Inheriting a SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 7) (20 page)

We all file in and take
our seats. The family representatives are here, too, along with Alex,
Aiden, Nate, and the fiancés. Whatever happens today will affect
everyone in this room, and many people who are outside of it. That’s
something that none of us can forget.

“Thank you all for
coming,” Jane says once everyone is settled. “I know you all have
opinions on what happened, and we will listen to all of them. We have
already expressed to you the reasons why we did what we did, and
again, I need to say how sorry we are that we had to hurt you,
Darcy.”

I don’t say anything,
because I can’t absolve them of their guilt. They did more than
hurt me. They made me question everything I’d believed for the last
seven years. That’s not going to go away anytime soon.

“I’ll go first,”
Audrey says. “I’ve been part of this team for longer than anyone
else, and I-I just don’t even know where to begin. I’ve seen a
lot of things, but what you did to Darcy…Dios Mio. I never thought
I would see the day when the Society would purposely hurt one of us.
Yes, you forced Stella to keep a secret, and have kept things from us
from time to time, but to make Darcy feel that you’ve been using
her all this time? It’s wrong. So wrong.”

“I agree,” Stella
says. “When you made me keep that secret from Kace, I seriously
thought it would be the end of my time here, but this is so much
worse.”

“I can logically
understand why you did what you did,” Isa says, “but it still
doesn’t make it right. I know we’re all about the greater good,
but you even kept this from Reina. She’s our leader now, and she
was forced to act on her own. Which seems to have been part of your
plan as well. What if we hadn’t stepped up to help Darcy?”

“Then you wouldn’t
be the women we know you are,” Cyndi answers.

“We passed all of the
training you put us through, and have loyally served you for years.
We didn’t need to be put through yet another test. We didn’t
deserve what you did. Darcy was hurt the worst, but you manipulated
all of us,” Ellie tells them.

“And you hurt us,
too. When I tried to log onto my tablet, and found my access revoked,
I was hurt. It wasn’t just about all of the programs that I had
built, but also the people I had depending on me. If this had been
real, I would’ve never been able to say goodbye to them, or thank
them for their work. I recruited my team, and you took them from me,”
Ainsley says. Zack reaches out and puts his arm around her.

“All I have to say is
that it’s bullshit,” Jade says. “Pure, fucking bullshit.”

“You took me back
when I tried to leave because I thought I wasn’t good enough, but
how do I take you back when you made my friend believe she was just a
pawn to you?” Faith asks.

“My son looks up to
you, you know that. He considers you to be his surrogate
grandmothers. What would I have told him if this was real? What do I
tell him now that it’s not? He helped Darcy when she needed it,
because he believes in what we do. He believes in
us
.
How could I tell him that he’s wrong, that we’re nothing
special?” Tegan asks.

“We
are
special. All of us. With or without these five women,” Reina says,
finally speaking up, and looking over to Jane. “You almost
destroyed everything you’ve worked for, just to force something to
happen. And yes, it did need to happen, but not that way. You
could’ve told us. We’re all trained to be the best actors
possible, and we could’ve pulled it off, but you didn’t trust us.
There have been women before us, and there will be women after us.
But we’re the women of the present, and we deserve way more respect
than you’ve shown us. You say you chose me to lead because of my
bond with these women, and yet you didn’t trust me to lead
with
you. If we all walked out of here right now, the Foundation and the
Society would continue on, but would it be as strong as it is right
now? I don’t think so. In forgetting that you need us, you’ve
diminished our existence, and that is something that I cannot forget
and may never be able to forgive.”

