Double Life Read online

Was she being fired? Emma wondered in sudden alarm.

  Then in the next instant she chided herself for jumping to conclusions. Although Helen never complimented her work, Emma knew only too well that the older woman wouldn’t hesitate to voice her displeasure if she found Emma’s performance lacking.

  Besides, her dismissal would hardly be cause for a formal announcement at a family dinner.

  “You know that my lawyer came to see me today,” Helen said.

  Emma nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  “He brought me some news that was quite unex pected. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I hardly dared believe it was true.”

  Emma was curious in spite of herself. “Good news, I take it.”

  “If it’s true, it could be a miracle. The answer to all my prayers.” Helen’s hands trembled as she put the tissue to her mouth again, this time to quell a sudden tide of emotion.

  Emma was shocked. She’d never seen her like this. The action was so unlike the stoic Helen. Even in the wake of a devastating stroke, her strength had never wavered.

  “What is it?” she couldn’t help asking.

  The gleam in Helen’s eyes was a hard, brilliant blue. She was emotional, yes, but the calculation was still there, too. She had something on her mind…something that involved Emma.

  Her nerves tingled in warning as their gazes connected again in the mirror.

  Helen’s chin lifted imperiously. “David came to tell me that Ash is back.”

  For a split second, her words didn’t register with Emma. And then when the name sank in, the realization hit her straight in the gut.

  She had to struggle to school her own emotions. She had to remind herself quickly that Helen knew nothing of Emma’s late-night trysts with Ash. She knew nothing of the whispered confessions, the heated caresses that Emma had shared with the woman’s beloved grandson.

  “Ash is back,” she repeated numbly.

  “That’s what David came to tell me today.”

  “He’s…here? In Jacob’s Pass?”

  “No, not yet. Apparently, he’s in Corpus Christi. He contacted David a few days ago and asked to see me.”

  “A few days ago,” Emma said in a shell-shocked voice. Ash had been in Corpus Christi a few days ago.

  He was still there, just a few miles from her at that very moment….

  “I don’t understand,” she said softly. “Why would he go see your lawyer instead of coming here?”

  “He thought the shock might be too great for me. And given the circumstances surrounding his abrupt departure, I suppose he might also wonder about his welcome.”

  Emma was still having a hard time catching her breath. “Did Mr. Tobias say where he’s been all this time?”

  “Here and there, I gather.” The glitter in Helen’s eyes rivaled her diamonds. She didn’t take her gaze off Emma even for a second. “He did some time in the army. Traveled around a great deal. I expect we’ll have to get the full story from Ash.”

  Emma’s mouth had gone so dry she was almost afraid to speak. But she knew that Helen expected a response and she couldn’t let the knot in her throat or the sudden tremble at the backs of her knees give her away.

  “I still can’t believe it,” she said, amazed that her voice could sound so normal when her mind raced with questions. “If he’s alive and well, why did he never contact…you?” She had almost said me. Emma tried to gather as much of her poise as she could before continuing. If she valued her job, she had to be careful what she said to Helen. “Why weren’t your detectives able to find him?”

  Helen’s mouth thinned. “There were no detectives.”

  “But I thought…”

  “That I’d hired private detectives to track down my grandson?” She tossed the tissue aside. “Everyone assumed that’s what I’d do. Ash may have thought so as well, but it was his decision to leave. I wasn’t going to hunt him down like a criminal, nor was I of a mind to beg him to come back home.”

  So you let him walk out of our lives.

  Emma could hardly believe what she was hearing. She’d always assumed that Helen had moved heaven and earth to bring Ash back home, which was why she could never understand how he’d been able to just disappear the way he had.

  But Helen hadn’t even tried to find him. She’d let him go without a word.

  If only Emma had known the truth back then…

  And just what would you have done?

  What could she have done? She’d barely been seventeen when Ash left home. She wouldn’t have had the resources to hire a private investigator herself, nor would she have known how to go about finding him on her own.

