Anything He Wants: The Betrayal(8)
“Wasn’t that how you, too, started out this life?” Lucas practically cooed as my hands curled into fists. “Didn’t Father find you in a Vegas dance hall? Come now, Mother, projecting your issues on her doesn’t forgive you your own sins.”
A spasm of pain cracked across the older woman’s face at the memory, which she tried and failed to conceal. “I don’t need to hear this,” she repeated bitterly, but much of the fire had gone out of the words.
She turned away, only to have Lucas block her path and snag her arm. Despite the cuffs around his wrists, he held her firm. “Do you know what you’ve done to me, Mother?” he murmured as she turned and glared. He leaned in close, their gazes locking, but neither seemed willing to budge first. “Do you know what your lie reduced me to?”
I stared at them, still shocked by my own revelation, then looked up at Jeremiah. He was as still as I’d ever seen, and it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. Part of me wanted to know more about Georgia—had she really been a Vegas showgirl?—but now was definitely not the time for questions. There’s so much about this family I don’t know.
“Don’t blame me for what you chose to become,” Georgia spat, glaring up at her eldest son.
“How was anything that happened to me by choice?” Even from several feet away I saw his body trembling as he released his mother’s arm, his hands curling into fists. “Everything I was, everything I had, was locked up in this company. Then that was taken away, I was accused of stealing thirty million dollars, and I took the only option available to me that didn’t include jail time.”
“Selling weapons to the highest bidder?” Jeremiah interjected in a wooden voice. “That was your only recourse?”
Lucas blinked at the interruption then stepped away from Georgia. He looked shaken, his eyes hollow as he looked back at his brother. “It didn’t start out that way. I needed to get out of the country and a man I once considered a friend needed a skilled negotiator to broker a deal on some cargo. I didn’t know until I was in the air what that ‘cargo’ consisted of or I swear, I’d have walked into the jail myself.”
Georgia snorted. “And you want to lay the blame at my feet?”
“Take some responsibility for what you’ve caused,” I said, unable to contain myself any more. Every face in the room held varying degrees of disgust and astonishment at the older woman’s behavior and words but nobody was willing to speak out.
She rolled her eyes and casually inspected her nails. “The reason doesn’t matter. He is what he made himself—I’m not the one who should live with the shame.”
I sputtered, unable to control my own anger. “He’s your son,” I exclaimed. “They’re both your sons! Don’t you care for them at all?”
“Of course I love them,” Georgia snapped, giving me a haughty glare. “Keep your opinion out of matters that don’t concern you.”
I wanted to throttle the sanctimonious bitch but at her words Lucas’s face shut down. “You’re right, Mother,” he said, chin coming back up. I recognized the moment his familiar mask snapped back into place. He gave the woman a tight-lipped smile even as she ignored him. “We each have to live with our own mistakes, don’t we?”
Jeremiah finally stepped forward. I laid my hand on his arm and felt him tremble, the emotional upheaval locked deep inside. His attention was focused on Lucas, who had visibly retreated from the conversation, locking himself behind a familiar wall of congeniality. “Brother…”
“Do you know our mother is shopping around a biography about the Hamilton family dynasty to various publishers?” Lucas said, interrupting his brother. The sudden color in her cheeks betrayed Georgia’s anger, but he continued. “An insider’s look at our family dynamics, from our dear departed father to the current leader of the family business. She, of course, is the beleaguered heroine in this tale of drama, wealth, and corporate espionage. Reportedly the bids for the book were up close to seven figures before every last editor pulled out.” At Georgia’s shocked look, Lucas waggled his fingers. “You’re not the only one with industry contacts willing to help you screw somebody over.”
“What are you talking about? This is absurd…”
“And,” Lucas continued, his haunted smile widening, “she’s also selling access to her billionaire son. If a businessperson can’t gain an audience with the CEO, why, he or she can be an impromptu ‘guest’ at the family home, conveniently timed to run in to the new head of the family. All for the right price, of course.”