Sydney flipped through the pamphlet again, her eyes scanning all the words without really reading them. She looked for any reference to Griffin at all. Any mention of Cain Enterprises. She wasn’t particularly surprised when she found none.
Still, when she looked up, she couldn’t help voicing her question. “Why would he keep this such a secret?”
Sharlene sighed. “Why does anyone keep anything a secret? I suspect he’s ashamed of it.”
“Of doing charitable work? It’s not like he’s a drug addict. He’s not laundering money or hosting dog fights.”
“Yes, yes, for someone like you or me, charity is a virtue.” Sharlene shook her head. “But in Griffin’s world, wanting to help others is a sign of weakness. One that Caro and Hollister worked hard to stamp out of her boys from a very young age. Griffin especially.”
“Why Griffin especially?”
“He was always much more sensitive than Dalton. He cared about other people. I remember once, in the mid-eighties when the famine in Africa was getting a lot of coverage in the news, Griffin had the nanny bring him up to the office so he could talk to his father. He asked Hollister why they couldn’t just give all their money to the people in Africa. I never heard Hollister’s full answer because he shut his office door, but by the time Griffin left, he was in tears. Caro was furious. She fired the nanny the very next day.”
“That’s awful.”
“It was. And whatever Hollister said to Griffin, it must have made an impact because I never heard him talk about helping other people again until I found out about Hope2O.”
Sydney tried to imagine what Hollister must have said, but she couldn’t. Griffin had only been a child. In the mid-eighties, he would have been six or seven. Eight or nine at the oldest. That was awfully young to have human compassion stamped out of you.
She glanced up to find Sharlene watching her. “Why show me this?” She waved the pamphlet between them. “Why tell me this at all? What do you want from me?”
“I would think that’s rather obvious.”
“Well, it isn’t. Either you’re still hiding something or you’ve gone to a lot of trouble to satisfy your curiosity.”
“Fine,” Sharlene said, staring across the office to look out the window. “When I was with Hollister, Griffin was like a son to me. So was Dalton, for that matter. I genuinely care about both of those boys, but when things ended with Hollister, he cut me out of all their lives. I’ve tried to keep tabs on them, but they’re both very private men.” Sharlene turned her gaze back to Sydney. “Is it so hard to believe that I simply want to know whether or not Griffin is happy?”
For the first time since walking into the office, Sydney felt as though Sharlene was truly being honest. As though she was seeing the real woman beneath the facade.
“No,” she answered honestly, sitting back in her seat. “No, it’s not so hard to believe. So why not just ask him?”
Sharlene laughed bitterly. “It’s been nearly twenty years since I’ve seen Griffin. Do you honestly think he’d just talk to me? That he wouldn’t be as suspicious and guarded as you’ve been? More so, even.”
Sydney didn’t know how to respond to that. Two weeks ago, she would have said that Griffin was an open book. That there were no hidden depths, no deep secrets. The perfect wild-oats guy.
Now she knew differently. She’d never met a book more tightly closed or carefully locked. Now she knew the truth. She’d never known the real Griffin. He’d never once showed her the man he really was.
Well, she could hardly blame him for that. She’d kept her share of secrets herself. The problem was, his secrets concealed the man he truly was.
Four months ago, she’d gotten involved with a jet-setting playboy. A man who delighted in physical and sensual pleasures but seemed to care about little beyond his own amusement.
In the days since becoming his assistant, she’d realized that man was an illusion. The illusion had tempted her body. The real man beneath tempted her heart, her mind. Her very soul. She could fall in love with a man like Griffin Cain.
“I’m sorry.”
Sydney looked up to see that Sharlene had come to sit beside her. Sharlene placed a gentle hand on Sydney’s arm. Her lovely face was creased with lines and revealed a concern that was almost motherly.
“Pardon?” Sydney asked, not sure what exactly Sharlene was apologizing for.
