Page 20 of The Heiress

It could have been me.

My brain thought itwasme. I had to blink and remind myself it was Georgia. It was impossible to deny the resemblance and everything it meant. But then I read over the headline and the first paragraph.

Following the unexpected death of CEO Bernard Roark, widow and heiress Georgia Roark takes control of company board.

Unexpected death.

That headline sent me down a rabbit hole. First to learn more about Bernard’s death, then onto the conspiracy theories surrounding the other Stroman and Roark family members. It was a dark and twisted path. Some of the information was irrefutable. There was no mechanical reason for the helicopter to go down, the boat fire wasn’t started in the engine room but in the cabin, no ransom was ever demanded for Baby Victoria.

No wonder there were conspiracy theories.

But other things were circumstantial, the work of the obsessed looking to draw conclusions based on ideas rather than facts. Even though I could see how farfetched some of these ideas were, there was enough death and mystery that I could easily see why my mother was concerned about my safety.

People around Georgia Roark didn’t have long life expectancies.

“Hey. You digging into the Roarks again?” Hazel stood in my office doorway, frowning, her purse in her right hand and her water bottle in her left.

“Oh!” I went to close my laptop, then realized how bad that looked, and instead pushed it away. “Yeah, I finally got the go ahead to resume my workload from David. Roark Corp. is the controlling interest in all the land developments I’m researching.” I bit my tongue to keep from rambling. Liars always say too much.

Her frown deepened. “You’ve been pinging all my files. Is there something I can help you with?”

Damn.I forgot about that. I quickly scanned my brain for a thought that wasn’t focused on missing babies and dead relatives. “Uh, tell me more about the work environment.”

She huffed, sending some of her hair flying. “Well, how much time have you got?” She rambled on about wages and gender gaps all the way to her house for dinner. If she thought my digging was suspicious, it was forgotten under her apparent need to vent her anger at Roark Corp in general.

Yara made her famous chili for dinner. The food and the beer warmed my belly and made my mind fuzzy. It wandered to a dark corner while Hazel and Yara caught up on their busy days. Just a few weeks ago I was safe and loved. Now Jace was back in my life, but he was some kind of criminal. And, if my mom was right, my biological family was dangerous.

I stared across the table at the only two people I could count on, realizing I’d never been more alone.

7

“Hey, your phone’s ringing!” Jace called out.

I followed the buzz of the vibrating phone to the counter. “Hey Hazel!”

“Girl. I’m not sure about these weekends. I don’t hear from you at all. Not even a bad meme? Are you feeling well or is there a sexy man taking all your attention?”

My traitorous eyes traveled to Jace, who was picking up the mess we’d just made in the living room. “Just busy. What’s up?”

“I miss you?” she said. “Do I need another reason to call?”

We texted almost constantly but Hazel wasn’t a talker. So if she was voluntarily calling me, there was something going on. “Of course not. How’s Yara?”

“Working long hours at the lab. She’s sleeping it off right now.”

So it wasn’t about Yara. “And how’s your mom? I haven’t heard any stories lately.”

“Mmmm. That’s because she’s on an Alaskan cruise. I’m sure there will be more stories than we can handle soon.”

So not the family either. Crap. She really was worried about me. “Just so you know, I’m doing fine. In fact, I think we can have the house ready in a couple of weeks.” There was a lot more miscellaneous crap stored away than I realized and it, quite frankly, was exhausting to get through.

“Oh great! That’s great.”

If I just waited another few seconds...

“So I was thinking about all that research you’ve been doing lately and wondering why.”

I was really, really glad this was a voice call so she couldn’t see me blanche. “I’m doing a really wide search for that project. It’s going to be complicated and I wanted to make sure I had all the facts in order.”Liar!

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