BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2 (20 page)

“Is
your father at home?” Arianna asked Ash when Ash opened the door.

Charles
looked toward the front door.
 
That voice
sounded so familiar!
 
But when he saw his
ex-wife walk in, he was stunned.
 
“Arianna?” he asked.

Jenay
knew the name, and vaguely the face from a few old photos of her she’d
seen.
 
And she was floored herself.
 
What in the world was going on?

But
she and Charles weren’t the only confused ones.
 
Quince was even more confused.
 
As
Charles rose to his feet, Quince did too.
 
He wondered what in the world was Arianna doing here. Her appearance
here was not a part of their plan.
 
They
had worked out every detail so methodically.
 
So carefully.
 
What was she doing?

Charles
stood up, but he stood up slowly, as if he was more puzzled than
surprised.
 
He looked at Quince, to see
if his face was revealing the real story behind this shocker, but Quince looked
even more puzzled than he did.
 
And
Quince stood up too.

“Oh
my,” Arianna said as she entered the house and saw Charles standing there.
 
Her right hand man, Ed Anderson, entered
behind her.
  
“I see he’s gotten to you
already,” she added.

Charles
stared at her.
 
“What are you doing
here?” he asked.

“Protecting
my children,” she responded.

Quince
frowned.
 
“Your
children
?” He had pure amazement in his voice.
 
What did her children have to do with
this?
 
He didn’t know what she was up to
at all, but he knew a double-cross when he smelled one.

Ash
and Carly looked at their father.
 
They
were dumbstruck too.
 
They knew he had
been plotting and scheming with this woman.
 
They didn’t know what it was about, but they knew Jenay’s appearance
here today, and his need to get back in good with her, had everything to do
with it.
 
But now their father looked as
thrown as they were.

“What
are you talking about, Arianna?” Charles asked.
 
“What does our children have to do with this?”

“He’s
trying to blackmail your wife,” Arianna said as she walked further into the
house.

Jenay
stood up and stood beside Charles.
 
Charles took her hand.
 
“Blackmail
me?” she asked, and then she and Charles looked at Quince.

But
Quince was so floored, he was staring at Arianna.
 
“What are you talking about?
 
What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He
came to me first,” Arianna said to Charles as she removed her gloves.
 
“It was quite an elaborate story, but I heard
him out.”

Charles
didn’t say anything.
 
He was too busy
watching his ex-wife, Quince, the girls, all of them.
 
He was sizing up the room.

Arianna
was sizing up Charles.
  
It had been
years since she’d been in the same room with him.
 
She
 
had forgotten how utterly gorgeous he was.
 
But that was beside the point.
 
Contrary to what she had led Quince to
believe, she didn’t give a flip nickel about Charles and the last person on
earth she wanted to get back with was him.
 
But that was her trump card.
 
That
was her business.
 
But she also saw that
look on Charles’s face.
 
She would have
precious few minutes to make herself plain, before he turned on her.

“As
you may or may not have heard,” she said to him, “my husband recently passed
away.
 
I was in town to handle some
property he owned here in Richmond.
 
Quince’s wife at the time, Vernita Franklin, was the local attorney
handling my case.”

Quince
frowned.
 
“Why are you lying like
that?
 
My ex-wife never handled any case of
yours!”

“She
wasn’t your ex-wife at the time and you know I’m telling the truth.
 
So shut up,” Arianna ordered.

“Ash,”
Jenay said, sensing that this was about to get ugly, “why don’t you and Carly
go to your room?”

But
they both immediately hurried over to their father and stood behind him.
 
They weren’t going anywhere.
 
They had always been completely devoted to
Quince so it wasn’t entirely a surprise that they still were.
 
But Jenay looked at Quince, hoping that he
would at least do the right thing and get them out of earshot of this
foolishness.
 
But he didn’t.
 
He allowed them to stay right where they
were.

“His
wife at the time was my lawyer,” Arianna said to Charles.
 
“You can look it up.”
 
Arianna was no idiot.
 
She had covered all of her tracks.
 
“But one day, while I was in the lobby
waiting to meet with her, Quince showed up.
 
We started talking small talk, nothing serious, until I mentioned how I
had sons in Jericho and how I wanted to leave my Richmond property to
them.
 
Well he started talking about how
his ex-wife lived in Jericho too and she was married to this rich man named
Sinatra, and we both were shocked, of course, after I revealed that I was a
Sinatra too.”

“You’re
not a Sinatra,” Charles made clear.

“I
was allowed to keep your name.
 
I am a
Sinatra.”
 
She exhaled.
 
“In any event, he told me about his plan to
use his daughters to get Jenay back. Or, more actually, to wrestle money from
Jenay for his daughters’ sake.
 
Major
money.”

Quince
was shaking his hand. “Why you double-crossing bitch!” he yelled.
 
“You’re lying and you know it!”

“I’m
telling the truth and you know it!” Arianna shot back.
 
“I went along with your scheme to protect my
children’s best interest.
 
And not having
somebody blackmail their father’s wife is in their best interest.
 
