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  He turned from the window. “Were you talking to me? Because I don’t know anyone named Black. My name is Ash Corbett.”

  The lawyer beamed. “I think this arrangement is going to work out just fine for everyone concerned.”

  Not everyone, the imposter thought grimly.

  HE TOOK THE LAWYER’S ADVICE and began thinking of himself as Ash Corbett. It wasn’t that hard to do because Tom Black was not someone he’d ever particularly admired.

  In some ways shedding that persona was like lifting a heavy weight from his shoulders. Tom Black was a screwup, a two-bit con, a man who never seemed to catch a decent break.

  But Ash Corbett was educated and well-bred, a rebellious hell-raiser who’d chucked a fortune to go off searching for his place in the world.

  Ash Corbett was a man who would command respect wherever he went. Tom Black was invisible. Or he had been until he’d been spotted on a construction site by someone close to the Corbett family a few weeks ago.

  His mind drifted back to that fortuitous day. He and a couple of other guys had been framing out beachfront condos when he first noticed the black Mercedes drive slowly past the site. The car made another appearance the next day and again on the following day.

  For nearly a week, the car showed up at the same time and drove slowly past the site. He and the guys joked about it at first—one of them obviously had a rich admirer—but as the week wore on, uneasiness settled over the job site.

  Just what the hell was going on? they began to wonder.

  At the end of the week, another car appeared, this one a silver Jaguar that pulled to the side of the road just a few minutes before quitting time. Ash was the last one to leave that day because he’d had trouble getting his car started. As he worked under the hood, a man got out of the Jag and tentatively approached him.

  “Ash? Ash Corbett? It is you, isn’t it?”

  He glanced over his shoulder as he continued to scrape away the corrosion from his battery posts. “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong guy, buddy.”

  “You’re not Ashton Corbett?”

  “Will it get me a jump if I say yes?”

  “Forgive me,” the man said with an apologetic smile. “I thought you were someone else.”

  “Yeah, I got that,” he said dryly. “Now what about that jump?”

  “Tell you what. I’ll have my auto club come out and get your car started if you’ll give me a few minutes of your time.” When he hesitated, the man said, “I’ll even throw in a new battery.”

  “Now why would you do that?”

  “Because I have a kind soul,” the man said, but his smile was anything but pleasant. “I assure you, Mr. Black, if you’ll give me a few minutes of your time, it will be worth your while.”

  A shiver of dread snaked up his spine as he straightened from the car. “How do you know who I am?”

  The man beamed, obviously pleased with himself. “I think you’ll find that I know a great deal about you, including the fact that you’ve done some prison time. Does your current employer know that you’re an ex-con?”

  He grabbed the man by his jacket lapels and shoved him up against the car. “Who the hell are you and what do you want from me?”

  Fear flickered in the man’s eyes, but he quickly got his emotions under control. “My name is David Tobias. I’m an attorney.”

  “An attorney?” he said with contempt. He dropped his hands from the man’s coat. “I don’t have much use for lawyers.”

  “No, I imagine you wouldn’t after the raw deal you received from the State of Louisiana. The prosecution’s evidence against you was circumstantial at best. Any competent defense attorney would have gotten you off, but you were unlucky enough to get saddled with Nevil Bates as your public defender.

  “According to the records, he didn’t even cross-examine any of the state’s witnesses, nor did he object to the so-called evidence that was admitted against you. He sat there and watched an ambitious prosecutor and an overzealous judge railroad you, and now for the rest of your life you’ll have to contend with the fact that you’re a convicted felon. But if it’s any consolation, Nevil Bates has since been disbarred.”

  He listened to the attorney all the way through his exposition and then turned back to work on the battery without comment.

  “You’ve been down on your luck ever since you got out of prison, haven’t you, Mr. Black?”

  “Get lost,” he said without looking up.

  “I would go so far as to say the bad karma started on the day you were born to an alcoholic father and a drug-addicted mother. But your luck is about to change.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He slammed down the hood and wiped his hands on his grimy jeans. “And who are you? My fairy godmother?”

  “In a manner of speaking.” The lawyer’s smile made his skin scrawl. “I’m here to offer you a great deal of money, young man. And all you have to do is pretend that Tom Black never existed.”

  That part of the job had been easy enough. Tom Black could stay dead for all he cared, but the rest of the con wasn’t so easy to swallow.

  Tobias was right. He’d been down on his luck for longer than he cared to remember and he’d done some things he wasn’t proud of in order to get by. But deceiving the people who had genuinely cared about Ash Corbett was a new low even for him.

  He was a lot of things, but he’d never deliberately set out to be cruel or cold-blooded. However, desperate times called for desperate measures.

  He could do this, he told himself as he stared at his reflection in the mirror each morning. He could pull off this scam because, in some ways, he’d been preparing for it his whole life.

  TRUE TO THE LAWYER’S WORD, the cabin where he’d been staying for the past two weeks was completely isolated. No telephones, no cable TV and cell phone service was spotty at best. He didn’t have a vehicle, but David Tobias came to visit every other day to bring fresh supplies and to quiz him on his progress.

