Johnson Family 1: Unforgettable (14 page)

Cyrus and Trenton approached and shook his hand. Cyrus’s face maintained the usual rigid lines, as if his jaw would hurt if he dared crack a smile. Trenton at least fixed his face into a more friendly expression, although his eyes remain guarded.

After the introductions, Adelina, their housekeeper, appeared in the doorway. She and Constance had grown up in the same household together in Texas and Adelina was more of a friend than an employee. When Constance had moved to Seattle as a new wife, she’d asked Adelina to come with her and help her run her new household.

“Dinner is almost ready,” Adelina said, her voice accented with a hint of her Mexican roots.

“Since we have a little time, I’m going to borrow Ivy for a few minutes,” Cyrus announced. Before Ivy could agree or disagree, he drew her from the room with a firm hand clasped below her elbow. She felt the weight of their mother’s disapproving frown as they exited the room.

“Mother’s going to kill you,” Ivy said. “What’s so important you couldn’t wait until after dinner?”

They entered the library, a place filled with books their father had collected over the years. Many first editions, some worth well into the thousands of dollars, lined the shelves or lay encased in protective glass.

Without a word, Cyrus handed her a file.

“What’s this?” Ivy asked.

“I looked into Lucas Baylor.”

Although she wasn’t surprised her brother had done a background check, it still annoyed her. “I asked you not to meddle.”

“Did you really think I’d welcome him into the family without checking him out first?”

“We can’t unwelcome him. He’s Katie’s father,” she reminded him.

“We should at least know what and who we’re dealing with.”

“You need a life, Cyrus.”

“Let’s not make this about me. Open it.”

Ivy perused the file, and he continued talking. “Did you know he was part of the foster system for years? He got into all sorts of trouble—fighting, stealing, and he almost flunked out of school. He was a real juvenile delinquent.”

Ivy looked up from the second page, which contained information about Lucas’s height, weight, even down to his shoe size. Cyrus’s guy was very thorough.

“Yes, I know all about his past. He was abandoned at Grady Hospital in Atlanta. They estimated he was a year old at the time, but they don’t know for sure. He doesn’t know who he is. He doesn’t know who his parents are or why they left him. He doesn’t know his real name. He doesn’t know his birthday—doesn’t even celebrate it because obviously he doesn’t know when it is. Yes, he had some bad behavior, but he straightened out in high school.”

Cyrus actually appeared speechless, which was a first.

“Did you know all of this when you became involved with him?”

“Some of it I learned afterward, but for the most part, yes.” She didn’t know what that had to do with anything.

“Why do you do this, Ivy?” He sounded annoyed with her.

“Do what?” She slammed the file closed.

“Get involved with men who are no good for you?”

“That’s not what you mean. Don’t you mean not good enough for you?”

“This isn’t about me.”

“You’re sure? Because you seem very interested in my personal life right now.” He always had been, particularly after “the incident.”

“To protect you.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need protecting.” She appreciated his concern, but Cyrus’s overbearing, big brother routine drove her crazy.

“All I’m saying is, be careful,” he said. “When people find out the truth, that you lied and let another man raise Katie as his own, they may not look too favorably on you.”

She knew that and had thought about it for days. “They’re going to eventually find out. We can’t keep this a secret forever, and frankly, I don’t think it’ll be as catastrophic as you think. I had Katie eight years ago, and Winston’s been dead for two. People don’t care as much as you think they do.”

“I disagree. As much as possible we’ve cultivated a private and scandal-free life, but there’s bound to be a media firestorm when it gets out that Winston wasn’t Katie’s father. That while you were supposedly engaged to him, you became pregnant with another man’s child.”

Aside from Jim Koch of Samuel Adams, the average consumer didn’t know who owned the company that made their favorite beer. Being black billionaires and running such a large, privately-owned brewing company, the Johnsons tended to make the news whether they wanted to or not. They were a novelty, which made people curious about their lives.

“It’s ancient history,” Ivy pushed back, wanting to believe this entire issue was a nonissue and ignore Cyrus’s prediction of doom.

“Listen to me,” Cyrus said, “I’m not saying all of this to scare you, but after what happened last time, we can’t be too careful.”

Why did he have to bring that up? “I was
seventeen
, Cyrus. I made a mistake.”

Her involvement with Eric Atkerson had been the biggest mistake she’d ever made and caused more drama than she cared to remember. He’d been a sophomore attending the University of Washington on a basketball scholarship, and she’d lied about her age, telling him she was eighteen when she was only seventeen. Getting involved with him had been an act of rebellion. She and her friends had wanted to be bad, cool—whatever young girls wanted at that age, and Eric had a dangerous edge and a roughness about him she wasn’t accustomed to from the boys at her prep school. He offered the right amount of excitement to make her young heart race and keep her coming back for more.

She allowed him to video tape them having sex. He’d promised it was for their eyes only and no one else would see it, and she’d believed him. It had been a disastrous mistake. Eric tried to shop the film, but because of her age, no one would touch it. The family lawyers easily suppressed its distribution, but it still made the rounds.

To know a video had circulated online and remained dormant in computer caches and hidden in the archives of cell phones still managed to make Ivy feel queasy. Most of her friends had distanced themselves after the story came out, but Winston had been one of the few who’d remained loyal during the entire ordeal.

Cyrus and her brothers had closed rank immediately. Trenton had been too young to participate in the retaliation, but Gavin, Cyrus, and Xavier wasted no time finding Eric and they let Gavin—the wild one, who wanted to handle this himself for his twin—whoop his ass. They forced him to apologize to Ivy, but the damage had been done.

