“She doesn’t know anything about clocks. She doesn’t deserve it.”
Nancy inhaled a sharp breath. Her hair trembled as she glared at Ralph. “I deserve much more than just a gaudy clock. After everything I’ve done, after all the years and all the sacrifices...” Her lips shook. “After all that, to be left just a silly, useless clock that has to be wound up all the time... It’s an insult.”
Lex shifted his feet. “Nancy, I didn’t realize—”
“What more did you expect?” Ralph burst out. “You’re just a frigging assistant, for God’s sakes!”
Someone in the room gasped.
“You think I was just Philip’s assistant?” Nancy wheeled about, sweeping her gaze across the others. “You all think I was just his assistant, but I was more, much more. For over twenty years I took care of him behind the scenes. I was the only one he could truly talk to, the only one who really understood him. Philip and I were lovers, for many, many years, right up until the end.”
Everyone in the library froze. Lex heard the air going in and out of his nostrils as he stared at Nancy. He knew he should say something, but the awful thing was he didn’t know what to believe.
Ralph cackled. “You? He would never have looked at you twice, and you know it. You’re lying.”
Nancy flung down the documents. They splashed across the carpet. She shook her head so violently, several bobby pins came flying out. Her hair sprung out in bunches around her blotched face. “I’m not lying! Philip and I were lovers. Yes, he had affairs with worthless tarts, but in the end he always came back to me. To me.” She stabbed her forefinger at her breast.
“Yet he kept you a secret.” Ralph’s upper lip curled into a sneer. “And after so many years of devotion, all he left you was a clock.”
Lex turned on his uncle. “That’s enough—”
“He promised he’d take care of me, promised I wouldn’t have to work after he was gone.” Nancy’s arms fell to her sides, and her shoulders slumped. She stared into space. “And yet all he left me was a clock. What am I supposed to do with a clock?”
Despite himself, Lex felt a stab of sympathy for her. If what she said was true, and he had a feeling it was, then his father had well and truly betrayed her, just as he’d betrayed so many others before. Even in death Philip had managed to humiliate a faithful employee and friend.
He stepped toward Nancy. “Miss Bird, I can see you’re very upset over this, but I think it’s best if you and I discuss this later in private.”
She turned on him, and he had to brace himself not to step backward, so unexpectedly malevolent was her expression. “There is no later,” she hissed. “I resign, as of right now. I won’t be this family’s doormat anymore.”
The sight of her contorted face triggered a shrill warning bell in him. As she swung away, he clamped a hand on her shoulder. “Before you leave, I have a question for you. Are you the person responsible for the leaks we’ve had these past few months?”
Her eyes darted around like a hunted animal’s. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?”
Her expression hardened. “No,” she snapped. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
His heart sank as Nancy met his gaze defiantly. He’d trusted this woman all his life, but now he was convinced she’d betrayed him. Was there no one he could count on? He paused, winded by his isolation.
Then Jacinta spoke from the corner, her voice clear and dispassionate. “Nancy, you’ve been present at every meeting where a leak has occurred. You’ve just admitted harboring a grudge against this family ever since Philip Rochester died and failed to provide for you. Earlier this morning, I examined the work logs from your computer, and after each family meeting, I found a pattern of activity at odd times of the day and night. Now, I don’t exactly know what you were doing, but once your computer is audited, I’m sure the truth will come out. Do you still insist that you’re innocent?”
Lex stared across the library at Jacinta. She must have done her investigations after he’d left their bedroom. Her calm, decisive manner appeared to dent Nancy’s defiance.
“I—I—” Nancy turned red. “What right do you have to go snooping around my computer?”
“Lex asked me to help him because I’m an IT security consultant. I only started suspecting you yesterday after your altercation with Ralph, but now I’m ninety-nine percent convinced you’re responsible for the leaks.”
From red, the assistant’s face grew ashen. “I didn’t realize...” The woman gulped before she drew herself upright and addressed the room. “Well, so what? Why should I be the only one to suffer?”