  He’d been provided a mountain of documents and photographs to go through, as well as several home videos to scrutinize for facial expressions, mannerisms and any unusual tics. He’d changed his smile and learned to hold his head a certain way. Small things like that had altered his appearance dramatically. He started to look more like the pictures of Ash that Tobias had provided, and he also spent a lot of time practicing the voice he heard on the videos. By the end of the first month, the lawyer was impressed with his progress.

  “We’re nearing D-Day,” Tobias said one evening as they sat out on the back deck watching the sun sink below the treetops. Squirrels rushed back and forth on leafy branches overhead while a rabbit nibbled at a bed of impatiens. In another hour or so when dusk was upon them, the deer would come out. Ash would some times sit in the dark for hours watching the wildlife and thinking about the con he was about to perpetuate on an unsuspecting family.

  No matter how he justified his actions, when all was said and done, a lot of lives were going to be changed, maybe even destroyed if he wasn’t careful.

  “When do I make contact?”

  Without answering, Tobias opened his ever-present briefcase and took out a stack of photographs. “These are new,” he said. “Go through them carefully and make sure you recognize everyone in all the shots.”

  He did as the lawyer told him, flinging each photograph onto the table as he recited names aloud.

  “My Uncle Wesley and his wife, Pamela. My Uncle Brad and his wife, Lynette. Aunt Maris. Grandmother.”

  He continued through the pictures, which included more shots of the family, as well as the staff. He paused on a picture of a young woman who’d been caught in the same frame as the caretaker, Dominick Novick.

  After studying the photograph for a moment, he passed it to Tobias. “Who is this woman?”

  Tobias glanced at the picture, then tossed it onto the table with the rest. “That’s Emma Novick. She’s the caretaker’s daughter. You’ve seen pictures of her,” he said. “She may even have turned up in
one or two of the home videos I gave you. I know I told you about her. She works for Helen now.”

  Ash reached for the picture, his brow furrowing as his gaze fastened on the young woman’s face. “She looks different,” he muttered.

  “That’s to be expected. She was just a teenager when you left. Now she must be…what? Nearly thirty, I would imagine.”

  He couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the picture. The woman had her head turned away from the camera, and the way she stood near the edge of the frame made him wonder if she’d tried to take herself out of the shot. He couldn’t see her face clearly, but he had the impression of sadness.

  She was a far cry from the smiling girl who’d been captured in the home videos alongside Ash. Tobias had said the two of them had been inseparable when Ash first came to live with his grandmother, but as they grew older, Helen had made sure that they both knew their places.

  She’d sent Ash to a boarding school up north so that he could cultivate the right sort of friendships, and when he was home during holidays and summer, she filled his time with lavish parties and glittering soirees.

  According to Tobias, Ash had outgrown his friendship with Emma, but she’d worn her heart on her sleeve in those old home videos. The way she gazed at him when she thought no one was looking was a dead giveaway.

  The video camera had captured a quietly beautiful girl with long dark hair and wide, soulful eyes. But as he stared at the woman she’d become, something akin to pity stirred inside him.

  She’d had a difficult life. A bad divorce. A tragic love affair. Something had etched unhappiness deeply into the delicate curve of her back and shoulders. As he stared at the picture, he felt an unexpected connection with her, a bond that he couldn’t deny.

  He glanced up and found the lawyer’s eyes on him.

  Tobias said softly, “I know what you’re thinking. But don’t get any ideas.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Emma Novick. She’s still pretty enough, I suppose, but she’s not the sort of woman that Ash Corbett would ever be attracted to.”

  “And you know this how?”

  Tobias reached over and snatched the picture from his hand. “Don’t complicate things. You need to put all your focus on Helen.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” the imposter said with a frown. “I know my part.”

  And God help him, he intended to see this thing through, no matter what it cost him.

  Chapter Three

  When Emma picked up the phone in her room that evening, she was taken by surprise to hear her employer’s voice on the other end. Helen Corbett rarely sent for her once she’d been dismissed for the day, and it was even more unusual that she would ask Emma to come to her suite rather than to the downstairs study where they normally worked.

  Emma had only been to the wing that housed Helen’s private quarters once in the whole time she’d been living in the mansion and that was to deliver a package. Helen hadn’t invited her in that day and she’d made it clear that once she retired upstairs, she was not to be disturbed for any reason.

  That frosty admonition was still fresh in Emma’s mind, and even though Helen had summoned her this time, she still felt a measure of trepidation as she knocked softly on the door before stepping inside.

  Pausing just inside the doorway, Emma glanced around curiously. The first thing that struck her upon entering the suite was that the heavy ornate furniture and rich burgundy color scheme suited Helen.

  The vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows made the room seem stately and regal, while the sumptuous silk draperies and crystal chandelier provided a touch of opulence. The elegant, old-world décor reeked of refinement and tasteful indulgence—the kind that came from generations of wealth.

  Emma was suddenly glad that she hadn’t changed out of her navy suit. The jeans and sneakers she normally put on after work would have felt out of place in such luxurious accommodations.

