Chapter 21
Chapter 1
“Harper, why are you just staring at me like that?” Marissa Hamilton asked, regarding her cousin with somber curiosity. She had never seen him look so stricken.
Something is wrong.
He turned and closed her office door so they would not be disturbed. “I just found out something that I think you should know, Marissa.”
“What is this about, Harper?”
He looked as if he were weighing the question.
“Harper …” she prompted.
“I guess there’s no way to say this except to just say it,” Harper muttered after a moment. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before saying, “Marissa, this is about my dad, your mother and you.”
Confused, Marissa frowned. “You aren’t making any sense, Harper. What does Uncle Frank have to do with me and my mother?”
“Dad and Aunt Jeanette had an affair,” Harper said in a low voice.
“Harper, have you lost your mind? H-how—” Marissa stammered in bewilderment. “How could you let something like that come out of your mouth?”
There was a pensive shimmer in the shadow of Harper’s eyes. “Marissa, you have to know that I wouldn’t come to you with a lie this painful if it wasn’t true.” His gaze was almost pleading. “I wouldn’t have said anything to you otherwise.”
“It’s not true,” Marissa insisted. She felt her composure was under attack and she suddenly wanted to escape Harper’s disturbing presence. “I don’t believe a word of this, but even if it were true, it has nothing to do with me.”
“Marissa…” He paused a moment before adding, “Don’t you get it? You may not be my cousin. We may be siblings.” Tears formed in his eyes. “This is so messed up.”
She swallowed hard, trying to digest what Harper had just told her. It could not possibly be true. It had to be a lie.
“My dad and your mother had an affair twenty-seven years ago,” he told her. Harper swiped at his eyes.
Marissa shook her head in denial. “I don’t believe any of this, Harper. My mother would never cheat on my father and definitely not with his brother. Where did you hear this?”
“Does it really matter?” Harper asked.
She glared at him. “I don’t get how you could believe anything like this about your dad and my mother of all people. None of this is true, Harper,” Marissa stated firmly. “Whoever is spouting this lie is just trying to destroy our family.”
“Azure would not do anything to hurt this family,” he blurted. “She got this from an anonymous source and immediately came to me with it. Marissa, I didn’t want to believe it at first either.”
Harper’s new wife, Azure, was a magazine writer and as such had numerous “sources.” Marissa folded her arms across her chest. “Harper, why are you so convinced that it’s true?”
“I know that my dad had an affair with your mother because I confronted him. He admitted that it was true.”
Marissa felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. She was about to be sick. Dizziness threatened to overtake her, causing her to sway.
Harper reached for her when it looked as if Marissa was about to faint.
She steadied herself. “I’m fine. I just need some time alone.”
“Marissa, I’m so sorry, but I thought you should know the truth.”
“Please…I just need to be alone right now. I’ll be okay,” she assured him.
When Harper left her office, Marissa navigated slowly over to the plush sofa in her office and sank down, grateful for its welcoming embrace.
She tearfully surveyed her office, the rich mahogany furnishings, the Oriental rug—she knew every inch of the law firm located in the prewar building in Rittenhouse Square in the historic city of Philadelphia. This place had been her second home since the day she was born. That familiarity suddenly seemed to diminish by Harper’s declaration that Jacob Hamilton Jr. might not be her biological father.
Jacob and her mother, Jeanette, raised five children together: Jacob III, Anthony, Marcus, Jillian and her. Marissa knew that her parents loved and respected each other. There was just no way that her prim and proper mother would have an affair with her brother-in-law.
The Hamiltons were a very close-knit family. She and her siblings were all attorneys and worked in the family firm. Frank and three of his sons, Harper, Shawn and Benjamin, were also attorneys working at Hamilton, Hamilton and Clark. Only Frank and Vanessa’s son Nelson decided to go against tradition and pursued a career in acting instead.
“I need to get out of here,” Marissa whispered.
She paused to let her assistant know that she was stepping out for a half hour or so, and would be back in time for her next meeting.
Marissa strolled out of the building and walked down the street to a tree-filled park. She found an empty bench and sat down. In about an hour, local residents and employees gathering for lunch would overrun the park. The October weather was still nice enough to sit outside in and enjoy eating with friends and family.
A small group of children playing nearby caught her attention. One little girl fell down and began to cry. A man rushed over and scooped her up into his arms.
Marissa felt her own eyes water at the sight of a father soothing his daughter and wiping away her tears. Her father…Jacob had done the same for her so many times when she was younger. He had always made her feel safe and loved.
She knew deep down that Harper never would have come to her if he did not have a reason to believe his hideous revelation was true. She also knew that Azure would not reveal the secret, but someone out there was spreading this rumor.
Marissa feared that if the information ever became public, it would have a devastating impact on her family and the firm.
* * *
Griffin Jackson was usually in his office by seven-thirty on weekdays. He liked coming in early just to spend some time reflecting over his day without any distractions. Griffin was usually the first one to arrive in the mornings and the last one to leave Hamilton, Hamilton and Clark in the evenings.