Wow. Just wow. How do I
speak after that? Here goes nothing. “I can’t top that, so I’m
not even going to try. I just need to say that you’ve made me
question my presence here. I can’t forget the words you said to me,
telling me I was only being used. I want to believe that you didn’t
mean them, but it’s hard. They’re lodged into my heart and soul,
and I hurt. You can come back now and say you always wanted me, and
you were looking out for me, but you can’t erase words with other
words. How do I know you’re not just saying you always wanted me
because everything worked out? I need to see that I’m important.
Not to my friends, because they all came to my defense, but to the
five of you. I don’t even know how you can make me believe again,
but I need you to try.” Stella leans over and hugs me to her. I put
my head on her shoulder and try not to cry. Again.

“I appreciate all of
you speaking candidly. We
will
earn back your trust. It’s not something we take lightly, and all
five of us need you to know that. We need you to know that we’ve
never been prouder of any group before you, and we doubt than any
after you will earn our respect more than you have. We have a plan
for the future, but we need to discuss it with Reina before we reveal
it everyone else. Reina
is
your leader. She earned that title years ago, and her recent actions
have shown us once again that we made the right choice. I have to
tell you, on a personal level, that hearing you speak right now
gutted me, Reina. You have to know how much you mean to me. And if
you truly don’t, I will spend the rest of my life proving it to
you.

“As for the
Foundation and the Society, we are giving total control to Reina,
effective immediately. We would still like to help and mentor if
you’ll let us, but we will never interfere again without
permission. We have always put the Society first, and we realize that
our methods may not have been the right ones, at least not this time.
Reina has proven that she can be tough when she needs to be, but she
will also protect all of you while protecting what we’ve built.
We’d like to talk to you all individually, so we’ll stay here
today as long as you want. We don’t want to lose any of you. We
truly do love you all.”

There’s not a dry eye
in the room—the guys included. Mallory comes over to me and Stella
as soon as the formal meeting breaks up. We talk to her, and listen
to what she has to say to us. When she tells me again that she’s
proud to have me here, my doubts fade a little more. I talk to the
other mentors, too, and they all tell me the same things. How sorry
they are, and how happy they’ve been since I joined them. It’s
going to take time to trust again, but with Reina leading us, I feel
comfortable staying on.

I go to my office,
where my team all greets me, telling me how happy they are to have me
home. I answer their questions as best as I can, and tell them that
being deactivated was a mistake. They want to know about Brayden, but
all I tell them is that he’s hopeless at video games. I can’t say
anything else about him without needing more ice cream again.

They all go back to
their stations, which range from gaming chairs with monitors in front
of them, to cubicles that look like they belong in Versailles. That’s
what happens when you recruit former thieves, some of whom are also
gamers. My personal office has a cool black chandelier, a sleek desk,
and all kinds of retro gaming posters. I look around, wondering if I
should re-decorate. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play Call
of Duty again without thinking of the man who’s so horrible at it.
The outer “public” office looks like a giant game room, or man
cave. There are old game machines, new game machines, pinball,
foosball, skee ball, and pretty much all the other things a grown up
gamer would love to have in their house. My apartment’s pretty much
the same. I hate to ask Chloe to do it, but I think it’s time for a
change.

* * *

Brayden

I’ve gone on dates
with seven princesses in seven days. My coronation is in two days,
and I haven’t made a choice yet. My mother’s been pressuring me
to choose, while Jen and my uncle tell me what an idiot I am. I
am
an idiot, but I also know that I do have to choose. Not
the woman with bright orange hair, hypnotizing green eyes, milky
white skin, and enough attitude to keep me on my toes. No, I have to
choose a proper woman with perfect highlights, designer clothes, and
no mind of her own. Or at least not one she’ll use to challenge me.

I hang my head and run
my fingers through my hair as I try to pick my date for the ball. One
of them should be at my side for the coronation, telling the world
that I’ve chosen my path. I just can’t stomach the thought of any
of them. They’re all very nice—well, okay, most of them are
nice—and would make a great trophy wife for a king. But I’ve had
love, and it’s hard to ignore that when looking for a wife.

“It’s time for you
visit with the children,” my press secretary says, entering the
room.

“Yes, of course,” I
tell him.

