“I think that’d be good.”
“Okay. I need to go and talk to my family. Find out who knew what and when, and why I’m the last to fucking know.”
I could understand that, and I didn’t envy Ryan in that moment.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be. But I’ll call when I’m on my way. You and I are taking the rest of the day—hell, maybe the rest of the week off, paid. It’s the least Harry and that place can do for us. We have a lot to catch up on.”
35
Noah
“CALL A FAMILY meeting,” I barked at Ryan through the phone as I pulled out of Laurel’s drive and gunned my car up the road.
“Noah?”
“Yeah. Get everyone together—now.”
“It’s barely seven. Bree will be getting ready for school.”
“I don’t give a shit if she’s about to go to the fucking moon. Have someone drive her home from that prison she’s been sent to. It’s one town over. That’s fifteen minutes max.”
“Okay, okay. I can do that. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Yeah. I looked fucking closer.”
I ended the call before Ryan could respond then threw my phone down on the seat beside me.
I was livid. Absolutely fucking livid. How could Harry have done this? To me. To Laurel. To Jake? How could he have denied his own grandchild a place in his life? In my life? How could he have denied him a place in our family?
I’d known my father was a bastard, but this was a whole other level of fucked up.
I tightened my fingers around the steering wheel until I thought I would break it, thinking about the pain and heartache in Laurel’s eyes.
I’d tried to keep it together back there, but now the anger washed over me in waves. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the nightmare of a situation Harry had put Laurel in. Not to mention the devastating decision she’d had to make as a young woman barely out of high school dealing with a terminally ill parent. How dare he let her carry the shame of his disgusting scheme for all these years?
My fury ran hot as I sped through town, going straight to the place where this sick and twisted scheme had been hatched—the winery. I needed to know who knew about this. I needed to know who had kept this from me, because it sure as hell seemed a little too convenient to think that no one else in the Chamberlin family knew what dear old Dad was up to.
I ground my molars as I pulled onto the road that led to the property, and as the rows of vines came into view, I suddenly felt nauseated.
Somewhere between meeting Jake and finding out the truth, my grief on missing out on his life had been temporarily squashed, because the reasons I’d been denied were so unimaginably vile. The shock had turned to pain, the pain had turned to sorrow, and before I could even let that all sink in, an intense rage had taken over.
As I pulled up to the gates, I stared at the emblem above and thought how satisfying it would be to drive my car right through it.
Fucking Harry. He’d been messing with my life since the day I came into it, but this time he’d gone too fucking far.
I shoved open the gates and climbed back behind the wheel, and when I slammed my foot on the gas, a cloud of dust was left in my wake. I flew up the driveway and came to a screeching halt by the entrance. The squeal of my brakes made several employees race around the front to make sure everything was okay.
When they spotted me—and the scowl no doubt etched on my face—they quickly scampered away. I was sick of being polite, sick of watching my Ps and Qs, and I didn’t give a flying fuck who knew it.
I stormed inside and past the front desk, then headed straight for my office. I needed a moment to think. A moment to collect my thoughts and put them in some kind of order before I was face to face with the rest of my family.
I took a seat behind my desk and thumped my thumb on it at a frantic pace.
Had Mom known about this? I’d kept telling myself the entire time Laurel and I had talked that there was no way. No way she would push aside a grandson, even for Harry. But how could she not?
How could she have not put two and two together, especially when face to face with Jake every day? It was clear that Ryan had some inkling, but Mom? Maybe she was just in denial. Denial that she’d married and loved a total fucking monster.
A knock on my door jolted me out of my thoughts. I looked up and spotted Ryan standing just inside the door.
“Hey.”
Not in the mood for small talk, I said, “Is everyone here?”
Ryan gave a clipped nod, so I shoved to my feet and headed around the desk. He moved out of my way without a word, but I could tell by the look in his eye that he knew exactly what was going on.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Down in the production facility.”
I raised an eyebrow, and Ryan shrugged.
“I thought you might want some privacy.”
Yeah, no shit. Wouldn’t want the good folk of Chamberlin to hear that the golden family was harboring some major fucking secrets, would we?
We walked out across the back deck, the silence heavy between us. I had a feeling he wanted to ask more but could tell now wasn’t the time. That was smart, considering the thoughts running through my head.
We’d just reached the large metal doors of the shed when Justin came strolling down from the parking lot in his usual boots, ripped jeans, and black t-shirt, carrying a motorcycle helmet in one hand. When he spotted us, he came to a stop.
“I’m here, almighty one,” he said, looking at me. “I heard you summoned us.”
“Shut it, Justin,” Ryan said before I could get a word out.
Justin frowned. “What the hell crawled up your—”
“Just go inside. Mom and Bree are already in there.”
Justin’s eyes cut to mine, and it was clear he was trying to work out what the hell was going on. But good luck with that. If he hadn’t worked it out by now, there was no way he was going to in the next five minutes. “Fine. I’m going. Keep your fucking panties on.”
He walked ahead of us, and Ryan said, “If this is about what I think it is, it’s going to destroy Mom.”
I knew the fucking feeling. “If she didn’t already know.”
Ryan grabbed my arm. “You don’t actually believe that.”
I looked down at his hand and then back up to his eyes, and all of my anger from earlier returned full steam. “I don’t know what I believe anymore. But you sure as hell didn’t call and tell me what you suspected, did you? Or the fact that, what was it, seventeen years ago Laurel showed up here looking for Harry? Then she had a fucking baby. Let go of me.”
Ryan opened his mouth, to say what, I had no clue. But whatever it was, I wasn’t in the mood to listen. I yanked my arm free and headed for the doors.
“Noah? Ryan?” Mom stepped forward the second she saw us. “What’s going on? Did something happen?” She looked back to the rest of her children, who looked equally bewildered, then shook her head. “Why are we all here? And so early?”
Well, this was it. The moment of truth.
“You’re all here because I need to talk to you about something.”
Justin dumped his helmet on the table then leaned against it. “Oh yeah? What happened now? Did you find out that someone else died and left you a million-dollar inheritance?”