided this last week. There are just too many memories in the house, and I need a change. I’m moving to Belize,” George replied, a little sheepishly in his admittance, still not meeting Jonas’s eyes.

Jonas raised an eyebrow. “What’s in Belize?”

“Sun, surf.… It’s a nice place to retire.” The older man shrugged.

“You’ve been retired for years. Why now?” The last time he had retired, he had moved here, as far from sun and surf as you could get.

“Judith—” his dad’s voice cracked over the name, and then he cleared his throat and tried again, “Judith wants to move away from here also. She says that there are too many memories, and a fresh start is the best for us.”

Jonas wondered if he was hearing things. It sounded like his father was taking back his lying, cheating wife—again. Not divorcing her like he had always said he wanted to do.

“You’ve been talking to Judith?” But he didn’t have to ask, because his dad had just told him. It was so hard to believe.

George smiled a ghost of a smile and finally answered. “She showed up a few days ago out of the blue. We talked for a long time and realized where everything went wrong. We need a new start, a new start in a new place. We need to leave everything behind and focus on us being happy again.”

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