Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles) (12 page)

“They were tired from the party, so Finn took them home. My little girl’s name is Hadley, well, Charlotte Hadley, since the name goes way back in the McCall family. Finn and my father insisted that we have another little Charlotte. She doesn’t look like me at all, her eyes are blue-grey and she has the most beautiful mouth, she looks like her father,” Charlotte said, and her eyes blazed with love as she spoke.

“What about your son, does he look like his father?” Bly asked.

“He has my eyes and my dark hair, I’m sure he will be a real heartbreaker when he grows up,” she said, and she turned off the music and said she should go home, they would be waiting for her.

They watched as two cars stopped in front of the house, one was marked ‘Department of Social Services’ and the other was from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration.

“I had better find out what’s happening… Charlotte, you know I’ll wait for you, I can promise that I won’t lose hope for us,” he said. He kissed the palm of her hand and let his lips linger there, then he stepped out of the car.

“Don’t waste your love on me, Bly. I’ll never leave Finn.”

He smiled and his sea-glass colored eyes held hers. He started to walk away, then he turned back to her and said, “Ah, Charlotte, everything changes, and never is a very long time.”

END

And no one would know…

Chapter One

“My dad is getting married, did I tell you?” Charlotte asked Amanda as they lay under a huge umbrella on the beach. “To Belinda Rhodes, have you heard of her?”

“You mean the diamond draped cowgirl who was on the cover of
Town and Country
magazine last month?” Amanda asked, signaling for another margarita.

“That’s right, the San Antonio rose whose late husband owned the New Orleans Saints once upon a time. Not to mention most of the oil in the state of Texas.”

“Are you happy, sad, or don’t give a shit?” Amanda asked, taking two margaritas from the bartender who worked at the McCall House.

“I’m pleased for my dad, and I’ve talked to her on the phone a few times. She’s a nice woman with a big ol’ Texxxxas drawwwwlll. They’ll be here any minute, she’s forty eight and she has two young kids.”

“The Rhodes Ranch widow, damn, she’s a catch. I believe she gives my brother a run for his money, as far as her finances go. I read that she inherited more billions than you can count using all your fingers and toes,” Amanda said, licking the salt from the rim of her glass before she took a sip.

“Her little boy is the same age as Atticus and the girl is fifteen. Guess what their names are?” Charlotte said, rolling her eyes which got Amanda’s attention immediately.

They were lying on the sand beyond the lawn of the McCall House and Amanda turned on her side and flashed a wicked smile, “Something super southern? Clementine and Bubba? Magnolia Blossom and John Wayne?”

“Pretty close,” Charlotte said, “Matilda Jane and Balthazar, but they call Balthazar…
wait for it
… Cuatro. As Belinda informed me, it’s pronounced
Kwaaah-tro
!”

“What the hell is a freaking Cuatro?”

“It means four in Spanish and he
is
Balthazar Rhodes the fourth, comprende’?” Charlotte said and raised her eyebrows waiting for Amanda’s witty reply.

Amanda waved her hand in the air for two more margaritas, “Well isn’t she the queen of shitty kid’s names. Matilda’s kind of cute, and I guess Cuatro beats Balthazar any day of the week. She’s not some bleached blonde bimbo Barbie doll from Podunk, Texas who married money is she?”

“Nope, her grandfather was LBJ’s godson. According to her, in Texas money marries money. By the way, you really are beginning to sound like Evangeline when you stick the knife in and turn it.”

“Wash your mouth out with soap please, I am nothing like Evangeline. Look at all these kids, someone should nominate me for Mother of the Year, and who the hell is LBJ?” Amanda said, slathering more sunscreen onto her pale freckled arms.

“Uh, Lyndon Baines Johnson, dummy, the former president of the USA, from Texas. You
are
beginning to remind me of the old lady in the shoe, are you keeping Beau for the entire summer?”

