I know that. I think I can handle anything he can dish out.”
But again, before she could make it to the door, Dalton stopped her. “If you think Hollister is just going to hand over two hundred thousand dollars, you’re wrong. He’s going to make it as hard on you as possible. Because that’s his MO.”
Meg hesitated. Dalton could well be right. And she was prepared for that. She had never expected this to be easy.
She must not have had a very good poker face, because apparently her nerves showed in her expression.
“Why do you need the money?” Dalton asked.
She stiffened. “That’s none of your business.”
“Are you in trouble? Is it for something illegal?”
“No!” Indignant, she leapt to her feet.
“Look, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Dalton said. “I want to help.”
Her gut reaction was eye-rolling suspicion and she didn’t bother to hide it. “Right. Because the Cains are known for their altruism.”
“Okay,” he admitted with a wry smile. “I think we can work something out that will help both of us. If you can stick around for a few days, do things our way, get Hollister to acknowledge you and change his will, then I can get you the two hundred thousand dollars. Free and clear, on top of whatever you inherit from Hollister when the time comes.”
Two hundred grand? The Cains must really be worried about losing control of that stock.
“And you can just come up with two hundred thousand dollars?” she asked, mostly to buy herself time to think.
Dalton shrugged. “Give me seventy-two hours and I can give you a hundred thousand in cash.”
“Same here,” Griffin said.
“Yeah, sure,” Cooper added.
“So there you have it. You agree to stay long enough to prove to Hollister that you are, in fact, the daughter he’s been looking for and you can have the money in three days. But you stick around after you get the money. You stay until we have a new will that no one can contest. Deal?” Dalton held out his hand.
She just stood there, staring at it. A handshake was still legally binding in Texas, after all. She had to be sure.
“If Hollister has been looking for me, why are you so worried about him believing I’m his daughter?”
They all looked at Dalton again, as if they were trying to decide how much to say.
Finally Dalton sighed, ducking his head slightly as he spoke. “Hollister’s behavior has been erratic the last few years. The fact that he set up this challenge proves that. We’ll all feel a lot better when his will is nailed down.”
Okay, so they were worried about their own skins. At least that was a motive she could believe and understand.
A guaranteed two hundred thousand dollars sounded a lot better than facing Hollister with blackmail demands and hoping she didn’t blink first.
On the flip side, it meant staying in Houston. At least three days. Maybe longer.
Janine, she knew, would be happy taking care of Pearl. But God...several days away from Pearl? On the other hand, it was a few days and it was only a two-hour drive. So she could make it back to Victoria if something serious came up.
She just needed to avoid Grant while she was in Houston. But how hard could that be? Houston was a city of more than two million people. All she had to do was lay low and stay out of his way while this was going on. Easy as pie, right? And she made pies for a living.
She held out her hand to Dalton. She’d come here expecting to make a deal with the devil and instead she was making one with the devil’s son.
“Deal,” she agreed.
* * *
This was so not her idea of laying low.
Meg stood in the doorway of the Kimball Hotel’s grand ballroom, staring out at the two hundred or so people who made up the glitterati of Houston society. The Children’s Hope Foundation’s annual fund-raiser was one of the premier social events in the city. The average net worth in this room probably exceeded the GDP of most developing nations. Of course, she was there to bring down the average. Or at least, she would be if she could bring herself to step into the room.
At her side, Sydney gave her elbow a squeeze. “You got this. Come on, into the lion’s den.”
“Aren’t they going to announce me or something?”
“I think they only do that in England.”
“Okay.” Meg blew out a breath, rubbed her palms down her borrowed dress, took one wobbly step forward in her borrowed heels and then abruptly stopped and turned around. Sydney and Griffin closed ranks on either side of her and turned her back around. “This is a horrible idea!” she protested.
“It’s a fantastic idea!” Sydney muttered as she and Griffin steered her into the room. “Portia and Caro have been cochairing this event for years. It’s their party. So when Portia introduces you as Hollister’s long-lost daughter, no one will argue with her. When Caro welcomes you with open arms, it will seal the deal.”
“Wait,” Meg said. “Am I supposed to know who Caro is?”
“She’s Hollister’s ex-wife,” Portia explained. “They divorced over a year ago. Things have been rocky for her, because Hollister tried to destroy her in the divorce, but she’s back on her feet again and holds a lot of sway in this town.”
Griffin added, “By the time Hollister gets back into town from his trip to Vail, the results of the genetic testing we did yesterday will be back from the lab. We’ll have proof that you are our sister. Hollister will have to accept the results. You’ll have the money from us by Monday.”
“Right. By Monday. What could go wrong?”
For starters, she could trip and fall or generally make an idiot of herself. But that, that would just be small potatoes. No, her deepest fear involved running into Grant Sheppard.
That would be a total disaster.
She had tried to get Portia to show her the guest list—back when Portia had first proposed this plan—but Portia had dismissed her concerns, declaring, “Don’t freak yourself out about the guest list. Yes, there are a few big names. Some politicians, a couple of sports stars. But it’s nothing to worry about. No one scary will be there. And we’ll be by your side the whole time.”
That had been Meg’s mantra ever since. No one scary. No one scary. No one scary.
Of course, their definition of scary might differ from hers. Mostly because she hadn’t yet worked up the courage to tell them she’d had an affair with their4 business rival.
But surely Grant wouldn’t come to this event. Yes, it was big, but why on earth would he come to a ball that