So I played you like a fiddle.
 
You thought I was on your side.
 
But I wasn’t.
 
I was on my children’s side.
 
And
as long as Charles is my children’s father, you were going to lose.
 
You fool.”

Quince
lunged at Arianna so fast and violently that he had his hands around her neck
and had dropped her to the floor before even Ed could fully react.
 
The girls ran to help their father, Ed ran to
pull Quince off of Arianna, and Jenay attempted to run to get the girls.
 
But Charles held her back.
 
They weren’t getting caught up in any of
these scams, no matter who was telling the truth or who was lying, he didn’t
care how Jenay felt about those girls.
 
Because as far as he was concerned, they were lying too.

Ed
pulled Quince free, tossing him off Arianna, and then he helped Arianna to her
feet.
 
The girls stayed by their father’s
side.

When
Arianna stood on her feet again, however, she managed to smile.
 
Especially now that Ed was blocking any more
tackles.
 
“Truth hurts, doesn’t it?” she
asked Quince.
 
But then she looked at
Charles. “As you can see, it was a good thing that I was looking out for you
and our children.
 
He’s a user and a
liar, and he’s got his daughters using and lying right along with him.
 
They deserve each other.”

“Quit
lying!” Carly shot back.
 
“You were the
one who came to our Dad.
 
You were the
one who lies and uses people!
 
You’re the
one who made up this scheme just so we can fool Jenay.
 
Now you’re trying to act like you had nothing
to do with it?”

“Fool
me?” Jenay asked Carly. “What were you fooling me about?”

Carly
and Ash both looked at Jenay.
 
They
wanted to lash out at her too, but they couldn’t.
 
They knew all the terrible things their
father had said about her.
 
They knew how
she should have made more of an effort to see them again.
 
But she was still Jenay.
 
She was still that woman who once loved them
so unconditionally.
 
They could never
hate her.

“Just
leave,” Carly said in tears, and hugged her father.

Ash
hugged him too, and Quince hugged his girls.
 
They were all each other had just as he had drilled into them.
 
Now Arianna’s double-cross just proved his
point.

“Let’s
go,” Charles said to Jenay.
 
“Let’s go
home.”

But
Arianna was looking at him.
 
She was
floored.
 
“You can’t just leave,
Charles,” she said as if he had just harmed her.
 
“What are you doing?
 
I stopped him from blackmailing your
wife.
 
I stopped him from using those
girls to get next to you and your wife.
 
You can’t just leave!
 
You’ve got
to let me in.
 
You’ve got to let me back
in.”

Charles
frowned. “Back in to what?
 
My life?”

“My
children’s life!
 
I don’t give a damn
about your life!
 
I want my children
back.
 
They won’t have anything to do
with me.
 
You’ve turned them against me.”

“I
didn’t turn them against you,” Charles said.
 
“Your neglect, your running off with some man in the first place, turned
them against you.
 
I had nothing to do
with that.
 
That was all on you.”

“But
you can turn them back to me!
 
You have
that power over them.
 
That’s why I went
along with Quince’s scheme.”

“Liar!”
Quince shot back.

But
Arianna wasn’t thinking about him.
 
She
had to convince Charles.
  
“I protected
you.
 
I went along with the scheme so you
can see how sincere I am.
 
I want my
children back, Charles!”

“Let’s
go, Jenay,” Charles said as he began to move his wife toward the exit.

“Charles!”
Arianna begged.
 
“You owe me now!”

Her
comment angered Charles.
 
“I owe you?” he
stopped walking as he asked her.
 
“You
create some elaborate scheme with Quince, and then you turn on him and pretend
you’re the good guy, and you expect me and Jenay to fall for that?
 
Both of you can kiss our asses.
 
We aren’t falling for any of it!”
  
Then Charles looked at Ashley and Carly.
 
“None of it!” he added.

But
Jenay looked at the girls.
 
And just as
they were about to clear the exit, she broke away from Charles and went to
them.
 
Quince pulled them closer.

“I
know you love your father above anybody else,” she said.
 
“And I’m sure he told you horrible lies about
me.
 
But one day, when you’re adults and
you can work things out for yourselves, come to Jericho, Maine and look me
up.
 
We can have that conversation
then.
 
But right now, as long as you’re
minors and under his control, it will probably not be possible.
 
But I’ll be there if you need me.
 
I don’t blame the two of you for any of this.
 
I don’t blame you at all.”
 
Then she looked at Quince.
 
Charles walked up to her, to protect her,
when she turned her attention to Quince.

“There’s
more to this story,” she said to him.
 
“I’m certain of it.
 
I don’t know
what the full story is, or what you and Charles’s ex-wife are really up to, but
it’s not anything like what you’ve been telling us so far.
 
But the truth will win out in the end.
 
And both of you will pay.
 
I have complete confidence in that.
 
I don’t know when, and I don’t know how.
 
But you’ll pay.
 
Both of you.”

Jenay
stared at Quince a moment longer, looked at the girls with regret and love in
her eyes, and then she and Charles headed for the exit.