Bachelor (Rixton Falls #2) Read online

  I close the lid to my laptop and flip through the stack of papers on my desk, searching for her mental health evaluation. The doctor’s notes mention her suicidal ideation and refer to her “manic and reckless” behavior, but there’s no mention of a bipolar diagnosis. There’s a note referring to acute anxiety and the possibility of short-term, situational depression, but it clearly states Serena has no history of mental health diagnoses. It also looks like the doctor prescribed some run-of-the-mill antidepressants, prescription sleep aids, and benzos as needed.

  No wonder she’s feeling out of her element these days.

  My phone dings from my pocket once more, and I find another text from Demi.

  DEMI: Are you coming or what? It’s been over an hour.

  I pull in a long breath and exhale, checking the time. Shit. She’s right. It’s been over an hour, and I’ve been so immersed in these Serena articles I didn’t realize it.

  I text her back, telling her I’m on my way and click off the banker’s lamp behind my laptop.

  A minute later, I’m driving east of town, where my sister and her boyfriend live while he finishes law school. Twenty minutes later, I pull into the drive.

  Demi greets me at the door before I have a chance to ring the bell, her arms wrapping around my shoulders as she pulls me inside.

  “You act like you haven’t seen me in ages.” I step out of my shoes once I’m inside.

  “It’s just makes me really, really happy when we’re all hanging out again. It’s just like old times.” She does a happy skip, and I follow her to the living room where my childhood best friend has two plastic Battleship boards set up and ready to go.

  “What’s up with you lately?” Demi plops down on the sofa and tucks a leg beneath her. “Any exciting trials I should know about?”

  I simper. “If there were any ongoing cases, I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything, but nowadays, everything is settled out of court. Less expense that way. There’s not a huge demand for trial lawyers in Rixton County, believe it or not.”

  Once upon a time, our father was a county prosecutor, but the grueling hours stole him away from his family, so over the years, he established Rosewood, LLP, and I joined on after law school. Now we do a little bit of everything, but his reputation from his days in the courtroom has solidified his reputation as one of the most sought-after trial lawyers in the state. I tend to get the cases that trickle down, the ones he can’t be bothered with. And I accept them with a smile on my face, because that’s how you deal with Robert Rosewood. You get what you get, and you don’t complain until you’ve earned the privilege.

  It’s how Serena’s file landed in my lap.

  “So what do you do to pass the time?” Demi asks.

  “I take on some side projects. Estate law. Family law. Nothing terribly exciting.” I take a seat across from Royal.

  “Ready to get your ass kicked?” Royal pushes my half of the Battleship game across the coffee table.

  “I can promise you that won’t be happening tonight.” I take a seat on the floor across from him.

  Demi hops up, running to the kitchen, and returns with two Heinekens and her Us Weekly.

  “You still read those things?” I tease.

  She deposits our bottles on the table and curls up on the sofa again, flipping to the middle of her magazine because God forbid she starts from the beginning of something for once in her life.

  “Only God can judge me.” She hides her face behind the splayed cover, and a photo in the corner catches my eye.

  “Hey, let me see that,” I say.

  Demi lowers the glossy rag and arches an eyebrow. “This?”

  “Yeah.” I swipe it from her hand and examine the headline.

  SERENA RANDALL’S DESPERATE TIMES

  “Do you know her?” I point to the picture on the cover of a tearful Serena, quite possibly the saddest-looking woman I’ve ever seen.

  “Do I know her? Um, no.” Demi razzes. “Do I know about her? Yeah. Who doesn’t?”

  “I don’t,” Royal says. “Never heard of her.”

  “What do you know about her?” I ask.

  Demi sets the magazine aside and repositions herself, leaning in and grinning like we’re about to talk shop. By day, she teaches kindergarteners. By night, she’s a celebrity gossip aficionado. Nothing wrong with wide-ranging interests, I suppose.

