‘While we’re on the subject of noble sacrifices, let’s get to how much you’ll sacrifice for my silence,’ Dick Thornton said cheerfully. ‘Make it good and you can all play happy families again.’
Jordan wiped everything else from his mind and concentrated on drawing out what was needed. ‘How much do you think your silence is worth?’ he asked coldly.
‘Well, I’m sure parts of the media would gobble up a story like this. Hippie headquarters in a deserted mansion, free love amongst the squatters, brother pitted against brother by our gorgeous butterfly artist, the baby she dumped on one brother to be free to pursue her own career… ‘
‘I did not dump Ivy!’ Sacha cried, unable to contain her fury at the malignment. ‘She was happy with Robert.’ Her gaze turned pleadingly to her daughter. ‘I tried living on the farm. I helped Robert start it and worked along with him, but it wasn’t the kind of life I wanted and Robert knew it. The artist in me craved much more of the world but he had seen too much of it in Vietnam and the farm was the only world he wanted. He insisted that I go, said I’d given him his life and he wanted to give me mine. We still had weekends together, at the farm or in the city. I didn’t dump you, Ivy. I simply couldn’t take you away from Robert. You were so much his little girl.’
‘Except she wasn’t,’ Thornton mocked. ‘And that lie makes my story all the more credible and valuable, doesn’t it, Mr Powell? Lovely fruity fodder for gossip.’
Jordan held up a warning hand to Sacha, not wanting her to interrupt again. ‘Name your price, Mr Thornton.’
‘Oh, I won’t be too greedy,’ Dick Thornton drawled, believing he was in the box seat. ‘Given the fact that you’re a billionaire, I think five million dollars is a relatively modest amount.’
‘You want five million dollars from me or you’ll make your version of the past public. Is that what you’re threatening?’ Jordan bored in.
‘In a nutshell, yes,’ Thornton replied, grinning from ear to ear.
‘Thank you.’
‘No!’ Ivy leapt up from her chair, anguished eyes begging him to understand. ‘You mustn’t do it, Jordan. This will only be the start.’ She tugged at the ring he’d put on her finger as she headed for the desk. ‘Whatever he says won’t be worth anything if I don’t marry you. Take this ring back.’ She laid it on the desk. ‘You can say it was a mistake ever to get involved with me.’ Tears pooled in her eyes. ‘It was. I always knew it was … just a fantasy.’
‘That’s not true,’ Jordan answered her firmly, picking up the ring and rising to his feet. ‘It was right! It was always right, Ivy. And I’m not about to let you down.’
‘But …’ Her hands fluttered in despair as the tears trickled down her cheeks.
Jordan caught her hands and slid the ring back on her finger, his eyes burning through her tears with an intensity of purpose that could not be broken. ‘We’re going to be together for the rest of our lives.’
And if it hadn’t been clear to his mother before why he loved this woman and wanted her as his wife, it should be crystal-clear now, as she witnessed Ivy’s anguish over this situation and her willingness to free him from it.
‘Bravo!’ Thornton crowed, clapping his hands at what he believed was his triumph.
Jordan shot him a sharply derisive look. ‘Bravo, indeed, Mr Thornton. You could not have done a better job of incriminating yourself.’
‘So what?’ Thornton retorted, totally unruffled. ‘It’s in everyone’s interests here to keep this private.’
Jordan hugged Ivy’s shoulders, tucking her close to him, wanting her to feel both comforted and protected as he confronted the slime who so richly deserved some comeuppance.
‘My father occasionally held business meetings in this library. He installed a mechanism in his desk to record them. I switched it on when I sat down. Should you go to any section of the media to sell your story, the first action they will take will be to check with me. I will then take the tape to the police and proceed with criminal charges.’
‘The story will still get out,’ Thornton countered belligerently.
‘No one will buy it, and you, sir, will go to jail without any money.’
‘Oh, bravo!’ It was Sacha this time, clapping her hands with sweet relief at some justice finally being done to the man who had tried to swindle his brother and raped her because she’d frustrated his scheme.
Jordan directed a commanding look at his mother. ‘Time to call in a couple of your security men, Mum. Best that our uninvited visitor be discreetly escorted from the premises.’