  Emma had eventually convinced herself that Ash must have met with a tragic misfortune because there was no other possible explanation for his silence. The young man she’d known and loved would never have knowingly left her in limbo if he could have helped it.

  But apparently that’s exactly what he did do.

  And now he was back.

  Helen’s voice broke into Emma’s thoughts. “You don’t approve of the way I handled the situation back then?”

  The question stunned Emma. Why would Helen care what she thought?

  She swallowed past the emotion gathering in her throat and shrugged. “It’s really none of my business. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

  “But you and Ash were friends at one time. You must have wondered why he left. Or…did he tell you?” The question was subtle, but Emma heard a hint of accusation in Helen’s tone.

  She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

  “He never contacted you after he left home?”

  Emma’s stomach tightened in dread. What was Helen fishing for?

  “I never heard a word from him,” she said truthfully. “Why would you think that I had?”

  “I didn’t. Not really.”

  Helen frowned into the mirror and she suddenly looked every one of her seventy-nine years. Whatever decisions she’d made regarding Ash hadn’t been without regrets.

  Small consolation, Emma thought bitterly.

  “Perhaps I should have handled things differently, but he was such a headstrong boy,” Helen said. “So much like his father. Reese left home, too, you know. He came back, of course, as I knew he would, but he brought that woman into our lives.”

  The hatred that quivered in her voice was yet another shock to Emma. She’d never known that Helen harbored any animosity for Ash’s mother.

  When Emma was little, the staff would chatter freely around her because most of the time no one even noticed her. She usually managed to overhear the latest gossip regarding the Corbetts, but she couldn’t remember any talk about a rift between Helen and Renata.

  Emma barely remembered Ash’s parents. They hadn’t lived at the mansion with Helen, and as far as Emma knew, rarely even visited, although by the time Ash was born, his father was already in charge of Corbett Enterprises.

  On the occasions when Reese did show up at the estate, he always came alone, but until now Emma hadn’t realized the significance of his solitary visits. Obviously Helen hadn’t approved of his wife.

  Emma did have one fleeting memory of Renata Corbett. It came back to her now as Helen fretted with the diamond necklace. Emma had only been ten or eleven at the time and she’d been hiding in the oak tree during one of Helen’s magnificent balls.

  As she peered through the branches, she saw a dark-haired woman in a strapless blue evening gown run onto the terrace. Emma’s breath had caught at the sight. The woman looked like a movie star or an exotic princess. Emma had never seen anyone so beautiful.

  A few moments later, Reese Corbett had followed her out to the terrace and the two of them had gotten into an argument. Bits of that conversation came back to Emma and she wondered why she hadn’t remembered it until now.

  “We can’t put her off forever, Renata,” Reese had said. “She wants to see her grandson.”

  “That�
�s why she invited me here tonight, isn’t it? She’s finally willing to accept me if it means she can get her clutches into my son. It will never happen, Reese. Not as long as I’m alive.”

  “He’s my son, too, Renata.”

  “Not for long. I’m taking him back to Italy as soon as I can make the arrangements. If anyone tries to stop me, I’ll go to the police.”

  “With what? Speculation? Gossip? No one will believe you.”

  “Are you willing to take that chance?”

  “Renata, please. Just give me a little more time.”

  “We’re running out of time. Can’t you see that? The longer we stay here, the greater her influence over Ash. My mind is made up, Reese. I love you and I wish with all my heart that you would come away with us. But I’m very much afraid that you will never leave here again.”

  Neither of them said anything for a long time, and then Renata walked over and lifted her hand to caress his cheek.

  “You’re a good man, Reese. A decent man. You’re not like the others. Always remember that.”

  “I’m a Corbett,” he’d said bitterly, removing her hand from his face. “Nothing will ever change that.”

  The memory drifted away and Helen’s reflection wavered back into focus. She looked at Emma strangely, as if she somehow knew what she was thinking.