  She didn’t have a clue why Helen wanted to see her so late in the day, but she wondered if it might have something to do with the visit earlier from David Tobias, Helen’s lawyer. He’d come to the house right after lunch and Helen had sent Emma away because she needed to speak to him in private.

  Emma had used the time to get some fresh air. She’d been sitting in the garden reading when she heard David Tobias’s car pull away from the house and head down the winding drive. She’d gone back inside to see if Helen wanted to finish the correspondence they’d been composing when the lawyer’s visit interrupted them.

  But the older woman had been too distracted to concentrate and instead had found fault with every little thing Emma did.

  Finally, Helen had thrown her hands up in exasperation and left the study, muttering to herself about a certain person’s incompetence. She’d gone straight upstairs and sequestered herself in her room until sending for Emma a few minutes ago.

  “It’s me, Mrs. Corbett. Emma.” She closed the door and hurried across the thick carpeting of the sitting room to the arched doorway that led into the bedroom.

  Helen’s inner sanctum was airy and bright, less formal than the sitting room, but still elegant and lovely with its corner fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows.

  One of Helen’s three-toed cats lay curled on the rug napping and twitching in a patch of dappled sunlight. Somehow the sight of the cat, so relaxed and unaffected by the grandeur of its surroundings, made Emma feel a little less intimidated.

  “You wanted to see me?” she asked from the doorway.

  The older woman was seated at her dressing table and Emma could smell her signature fragrance, an exotic blend of tuberose and lilies of the valley that was made for her by a famous perfumer in Paris.

  Helen half turned on the stool. “I need your assistance, Emma. I sent Theresa away because she had the sniffles and God knows the last thing I need is to come down with a summer cold.”

  Theresa Ramon had been Helen’s personal maid for as long as Emma could remember. She was getting on in years herself, but she still catered to her employer’s every whim. And since the stroke, she’d become indispensable, though Helen would never admit.

  “Of course, Mrs. Corbett, how can I help?”

  “I’m having some difficulty with the clasp on this necklace. It’s always been contrary.” Helen’s dexterity had been severely compromised by her illness, but she would never admit that, either. Far better to pretend that the jewelry was faulty.

  “Here, let me see if I can get it to work.”

  Helen handed the necklace to Emma as she turned back to the dressing table and their gazes met in the mirror.

  She looks different, Emma thought in surprise.

  And then she realized why. Helen’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement and the corners of her mouth twitched from time to time, as if she were harboring a secret.

  Whatever news David Tobias had brought her obviously agreed with her now that she’d had time to digest it.

  In spite of her age and health, Helen was still an attractive woman. She’d never been a great beauty, but she’d always had presence. A regal persona with more than a hint of mystery.

  When Emma was little, she used to climb the oak tree that grew at the edge of the flagstone terrace and hide in the branches so that she could watch the lavish parties in the mansion. It was like having a glimpse into a magical world that she could hardly imagine.

  The terrace would be aglow with tiny white lights in the shrubbery and candles set adrift in the spectacular pool. In the spring when the roses were out, the scent would fill the night air, along with the sweet aroma of lilies and camellias and hothouse-grown narcissuses.

  In the summer, the more exotic fragrances of jasmine and plumeria would hang drowsy and seductive in the heat.

  And in the center of it all, elegant and aloof Helen in her silks and diamonds. Always diamonds. The icy jewels fitted her perfectly—cold and hard on the outside, but with flashes of fire on the inside.

 
; “Well?” Helen demanded. “Can you get it to work or not?”

  “Sorry.” Emma shook off the memories as she clicked the safety catch into place. The sparkle from the stones drew her gaze back to the older woman’s reflection. “You look lovely tonight, Mrs. Corbett.”

  “You don’t need to flatter me, Emma, I’m not delusional. Or blind. I can see my reflection with my own two eyes. I’m an old woman. My day has passed.”

  But in spite of her derisive tone, something hopeful seemed to linger in her blue eyes as she ran her fingers down the silky sleeve of her gown. “I suppose I may be a bit overdressed for a family dinner, but it’s a special occasion. I want to look my best tonight because I have an important announcement to make. I’ve instructed everyone to be here no later than eight.”

  An important announcement? Emma wondered what it might be.

  She glanced at her watch. “It’s almost eight now. And I was just on my way out. Shall I walk with you downstairs?”

  It was a tricky business offering Helen assistance without seeming to. But Emma had learned the hard way that her employer had little patience for those who would try to mollycoddle her because of her age or health, and her pride would never allow her to ask for assistance even if she needed it.

  “In a moment.” Helen’s eyes were still on Emma in the mirror, but the subtle excitement had turned coy. She fussed with her hair even though every curl was perfectly in place. “You must be curious about my announcement, Emma.”

  She hesitated, not certain how she should answer such a leading question. What did Helen want her to say?

  “I assumed it was a family matter,” she said with a slight shrug. Meaning it was none of her business.

  Helen carefully blotted her lips on a tissue. “It is. But you’ll find out soon enough. And I expect the news will surprise you as much as anyone.”