But did Fin?
On an impulse, Jessie yanked open the credenza drawer to search more files. These folders were work-related, all the tabs indicating they contained information on staff and personnel, which sent a frisson of discomfort through her. She didn’t want to spy on her colleagues.
In the drawer to the right, the files were all specific to finances: accounts payable, profit and loss by month, payroll. God, that was even more intrusive than employee files. The last thing she wanted to do was see payroll.
At the very back of the drawer, the last file was labeled Stimpson, P.I.
P.I. Private investigator? Of course, they probably used one once in a while for employee background checks. But wouldn’t that be over in the personnel drawer? Had it been misfiled?
Her fingers closed over the manila folder and she slid it out.
Frozen, guilty, terrified, she stood with the closed file in front of her. She had no right to do this.
It was wrong.
But it was necessary.
Laying the folder on top of the open drawer, she flipped to the first page and stared at the creamy letterhead.
Robert F. Stimpson, Private Investigator.
Dear Ms. Elliott:
Jessie swallowed and forced herself to read.
We have received your check in the amount of $2,500 as a retainer for a adoption record’s search you requested for the country of Canada registered for the year of 1982.
Her entire being thumped as her heart kicked into a full gallop. Lord above, Fin had hired a P.I. to find her.
Somehow she managed to close the file and gingerly replace it in the back of the drawer, her legs trembling as adrenaline and happiness surged through her.
With a soft yet definitive click, she closed the heavy file drawer until the carved wood blended with the rest of the piece of furniture.
“Find anything good?”
A gasp caught in her throat as she spun around.
The accusation in his tone was as piercing as the disappointment in his eyes. But the worst part of all was the cluster of yellow flowers Cade gripped in his hand.
Nine
Blood drained from Jessie’s face as she stuttered, and her body visibly quaked. Getting caught red-handed did that to a person.
“Don’t even try to lie,” Cade said quietly. “I’ve been standing here for a few minutes.”
Ever since he’d heard her voice on the phone, and he’d approached Fin’s office with a handful of high hopes and trust. But what he found when he rounded the corner and peeked into Fin’s office dashed any and every hope he’d had for a future with Jessie Clayton. And every shred of trust wilted faster than the flowers would.
If she had been anywhere but those files, maybe. But there was only one reason to snoop in there.
“I’m not going to lie,” she said, her voice strong considering how guilty she was.
He squeezed the ridiculous bouquet of flowers he’d just pilfered from the Park Avenue median. His grip was so tight that a few of the stems cracked in his palm.
“I can explain,” she continued. “But not right away.”
“Of course not,” he countered, his own tone dripping with sarcasm. “You’ll have to check with whoever’s paying you to sniff around this place.”
She shook her head. “Cade, you need to—”
“No.” He fought the childish urge to throw the flowers on the ground. “You need to leave. Now.”
Her head jerked as though he’d slapped her. “Are you firing me?”
Was she serious? “Jessie, I just saw you reading confidential financial records. There’s no reason, no real or imagined reason, for you to be in that file drawer other than to access information to share with competitors.”
She opened her mouth but he held out his hand to stop her lies. “Don’t even bother. Fin would never send you in there for something, so don’t make something up. Just get your stuff and leave. I won’t call security.”
“Security?” She choked out a soft breath. “Cade, you’re going to be really sorry when I tell you what a mistake you’re making.”
His gut twisted. “I’m already sorry. I’m sorry I trusted you. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to my gut. I’m sorry I—” No, he wasn’t sorry he slept with her. He wouldn’t have given up that pleasure, that connection for anything. “The only mistake I made was falling for you. I can get over that.”
She just stared at him. Slowly, a hint of color returned to her cheeks as she notched her chin up to a defiant angle. She walked across the room toward him, her shoulders square, her gaze direct.
For one agonizing and insane moment, he thought she was going to kiss him.
Instead, she paused in front of him, removed her glasses with maddening deliberateness, then dropped them on the floor. Without taking her eyes off him, she stomped her heel over the frames and snapped the plastic.
“You didn’t fall for me, Cade. You have no idea who you fell for.”
She marched out, leaving behind the overpowering scent of trouble in Fin’s office and one mangled pair of glasses on the floor.
Jessie perched on a smooth rock on a hill in Central Park, with Rollerbladers and bikers and, of course, a few young lovers, cruising by. Lucky people. Not one of them had just been handed the greatest gift and the biggest heartbreak in their lives in the span of one minute.
We have received your check…adoption records search you requested for the country of Canada…
Of course it was possible Fin only wanted to know that her daughter was alive and had been raised in a happy home. Jessie knew enough about adoption searches to realize that not all birth parents actually sought a reunion, as much as they needed assurance they’d done the right thing.
True, Fin was a driven career woman. But Jessie had seen glimmers of warmth. A spark of affection for all of her staff members.
With a deep sigh, Jessie closed her eyes and tried to picture what Fin would look like the moment that she’d learned the truth.
But all she saw was icy gray eyes looking at her like she was a criminal. And he wouldn’t let her explain! He just denounced her.
The only mistake I made was falling for you.
