Page 11 of The Heartbreaker (Chandler Brothers 3)
Which made the lie even more difficult for Sloane to understand. She shook her head and shored up her courage, knocking on the door, which swung open within seconds.
“Where have you been?” Madeline grabbed Sloane’s hand and pulled her into a motherly hug. “When you didn’t show up for dinner last night, your father and I were worried sick.”
So much for her stepmother’s calm demeanor, Sloane thought as she squeezed her back. Although Madeline was dressed for the press conference, looking very Jacqueline Kennedyesque with her dark bobbed hair and beautifully made-up face, her concern was etched in the lines around her eyes.
Despite having good reason for ditching last night’s family dinner, Sloane felt guilty for making her worry. “I’m sorry.” She twisted her fingers together, searching for the right words. “But I needed to be alone. To think.”
“About?” Madeline brushed Sloane’s hair off her shoulder, the way she used to do when Sloane was a little girl. “You can talk to me.”
Sloane nodded. “I think we’d better sit.” She followed her stepmother to the sofa in the outer area of the suite, the same room in which she’d heard Frank and Robert talking last night. “Are we alone?”
Madeline nodded. “Your father’s meeting with Frank in his room and the twins went shopping.”
“I hope you gave them a money limit,” Sloane said, laughing. Typical seventeen-year-old girls, her sisters loved to shop, and when they were at home in upstate New York, they constantly grumbled about the lack of decent malls.
“I gave them cash and confiscated the credit cards.” Madeline’s eyes twinkled with laughter but sobered quickly. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
The facade of joking fell away. Butterflies rose in Sloane’s stomach and she drew a deep breath. “I showed up for dinner last night. I was half an hour early and you and Dad weren’t back from shopping yet.” She clenched and unclenched her fists, fighting the nausea and the fear. “Frank was with Robert and they were arguing about a threat to Dad’s campaign.”
Madeline sat up straighter, her eyes wide and focused. “What kind of threat?”
“The worst kind. A personal one.” Sloane bit down on the inside of her cheek. It was harder to repeat the words than she’d thought. “A man named Samson claims to be my biological father.”
“Oh damn.”
Sloane’s eyes opened wide. Madeline Carlisle didn’t curse. Sloane did. So did her dad, as did Eden and Dawne, but Madeline believed someone in the family had to set a proper example. Her cursing wasn’t a good sign.
“So it’s true?” Sloane asked in a small voice.
Madeline grasped onto Sloane’s clenched hands and held on tight. “Yes, honey. It’s true.”
Sloane hadn’t realized it, but in her heart, she’d held out hope that Madeline would deny the claim. Instead, she’d acknowledged her worst fears. She fought back the lump in her throat, determined to get through this without falling apart.
Madeline met her gaze, and despite everything, Sloane felt the love her stepmother had always shown her.
“You need an explanation.” Madeline’s voice cracked, but she didn’t pause. “Your mother and I were best friends. I would have done anything for her. You know that. In fact, I did. I married your father so I could raise you the way your mother would have wanted.”
Sloane squeezed her stepmother’s hand. “You couldn’t have done any more.” Except tell her the truth, Sloane thought, but this conversation was difficult and even Madeline seemed to need reassurance. “You never made me feel like you loved me any less than Eden and Dawne. I love you for that.”
Madeline blinked back tears. “I love you too. And I love your father. Although, I didn’t fall in love with him until long after we’d married.”
Sloane smiled. She already knew the story of Michael and Madeline’s marriage. They often told people how they’d come to love one another as they jointly raised Sloane. But that didn’t explain the rest of the missing pieces. “How was lying best for me?”
Madeline raised steepled fingers to her lips and paused in thought. “Your mother was born and raised in Yorkshire Falls. It’s about twenty minutes from our home in Newtonville. She had been in college and was home on summer break when she fell in love with a man named Samson Humphrey.”
So that was his last name. Her head hurt and she inhaled slowly, trying to ease the pain with no success.
“What happened between my mother and … Samson?” She forced herself to say the name, as if speaking would help her accept the painful truth.
Madeline shook her head. “It’s a long story. But Jacqueline’s father, your grandfather, was a politician who thought his blood was bluer than it really was. He didn’t think Samson was good enough for his daughter, and worried about him hindering his career.”
“Because Grandfather Jack was a senator too.” She didn’t know the older man because he’d died when she was a child.
