As far as he knew, Tim had never been faithful to Martha. But Martha had been faithful, until one night, on her birthday, when Cole and East were thirteen, Tim had come home drunk and reeking of perfume—another woman’s perfume. He hadn’t even remembered to get her flowers, or wipe the lipstick off his neck thoroughly.
That was the night when Martha had hardened. Until then, she hadn’t been the perfect mother or anywhere close, but she had loved her husband. After that—well, East didn’t know.
Still, it was a better bet to knock on her door than his father’s, and he didn’t want to have to write another one of his father’s mistresses a check and keep it a secret from his mother because of some mislaid sense of propriety.
He was heading for his mother’s room, walking determinedly past his father’s, when the door opened, and a young woman—in her twenties, he gauged—left, looking resigned with her lot in life.
It was on impulse that he stopped at the door and knocked.
“Amber, go home, girl. I’ll call you next time I’m in town.”
“It’s not Amber.”
“Easton? Well, just the man I was looking for. I’ve got a few papers drawn up for you.”
East frowned.
“Papers?”
“Well, don’t just stand there. Come on inside. Let me call your mother.”
East thought that that was particularly distasteful even from Tim.
“What kind of papers?”
“You didn’t think that we didn’t come prepared, did you? We expected Cole to be the one who’d need to have a woman paid off, but, well, sometimes it’s the ones you least expect it from. Never mind. We’ve got it all sorted out.”
East stepped in and kicked the door shut.
“You’ve got what sorted out?”
“Sit down. No, get yourself a drink, and get me one, and then sit down.”
East stood his ground.
“What have you gotten sorted out, Tim?”
“Now, son, I realize that you’re a little infatuated with that young woman. I can see why, frankly. She’s a pretty little thing, and spunky with it. It’s a combination that can make a man’s brain stop functioning as it should. That’s one of the reasons why the good Lord has given us lawyers.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your mother might have gone a little low on her estimate. From what Cole tells us, and from doing the obvious math, the two of you have been together for over a year.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Of course, she has a good idea of what your net worth is. Of course she wouldn’t settle for five million. No matter, we can afford to go higher than that.”
“Did you and mother plan this together before coming here? Did you come here to buy Zari off?”
“Well, Easton, if a woman can be bought off, it’s not exactly the kind of true love that Disney loves to write about, is it? Now, we have a cap of twenty million, which is to relinquish all rights completely. But if she doesn’t want to do that—she does seem attached to the babies—then we need to go to court and get primary custody of the children. They need to be raised to fit in with our lives and lifestyles, Easton. No matter what a nice young woman she might be, she is simply not equipped to do that. I don’t want unpleasantness and the publicity would be very bad, so I don’t want to go to court if we can help it. But if we do, I know a few judges. I’ve been around a bit. Primary custody, and if we apply a little pressure about her suitability as a mother—it’s the kind of thing that figures in their worst nightmares, you know, people like them, being declared an unfit mother—then we should be able to get this whole thing wrapped up for ten million. At a generous estimate.”
Easton looked at his father, and he saw a stranger.
No, that was a lie. He didn’t see a stranger. He saw the man he had always known his father was.
“You are no longer welcome in our lives,” he told his father. “And tell Martha that, as well. Zari isn’t helpless and alone. She has me, and everything I have. I have a lot more than you do.”
He turned on his heel and walked away, sick to his stomach.