The pain seared through her again, almost unbearable in its intensity. She could never, ever forget that he was willing to write her off and able to fire her without even listening to an explanation.
After all her character assessment and people watching, she’d trusted the wrong Charisma executive. Cade was the one who put work before relationships. Not Fin. Cade was the one she should have avoided. Not Fin. Cade was the one who turned her away.
And Fin?
She glanced at her watch. Fin should be back by now.
Steeling herself with one long inhale of the sweet and earthy smell of Central Park, Jessie pushed herself off the rock and started to walk toward the bustling traffic of Manhattan.
But this time, she never hesitated at a single street corner.
She was no longer scared of New York.
Cade slumped in the guest chair across from Fin, still holding the broken glasses in his hand.
“Stop punishing yourself,” Fin said sharply as she shrugged out of her business jacket, down to a black tank top. “You aren’t the first man to get bamboozled by a woman with an agenda and you won’t be the last.”
He snorted and let a sharp piece of plastic dig into his palm. “I wasn’t bamboozled, Fin.”
She just raised an eyebrow. “Can we agree that you weren’t thinking with your brain?”
“I wish it were that simple.”
Fin regarded him closely. “Are you saying you really cared about her?”
“Yes, I’m saying that. I did.”
“Well,” Fin acknowledged, “she is a dear girl. I mean, in just a week, she’d totally grown on me.”
Cade shot her an “I told you so” look. “She’s good, isn’t she? And then, she marched out of here threatening that I hadn’t heard the last of her.”
r />
“What exactly did she say?” Fin asked. “It seems so out of character for her to make threats.”
“Who knows what her character is? She just told me, ‘You have no idea who you fell for.’” At Fin’s frown, he shifted in his seat. “I told her I was sorry I fell for her.”
“That was a lousy thing for you to say.”
“Fin! She was digging through your files, reading confidential financial information, for God’s sake. What do you want me to say? ‘Gee, you look cute over there spying for the competition. Can I help you find anything in particular?’”
Fin glanced at the credenza thoughtfully. “Which drawer was she in?”
He vaguely indicated the right side. “Financials. But she went through the payroll stuff, too. I watched. I just couldn’t believe it.” He shook his head, reliving the moment that he’d frozen in the doorway, having heard her voice on the phone. He knew now that she’d been talking to Fin.
Fin’s attention remained riveted on the offending file cabinet.
“And speaking of the competition,” Cade added dryly, “I totally forgot the best part of this banner day.”
“What?”
“The Buzz is ahead.”
“Excuse me?” He had her full attention now. “How do you know that?”
“Liam…well, Liam didn’t exactly tell me. But I saw Shane in the cafeteria and you couldn’t wash away the smirk from his face with a fire hose. Liam didn’t confirm or deny, but he said the numbers didn’t lie.”
Fin fell back into her chair with disgust. “We can’t lose, Cade.”
“I know. Maybe your twin brother is the one who hired our spy.”
She shook her head. “Not Shane. And I just don’t see Michael or Cullen stooping to that level.”
“Something Daniel might have done before he and Amanda decided to leave and start an adventure magazine? Maybe when Cullen took over Snap, Michael forgot to tell him he’d sent a spy?”
Fin shook her head.
“Gannon?” Michael’s son and right-hand man held the same position as Cade for Pulse magazine, executive editor.
“I doubt it. Marriage to Erika has mellowed him.”
An unfamiliar pang of jealousy pinched his gut. “Happiness doesn’t erase anyone’s determination to win the contest.”
“I can’t believe Shane’s winning,” Fin said absently.
“Hey, he’s your twin brother, Fin. All that competitive DNA runs in both your veins.”
“It runs in the whole family,” she said. “That’s why I can’t completely negate your theory that Jessie Clayton was hired as a spy.”
“Fact, not theory.” Cade pushed himself out of the chair and scooped up the wilted flowers along with the broken glasses. He held them over the desk. “Throw these away for me, will you?”
She took them, looking at the flowers with a bittersweet smile of sympathy. “I had no idea you were so romantic, Cade.”
“So stupid, more like.”
“You’re not stupid, Cade. She just turned out to be a better actress than any of us gave her credit for.”
He pointed to the glasses. “She even wore her own disguise.”
Fin stared at the twisted frames, thinking. “I wonder why she wanted to hide.”
“Because she was a farce from beginning to end. A phony. A liar.”
Dropping the glasses in the trash, Fin gave him a sincere look. “Don’t let love make you bitter, Cade.”
“Love?” He spat the word. “That was a long way from love. I only went after her in the first place because I was so suspicious of her.”
“Really? Well, that plan backfired, didn’t it?” Fin offered a wry smile.
“Yep. All I wanted was to know why she was avoiding you. I should have pressed her more on it.”
“Does she know that’s why you asked her out in the first place?” Fin asked.
He shrugged. “Probably not. But it’s moot now, because I found her out. And that’s all that matters.”
“No, that’s not all that matters.”
Cade jerked at the sound of Jessie’s voice, spinning to see her standing in the doorway, her auburn hair tumbling over her shoulders and her emerald eyes sparking like the crown jewels.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I need to talk to Fin.”