  A shiver raced up Emma’s spine. What did the memory mean? And why had she never thought of it until now? Maybe the hatred in Helen’s tone when she spoke of her dead daughter-in-law had triggered it. Emma had forgotten the conversation because until now it meant nothing to her.

  Obviously, there had been no love lost between Helen and Renata, and Emma couldn’t help wondering why they’d disliked each other so intensely. Was it simply a case of an overbearing mother-in-law with too much control over her grown son’s life?

  Or had Renata another reason for despising Helen? She’d sounded almost afraid of her.

  She’s finally willing to accept me if it means she can get her clutches into my son. It will never happen, Reese. Not as long as I’m alive.

  Emma’s gaze darted away from Helen’s reflection as a terrible thought seized her.

  Not as long as I’m alive.

  Don’t, Emma warned herself. She would be foolish to make too much of conversation that she’d overheard nearly twenty years ago. For all she knew, her subcon scious could have manufactured the memory, or at least part of it. She’d always had an active fantasy life, particularly when it came to the Corbetts.

  Her gaze flickered back to Helen’s. She was a moody, cantankerous, sometimes-cruel old woman, but she wasn’t a murderer. No matter how much she’d hated and resented her son’s wife, she would never have done anything to hurt her. She couldn’t have had a part in Renata’s death.

  “Ash and I had a terrible argument the night he left home,” Helen said. “He forced my hand. I couldn’t send someone after him without seeming weak.”

  Emma wondered if the explanation was for her benefit or if Helen were trying to reassure herself that she’d done the right thing.

  “What did you argue about?” she tried to ask without emotion. Without accusation.

  Helen’s rare moment of self-doubt vanished as obstinacy settled over her features. “The details are no one else’s concern, but I had my reasons for letting him go. I knew that when the time came, he’d return to me—just as his father had before him—ready to assume the responsibilities of his heritage.”

  The responsibilities of his heritage.

  The barrier that had always stood between them, Emma thought with a sudden stab of anger. Maybe that was why Renata had resented her, too.

  Reese had been Helen’s eldest son and he’d been groomed from childhood to take over the family holdings.

  When he was killed in a car accident, his controlling interest in the company had reverted back to Helen to be held in trust for Ash, when and if she deemed him ready to assume the reins.

  Something else came back to Emma now, something she hadn’t thought about in years. A few weeks after Reese’s funeral, Ash’s mother had packed their bags and taken him back to Italy to live with her family. She’d overheard some of the staff talking about it, but if there’d been speculation at the time regarding her motives, Emma didn’t remember it. They’d seemed to think it only natural that the young mother would want to be with her own family while she grieved.

  But a few months later, tragedy struck again. Depressed and despondent over her husband’s death, Renata took an overdose of sleeping pills one night and never woke up. Twelve-year-old Ash found himself once more uprooted from his home and brought back to live with his paternal grandmother, who had been awarded guardianship.

  Emma could still remember the day that Ash arrived at the estate, a quiet adolescent with the saddest eyes she’d ever looked into. He hadn’t spoken two words to her that day, had barely even acknowledged her presence. But for Emma, it had been love at first sight.

  “And now he’s back,” she murmured.

  “Yes,” Helen said on a sigh. “He’s come back home where he belongs. But David says I mustn’t get my hopes up just yet.”

  Emma frowned. “Why not? He’s seen Ash, hasn’t he?”

  “Yes. He’s also done a preliminary investigation and so far his story checks out.”

  “His story?”

  “Apparently his appearance has changed quite dramatically. He was in an accident and had to have some reconstructive surgery.”

  “What kind of accident?” Emma asked anxiously. Was he badly hurt? Did he make a full recovery?

  “A car accident. He claims the surgery altered his appearance, but David isn’t completely convinced.” Helen paused, her expression turning thoughtful. “Of course, as my attorney, he has to be cautious. If he were to bring an imposter into my home it would be the end of his career, to say the very least.”