  “Well,” she begins. “She’s this beautiful heiress. I think her dad owns some big steel corporation? Or maybe it’s a tire manufacturer? I don’t know. Something industrial. Multi-multi-multi-millionaire. She’s an only child, and her mom died when she was little. Anyway, she was engaged to Keir Montgomery, as in the youngest son of the President of the United States. It was this whirlwind romance. Happened super fast. The gossip bloggers went nuts. The paparazzi ate it up. They were adorable together. Picture perfect. She’d never been so in love, and everyone thought she was going to be the one to change his womanizing ways. He softened for her, you know? Everyone thought she was going to be the one to make him settle down and change his ways. And in that same vein, he changed her too. She was notorious for never dating or settling down. And she was completely smitten with him. Head over heels. But then she caught him in bed with two of her best friends. I’m talking her best friends from childhood. That’s got to hurt, you know? At first, she handled it as best she could, but then, people started gossiping and writing about her and making the whole situation worse than it already was. She was publicly humiliated and she didn’t even do anything wrong. All she did was give her heart to the wrong guy.”

  Demi places her hand across her heart, and I feel a twinge of sympathetic tightness in my chest. The articles online sensationalized everything, but Demi’s rendition humanizes it.

  “Anyway, all she wanted to do was get out of town for a bit. Let the media frenzy cool down. Give people time to move on to the next hot story. But then I guess she showed up to the airport all intoxicated and forgot her wallet and they wouldn’t let her on the plane, and it all went downhill from there.” Her shoulders slump and her eyes scrunch. “But it doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn’t make sense?”

  “Serena Randall was never like that. She was never dramatic. She was the epitome of class. She was never one to cause a scene. I mean, she was trying to get away from all that. Why would she make things worse for herself?” Demi’s face is as twisted as a question mark.

  “People make bad decisions all the time. Temporary lapse in judgement,” I say. “Maybe she was hurt and desperate.”

  “I don’t know.” My sister slumps back and pulls her magazine into her lap, chewing on the inner corner of her lip. “It just doesn’t add up to me. But what do I know?”

  Royal clears his throat. “Anyway. C4.”

  “Miss,” I say. “A1.”

  “Hit.” Royal groans, and I grin. Seven years later, and he still puts his ships in the corner spots. Some things never change.

  I play the game, calling out an abundance of hits with some misses peppered in, but my mind is elsewhere.

  By the time I’ve sunk three of Royal’s ships, I’m mostly going through the motions, my head busy assembling this Serena Randall puzzle.

  “If you’re bored, we don’t have to keep playing,” Royal says.

  I shake my head, yawning and dragging in a renewing breath. “You’re just saying that because you’re losing. Come on, let’s keep going.”

  “D5,” he says.

  “Hit.” I place a red peg in my battleship and watch my opponent gloat. “Yeah, yeah. E7.”

  A few more moves, and I’ve won the game, as promised.

  “I’m going to bed, you guys.” Demi stands, stretching, and tosses her magazine on the arm of the sofa.

  “Yeah, I should get going. I’m seeing a client in the morning.” I rise.

  “You’re working on a Saturday?” Royal asks.

  “Yeah, it’s nothing. Not even charging them.”

  “Don�
�t tell Dad that.”

  Royal stands, moving toward Demi’s side and placing his hand on the small of her back. She nuzzles her cheek against his chest and hums with this sickeningly dreamy look on her face. It’s too fucking cute, and it’s my sister and my childhood best friend, and I don’t need to see this.

  “I’ll show myself out,” I say, reaching down and swiping the gossip rag. “Thanks for this.”

  “Hey,” Demi says.

  But it’s too late. I’m taking it. I won’t be caught dead buying one of these in public.

  “I’ll bring it back,” I promise as I pull the front door closed. As soon as I’m in my car, I flip the light on and find Serena’s article.

