“Yes, Mr. Willits.” The staff bops her head and spoons the sweetener in while Darby watches wide-eyed.

“I can spoon my own sugar,” she exclaims.

“Ah, but Madame prefers for us to do it,” the staff explains.

“Madame?” Darby tries out the word as if she’s never said it before.

“Gran. My grandmother. She runs this place and if it had been any other weekend, she’d be here. Thankfully, she’s not.”

“But I am here,” announces a sharp voice.

We all turn, including Jax, at this. My heart sinks at the sight of Gran sweeping in, an angry glint in her eyes.

“So you’re back,” Gran says. A staff member rushes over and pulls out a chair next to me.

“Pretty,” cries Jax and reaches for the gaudy ruby brooch that undoubtedly belonged to some dead royalty. Gran slaps his hand away.

Darby erupts, flying out of her chair and whipping Jax out of my lap. “You do not touch my son like that!” she cries. Jax immediately starts wailing at his mother’s distress.

“Well, I never,” exclaims Gran, slapping a hand across her chest. “You should’ve taught him some manners if you didn’t want him disciplined.”

“He wasn’t going to harm it. He’s just attracted to shiny things.” Darby rubs a hand down Jax’s back, but he’s worked up. The boy’s got lungs. His cries are loud and piercing. Darby’s getting agitated. A line forms in the middle of her forehead.

“Shut him up,” shouts Gran.

“Don’t tell me to shut him up,” Darby shoots back.

“Take him out of here.” Gran directs one of the staff members forward.

A blond-haired woman jumps forward, but stops in the face of Darby’s glare. Interesting. Really interesting. I rise and reach for Jax. Darby doesn’t want to let him go, but she’s anxious to get him to stop crying.

He settles down as soon as he’s in my arms, which makes her scrunch her nose in irritation.

“I’m new and shiny,” I say by way of explanation. Ronnie was like this as a toddler. She’d be inconsolable for her mom, but as soon as I walked in the room, she’d quiet. My sister said that it’s because Ronnie didn’t get to see me often so would try to behave. Emphasis on try.

Darby isn’t appeased. She crosses her arms over her chest. “I think we should go to our room.”

“Let’s finish breakfast. Jax is hungry.” And we’re all going to have to learn to live together so we might as well start now.

“Hungry.” Jax nods. “Carrots?”

“Sure. Bring me some cooked carrots.”

“Certainly.” The blonde nods.

I pull out a chair for Darby and she starts to sit when Gran says, “Whose brat is this?”

“Forget this crap,” Darby says, pushing out of the chair. “Give me Jax.”

I shake my head. “No. We’re going to have breakfast here. Gran is going to stop being difficult and Jax will eat his carrots and you will have pankcakes with powdered sugar and strawberries because this is my family. Gran,” I say to the old woman. “You wanted an heir and now you have one.”

Her jaw drops open. I tap the chair for Darby, who reluctantly takes a seat but not before shooting me an angry, unhappy look. Jax pats my cheek in what I take as silent encouragement. Once Darby is settled, I sink into my chair, making sure that Jax is far out of arm’s reach of my gran.

“Gran, Darby was at the Ward estate with Jax where they have been living since Darby’s accident. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” Some suspicions have been swirling around in my head. If Darby was telling the truth, but I was informed she’d been, there’s only a few people that could have bought the hospital staff off and one of them is sitting next to me in all her bejeweled glory. “You never did like her.”

Gran’s chin goes up. “I certainly wouldn’t have kept my great-grandson from you.”

“No, I don’t think you would have either, but Darby was only eight weeks along, so it’s possible you didn’t know. Instead, you saw an opportunity to break us up and then install one of your empty-headed heiresses in her place.”

A plate of carrots appears silently at my hand. I feed one to Jax, who gurgles happily, completely unaware of the tension at the table. Darby’s favorite breakfast is also served but she’s too upset to touch it. I force some coffee down my throat because I need something to do with my free hand lest I slap my gran with it.

“You have quite the imagination, Jonas.”

“I’ve always thought of myself as a brilliant businessman but this is a scheme I hadn’t thought you were capable of. I shouldn’t have put those limitations on, should I?”

Gran pretends great interest in a plate of egg whites that is set down in front of her. Her silence speaks for itself. A call must’ve been delivered to my office about the accident. Gran found out and took it upon herself to visit the hospital. She learned of the diagnosis of amnesia and pounced. She would’ve paid off the hospital staff and anyone else she needed to and then had Darby transferred somewhere far away. How Darby got to the Wards is a lucky miracle. Gran’s involvement stopped once Darby was out of the picture.

“You must’ve been very anxious every day, wondering if Darby would regain her memory and show up at our doorstep.”

“You should be married by now.”

Yes, that makes sense. Gran thought with Darby gone, I’d fall into someone else’s vagina, but it doesn’t work that way. Not for me at least. “Good news. I’ll be married by the end of the day.” I turn to Darby. “Feel free to go into town and pick out a dress but be back by three. I have a priest coming.”

Chapter 14

Darby

I want to scream. I think that old bat next to Jonas wants to also. She looks as though she’s eaten something sour. Jonas’ words definitely left a bad taste in the old bat’s mouth.

“You can’t just get married,” she says. I hate that I actually agree with her on something. Every bone in my body wants to go against her, but there is no way that I could side with Jonas on this one. Good ole Granny went from glaring at me to now not making eye contact at all. She does, however, keep stealing peeks at Jax.

There is no way for her to deny that he’s Jonas’ son. Each second I spend with them together only makes me realize how much they really do look alike. She may not like me for some unknown reason, but too bad for her that she’ll now have to deal with me in some capacity for the rest of her life.

“I can and I will.” Jonas cuts up the French toast, feeding Jax a piece. Acting as though his declaration of marriage is normal. Last night he didn’t even believe me about having amnesia and now he thinks he can rule my life and demand I marry him.

“This is not how things are done!” the old bat hisses. I fight myself not to nod in agreement with her. Jonas’ words about what had really happened to me bounce around in my head. Did this woman hate me so much that she went as far as taking my life away from me?

A knot forms in my stomach and I feel just as lost in this moment as I had when I woke up in that hospital bed. If Jonas’ assumptions are true then who knows what else I’ve lost because of this woman?