I want to go to him. I want to step behind him, put my arms around him, and hold him close.
But that’s only my own selfish desire.
What Jackson wants—no, what Jackson needs—is to get lost in his work. I can practically feel the concentration and pleasure rolling off him, and I don’t want to be the one to take him from that. Not now. Not tonight.
I’m about to turn around and return below when a woman’s voice stops me. “I’m back. Sorry. This early, coffee is a necessity.”
“Thanks for this, Amy,” Jackson says. “I didn’t actually expect you to answer my email until later.”
For a moment, I’m confused, then I see that he’s on a video call. I shift to the left so I can see the tablet screen, and realize that he’s talking to Amy Brantley, his estate and family law attorney in Santa Fe.
“It’s almost six here, and I’ve started getting up before dawn to go to the gym. I figured I’d rather talk to you. Are you hanging in there? Ms. Frederick doing all right by you?”
“She’s doing as good a job as she can, but we both know there are no guarantees.”
“No,” Amy says. “There aren’t.”
“I spoke with Stella yesterday. Betty won’t say a word, but her health is deteriorating fast.”
“I know,” Amy says. “I was actually going to give you a call later today. Right now, if anything happens to Betty while she’s caring for Ronnie, custody shifts to you pending establishment of your paternal rights. But if you’re incarcerated, then the next in line is still Megan, at least on paper. Are you okay with that?”
He hesitates, and though I know that it pains him to admit it, he says very simply, “No.”
It’s the right choice, of course. Megan may be Ronnie’s biological aunt, but she’s checked herself into a clinic as she battles mental health issues, and though I know it breaks Jackson’s heart, she’s in no position to take care of his daughter.
“I didn’t think so,” Amy says. “And frankly, with Megan having admitted herself to a clinic, the court might refuse to put Ronnie with her. She’d end up in foster care unless Arvin takes her,” she adds, referring to Megan’s father. He’s the man who hired Jackson to build the Santa Fe house that is now the focus of the movie that Reed was determined to make. And although Arvin Fletcher is Ronnie’s grandfather, he has distanced himself far, far away from the child.
“That would be worse,” Jackson says dryly. “And we both know Arvin would never accept custody. But the truth is, I’ve been thinking about all of that; it’s one of the reasons I’m calling. That, and to make some financial arrangements.” He drags his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been up all night thinking about it. I know Ronnie inherited money from Amelia,” he says, “but that’s in trust and it shouldn’t be used for her day-to-day care.”
Amelia is Ronnie’s birth mother. More than that, she’s the reason the movie is even on Hollywood’s radar. Though no script has been officially released, it’s no secret that the movie centers around tragedy at the Fletcher Residence, an amazing Santa Fe house designed and built by Jackson. The project, actually, that put Jackson Steele on the map and turned him from a simple architect into a starchitect—a celebrity architect with all the baggage that goes with the title.
Back when Jackson was building the Fletcher Residence for Arvin—one of the country’s wealthiest men—Jackson began dating Amelia’s identical twin sister, Carolyn. Amelia wanted Jackson for her own, and was crazy enough to impersonate her sister in bed, a single night that left her pregnant with Jackson’s child—Ronnie. After the house was built and Jackson had moved on, the little girl was born—and that’s when Amelia went completely off the rails. She killed her sister and then she killed herself, leaving Ronnie to be raised by the twins’ older sister, Megan—and attracting the attention of Hollywood’s scandal hounds.
Since Amelia had quite the lineup of men going through her bedroom, the Hollywood people don’t know that Ronnie is Jackson’s daughter, and they probably won’t make that connection until the court confirms paternity or Jackson’s petition finds its way to the press. They see only a murder-suicide that centers around the amazing house that made Jackson’s career and the love triangle that destroyed two young women, both of whom wanted the same man.
When Jackson learned that Ronnie was truly his daughter, he considered petitioning for custody right away, but he also knew that the scandal surrounding the house and the buzz about a possible movie would thrust the little girl into a media feeding frenzy. She was safe and loved with her aunt Megan and her uncle Tony, with her great-grandmother Betty helping from the sidelines. Jackson took on the role of uncle, visiting her and supporting her financially.
