you need more, just let me know.”
“I don’t want your money.”
“And I don’t want you paying for my brother’s bad behavior.”
“I’ll just tear the check up.” No way she was taking his money. Hopewell money. Bad enough she was keeping the ring. She had no intention of being indebted to the Hopewells for anything else. “Look, this isn’t your problem. And the Hopewell family … your family … owes me nothing.”
“I understand why you might feel that way. Frankly, if I were you, I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with my family, either. But why don’t I just leave the check? After thinking about it, you might change your mind. I hope you do.”
She shook her head. “I won’t. But thank you for making the offer.”
He leaned forward. Neither said anything. For a long moment, the only sound was a faraway siren outside. Finally, his thoughtful gaze met hers. “Are you doing okay?”
She sat up straighter. “I’m just fine. In fact, I’m more than fine.” Her chin lifted. “This has all actually worked out better for me. Now I can do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m moving away from Riverton.”
He stared at her. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”
Why was he looking at her that way? His steady gaze was unsettling. She wished she knew what he was thinking. “Don’t be. I told you. I’ve wanted to make a change in my life, and this is the perfect time.”
He nodded thoughtfully. Seemed about to say something else, but didn’t. Instead he rose. “Well, in that case, I won’t impose on you any longer. Thank you for seeing me. And again, please accept my apology for the way you’ve been treated. I hope you won’t judge our entire family by my brother’s immaturity and actions.”
Something about the sincere manner in which he offered the apology touched Chloe in a way she wouldn’t have expected. Simon Hopewell really was a nice person. A good person. In fact, he was nothing like the way Todd had often described him. She realized Todd had probably always been jealous—and probably resentful—of his older brother.
She walked Simon to the front door, and just before he walked outside, he turned back to her and said, “I meant what I said before. If you need anything—anything at all—just call me.”
Chloe never would have believed she would feel both guilt and regret over her decision to keep her baby a secret from the Hopewell family. But seeing the sincerity and genuine concern for her welfare in Simon Hopewell’s eyes left her awash in both emotions as he walked away.
Yet she knew she would not change her mind.
And no matter what hardships faced her in the future, she would never pick up the phone and call Simon.
She was finished with the Hopewell family.
Chapter Three
Simon was impressed by Chloe’s refusal to take the money he’d offered. He’d always suspected the Hopewell money had nothing to do with her engagement to Todd, even as his mother insisted the money had to be an influence.
“After all, the girl comes from nothing,” she’d said more than once. “She couldn’t help but be dazzled by our money.”
Well, she wasn’t dazzled. And it would give Simon a great deal of satisfaction to make sure his mother knew it. Not that knowing of Chloe’s integrity would change his mother’s mind about her. Simon actually understood where his mother was coming from, even as he abhorred her inability to rise above her own humble beginnings. Larissa would happily die rather than have her so-called friends know about the way she’d grown up. In her skewed way of thinking, she felt she had to avoid any contact with lesser mortals lest she be tarred by the same brush.
It was sad, Simon thought, that even after all these years, his mother was still so basically insecure. Yet for all his understanding of its origins, Larissa’s continued snobbery exasperated him, especially when it was directed at someone like Chloe, who had overcome tougher circumstances than Larissa ever had to face.
Simon had also been impressed by Chloe’s dignity. In her shoes, he’d be angry, maybe even vindictive. But if she felt either of those emotions, she had certainly hidden them well.
Christ, his brother was a fool. If the lovely, green-eyed Chloe had belonged to him, Simon would have made sure he hung on to her. And his family be damned! Not that there was anything wrong with Meredith. She was a nice enough person, smart even—she’d been doing a good job as Todd’s assistant—but in Simon’s opinion she couldn’t hold a candle to Chloe. Of course, Meredith’s parents belonged to the Riverton Country Club, and Paul Belson, her father, was the town’s most prominent lawyer.
As he drove to the office—Saturday or not, Simon had work to catch up on—he kept thinking about his brother’s former fiancée. The way she’d treated him so politely yet firmly, the way her determined eyes met his directly when she refused the money, the way she said the Hopewell family owed her nothing.
That’s the reason it bothered him when she said she was leaving Riverton, he decided. Maybe she was more affected by Todd’s desertion than she would have him believe.
Yet she didn’t seem the type to run away. She definitely had given him the impression she was a stand-and-fight young woman—not the kind who would turn tail and run. Even so, something was making her leave Riverton, and Simon wasn’t sure he bought her reasoning. So he would keep tabs on her for a while … just to make sure she really was okay.
He’d just arrived at this decision when he pulled into his parking slot at the company’s headquarters. Glancing over, he spotted Mark DelVecchio’s red Porsche. Mark was his CFO, and like Simon, he often worked on Saturdays. Other than Mark’s car, the security guard’s car and the cleaning crew’s van, the parking lot was empty. Well, Simon didn’t blame his staff for wanting to spend a balmy spring day on the golf course or puttering around their houses. This part of upstate New York could still be experiencing a wintry chill in May—in fact, he could remember a few years back when they’d gotten a late snowfall in early May—so a day in the seventies was one to savor.
“Hey, Russ, how’s it going?” he said to the security guard as he walked past his station by the front entrance.
“Good, Mr. Hopewell, good. How about you?”
“I’m great. How’s Erin?” The guard’s fourteen-year-old daughter had fallen earlier in the month and broken her arm.
“She’s doin’ okay. Hates rehab, though. Complains about it constantly.”
“Don’t blame her.” Simon remembered his own stint with rehab after a soccer injury in college. “Physical therapy can be tough.” He smiled. “Give your family my best.”
“I’ll do that.”
Pleasantries over, Simon headed for the stairs. Bypassing the elevator, he jogged up to the third floor. He was whistling as he walked down the hall toward his corner office.
“Hey, Simon!” Mark DelVecchio called out.
Stopping, Simon looked into Mark’s
