The Fixed Trilogy(Fixed on You, Found in You, Forever With You)(157)

How I could see it…well, maybe I was looking. Searching for the person that Hudson wanted to please so much, the reasons that he still kept her in his life instead of separating from her once and for all the way I had from Brian.

Hell, that wasn’t necessarily a better option. Cutting Brian from my life hurt. It was a reality I’d been ignoring for the past several days, and I shoved away the impulse to think about it now. I was at a family get-together. Of course I’d think of him. It didn’t mean I had to dwell.

Things continued with an air of banality through most of our main course. The dish Hudson had ordered for me was delicious and like nothing I’d ever tasted. Minced lobster and fish dumplings covered with a dill cream sauce. It made me want to lick my plate clean.

Hudson had ordered some sort of duck crepes. He fed me a corner of the pastry that wasn’t drenched in the mushroom sauce that accompanied it, the poultry melting in my mouth as my lips slid along his fork. “Divine.”

He watched me greedily. “I could say the same thing.”

Madge had gotten the brunt of our romantic display that evening since she sat across from us. Now she cleared her throat.

I smiled with what I hoped was an apologetic grin, though I was anything but sorry. I was well aware that Madge believed that Hudson was merely slumming with me, that he’d eventually dump me for her darling Celia. I wanted her to see me with him, knew it irked her, but I wasn’t performing for her benefit. I was simply enjoying the evening with my lover. It was genuine.

Madge returned my smile with a sour one of her own. Then she turned in her seat toward Mirabelle on the other side of her.

Pretending I wasn’t there was one way to handle me, I supposed.

“Mira,” she exclaimed, peering over Celia who sat between her and Mirabelle. “Only four more months until the newest Pierce is introduced to the world. You must be so excited!”

Mira’s hands flew instinctively to her belly. “I am!” She frowned. “But when you say four more months, I want to puke a little.”

Sophia cleared her throat with disapproval. God, correcting a full-grown woman’s language was beyond ridiculous. I wanted to puke a little myself.

Mira was used to Sophia though. “Sorry, not great dinner conversation. I wish it were sooner, that’s all. I’m anxious to have her in the world instead of sitting on my bladder.”

“It will be here soon enough. Trust me.” Unlike his wife, Adam sounded happy that he still had months to prepare.

Warren shook his head, triggered by Adam speaking. He elbowed his wife. “That’s not right, Madge. Mira’s not a Pierce anymore. It will be baby Sitkin.”

Mira’s eyes went straight to her mother. “Or Sitkin-Pierce, if we decide to hyphenate.” The look on Mira’s face said this was a conversation she’d had before. Mirabelle had kept the name Pierce for business endeavors, but the hyphenating was new. I’d bet my entire bank account that it was an attempt to please Sophia.

But nothing pleased Sophia. “It’s not the same. Sitkin-Pierce is not Pierce.” She sighed dramatically. “So the bloodline continues, but not the name.”

It was funny how concerned the woman was with a name that she’d only earned through a loveless marriage. It showed how materialistic she was, how tied she was to appearances. It was the Pierce name that held weight in the world. Any deviation lost the power that the Pierce Industry carried. In her eyes, anyway.

Adam sat forward as if about to go to battle. “Mira’s not the only Pierce offspring. Chandler could have children.”

And Hudson, I thought to myself.

“Then it will be the name but not the bloodline,” Jack said nonchalantly.

My hand flew to my mouth, stifling a gasp. There were rumors that Chandler wasn’t Jack’s child, but I didn’t know it was something the Pierce family discussed openly.

“What?” Chandler looked up from his lap where he’d been trying to hide that he was texting or whatever it was he was doing on his phone.

“Nothing,” Mira called down the table. “Go back to whatever you were doing.”

So maybe it was common knowledge to everyone but Chandler.

Sophia took another swallow of her drink—her third of the evening. “Hudson and Celia’s baby could have been both.”

I tensed. Hudson and Celia’s fictitious baby caused a fair amount of contention in the family. It had happened years ago, yet the weight of it had been so heavy that it refused to disappear. Why Celia didn’t own up and explain the baby wasn’t Hudson’s was beyond me. It pissed me off that she let him continue to save her from humiliation no matter what it cost him. I couldn’t help but throw her a glare.