“No, West and my mother have been in Geneva for six weeks basking in the healing waters. Which means Mother is having her yearly tune up, you know, having her ass lifted and her face tightened up. I swear if that ass of hers gets any higher it will be between her shoulder blades. I’m meeting them in New York next week, West is missing his boy big time. God, he’s crazy about that child, and Beau looks like him, doesn’t he? I mean, you would think Beau and Skyler would look more alike. Believe me, I am eternally grateful that neither of those kids look like crazy-scary Lizzie. Oh good grief, Ava!” Amanda called out to the group of children who were busy building a giant sandcastle, “Don’t put sand in your sister’s hair. Skyler come here, let Mommy put some more sunscreen on you.”

Both little girls ran to Amanda and stood smiling while they were dusted off and re-coated with sunscreen. It amazed Charlotte that Amanda was so loving to Skyler; she had arrived on the doorstep the day of Jack’s first birthday party and Amanda had just taken her in. Not that she had any choice, she was JP’s daughter, born while her mother Lizzie was locked up in a Mexican jail. Amanda had been shocked at first, then she decided not to break up her family by holding it against JP. She was a bastard herself after all, since Evangeline had fucked around on Holden Bly the First and Amanda was the product of that affair.

Skyler was the exact image of JP, but she had inherited Lizzie’s light complexion. The child was beyond adorable, with wide green eyes, a tiny nose, and the sweetest smile. She was what Charlotte’s mother used to refer to as a ‘tow-head’, her hair was silky and white like a baby bunny’s fur. Her mother, Lizzie, had fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution as an accessory in the Natalie case. She ended up in a Mexican jail for prostitution and drug trafficking and as she had done with Beau, she told the authorities to take baby Skyler to JP Thomas in San Diego. Both West and JP kept tabs on Lizzie to make sure she wouldn’t return to claim the children. Lizzie had managed to get herself the best possible guarantee that she wouldn’t be extradited back to the United States. She was now the wife of the one of the most ruthless and powerful bosses of a Mexican drug cartel.

“So you’re okay with the guys going on this extended ski trip to New Zealand?” Amanda asked as she and Charlotte watched the little girls run back to the group of children.

“Sure, why not? Finn works hard, he deserves some time off,” Charlotte said, as she counted heads to make sure all the kids were accounted for.

Atticus was seven and Hadley had just turned five the day before. West’s son Beau would be six in September, which was three months away. Jack was five and a half, Skyler would turn five in a month and Ava was four and a half. It made Charlotte’s head spin to think of all the babies that had been born so close together. When she counted Bly’s twins, Holden and Mia who were the same age as Jack, and Jude’s son, Keller, it was a staggering wealth of children.

Atticus and Jack were out in the Gulf paddle-boarding with Finn and JP, and Hadley was yelling at her daddy that it was her turn. Beau was bossing Ava and Skyler around, telling them exactly how to place shells to decorate the sandcastle. Charlotte smiled at Beau’s cute French accent and once in a while he would mutter “merde!” which meant shit. Amanda would scold him then, telling him he shouldn’t use such words. Beau was growing up bilingual and he already knew a ton of naughty French words.

“Can you believe how cute he is?” Amanda laughed, “West keeps firing nannies because Beau loves to cuss. I’m thinking one of these days he’s going to realize the child is picking it up from Evangeline. I gather that she and West love to fight and then make-up, and my mother definitely has a colorful vocabulary when she’s pissed off.”

“So, are you unhappy that Finn and JP will be gone for the rest of the summer? I know you love JP like crazy when you two are together, but you never say you miss him when they go away to ski or surf on the weekends,” Charlotte said. She pushed her sunglasses up and stared out to the Gulf where Atticus and Hadley were both laughing and having the time of their lives with Finn. All three of them straddled the paddle-board, and Finn circled Hadley with his arm and rested a hand on Atti’s shoulder.

Atticus was growing up so fast and in the last couple of months he’d become adamant that he could do everything for himself. Finn wanted to protect him, but still let him think that he was in fact becoming a little man. Charlotte wanted him to be her baby for as long as possible, and she had cried herself to sleep when he started calling her Mom rather than Mommy. Finn held her and told her it was alright, Atti was just going through a period of separation, but he would he would most assuredly always be devoted to his mother.

“I got used to their ‘side job’ a long time ago sister,” Amanda said. “Do you mean that you haven’t? You were with Finn when he did the covert crap full time long before I ever knew JP.”

