unhinged Charlotte.”
“Why would that do it any more than knowing about the other illegitimate ones?” Kenneth asked. He frowned. It was obvious that he didn’t like or welcome the fact that he was actually related to Gerald. “That man spread his seed more than anyone ever cited in the Bible,” he said with disgust.
“Kenneth,” Barbara chided, obviously surprised at her husband saying something like that.
“Well, it’s true,” Kenneth told his wife. “He didn’t care who he impregnated. The man should have been neutered.”
“Are you sure we’re actually related to Gerald Robinson?” Maddie asked. “Maybe there was some mistake made.”
Connor sympathized with his sister’s desire to sever ties, but it wasn’t that simple. “Dad and Gerald are both Grandpa Julius’s sons,” he pointed out.
“We’re half brothers,” Kenneth corrected tersely. “For what that’s worth.”
“That was when Gerald was still known as Jerome Fortune, before he decided to run off and assume another complete identity,” Barbara explained to her children, no doubt to keep things straight in case the fact had gotten lost among the preponderance of offspring who had been discovered.
Maddie squinted as if she was trying to reconcile a few facts with ones that already existed. “Wait, my head hurts,” she said as she dramatically put her hand to her forehead.
Valene laughed at her sister’s theatrics as she shook her own head. “One thing I have to say about this family. We are definitely not boring.”
“No, Gerald and his extended family aren’t boring,” Kenneth corrected with feeling. “We are just an average, run-of-the-mill family with some decent monetary holdings,” he insisted. “Or we were,” he said as he looked in Connor’s direction, “until one of my sons decided to completely turn his life inside out and become a—” his eyes met Connor’s “—PI,” Kenneth concluded.
Connor wanted to put this behind them once and for all. His father had to understand that his new career would only help the family in the long run, not embarrass it. “Dad, you’re getting off track here,” Connor respectfully pointed out.
“And your ‘track’ is that this was all done by Charlotte as her way of getting even, is that it?” Kenneth asked.
“Yes,” Connor answered simply.
“But why would she do all this?” Kenneth asked. “Wouldn’t her vengeance be focused directly on Gerald, not the rest of the family?” He rethought his words. “Or better yet, on Deborah? After all, in Charlotte’s warped mind wouldn’t she think Deborah is responsible for stealing her husband away from her?” Kenneth insisted.
There was no simple, hard-and-fast answer to that. “I think we can all agree that Aunt Charlotte is a complicated person. I wouldn’t begin to try to analyze exactly what’s on her mind. I would be lost in that maze for days,” Connor predicted.
“And yet you think she’s the one behind this?” Barbara asked her son.
The two were not mutually exclusive. “Yes, I do,” Connor answered.
“She might be a cold, vengeful person, but she is still family, Connor. I really don’t think she’d go to such great lengths to get back at Gerald or Jerome or whatever he wants to call himself,” Barbara argued.
“Well, Mother, I’m not as kindhearted as you. And according to the evidence I’ve found, she is definitely mixed up in this, if not the actual orchestrator—which I actually believe she is.”
Connor looked around at his family in silence, allowing his words to sink in. Hoping he had finally gotten them to see the situation the way he did.
He was convinced the only hope they had was to fight this as a united front.
“One question.” Kenneth moved to the edge of the sofa he was sitting on, raising his hand as if he was a student in a classroom instead of the former CEO of Fortunado Real Estate.
“Only one?” Connor asked, unable to keep the amused expression off his face.
“One’s enough,” Kenneth responded sternly. “Charlotte Robinson seems to have done a disappearing act—”
“I know that,” Connor answered, anticipating his father’s question. “Which is why I’m planning on finding her.”
Kenneth waved a hand at his son’s declaration, for all intents and purposes dismissing it.
“And therein lies my question,” Kenneth replied. “There are countless people trying to track this woman down, from the local police to the FBI to even our illustrious matriarch herself, Kate Fortune, who you might remember, despite being in her nineties, is one exceptionally formidable woman. With the boundless resources that are at Kate’s disposal, if she can’t find Charlotte, what in hell makes you think that you’re going to be able to do anything different?” his father wanted to know.
“I’m not an egotist, Dad,” Connor replied mildly. “I don’t think that I’m the only one who can find Charlotte. It’s just that,” he continued despite the cynical look on his father’s face, “sometimes I wind up getting results by thinking outside the box. Besides, the more people putting their heads together and working on locating Charlotte Robinson, the greater the chances are of actually bringing her to justice.”
Kenneth blew out a breath. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.”
“Give him time,” Valene said to Connor with a wink. “He’ll find a way.”
She went on in a louder voice, clapping her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, now that we’ve all been told about Connor’s new career and all agreed that Connor should try to find that awful woman before she does anything else, possibly even more reprehensible, to the family, let’s get back to our favorite topic.”
Connor looked at his sister quizzically. “And that would be—?”
“An engagement party,” she answered him gleefully, her eyes dancing as a broad smile slipped over her lips, curving them.
Connor closed his eyes. Engagements and weddings. His least favorite topics of conversation in the world. “I think that’s my cue to exit, stage right.”
But before he could take a single step to make that happen, Maddie linked her arm through his.
“Not today, brother dear. Mother told me that you’re spending the night at the old homestead,” she said, gesturing around the area, which couldn’t by any stretch of the imagination be referred to as “the old homestead,” at least not if accuracy was a factor.
“Looks to me like you’re trapped,” Zach told his brother-in-law, traces of amused compassion in his voice.
“Trapped? No, no offense, Zach, but that’s one thing I’m never going to be.” Connor shook his head as he glanced at his sisters and
