Fatal Trust by Diana Miller

Author:Diana Miller [Miller, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Published: 2013-11-05T06:00:00+00:00

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Fifteen minutes later, Ben sat on the living room couch, the pain in his gut so intense he could barely breathe. Once again, he’d let Grandfather down. And this time Grandfather was dead.

He poured himself another cup of coffee from the pot Igor had brought into the living room. “Want a refill?” he asked Lexie, who was the only other person in the room. Everyone else was either upstairs dressing or in the dining room having breakfast.

“No, thanks.” Her voice and expression were so cold he wouldn’t have been surprised to see her breath. She was clearly furious. No surprise there.

He needed her help, which meant he had to make her understand why he’d kept her in the dark. “Did your aunt or maybe Grandfather tell you about when I came to live with him?” he asked.

When Lexie didn’t answer, he went on. “My dad was a real bastard. Still is, far as I know, although I haven’t seen him in years. He’s one of those driven corporate types, always too busy working to have time for his family. And he cheated on my mom all the time. I don’t know why she didn’t divorce him.

“My mom was terrific, though. Every summer she and I spent a month with Grandfather at Nevermore. It was the best time of my life. Grandfather was everything Dad wasn’t. He was way richer than Dad, but he didn’t care much about money. He was happiest when he was out on his sailboat or hiking through the woods identifying every tree and plant. Or writing, of course.”

Lexie was staring straight ahead. Her expressionless face gave no indication she was even listening, let alone understanding.

Despite the lack of encouragement, he forced himself to continue. “When I was twelve, my mom was killed in a car accident. A drunk driver hit her. Afterward my dad didn’t want a damn thing to do with me. I figured it was because he blamed me for my mom’s death since she’d been driving to pick me up after soccer practice. Hell, I blamed myself. Then two months after Mom died, Dad told me he was getting married. Andrea was only twenty-five and not up to having a twelve-year-old son, so he was sending me to boarding school out east.”

He closed his eyes. Even after all these years, remembering that time made him feel like he was engulfed in a black pit. “I was upset, to put it mildly. I mean, not only had I just lost my mom, but then I was torn away from my friends to go to school across the country. I’d always been a fairly good kid, but I started sneaking out after curfew and drinking beer. I thought if I was bad enough they’d kick me out of boarding school, and I’d get to go back to L.A. I didn’t know that if you’ve got enough money, when one school kicks you out, another will take you in, especially when your grandfather’s famous. So I went to another school, got kicked out, and then tried a third.

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