“Fourteen years isn’t forever.”
“Justin got sick after I left.”
“How sick?”
“Could have died sick, from the way it sounded.” She leaned back in her chair. “Can’t have any more children.”
“Oh.” Nina overemphasized the shape of her lips. She raised both eyebrows. “That explains some of the anger.” Her gaze slid toward the ceiling. “Wow. Just wow. So you leave, he nearly dies, finds out he can’t have children, thought he’d never have children, then discovers that he does have a child.” Nina tilted her head to the side. “That could make for a little rage.” Her gaze met Aubrey’s. “How exactly did he discover Max?”
“E-mail.” Aubrey clasped her hands together and set them on her desk. “From Max.”
“I wondered,” Nina said. “Everything seemed a bit too coincidental. So what did Maxie say when you told him his dad had arrived?”
Aubrey’s heart rate shot up, and she clasped her hands even tighter. Her eyes locked to Nina’s. “Haven’t told him yet.”
Nina’s jaw dropped open. “Really? Have you learned nothing from the last secret you tried to keep?”
Having a sister could be the best of times and the worst of times, and right this very moment, while it was good to have someone to speak with, it wasn’t so great to have Nina judging her and throwing the errors of her past into her lap.
“The man just got here.”
“Five nights ago,” Nina said. She stepped toward Aubrey’s desk. “You have to tell Max. You either call him or drive up to Camp Willow, but this can’t wait. He’s already angry that you wouldn’t tell him a stitch about his father, and now the man has arrived and you didn’t say anything?”
Aubrey closed her eyes. When Nina said it like that, it sounded even more horrendous than when she played it out in her mind. “I’m trying to do this gently, methodically, the right way.”
“Last time it took you fifteen years, and you still didn’t do it. Seriously, Aub, if you want to maintain any credibility with Max, you’ll tell him today. Maybe even in person.”
“Have you seen this list?” Aubrey turned her computer screen toward Nina. “We have a rehearsal dinner for seventy-five people tonight and then a wedding for two hundred tomorrow.”
“Call Cassidy. She’ll come in early. She can totally handle tonight, and you’ll be here for tomorrow.”
“You really think this is the time for me to run away to Camp Willow to get Max?”
“I think that, as you say, you have one chance to do this right, and if Max discovers that not only was his father here but you didn’t tell him, you will lose all your son’s trust.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not. Nor is it fair that Max had to wait this long to meet Justin or that Justin never knew about Max. You can’t control everything, Aubrey. This one has spun away from you. You’ve got to do this, and you’ve got to do this now.”
Aubrey pressed her lips together. The heat behind her eyes threatened tears. She locked her jaw and stared at her desk. “I’m just trying to do the right thing.” She looked up at Nina.
Nina’s hard mouth softened. “Oh, Aubrey, I know you mean well. You always mean well, and you’ve done everything for Max for his entire life, but right now? You have to tell him and let him make some decisions. You can’t pretend it’s okay that Justin is here and Max doesn’t know.”
Aubrey pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes. God, this was hard. So very difficult. If only she could go back … back to five days ago, to when Max was her son here at Rockwater Farms and they were happy, just the four of them—Dad and Nina and her and Max—in this little cocoon she’d created for her baby boy, a place where she’d wanted to keep him safe and away from the big bad world. My God, they’d never be cocooned again. Max would be a Travati, and not just any Travati, but the only living heir to four giant fortunes.
“I just … Oh my God, Nina, do you have any idea what’s waiting for Max once the world knows who his father is?”
“Not exactly, because I’ve never been a billionaire’s son. I’m guessing a lot of it’s good and a lot of it isn’t. All I know is thank God he’s got an aunt like me and a mother like you to keep him grounded when he wants to believe he’s something bigger than the rest of us.”
A tiny smile formed over Aubrey’s lips. True. But what if Max completely turned his back on her and Nina and Dad? What if he fell so deeply in love with the Travati lifestyle that she never saw him again? What if her life, for the rest of it, only contained the occasional card and the once and again Skype from her boy?