1
JADE
The man stands in front of me as I sit in the chair. We’re in a small room in an abandoned building on the Camsburg campus. The man is tall, maybe 6’2, with dark hair that has flecks of gray in it. He looks handsome and sophisticated, wearing a black tailored suit. He has an average build, maybe a little on the thin side. His eyes are greenish-brown, his skin has a slight tan, and his face is just like his father’s. I hadn’t realized how similar they look. I’ve only seen a couple photos, but seeing him up close, he looks just like his dad, even more so than his brother did.
I meet his gaze, trying to remain calm even though my heart is pounding in my chest. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“You know who I am?” he asks.
“Yes.”
But I don’t know what he’s doing here. Or what he plans to do to me. And I still don’t know who Walt is, the other man in the room.
I keep my focus on the man in front of me. “You’re William Sinclair.”
He stands up straighter. “I suppose it makes sense you would know that, given your interest in my family. Perhaps you thought you’d come after me as well someday.”
“Come after you? What are you—”
“It’s not going to happen, Ms. Taylor.” He emphasizes the last name, my maiden name. “This little scam you’ve got going ends now. Whatever you used to blackmail my father, and are currently using to control my mother, it ends now. I will NOT let you continue this!”
I jump up from the chair. “No, that’s not—”
“SIT down!” He says it so loud and so forcefully that I freeze in place, afraid to move.
He waits for me to sit. I take a breath and slowly lower myself back into the chair. I’m about to tell him who I am but then he starts talking again.
“I must say, you definitely played the part well. The poor girl from Iowa, just trying to get a better life for herself. And you could’ve done it, Jade. I know all about your past. You were valedictorian of your high school. You had all A’s at Moorhurst. You’re obviously a smart girl. You could’ve succeeded in life and done quite well for yourself. But you didn’t want to wait for that success, did you? You didn’t want to put the effort in. You went to Moorhurst and saw all that wealth around you, and you wanted a piece of it. So you latched onto Garret.” He shakes his head. “I would’ve thought Pearce Kensington would know better. But you somehow managed to fool both him and his son.”
“I didn’t fool anyone. You don’t understand. If you’d just let me explain.”
“You’re right. You didn’t fool them. You blackmailed them, just like you blackmailed my father.”
This is not how I saw this playing out. I imagined meeting William some day, but not like this. Not with him yelling at me, accusing me of things I didn’t do.
“I didn’t blackmail anyone. I don’t know why you think that, but I’m telling you, I didn’t—”
“I found the documents, Jade. After my father died, I took over his finances and discovered that last spring, a very large sum of money was put into an account in your name. Fifty million dollars, to be exact. Then I did some more investigating and found you’d had five million of it transferred to a man in Iowa. The man who took you in after your mother died. I’m having him followed right now. And as soon as we have proof that he’s in on this scam with you, he’ll be arrested or dealt with some other way.”
Now I’m pissed. William can say and think whatever he wants about me, but he can’t involve Frank.
I bolt up from my chair. “You are NOT arresting Frank! He didn’t do anything! You’ve got this all wrong!” I look back at Walt who is still blocking the door. “Can you leave, please? I need to talk to William alone.”
Walt doesn’t move, so I turn back to William. “I need to talk to you alone. I need to tell you something. Something hardly anyone knows.”
“If you have something to say, just say it. But I’m telling you now I’m not going to believe your lies, Jade.”
“It’s not a lie. It’s a secret. And it’s the truth. I swear. But Walt shouldn’t know this. It’s better if he didn’t.”
“Walt’s part of my private security team. He’s worked for me for the past 12 years. There are no secrets between us.”
I glance at Walt again. I don’t know what his story is. Maybe he’s part of the organization or maybe he’s just a security guy. Either way, he can’t know my secret. He can’t know I’m a Sinclair. At this point, I’m not even sure I want to tell William, but if I don’t, he’ll do something to me and I don’t want to find out what that something is.