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balance my checkbook. I wouldn t know how to proceed against the man.
King leaned forward with his head in his hands. Get me a pot of strong coffee, he said through
heavy breaths. Then I want every scrap of information you have on the man and what Harrison
planned.
Lettie brightened just a little. We ll all miss him, she said gently as she turned toward the door.
But Tiffany most of all. He was both parents to her, for most of her life. She hesitated. She needs
you.
He didn t reply. She didn t seem to expect him to. She went out and closed the door behind her.
Tiffany was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, looking pale and worn. Her eyes were red
and she had a crumpled handkerchief in her hand. The long white gown and robe she was wearing
seemed to emphasize her thinness.
Child, you should be in bed, Lettie chided softly.
I can t sleep. She stared at the study door. Is he in there?
Lettie nodded.
What s he doing?
Getting drunk.
That was vaguely surprising. Oh.
I want to know why my father had a heart attack, she said grimly. The receptionist wouldn t
let me speak with King the day Daddy died because he and my father were arguing. Then at the
funeral, one of his coworkers said it was a pity about the blow-up, because it was only seconds later
when he collapsed. I know he fired Carla. Was that why King argued with him?
I don t know. Tiffany, she said, approaching the girl, this is a vulnerable time for all of us.
Don t say anything, do anything, that you ll have cause to regret later. King s hurt, too. He respected
Harrison. Even if they did argue, they were friends as well as business partners for a long time.
They were friends until I married King. Tiffany corrected her. My father thought it was a
mistake. He was right.
Was he? It s early days yet, and some marriages can have a rocky beginning. It s no easy thing
to make a life with another person. Fairy tales notwithstanding, even the most loving couples have to
adjust to a shared coexistence.
It helps if both partners work at it, Tiffany said.
I agree. Get in there and do your part, her godmother prodded, jerking her red head toward
the closed study door. If you want answers, he s the only person who s got them.
Tiffany stared at the carpet for a minute and then got slowly to her feet.
That s the idea, Lettie said. I m going to make him a pot of coffee. We have a few
complications. Get him to tell you about them. Shared problems are another part of building a
marriage.
Tiffany laughed, but without mirth. She went to the door after Lettie vanished down the hall and
opened it.
King glanced at her from behind the desk as she came into the room. I didn t plan to strand you
in Montego Bay, he said pointedly. I would have been on my way back that night.
Would you? She went to the chair in front of the desk, a comfortable burgundy leather
armchair that she d occupied so many times when she and her father had talked. She sighed. The
whole world has changed since then.
Yes. I know.
She leaned back, sliding her hands over the cold leather arms, over the brass studs that secured it
to the frame. Tell me how he died, King.
He hesitated, but only for a second. His chiseled mouth tugged into a mocking smile. So they
couldn t wait to tell you, hmm? I m not surprised. Gossip loves a willing ear.
Nobody told me anything. It was inferred.
Same difference. He spread his hands on the desk and stood up. Okay, honey, you want the
truth, here it is. He fired Carla and they had a royal row over it. I walked in and he started on me. I
followed him to his office and got there just in time to watch him collapse.
She let out the breath she d been holding. Her nails bit into the leather arms of the chair. Why
did you follow him? Were you going to talk him out of it?
No. But there s more to this than an argument over Carla, he added, searching for the right
way to explain to her the tangled and devastating fact of her father s loss of wealth.
Yes, there is. We ve already agreed that I maneuvered you into a marriage you didn t want, she
said curtly. We can agree that what happened in Montego Bay was a form of exorcism for both of us
and let it go at that, she added when he started to speak. Charge me with desertion, mental cruelty,
anything you like. Let me know when the papers are ready and I ll sign them.
His eyes flashed like black fires. There won t be a divorce, he said shortly.
She was surprised by the vehemence in his tone, until she remembered belatedly just what her
status was. As her father s heir, by a quirk of fate she was now his business partner. He couldn t afford
to divorce her. What an irony.
She cocked her head and looked at him with cold curiosity. Oh, yes, I forgot, didn t I? We re
business partners now. How nice to have it all in the family. You won t even have to buy me out.
What s mine is yours.
The look on his face was a revelation. Amazing how he could pretend that the thought had never
occurred to him.
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