The media had had a field day, linking the evils of beer with what they called her “wild child antics.” There had even been speculation that she’d been drunk when she shot the video, and those rumors had taken on a life of their own. She’d been likened to a drug pusher, encouraging underage drinking among her friends, though nothing could be further from the truth.

Except for the beat down, Eric came out of the entire ordeal practically unscathed, but her reputation had been in a shambles. She’d been called a whore, that word being the least derogatory of some of the name-calling. The International Debutante Ball in New York rescinded her invitation. Her aunt had managed to wrangle the invite, using all of her connections and calling in favors to ensure Ivy had the proper coming out. All had been for naught and the disappointment expressed by her aunt and her parents had been just as crushing as knowing she’d been used as a pawn in a cruel game.

To this day Ivy didn’t think either of her parents knew the truth about her brothers’ involvement in the retribution. Eric’s parents had filed a civil lawsuit against the Johnsons, which had been tossed out of court for lack of evidence. Cyrus had been ruthlessly thorough. He’d hired ironclad alibis for him and his brothers before he planned the attack.

“Do you still have feelings for Lucas?” Cyrus asked.

“Cy—”

He swore and placed both hands on her shoulders. “Tell me the truth.”

She sighed. She didn’t want to discuss her feelings for Lucas. “I don’t know what I feel. Mostly guilt that I’ve kept him and Katie apart for so long. Seeing them together and their closeness makes it worse. It’s clear I made the wrong decision nine years ago.”

“You made the best decision you could at the time, and you didn’t make it on your own. We all did it with you.”

Ivy held out the documents to him. “I don’t need this.”

“Keep it.”

“I guess you already made a copy for yourself?”

“Don’t I always?” He grinned sideways. He so rarely smiled, it surprised her. Why didn’t he smile more? He should definitely smile more.

She tucked the file into her purse.

“Come on, let’s go before Mother gets upset and castrates me for making her hold dinner for us,” he said.

“She would never castrate you. You know you’re her favorite because you remind her of dad.”

He smiled again, which made her happy.

Chapter Sixteen

Lucas had the distinct impression Cyrus didn’t like him. The guy looked at him as if he thought he’d run off with the silverware, and his distrust irked Lucas. He resigned himself to the thought that it was probably just brotherly protectiveness and focused on his surroundings.

Sunday dinner at the Johnsons was quite the affair. The servants served the meal in the formal dining room at a table that seated ten and had two chandeliers hanging overhead.

Constance sat at the head of the table. Lucas, Katie, and Ivy sat to her left, and Cyrus and Trenton across from them. The delicious feast started with a first course of white bean soup with wild mushrooms, followed by a mixed green salad with apples and what tasted like homemade buttermilk dressing. The main entrée, a slow-roasted prime rib accompanied by roasted fingerling potatoes and candied carrots, practically melted in Lucas’s mouth.

“Adelina’s an excellent cook,” he said halfway through the meal. Since he hadn’t received the grilling he’d expected, he’d relaxed considerably.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Constance said.

“Anybody home?” A male voice boomed from near the front of the house, and everyone looked up from their plates.

“Uncle Xavier!” Katie said in an excited whisper. She rushed out of the room, followed by the rest of the family. Lucas pulled up the rear in time to see his daughter leap into her uncle’s arms.

Lucas remembered Ivy talking about her older brother, the one right behind Cyrus, but Xavier Johnson was not what he expected. The more he learned about this family, the more he recognized the uniqueness of each member. The way he was dressed, no one would ever guess Xavier was worth billions. A red, gold, and green dashiki covered the upper half of his tall frame, and a pair of worn jeans encased his legs. He had a head full of dreadlocks pulled back from his face and secured with a leather strap. He’d dropped an olive-green army duffel bag to the floor when Katie ran to him.

“You’ve gotten big,” he said. “I can barely lift you.”

Katie giggled. “What did you bring me?”

“Nothing. Except this.” Xavier pulled out a small figurine, ash gray in color.

Katie took it from him. “What is it?”

“It’s called the ‘Thinking Man.’ I thought it would be perfect for my very smart niece. It’s made of Kisii stone.”

Katie ran her fingers lightly over the abstract design. “Kisii stone,” she repeated.

“That’s right. It’s named after the Kisii tribe in Kenya. They hand carve all kinds of objects, but I thought this one would be perfect for you. Take good care of it, okay?”

“I will,” Katie said solemnly. Lucas knew she would by the way she clutched the object to her chest.

Xavier let her slide down and his eyes swept over his family. They rested briefly on Lucas, a question in them before he embraced Trenton, Adelina, Ivy, and then his mother. The hugs he gave the women lasted much longer, and they clearly enjoyed them, laying their heads against his chest with smiles of contentment on their faces.

Constance patted his cheek. “It’s good to have you home.”

She turned around and introduced Lucas. When Lucas shook Xavier’s hand, he noted not only the strength in his handshake but the roughness of his hands, verifying he was no pampered billionaire. He worked with his hands and worked hard.

If Xavier was surprised to learn Katie’s real father had shown up for dinner, he didn’t let on. “Welcome,” he said to Lucas.

“I’m surprised I got the opportunity to meet you,” Lucas said. “From what I understand, your work keeps you in Africa most of the time.” Xavier was an ambassador of sorts, working with various nonprofit organizations. They brought attention to the plight of Africans in underdeveloped regions and shined the spotlight on how the continent’s resources were being exploited without the financial benefits trickling down to ordinary citizens.

“Usually,” Xavier confirmed, “but I have to come home every now and again to spend time with the family.”

“Every time you come home you’re so skinny,” Adelina said, shaking her head.

“I don’t have access to your delicious meals over there.” Xavier patted his stomach. “Something smells good, though, and I’m tired of eating antelope.”

Katie gasped, eyes wide. “Antelope?”