Page 92 of Reckless Desire

Looks like his new lover didn’t tell him she’s already spoken to me. “You’re fired. Lea will have your stuff delivered to you.”

One beat of silence. Two. Three. I should just hang up, but I don’t. Damn it, I should have a lawyer present.

“What the hell, Hunter?” Ash finally finds his voice.

“You stole money from me, you deliberately sabotaged Tribeca’s opening, you went behind my back to Delaney, and you sank so low that you fucked Gigi to get information on me and then used it, hurting my family—”

“You stole from me first, asshole,” he yells. “That inheritance should have been mine. I trained that old hag for years. That juicy past of yours is going to get me the show to even up the score.”

I hang up. I’m so done with this shit. Even as I was summarizing his betrayal, I felt little. It all seems fixable. There is something—someone—more important than any of this. Two people in fact. I need to talk to Caroline.

Leaving things as they are, I lock my office for the first time ever and give Lea strict instructions to change the codes and have Ash escorted off the premises if he attempts to come in. She stares at me wide-eyed but doesn’t question or protest.

I send the driver away and walk home, hoping to clear my head. I wonder what Sydney is doing. I want to call London to find out, but I stop myself.

“Mr. Stuart,” Karl greets me. “Welcome home. Mrs. Stuart and Caroline are upstairs already.”

“Thank you, Karl.” Shit, if I don’t get Sydney back, I’ll have to cancel Mom’s trip to Florida. Or hire a nanny. The thought pisses me off further. I don’t want to be thinking about not having Sydney in my life. I don’t want to be thinking about logistics around my family if she’s not a part of it. “Is Suzanne looking forward to the holidays?”

“Yeah, her whole family is crashing at our place. I took an extra shift.” He winks and I chuckle. “Is Mrs. Lowe coming later? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

Yeah, you and me, Karl, you and me. Even the doorman misses her.

At my silence, his face falls. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stuart. I didn’t mean to overstep. I should be—”

“It’s okay, Karl. I pry into your life with Suzanne all the time.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I hope Mrs. Lowe will be back soon.”

I nod, crushed by the weight of it all. I don’t know how to fix things if she is not willing to talk to me. Stubborn woman. Damn it.

I take the elevator and open the door, forcing myself to put on a neutral face for the other two girls in my life.

“Daddy.” Caroline runs to me. I pick her up and hold her tight. Having this little girl in my arms makes the world brighter, better, bearable.

My mom leans against the kitchen doorway at the end of the hallway, looking at me with concern. She must have seen the headlines.

“Let me go wash up, Caro, and I’ll come to your room in a minute, okay?”

I join my mom in the kitchen.

“Is it true?” Her question doesn’t carry judgment or disappointment. Yet guilt ripples through me.

I nod and she exhales. “I’m sorry I let you down, Mom.”

Her breathing hitches with a swallowed sob. “Hunter, sweetheart, you didn’t let me down. All the money for Julia’s care?”

I nod again.

“I chose to never ask where it came from, Hunter. And frankly, I’m relieved it wasn’t something worse. At one point, I was afraid you were a drug dealer.”

That confession scrambles my brain. “What?”

“I mean, you had a lot of cash. What was I supposed to think? Is that the reason Sydney hasn’t been around?”

Hearing her name again is another burning jab into my heart. “No, she’s known from the beginning.”

“You should talk to Caro.” She pats my shoulder. “Ruby’s mom already hinted at something.”

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