Lexi lay awake, her mind racing, too excited to close her eyes.
At last, at long, long last, she’d figured it out. It was Gabe who’d given her the idea.
I know how I’m going to win back Kruger-Brent.
I’ve been playing the wrong game all along.
Lisa Jenner, Eve Blackwell’s maid, brushed her mistress’s long gray hair and let her mind wander. The old woman was rambling again.
“Rory loved me. He was going to marry me, you know. But then that man tricked me. He waited till I was helpless, unconscious, and he did this .” Eve ran her wizened, veiny hands across her face, probing the scars with her fingers.
“Which man, madam?” Lisa had only been working for Ms. Blackwell for a month, but was already used to her insane outbursts.
“My husband, of course!” Eve snapped. “Max.”
“Your husband is dead, madam. He was killed in an accident a long time ago. Max is your son. Remember?”
Eve frowned. Max is my son. My son?
“My son is a fool. He’s destroying Kruger-Brent. He’s weak, like his father.”
Lisa Jenner twisted Eve’s hair into a high, tight bun and secured it with an ivory pin. Then she replaced her mistress’s veil.
“There we are. All done,” she said brightly. “Max is waiting for you in the drawing room with Dr. Marshall. Would you like me to take you through?”
“No!” Eve’s voice was shrill with panic. “My face! Don’t let him touch my face! He’s not a doctor. He’s a maniac!”
“It’s all right, Lisa. I’ll handle this.”
Annabel had insisted on coming with Max today. The last time he visited his mother on his own, he came home a wreck, his frail nerves stretched to the breaking point. She wasn’t about to let it happen again.
“Come along now, Eve. Dr. Marshall isn’t here to hurt you.”
“Who are you?”
“It’s Annabel, Eve. Max’s wife. Max and I are here to have a chat with the doctor. We brought you some of that smoked cheese you like.”
“She’s a good breeder, Max’s wife.” Eve got unsteadily to her feet. “He should hurry up and marry her. Kruger-Brent must have an heir.”
Kruger-Brent. How Annabel had come to loathe those two words. The pressure of running Kruger-Brent had brought poor Max to the brink of a nervous breakdown. His mother seemed to expect him to wave a magic wand and recoup all their losses overnight. She had no idea of the reality of the market. Then again, how could she?
The old battle-ax barely knows her own name.
“Hello, Mother. You look well.”
Eve shuffled into the drawing room. Age had not crept up on Eve Blackwell. It had ambushed her suddenly. In a matter of months, her ramrod-straight spine had become bowed and stooped. Faint veins on the backs of her hands stood out like tree roots. Liver spots burst like a plague over her once flawless skin. But none of these changes mattered to Max. In his eyes, his mother was eternally beautiful.
He moved forward to kiss her. Eve brushed him aside.
“I know what you did,” she hissed. “I’m going to tell everybody. Then you’ll be sorry.”
Annabel watched Max shrink. Why does he let her crush him? What power does she hold over him?
“That’s enough, Eve,” she said. “You’re confused.”
While the doctor took Eve’s blood pressure, Max took Lisa Jenner aside.
“Has she been like this the whole time? Or is it worse, you know, when I’m here?”
“You mustn’t blame yourself, sir,” the maid said kindly. “She has her lucid moments. But this is pretty much par for the course. She’s been writing a lot. That seems to calm her.”
“Writing? Writing what?”
“I don’t know. Just rambling, I think. She won’t let me see it. She keeps all her papers locked in the desk drawer.”
Later, Max repeated to Annabel what Lisa had told him. “Do you think I should open the drawer? Take a look?”
“No,” Annabel said firmly. “She may be old and mad as a hatter, but she’s entitled to her privacy.”
In fact, Annabel Webster couldn’t have cared less about her mother-in-law’s privacy. Her only concern was for Max. God knows what venomous drivel is in those papers. As soon as she drops dead, I’ll open the drawer myself and burn them.
Lexi was late home. Again.
Gabe couldn’t hide his disappointment. “I made dinner. Two hours ago. Where the hell have you been?”
“At work.” As always when she was in the wrong, Lexi’s tone was aggressive. “Just because you’ve lost your ambition, it doesn’t mean I have to.”
Gabe’s face crumpled with hurt. The irony was that he’d taken a backseat at Phoenix in order to spend more time with Lexi. He hoped eventually to persuade her to marry him and start a family. But whenever he brought up either subject, she either ducked the question or put her “bitch” hat on.
“You’re lying. I called the office. You left hours ago.”
“Oh, what, so you’re spying on me now?”
“Not spying. You were late. I was worried.”
“I’m a big girl, Gabe. If you must know, I was at a business meeting.”
“With whom?”
“None of your damn business!”
Lexi stormed into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Pulling off her clothes, she tried to get her head together.
Why am I doing this? Why am I pushing him away?
Lexi loved Gabe as much as she ever had. More. But her stress levels were through the roof. She was preparing for the greatest battle of her life-the battle for control of Kruger-Brent-and she couldn’t tell Gabe, or anyone, what she was doing. The stakes could not be higher. If she failed, she would lose everything. Her fortune, her company, perhaps even her freedom.