  The notion had never even occurred to Emma.

  An imposter. A man only claiming to be Ash.

  That would certainly explain his silence all these years.

  Emma didn’t know whether the idea of an imposter made her feel better or worse. She wanted to believe that Ash was still alive and well somewhere, but the knowledge that he had been able to leave her so easily rankled, though she told herself she was a fool for still caring.

  Whether he was an imposter or not, he wasn’t the same man she’d fallen in love with. The same man who had held her so tenderly and kissed her so passionately that summer. What they’d shared had been nothing more than a teenage infatuation. A forbidden relationship elevated in importance by its very secrecy.

  Emma drew a breath. “I don’t see how anyone could pull off a scam like that with modern technology. All you have to do is have a DNA test performed.”

  Helen scoffed. “Now you sound like David. Do you really think that I won’t know my own grandson? Twelve years won’t have changed him that much. Ten minutes in the same room and I’ll know if he’s Ash.”

  It won’t even take me that long.

  All Emma had to do was look into his eyes.

  Helen reached for her cane and struggled to stand. Emma knew better than to offer assistance. She waited until Helen was steady on her feet, then said, “I’ll walk down with you. I’m on my way out to see Dad.”

  Helen nodded as she crossed the room. She was a few paces ahead of Emma and she turned to glance over her shoulder. “What I just told you isn’t public knowledge yet. I don’t want the news getting out until I’ve seen this young man for myself.”

  “I won’t say anything. Not even to Dad.”

  “Thank you.” Before she stepped into the hall, Helen paused again. “You must be wondering why I confided in you when I haven’t even told the family yet.”

  “I’m sure you have your reasons,” Emma murmured.

  Helen’s hand curled around the silver head of her cane, and Emma saw her knuckles turn white as her grasp tightened. “I know at one time you fancied yourself in love with my
grandson.”

  “Wh-what?” Emma stuttered in shock.

  Helen gave her a disdainful look. “Please, Emma. Don’t embarrass yourself or insult my intelligence by trying to deny it. I knew a great deal more about your relationship with Ash than you were aware. I didn’t try to stop it because I knew he would grow out of his infatuation.”

  “I…don’t know what to say,” Emma managed to mutter.

  “There’s no need to say anything.” Helen’s mouth twisted cruelly and her eyes took on the intense gleam of blue steel. “I told you about my grandson’s return as a kindness. I didn’t want you hearing it from the staff or from someone in town. I thought you deserved that much.”

  “Thank you.” But Emma knew that Helen hadn’t told her of Ash’s return out of kindness. She had another motive.

  “Your father has been a diligent and devoted employee for many years and he would be the first to say that his loyalty has been amply rewarded. I would hate to think that anything would get in the way of that relationship, especially now that he’s so close to retirement.”

  The threat was neither subtle nor frivolous. If Emma harbored any thoughts of picking back up where she and Ash had left off, Helen was prepared to resort to drastic measures. Her father would be fired, and at his age and with his health issues, new employment would be next to impossible to come by.

  Anger heated Emma’s cheeks and she found herself unable to respond for a moment for fear she’d say something she shouldn’t.

  Helen smiled. “You’re a smart woman, Emma. I’m glad to see that you’ve learned a measure of restraint over the years.”

  Chapter Four

  In spite of Helen’s warning and the resulting tension between the two women, she clung to Emma’s arm as they descended the stairs.

  An elevator had been installed after her stroke, but once her mobility progressed beyond a wheelchair, she refused to use the lift. Nor would she move to more manageable quarters downstairs. She’d spent most of her adult life in the west wing upstairs, she insisted, and had no desire to relocate, no matter the advantages to the staff.

  But her stubbornness could only carry her so far. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, her strength had visibly waned. The hand that clasped Emma’s arm trembled from the exertion and her steps across the marble foyer were slow and measured.