  It’s a two-page spread, the left side showing her in better days and the right side showing her being lead away from JFK airport in handcuffs, her hair a fiery, knotted mess and streaks of wet mascara beneath her eyes. The commentary below summarizes the reported events leading up to that fateful night, and several “sources” are quoted as saying “Serena hasn’t been herself ever since” or they’re “worried about the heiress” or they’re “hoping she’s able to come back from this stronger than ever.”

  Which is funny, because I distinctly recall Serena mentioning that none of her old friends had been by to see her since things took a turn for the worse.

  I toss the magazine aside like the garbage it is and back out of the driveway. Demi needs to find better things to do in her spare time.

  Those things are nothing but lies anyway, and I’m not interested in that.

  I’m only interested in the truth.

  Chapter 4

  Serena

  I’m dressed by nine thirty, my stomach filled with a light breakfast and a hint of unexpected butterflies. This morning’s pills are flushed and long gone. I feel alert and coherent, ready to meet with Derek and let him see for himself how completely unnecessary this entire thing is.

  I pace the north hall of the estate, home to fifteen or so useless rooms filled with useless artifacts. A few years ago, the plan was to turn Belcourt into a touring museum, a place of revenue. Veronica’s idea. It sat empty, save for the staff who maintained it, until I was sentenced to life behind these walls thanks to the behind-the-scenes manipulations of my lovely stepmother.

  I hate Veronica, and I don’t particularly hate anyone.

  Wait.

  I take it back.

  Keir. I hate Keir, too.

  The house smells as old as it looks. Some people might find comfort in that. I don’t. This place does nothing but remind me of the summers we spent here as a child before Mom died. Granted, those are good memories, but they fill me with sadness.

  And guilt.

  Because the older I get, the less I remember of her, and I detest myself for it.

  And smelling these familiar smells makes me miss her so much, it physically pains me.

  I slip behind the double doors to the Magnolia room, a room my father’s second ex-wife named and decorated. I liked Catherine. She was regal and quiet and soft-spoken. Their union lasted a whole two years before he left her for some twenty-something hostess at his favorite NYC trattoria.

  Poor Catherine. She really loved my father. She even loved him so much, she agreed not to sign a pre-nup.

  Fool.

  People with money live a life of convenience. And when you have all the money in the world, love often falls into that category.

  Standing before a soaring window, I glance outside at the circle drive below and watch for Derek’s arrival.

  I step away after a moment and head downstairs. Surely, there are better ways to occupy my time.

  “Ms. Randall.” Eudora stops me at the bottom of the stairs. “Mr. Rosewood just pulled into the drive. Where will you be receiving him this morning?”

  My shoulders rise and fall as I contemplate my answer. The space shouldn’t be too intimate. And it should be well lit. Neutral. Professional.

  “Bring him to the dining room. We’ll meet at the table. And send for tea, please,” I say. “Thank you.”

  A few minutes pass, and I’m seated at the head of a table at least as old as this house and still in near-mint condition. Kings and queens have feasted at this table, or so the story goes. The sound of footsteps echoes from the entry, and I clear my throat and smooth a strand of hair down my left shoulder.

  “Right this way, please,” I hear Eudora say.

  Derek appears a moment later, and I try to ignore his casual getup of dark khakis and a navy polo. He looks more fit for a round of golf than a meeting with a client. Then again, it is a Saturday. Had I not been so hard on him yesterday, I might tease him a little. Either way, he looks good, and I hate that I think so because that’s the last place my mind needs to be.

  “Serena, good morning.” Derek’s dark chocolate hair is perfectly combed, not a strand out of place, and he walks my way with a hand extended. “Wonderful to see you again.”

  I stand and meet his handshake, determined to treat him with the same respect and courtesy he showed me yesterday.

  “Likewise,” I say. “Please, have a seat.”

  Eudora lingers for a few seconds too long, like I’m incapable of handling anything on my own. I shoot her a silent request for space in the form of a quick look, and she quietly strides away.

