to me.”
Morgan looked up from her computer to see her assistant, Vanessa, coming into her office with a manila folder in her hand. “That was quicker than I expected.”
Vanessa handed over the file. “I’ll let you know when your next appointment arrives,” she said before slipping back out to her desk.
Morgan opened the folder and her brows lifted in surprise as she saw the bottom line. Given that the event had run for less than a third of its usually scheduled time, she hadn’t expected them to raise as much money. They’d never even gotten around to the silent auctions. The family hardly had time to circulate through the crowd and stir up donations. She’d already been planning a contingency for this year’s project, narrowing the scope significantly. Considering she had to work with Southern Charm, a part of her would’ve been okay with cancelling it entirely.
Instead, they’d actually raised more. Apparently, cancelling an event for television-worthy drama in their family made their guests and donors feel bad. And when rich people felt bad, they tended to write a check to feel better again.
Actually, they’d raised enough to build at least three houses in the community this year. And that was just in the month since the event. More funds could still roll in during the next few weeks. Last year, they’d only raised enough for two houses and that had been their all-time high.
That was one bright spot in the dark drama that had plagued her recently. Finding out she had been switched at birth was a major revelation. The news had just come to light and yet, if you asked Morgan, it felt like years since she found out the truth. That sort of news could shift your whole perception of the world. Especially when you realized that your whole life was a mistake.
Normally, time flew by. She lived a pretty busy life, pouring almost all her energy into the family company and its continued success. When she wasn’t at the office, she was at the gym trying to work off the stress and the extra pounds that clung to her hips. She’d always longed for the naturally slender figure of her mother, but instead, her weight was just another item on a list of things that weighed heavily—pun intended—on her mind. But even then, nothing could have prepared her for everything that had happened in her life since that night.
Now, Morgan couldn’t even look in the mirror without seeing some imposter looking back at her. How could she have been so blind all these years to the things that were plainly visible to anyone who bothered to look? There was no way she was a Steele. She’d always had a different appearance from the rest of her family—the dark one among a sea of blonds—but it had never registered in her mind what that really meant before the truth came out.
Now she wondered what her parents had really thought all those years. Had her father believed Morgan was the child of an affair with a dark-haired man? Had they thought a recessive gene had come through? They certainly hadn’t guessed their real baby girl had been switched with an imposter in the maternity ward or she wouldn’t be almost thirty with the last name Steele. Her family would’ve marched back to the hospital and handed over their changeling the minute they suspected something was wrong.
Even after the truth had come out, there wasn’t much they could do. At least at first. The news had come in a double whammy on the night of the charity event: not only had she been switched at birth, but also, the real Steele daughter—Jade Nolan—had just been kidnapped from the steps of their mansion. There was no time to process the impact of the realization. All they could do was dig up ten million dollars to pay the ransom demands.
Morgan had never seen her father that shade of sickly pale before. Not even the night he burst into her honeymoon cabin. Then, he’d been furious. The latest news just seemed to make him heartsick. Even so, he sprang into action in true Steele CEO form. The money was paid, Jade was found safe and the kidnappers had disappeared without a trace. That left a sudden silence where everyone was now absorbing what this news really meant.
Morgan still wasn’t sure what would come of all this. Her whole life, her whole identity, had been tied up in being Morgan Steele. The perfect daughter. The baby of the family. Spoiled and doted upon by her parents and her older brothers. Rich. Well-educated. Poised. The ideal member of the family to represent the Steele Tools outreach program. That identity wouldn’t change overnight, no matter what the DNA tests said. It would take time to come to terms with it all.
In the meantime, she woke up most mornings feeling lost. Who was she, really? Who would she have been if she hadn’t been switched in the nursery that day? It was too soon to know all the answers yet, but the time she’d spent with Jade and her parents had been enlightening enough. She certainly wouldn’t have gotten a private school education or gone on to study at Georgetown University. She wouldn’t have gotten a Mercedes convertible for her sixteenth birthday or a two-month trip through Europe as a high school graduation present. Her real parents couldn’t afford all that. Morgan had grown up with every luxury that should’ve been Jade’s to enjoy.
Then again, if they hadn’t been switched, then perhaps Morgan would’ve been free to live her life the way she wanted to. That was one luxury she could never afford, no matter how big her investment portfolio got.
At this point, she supposed she should be happy that her family hadn’t turned their backs on her. This had been their chance to wash their hands of her, and they hadn’t. Although she had the reputation of being the perfect princess of the family, it certainly wasn’t because she was without flaws. She was fairly sure she regularly disappointed her parents in one way or another. Not intentionally, but it still happened.
Seeing Jade with her flawless skin, white-blond hair and big dark eyes—almost a clone of her mother, Patricia Steele—made her feel like even more of a disappointment. She imagined that even bound on the floor of the dirty warehouse where they’d found her, Jade was more like the ideal Steele daughter than Morgan would ever be.
She’d only been able to spend a little time with Arthur and Carolyn Nolan, and only in a group setting, but it made her wonder if she would feel more comfortable with her biological family. Perhaps they would be so happy to spend time with their real daughter that their expectations would be lower. Perhaps they wouldn’t care that she wasn’t a perfect size two or that she’d eloped in college with a poor boy she’d loved more than anything. Maybe they would’ve supported her choices instead of erasing them.
Or maybe she was imagining a perfect situation that had never existed and never could have existed. If she’d been raised as Jade Nolan, she probably wouldn’t have met River at that bar in Five Points. Her life would’ve taken a different path. But there was no going back and no sense worrying about things like that.
A chiming sound came from her computer, accompanied by an instant message from her assistant. Miss Steele, your four o’clock appointment is here, she wrote.
Speak of the devil.
Morgan took a deep breath. And then there was that situation to deal with. It was a horrible thing to say, but the kidnapping had been a welcome distraction from River and his unexpected appearance. As though she didn’t already have enough going on in her life, he had to pop up out of nowhere. In one night—at one party, even—her past had caught up with her in more ways than one.
Now, her ex-husband was sitting just outside her office, ready to talk about how they were going to spend the summer together. She could hardly even imagine how she was going to get through this.
Morgan wanted to back out. She’d build six houses next year to make up for it. But she knew that wouldn’t fly. They’d already announced their partnership with Southern Charm Construction. If they didn’t go through with it, it would raise questions. Questions no one wanted to answer. Besides,