Today is my day to go
to the biggest of our parks and meet with the future generation of my
country. They’ve been told that they can ask me anything. It’s
something new—it was actually Noah’s idea—but we all agreed
that it’s a good idea to make everyone feel like they have a voice.
Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the elderly at a local center.

I smile and wave at the
children when I arrive at the park, sitting on the grass in front of
them. There are about 200, and I’m ready for a tiring day of
repeated questions about how many rooms are in the castle, and
whether I have a dragon or not. I’m not expecting the questions I
actually get.

“When is Darcy coming
back?”

“I-uh, I don’t
know,” I answer cautiously.

“My mommy says you’re
taking someone else to the coronation ball. You can’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t you like
me to take a princess to the ball?” I ask. Please say yes, please
say yes.

“I want you to take
Darcy. Can’t she be your princess?”

Oh, holy hell. This is
not going to end well. At all.

“We want Princess
Darcy.”

“I’m going to be so
mad if you take another princess.”

“I’ll give you my
toy truck if you bring Darcy back. I miss her.”

I miss her too, little
guy.

“Daddy says Darcy’s
a firecracker and that’s what we need. I like firecrackers, I like
Darcy.”

It goes on like that
all afternoon. I do the best I can to give them all vague answers,
but I’m exhausted by the time I leave. And more than a little
scared. I can just imagine a mob of angry children attacking me for
bringing someone else to the ball. Or they might attack my date.
That
might actually be fun.

The next day goes
pretty much the same. I knew my people liked Darcy, but this is way
more than I ever expected. The old people are actually worse than the
children.

“Where’s the
redhead? I want to dance with her.”

“She’s not on the
island right now.”

“Well bring her back.
We wanted to see her, not you.”

“I’m going to be
king,” I say, shocked by the hostility I’m facing.

“So? We’ve seen you
all your life. Darcy’s a breath of fresh air.”

“I’m so sorry, Your
Highness,” the director of the center tells me as I’m leaving.
“Darcy used to come visit them, and they all fell in love with her.
I thought they’d behave.”

“She came here?” I
ask. I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s something I can easily see
her doing.

“Almost every day.”

Well shit. I get into
the backseat of my car and run my hands over my face. “What’s
next?” I ask the press secretary.

“A meeting with the
adults of the village in the central park.”

“Is it going to go
the same way?”

“Quite possibly, yes.
Darcy walked into the village almost daily. She sat with anyone who
wanted to talk to her.”

“Of course she did.”

“We all love her.”

“You too?” I ask,
looking at him in surprise.

“Are you really
surprised? You’re in love with her.”

“I-I’m…fuck. I
can’t take anyone else to the ball. They’ll burn me at the
stake.”

“It’s a distinct
possibility. Maybe you should call her and ask her to attend.”

“I can’t.”

“Good luck, then. The
people want to see her.”

I make it through
another round of grilling, and then retire to my rooms without even
bothering with dinner. I’m too exhausted to even think about what’s
going on. I thought I was making a choice for my people, but now
they’ve basically told me that I’ve made a mistake. They want
Darcy, and if I’m being honest with myself, so do I.

Brayden

Tonight is my last
night as a prince, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.
The ball is starting in a half hour, and I’m going alone. In the
end, I couldn’t bring myself to take someone who wasn’t Darcy. It
didn’t feel right, especially now that I know my people feel the
same way I do.

“You need to see
this,” Jen says, coming into my room with Noah. I nod at him,
wanting to say more, but I know now is not the time.

Jen turns on the giant
TV and I see a private plane landing at the island’s airstrip. The
Corrigan & Co. logo is on the side, and my heart starts to beat
faster. It can’t be, can it? The reporter starts to speak, and
I…well, I’m speechless.

“Reporting live from
the airfield, and there she is. Darcy is here! Thousands of emails
and electronic cards were sent to her by the people of Cyndryann, and
she’s answered our call!”