  “So.” Derek whips out a legal pad and a pen the color of polished onyx and lifts his gaze to me. “What I’d like to do today, Serena, is get an idea of your regular expenses, and from there, we can set up a baseline budget. And once that’s squared away, we can figure out a budget for the extras. I will say, as your conservator, that I’m going to recommend sticking to modest numbers give your . . . delicate state.”

  My tongue grazes along my lower lip, and I give him a head-cocked smirk. “Do I look delicate to you?”

  “You don’t,” he says. “But in the eyes of the law, you’re not quite yourself right now. I won’t be able to allocate any funding for major purchases at this time.”

  “There goes that Aston Martin I had my eye on.”

  He smiles, and my eyes fall on the dimple in his left cheek. He only has the one, but it’s kind of perfect right where it is.

  “You mind?” I point to his pad and paper, and he slides it across the table. The pen is warm and smooth against my palm. Pressing the tip into the yellow tablet, I try to jot down a few estimates and then freeze.

  Months ago, I had a PR rep on contract. I had dry cleaning bills and weekly mani-pedis. I had regular blow outs and traveled internationally no less than twice per month. I had a health club membership and rented an apartment on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

  I lived an embarrassingly extravagant life, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable jotting down those kinds of exorbitant numbers in front of a stranger, attorney or not.

  I write down some bullshit, modest numbers. Something’s better than nothing, and if the money sits in the bank, then so be it, but at least it’ll be freed up and in my possession again. It’s not like I’m in desperate need of a PR rep right now. And I couldn’t say where the nearest nail salon is in this area.

  “There.” I slide it back to him, and he scans the paper, brows furrowed.

  “Okay,” he says, lifting his hand to his chin. “This is doable, given your lifestyle before everything went down. Now tell me how much you’d like in addition to this. I don’t want to call this your allowance, but . . . just think of it as your fun money.”

  Fun. That’s a concept I haven’t known in a long time.

  “How much do you think is reasonable?” I lean back in my seat, crossing my legs. When I lived in the city, it was typical for me to blow four figures a week on fine dining. Another four figures—or more—on regular shopping excursions. And then, of course, there was the travel. Some destinations are obviously pricier than others. “Twenty, thirty thousand per month?”

  I say it to test him, to gauge his reaction.

  Derek chokes on his spit, and it’s exactly the ki
nd of response I expected.

  To be fair, this was the life my father created for me. He’s a controlling old bastard with a soft spot for his daughter and living proof of how money warps reality. After Mom died, he filled my life with the finer things, as if pretty dresses and tea sets and prized, pedigreed ponies could fill the dark void she left. After college, he insisted I live in the city and take my time figuring out what I wanted to be in this world, and he subsidized my every whim.

  But still, I’d never felt so empty.

  Until I met Keir.

  I stifle a chuckle. “You must think I’m from some other planet.”

  He gathers his composure, draws in a strong breath, and purses his full lips. Goddamn, he’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. It’s not fair for a man to be so beautiful. He’s beyond what’s normal. Those dark lashes. That chiseled jaw. His burning stare.

  “Well.” His gaze is intense, unwavering. “You sort of are.”

  “We can’t help what we’re born into.” I make no apologies. I only state truths.

  “You’re absolutely right.” He reaches for his pen, tapping it lightly on the edge of the tablet. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around that, and at the same time, figure out what a judge might think if I gave him these numbers. I want you to be comfortable, but I can’t have my firm accused of misappropriating the very funds we were hired to protect.”

  “Look. I just want to be able to get out of here once in a while. I want to feel like a normal person. I don’t have a car. There’s no internet, because God forbid we knock through the antique crown molding and dig a line through the English garden to run some wires to this place, and it’d be nice to go somewhere in here and get at least two bars on my phone. I have no money. My funds are frozen. Veronica has my credit cards. I feel like I’m being held against my will here, and anytime I protest that, I’m told this is how I’m going to get better and it won’t last forever, but it’s been over two months, Derek.”

  “Serena. Serena.” He raises his palm, but I’m still vomiting the words I’ve been dying to speak since I got here. “Serena. Okay. I get it.”