Nancy’s smirk made Lex’s stomach turn. The repercussions of what she’d done sunk in, and anger began to rumble through him.
“Do you have any idea of the damage you’ve done? You’ve betrayed me, my family, and Jubilee, the company that employed you for the past twenty-five years and placed you in a position of utmost trust. You’ve betrayed everyone.” A roar built in his ears as he moved toward Nancy.
She flinched and backed away from him. “I don’t have anything against you personally, but I couldn’t let Philip get away with what he did to me. He took the best years of my life from me and left me with nothing. ”
Her words barely penetrated the angry mist foaming inside his head. “You two-timing backstabber. You made me suspect it was one of my own family. You made me mistrust those around me, and all the time it was you! The person right under my nose.”
He thrust his fingers through his hair. All these months of mounting business problems, of growing suspicion and stress. All because of a gullible woman betrayed by his father. Goddammit. How had he let things get so screwed up? Just as he thought he’d burst a blood vessel, he felt a light touch on his arm and looked down to find Jacinta at his side.
“Lex?”
He couldn’t trust any woman now. He shook her off impatiently.
“What’s this about leaks?” Uncle Ralph pushed Nancy to one side to plant himself in front of Lex. “Did I hear right? There’ve been company leaks for several months, and you haven’t even considered telling any of us about them? Why not?”
Lex swallowed hard. Shit. He’d been so shocked by Nancy, he’d revealed more than he’d meant to.
“Because he suspected it was one of us.” Kirk drawled from behind his father. “That’s what you just said, right, Lex?”
“One of us?” Ralph glared at Lex, his lips working furiously. “You mean—you mean to say you thought it could have been me, or Kirk, or even Holly?”
A muscle spasm contorted Lex’s shoulder blades. He glanced from Ralph to Kirk to Holly. Three grim faces stared back at him. “Yes, I thought it was one of you three.”
“You don’t trust us? Your own flesh and blood?”
“He doesn’t trust any of us,” Kirk said.
Lex mashed the heel of his hand against his forehead as pain burst inside his skull. “I worked on the facts before me,” he said tiredly. “Some of the information leaked could only have come from the family meetings we’ve been having. I’m sorry for suspecting it was one of you, but I had no reason to think it was Nancy.”
“While we all hold grudges against you, is that it?” Holly piped up from the fireplace where she’d been leaning against the mantelpiece. “Me, for protesting against the company and embarrassing you, Dad, for resenting your cutbacks to his art collection, and Kirk, well, just for being Kirk maybe. It’s a shame you couldn’t have taken us into your confidence from the beginning, because then we might have found out about Nancy a lot sooner.”
She tossed the meeting agenda she’d been holding into the fireplace and dusted her hands. “Well, as always, the Rochester business has been a laugh a minute. I guess this meeting isn’t going to happen today, so I’ll go finish my packing and head out as soon as I can.”
“Holly’s right.” Uncle Ralph crumpled up his meeting agenda and flung it aside. “No point having a meeting if we can’t trust one another.” He spun on his heel and followed Holly out of the room.
The hammering between Lex’s eyes reached a crescendo as he confronted Kirk. His cousin’s blue, fathomless eyes repudiated him.
“And you?” Lex asked. “Aren’t you going to stalk out too?”
Kirk’s mouth contorted into a dark smile. “I guess when it comes to trust, you follow in your dad’s footsteps after all.” He turned to Nancy. “Miss Bird, you will accompany me back to San Francisco now, where we’ll be met by company security officials. We’ll be confiscating all company property in your possession. Let me assure you that a thorough investigation will be conducted and if necessary, criminal charges will be laid.”
At his inimical tone, Nancy blanched a ghostly white, all fight gone out of her. Head bowed, she trudged after Kirk as he left the room. In the aftermath, silence descended on the library. Lex saw his grandmother groping for her walking stick as she struggled to get to her feet, but when he hurried to her side, she waved him off.