Cade consciously stepped to one side, as though he could block Fin from the attacking enemy. “She doesn’t have anything to say to you.”
“Well, I have something to say to her. And I deserve the opportunity to say it.”
“I’ll call security, Fin,” he said, stepping toward the phone.
“Cade.” Fin stood up and rounded her desk. “I’ll hear her out.”
“Thank you,” Jessie said to Fin. “Finally somebody is willing to listen to an explanation.”
“But I won’t listen to lies,” Fin stated sternly.
“No lies,” Jessie said. “But I want to talk to you privately.”
“No,” Fin responded quickly. “I have no secrets from Cade. You made the decision to deceive him, and he has a right to hear what you have to say.”
“You don’t want him to hear what I’m about to tell you, Fin. Believe me.”
Cade caught the bewildered expression on Fin’s face, her normally smooth brow suddenly pinched as she stared at Jessie.
“This is private,” Jessie said softly, taking another step into the office. “This is between you and me.”
Fin’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes, as green as Jessie’s, widened slightly as she stared. “How old are you?”
Cade backed up as Fin asked Jessie the question. How old was she? Was her age suddenly an issue now?
But Jessie didn’t flinch at the question. In fact, she took a step forward and lifted her chin a notch. “I’m twenty-three, Fin.” She said it as though it really mattered.
Fin still stared and all of a sudden Cade saw the fine hair on her bare arms rise with a spray of goose bumps.
Cade turned to Jessie, taking in her trembling mouth and glistening eyes. God, was she crying?
Was Fin?
What the hell was going on?
“In the file, I found a letter,” Jessie said, her voice so rough that she could barely say the words. “So I hope you really are looking for me.”
“Oh my God.” Fin covered her mouth, tears now sliding over her bloodless face. “It’s you. It’s you. Why didn’t I see that it’s you!”
The two women folded into each other’s arms, as Fin let out a strangled cry. Jessie buried her face against Fin’s neck, her narrow shoulders shuddering.
“I didn’t know if I should tell you,” Jessie mumbled through her own tears.
“You have no idea,” Fin whispered. “No idea how long I’ve dreamed of this.”
Nothing, absolutely nothing of what he saw made sense. Why were they crying? And hugging? He cleared his throat noisily. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Fin turned toward him, still clinging to Jessie as though her very life depended on the act. Tears streaked her makeup and her mouth quivered.
“Jessie is my daughter.”
Her daughter?
The words sucker punched all the breath right out of his gut. Her daughter?
Jessie managed to pull just far enough out of Fin’s grasp to look at him. He searched her face for answers, for an explanation, an apology, a look of anything that could reconnect them.
But all he could see was what she’d been trying to hide for five months.
Her eyes were exactly the same color and shape as Fin’s.
He took a step backward, holding up both hands as though he could stop the emotional waves that rolled off the two women, as though he could stop the surge of a new and different kind of disappointment when he realized Jessie had deceived him for a very good reason.
And he’d willingly, stupidly, foolishly believed the worst.
“I’ll let you two be alone,” he managed
to say. “I’m sure you have a lot to talk about.”
Fin closed her eyes and squeezed Jessie back into her embrace, but Jessie held his gaze long enough to deliver one unambiguous message.
She’d never forgive him for not trusting her.
Ten
Fin couldn’t let go. Every time Jessie drew back to say something, Fin clutched her tighter, grasping her with a soft moan of disbelief and ecstasy.
Precisely the same sensations rocked Jessie right down to the bone as she held her birth mother. Vaguely aware that Cade had left and closed the door behind him, Jessie gave in to the overwhelming relief that flowed through her.
It was done. The truth was out. The secrets and lies, the wondering and observing and, best of all, the fear of the unknown response, were all over.
Fin backed Jessie just far enough away to scrutinize her face.
“You’re an Elliott,” Fin announced with a soft laugh of dismay. “How could I have missed that?”
“I did my best not to let you figure it out.”
“Why?” Fin gave Jessie’s shoulders a quick squeeze. “Why did you wait? Why didn’t you tell me right away? When did you find out? Oh my God, you took this job just to meet me, didn’t you?” Then her eyes darkened as she stole a glance at the credenza. “You weren’t spying on Charisma today. You found my investigator’s file.”
“I’m sorry, Fin, I—”
Fin placed a single finger on Jessie’s mouth. “I understand.”
An unbearable weight lifted from Jessie’s heart. “Thank you, Fin.”
“For wanting to know you? Are you kidding? I’ve been dying to find you. Ever since I was old enough to get out from underneath my father and look.”
“Your father?” An image of the gruff, white-haired man Fin had only seen from afar came to mind. Her biological grandfather, Patrick Elliott. “Did he know? Did he not want you to find me?”
Fin closed her eyes and exhaled. “We have so much to talk about.”
“Yes, we do,” Jessie agreed. “Twenty-three years’ worth.”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” Fin repeated, her voice still breathless with wonder. “Right here in front of me. And, Jessie,” she touched Jessie’s face again, her soft fingertips grazing her jawline. “You’re so beautiful. And sweet. And smart.”