Page 82 of The Heiress

But if they were to marry…suddenly Charles Ming becomes a Feyereisen target.

“Did you love Bernard?” I had two parents who loved each other, so I didn’t need my biological parents to be some magical love story. What I wanted was a window into their world.

And oh boy did I get it.

“I was in love with him the way any twenty-year-old heiress is in love with the slightly older, even richer man who wants her. I thought he was my prince and we’d live a fairytale life together.”

She shifted, getting more comfortable.

“It was still the early days of modern computing and I wasfascinated,” she said with a far-off look that I’d normally attribute to someone with a crush. Except she was talking about computer science. “I was the only woman in many of my classes, but when you’re rich they let you do what you want. I got my degree but instead of going to grad school—what I wanted to do—my father gave me a job in the Stroman Software Lab. I apprenticed under some of the most brilliant minds. The ones that created our entire technology division.”

“So you aren’t just the CEO of a tech and defense company. You actually know what you’re doing.” And I have to say, I was super impressed by that fact.

“I do. Now. But back then? I had my head buried in learning and naivety. I went along when our parents arranged our marriage. I didn’t pay attention when they began merging their companies into the empire it is today. Bernard was a romantic—I thought. He’d whisk me away to Paris or Rome or a tropical island for long weekends of luxury. I was living a romance novel. During the week everyone left me alone to my work as long as I put on the dresses and jewels and appeared at whatever dinner or party they needed me to be seen at, and on the weekends my rich and dashing husband showered me in gifts and sex.”

So I guess one of the benefits of having an adult relationship with your biological mother is you can skip right to a mature female friendship. “But it wasn’t a fairytale?”

“No.” She stood up, shivering even though the Florida sun was warm. “I didn’t think anything of it when his parents died in a freak boat fire. It was unfortunate and awful, but these things happen, right?”

I shrugged. I saw it on the news every couple of years maybe? I guess it happened to somebody.

“I didn’t notice Bernard’s moodiness. He became increasingly angry, selfish, and he was so fixated on the company, on being in charge. He kept his life so separate from mine. When I finally met the Feyereisens I knew they were at least partially to blame. Then Bernard’s brother died in a small plane crash in Alaska and my father’s helicopter went down. Anyone who might challenge Bernard’s power was dead and I don’t believe in that level of coincidence.” She glanced my way with a small smile. “Back in those days men like Bernard didn’t realize how vulnerable they were, how easy it was to hack into email or monitor a computer remotely. I needed to know what he was doing and if I would be the next target, so one day I did it. I read everything I could find on his hard drive. I learned he was not the man I thought he was.”

The hair on my arm stood up. “He would have been really upset if you produced an heir who might one day challenge him.”

She stared out the window, her hand at her throat. “And yet he’s the one who’s dead and I’m the one with all the power.”

I wondered if she had a hand in Bernard’s untimely death, but I sure as shit didn’t say that. “The Feyereisens are still trying to take control of the company?”

She turned to me and leaned on the back of the chair. “When you have something valuable, something that can be used to make someone more powerful, you’re a target. Period. They’ve spent three decades trying to get it and they haven’t succeeded. In the end, Bernard did not succeed. He built an empire. It’s a large and unwieldy beast. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster that really shouldn’t exist, but it does and I can’t put the genie back in the bottle. So instead I make sure I retain full control of this company. You are the only person I would relinquish some of it to.” She straightened up and smoothed her shirt. “Are you ready for our trip to New York?”

“I’m all packed. Georgia?”

“Yes?”

“I’m really glad we got this chance to talk. Maybe we can do it again soon?”

She smiled warmly and I felt some of the harsh edges on our relationship begin to soften. “Very soon. Now, I still have a few things to do before our flight. I’ll see you soon.” She started to leave.

But I had one last question. “What do you like to read?”

She paused at the door with a smile. “Oh darling, I’m a hopeless romantic.”

* * *

Unlike our flight out west,this trip to New York was a full house of biker bodyguards, regular bodyguards, assistants, and us. We also took a bigger plane from the fleet of Roark Corp jets. Kennedy talked my ear off and when I couldn’t take it any longer I moved over to Jace. He was deep in conversation with his brothers.

“He doesn’t like having our guys split up,” Striker was saying as I sat down.

Todd.“Because of me?”

He nodded. “That’s why he called Riddick back. Can’t have his enforcer gone from the club too long.”

But he did let Teddy stay, along with a guy named Hector.

“And Jace?”

Striker’s eyes flipped to the man in question. “The money is keeping Todd happy for now but I doubt it will last.”

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