“He stopped all that when we got married, what are you saying?” Charlotte sat straight up and her brow furrowed as she waited for an answer.

“Oh fuck, did I just let something slip that I wasn’t supposed to?” Amanda said and her expression was one of wary surprise.

“Are you telling me they’re still involved in all that Special Ops bullshit? That they never stopped, and that’s what Finn is going to be doing when he supposed to be snow skiing in New Zealand?” Charlotte’s voice was reaching a fevered pitch and Amanda looked like she wished someone would bury her in the sand.

“What’s all this, my love?” Finn asked, standing above them dripping wet and gorgeous in his swim trunks.

“Don’t you dare call me ‘my love’! Oh Finnegan, you have really screwed up,” Charlotte said and she jumped up, asked Amanda’s nannie to watch the kids, and stalked to the house.

*

Charlotte was throwing Finn’s clothes into his suitcase when he found her in their room. He caught her arm and spun her around to face him and her face was a mixture of blind fury mixed with hurt.

“My love… Charlotte, let me explain, please,” he said, and it made her even more furious that he was as calm as could be.

“I don’t want to hear it, there is no explanation that I’m willing to accept. You’ve been playing your fucking war games all along, putting your life in danger with no thought for any of us. Even if I don’t matter to you, what about our kids? They worship you, Finn. Have you ever stopped to think about them, how it would change their lives if you were killed? Say something!” she screamed and Finn closed the bedroom door and sat on the bed.

“What I do is important, the orders I get come directly from the president. Do you want Atticus and Hadley to grow up in a world with mad men and terrorists?” he said, and pulled Charlotte down on the bed beside him but she turned her face away.

“You lied to me and I made a huge decision based on that lie. You didn’t give up what you love so that we could live happily ever after. You got to keep both, me
and
the psychotic adrenaline rush of ‘taking out the bad guys’. I am so in shock right now, leave me alone, I think I’m going to be sick,” she said and barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up.

“Charlotte, my love…” Finn waited at the door, he didn’t want to go in and provoke her further.

Charlotte wiped her mouth then leaned her cheek against the cool marble of the counter by the sink. “Go, Finn. Go on and ruin us, I’m not going to forgive you if you do this. It will change everything, it will change us. Wasn’t it Hitler who said, ‘Let me have the children until they’re five years old and they’ll be mine forever’? Atticus won’t ever be happy without you now, you’ve done this on purpose. You’ll go away and break his heart if you get hurt or killed and never come back. And if you do come back he’ll be so happy you think I’ll forget your betrayal.”

“Don’t say that my love, I need you to understand why I’m doing this. Unthinkable atrocities are happening every minute of every day, Charlotte, I’m doing this for our children. What I do is necessary, it keeps some of the chaos in check.”

“Fuck that shit, it’s just your testosterone-fueled need to justify your obsession. Get out of this bedroom, if you’re going, leave now and don’t bring the kids into this. I told you long ago, I won’t sleep in the same room with a ghost. That’s what you want to be evidently, a fucking ghost, an assassin. You really love it, putting your own life on the line and feeling some sick thrill when you barely escape death. I should’ve known you would get bored with the whole ‘happy little family’ thing. You’re not at all the man I thought you were. Fuck fuck fuck, I was so fucking stupid!” Charlotte was screaming then, she’d totally lost control, he had pushed her past some boundary and he knew it. She ran from the bedroom, out the front door and locked the car doors before he could stop her. As she drove away she rolled the window down just a crack and shouted back at him. “Don’t be here when I get back, I mean it, Finn.”

*

Charles sat on the edge of Charlotte’s bed and watched her stare off into space. He and Belinda had stayed at the McCall House in the week since Finn left and they were leaving for New Orleans the next day. Charles held Charlotte’s hand in his own and felt powerless to help her. She had been in her room for days, crying, sometimes screaming, and she was only calm when her children climbed in bed with her to snuggle. Hadley would ask Charlotte to read a story but Charlotte would be overcome with tears before she could finish. Atticus would take the book from her then and lay beside his mother and sister and read to them.