Page 47 of The Library on Plum Island
“Are you crazy?” Harriet asked in disbelief.
“Why do you have to do everything backward?” Dawn shook her head and gestured with her hands. “You were supposed to change, then try to win Daniella’s heart, and then get married.”
“You’renotsupposed to marry Daniella, win her heart, and change,“ Harriet pointed out. “I know you had good intentions, Alex. Earlier, when I said it’s the grand gestures that count—this isn’t what I meant.”
“Are you all forgetting that this isn’t about me?” Alex felt satisfaction flow through him as Harriet and Dawn both raised their eyebrows in disbelief. “This is about Daniella and Emily. Men like Jackson see her as a stray sheep with no flock. And now I know that’s really going to rile you both us as strong, independent women—“
“But the man’s a narcissist,” Dawn added. “In his world, a woman needs a man, and she becomes his possession.”
“Obsession more like it!” Harriet shook her head.
“As soon as the creep set his sights on Daniella, she became his,” Alex pointed out. “Now that he knows where she is, he’s going to come for her. Especially now that the FBI has found out about his and his congressman father’s little side drug hustle.”
“Wouldn’t he just flee and find another obsession?” Harriet wondered.
“No.” Alex shook his head. “I fear that he’ll think if Daniella could escape and hide out here, he’ll be safe at least to come and find her. Or worse, he’ll have his spy grab her.”
“What is happening about Stanley Wells?” Dawn asked.
“Ethan and Harley don’t want to spook him,” Alex answered. “Ethan is going to call a meeting with the key staff members in the section he works in, and Harley is going to grab him.”
“Nice!” Harriet nodded. “Maybe he can lead Harley and Sam right to the creep.”
“When Harley suggested Daniella and I pretend to be in a relationship, it was because anyone linked to me is bound to hit the news,” Alex explained.
“You’re throwing chum in the water to catch a shark,” Harriet said, and Alex nodded.
“Because of my…research, I know that Jackson won’t stop if he thinks there is even the teeniest chance he can still get Daniella back,“ Alex said. “A relationship, and I fear even an engagement, isn’t a full commitment. If we’re married I can protect both Daniella and Emily. Last time that Jackson creep took Emily and then tried to get the courts to let him foster her because he feared Daniella wasn’t a good parent or in the right frame of mind.”
“It’s scary how someone can bend the truth and then get everyone around you to believe it.” Dawn shuddered. “That man needs to be behind bars for the rest of his life.”
“I don’t know if he’ll get life,” Alex told them. “I’m not sure what the laws are for what Jackson and his father have been doing by selling drugs. I know Jackson will also lose his medical license, and Sam has assured us that the man and his father will be in prison for a very long time.”
“At least Daniella and Emily will be safe then,” Dawn said.
“Until he gets out of jail,” Harriet said. “So let’s hope by then you’ve won Daniella’s heart!”
“It’s a very nice thing you’re doing, Alex,” Dawn said, her pride shining in her eyes. “I’m so proud of you. I’m starting to think that you never forgot how to be a nice guy. You just chose to ignore him.”
“While I agree with Dawn about what you’re doing for Daniella is gallant,” Harriet said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously, “you still have to prove yourself.”
“Harry, really?” Dawn said incredulously. “By Alex’s own admission, he fell for Daniella the moment he saw her.”
“And when was that?” Harriet reminded them. “Whenhewas stalking Daniella, hunting her down to dig up dirt on Carly to ruin his twin brother’s relationship?”
“That’s not what I was doing!” Alex defended his actions. “Ethan had just been through that whole scene with his ex-wife who, even though they were divorced, still had him right where she wanted him.”
“Ethan’s ex-wife had a problem, and what Ethan was doing was noble,” Harriet pointed out. “And he was doing it for their daughter, Shay, more than he was doing it for his ex-wife.”
“No, you’re wrong,” Alex corrected Harriet. “Ethan was still in love with Beth. When he gives his heart, it’s with a no-return policy.”
“So you were protecting Ethan when you ruined Carly’s and Ethan’s careers over false evidence?” Harriet pointed out. “Then went after her family trying to get dirt on her.”
“That’s not why I went to find Daniella,” Alex corrected Harriet. “Carly had recommended her cousin, who at the time was Doctor Daniella McKay, to Ethan for our father to see about his heart condition.”
“Oh!” Harriet said, her brows going up. “I didn’t know that.”
“That’s because Ethan forgot about it when his life blew up around that time, and Paul went after him, blaming Ethan for Beth’s death,” Alex told them. “Despite how I felt about Carly at the time, I was petrified for my dad, and I’d found out that Daniella was the best in her field.”
