lot of people into thinking there was substance there.
One thing Todd had done right, though, was choose wisely when it came to the woman he planned to marry. His choice had surprised Simon, especially after hearing what his mother had to say about Todd’s fiancée, but after meeting Chloe Patterson, Simon had decided his mother was wrong. Simon liked Chloe. From the beginning, she’d struck him as sensible and practical, the kind of woman who would temper Todd’s tendencies to plunge without thinking.
And after investigating her privately—Simon hadn’t wanted to, but he’d known if he didn’t, his mother would, and he’d decided him doing the deed was the lesser of two evils—he’d been even more reassured. Yes, Chloe was literally from the wrong side of Riverton’s tracks. Yes, her mother had deserted Chloe and her father when Chloe was only eight years old—left them for a much younger lover and come to a bad end five years later, and yes, her father had become an alcoholic and committed suicide a couple of years later. Also, Chloe hadn’t gone to an Ivy League school the way the Hopewell brothers had, and she would bring no money or position to the marriage.
But—and Simon considered these attributes more important than money or position or anything else—she had gone to work at eighteen, educated herself by taking some night courses at the local community college and started her own Web design business while holding down a full-time job at a small tech company in nearby Mohawk. According to the investigator, she had grossed more than sixty-five thousand dollars from the business last year and was on track to do better this year. She had health insurance and owned a paid-for car, and she had a decent savings account—not riches, certainly—but enough so that if she’d wanted to buy her own condo or small house, she could’ve managed a down payment.
She was a strong young woman, and she would be good for Todd. Simon was certain of that.
And she was lovely, with a charming smile, beautiful green eyes and thick, shiny brown hair. A girl-next-door type. Just the kind of woman Simon liked best. She also had long, gorgeous legs. And Simon was definitely a leg man.
Too bad I didn’t meet her first.
It wasn’t the first time Simon had thought this. But you had to make an effort if you wanted to meet the kind of woman who would make a great wife and mother, and Simon hadn’t made any kind of effort at all since his love affair with Alexis had gone south.
Just then his intercom buzzed, and thoughts of Alexis and Chloe and Todd disappeared as he picked up the phone.
“Your brother’s on the line,” Maggie, his secretary, said.
“Noah?”
“Todd.”
Simon glanced at the Wedgwood clock sitting on his antique mahogany desk. Todd must be back. “Welcome home,” he said when Maggie connected them. “How was your flight?”
“Uh, listen, Simon, I’m, uh, not home. I’m, uh, calling from Fiji.”
“Fiji! What the … what are you doing there?”
Simon listened thunderstruck as Todd explained. His heart beat ominously, and the headache that had begun earlier erupted full force. He knew if Todd had been there in the room with him, he would have had a hard time restraining himself from strangling the little worm.
“You bastard,” he said when Todd fell silent. “How could you do something so irresponsible and cowardly?”
As Todd sputtered and tried to justify himself, saying things like “I couldn’t help it” and “I’ve always loved Meredith” and “Chloe was a big mistake, even Mom thought so!” Simon got angrier and angrier.
“Does Chloe know?” he ground out.
“I, uh, sent her a letter.”
“You sent her a letter,” Simon repeated flatly.
“Yeah, I, uh, thought it was … the best way.”
“You are even more of a horse’s ass than I thought.”
“That’s not fair, Simon! Christ, you act like I killed somebody. I just broke an engagement.”
“No, you didn’t just break an engagement. You betrayed and humiliated a good person, someone who didn’t deserve to be treated that way. And, as usual, you expect someone else to clean up your mess.”
“What mess? You don’t have to do anything. Stop treating me like I’m a child.”
“Then quit acting like one. When are you coming home? When am I going to get a full report on San Francisco?”
“You’ll have your report tomorrow,” Todd said, his voice filled with resentment. “I’ll fax it to you. And Meredith and I aren’t coming home till next week. Maybe not then, either. We deserve a nice honeymoon.”
This final justification for his bad behavior filled Simon with disgust, but he was sick of talking to his brother, so instead of answering, he simply hung up on him.
“Did Todd call you?” Simon asked his mother. Instead of phoning her after his conversation with Todd, Simon had told Maggie he was leaving for the day and to cancel his production department meeting that afternoon. “Tell them I’ll see them in the morning.” Then he’d driven to the family home in Riverton’s beautiful Maple Hill district.
“Yes, he did,” Larissa Hopewell said. Her pleased expression spoke volumes.
“And you’re not upset?”
“Well, I certainly would have preferred he never got engaged to her in the first place. You know I never approved of his involvement with that woman from the beginning.”
That woman. She can’t even say her name. Simon chose his words carefully. “But his wedding to Chloe was supposed to take place in less than six weeks. The church, the country club, everything is already booked. Don’t you think what he did was not only unkind to her but immature and thoughtless, that it doesn’t reflect well on our family’s name?” The family name you feel is so damned important?
“Honestly, Simon, sometimes I don’t understand you,” his mother retorted, blue eyes glittering with indignation. “Where’s your loyalty? You should be glad he dumped her. She would never have fit into our family, and you know it. Why, she wasn’t worthy of having our family’s name.”
“I know no such thing,” Simon said coldly. “I liked her. I thought she would have been good for Todd.” And a breath of fresh air for us.
“I don’t know how you can say that. She’s common. Simply not in our class. I doubt their marriage would have lasted a year.”
Simon gritted his teeth to keep from saying what he was thinking. What good would it do? His mother would never change. “And you don’t think we owe her something? At the very least I think we should pay whatever out-of-pocket expenses she incurred in the planning of the wedding.”
His mother shrugged her narrow, elegant shoulders. “Fine. Go ahead. Make the offer.”
“So you agree?”
“Whether I agree or not is irrelevant, isn’t it? You