“I didn’t mean to drop this bomb on you. Honestly. I assumed he’d told you about Hope2O. He seemed so protective of you. You seemed so close. I just thought…” Sharlene’s voice trailed off, and for a second she seemed near tears herself. “Well, I know what it’s like to love a man who doesn’t let you in.”
“I—” But Sydney cut herself off. Maybe it was easier to let Sharlene believe she was hurt by Griffin’s inability to trust her with the truth. It was an explanation that Sharlene would understand, whereas the truth—her fear of loving Griffin—was something she barely understood herself. Finally, she said simply, “Yes. It is hard.”
And it wasn’t even an outright lie because nothing about this situation was easy.
Fortunately, she was saved from having to say more because Griffin walked back in. She wanted to curl up inside herself and hide. Instead, she had to sit there and sift through Sharlene’s conversation for clues to the identity of this girl. She so didn’t want to be here anymore.
“Did you find the photos?” Sydney asked to hide how disconcerted she felt.
“No. I didn’t. I searched the entire car. We either lost them or accidently left them with my mother.”
“Oh, look.” Sharlene pulled some papers out from between the cushions of the love seat and held them out toward Griffin. “Is this them?”
He glanced at the photos as he took them from her. “Yes. Surprisingly, this is them,” he said wryly.
“Well, then,” she said as she took them back. “Let me have a look.”
Sharlene held both photos, looking from one to the other. After a few moments, she crossed to her desk and put on a pair of discreet reading glass, then flicked on a desk lamp and studied the pictures under the light. After a moment, she nodded, flicked off the light and returned to the seat, handing the photos back across to Griffin.
“So?” he asked, obviously choosing to ignore her blatant manipulation. “Do you recognize the woman? Or the girl?”
“Of course I do. The woman is Vivian Beck. She was Dalton’s nanny and yours, too, after you were born.”
“Are you sure Beck was her last name?” Sydney asked.
Sharlene’s smile cooled as she returned Sydney’s gaze. “Quite.”
“What else can you tell us about her?”
Sharlene thought for a moment and then shook her head, either feigning regret beautifully or perhaps truly sorry that she couldn’t help more. “Nothing. But you should talk to your mother about this. Surely she knows more.”
“She said she didn’t remember the woman at all.”
Sharlene arched an eyebrow in apparent surprise. “Really? I find that hard to believe.”
“Why’s that? She was pregnant with me and claimed she barely had contact with her. She thought Vivian might be the woman’s first name, but she seemed to know nothing else about her.”
Sharlene’s mouth curved into an unpleasant smile. “Well, isn’t this just like old times, what with your mother’s selective memory and her transparent attempts to control everyone?”
“Sharlene, if you know something, just tell me now.” Griffin’s voice was terse, his impatience obvious.
“Well, it’s interesting, isn’t it? That your mother claims to barely remember her.”
“Why is it interesting?”
“Well, because she simply must remember her. She came to the office to see Hollister after she fired the girl. She was furious. Practically hysterical.”
If Caro was really that upset about it, then wouldn’t Hollister remember the event, too?
Griffin must have been thinking the same thing because he leaned forward and asked, “Did she actually see my father? What did he have to say?”
“She never saw him. He had meetings all that day, but I mentioned it to him.” Sharlene smiled mischievously. “But perhaps I downplayed it a bit.”
“So he never even knew what happened?” Sydney asked.
“Oh, of course he knew. Everyone at the company knew. People gossiped about it for months. The police were called. There’s no hiding something like that.”
“The police?” Griffin asked. “Was she violent?”
Sharlene waved a hand. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.” She cocked her head to the side, her expression a mixture of curiosity and sorrow. “Your mother really never told you about this?”
Wincing, Sydney glanced at Griffin. Not surprisingly, Sharlene’s sympathy—faked or real—only made this worse for Griffin.
“Can you just tell us what happened?” Sydney asked.
Sharlene smiled vaguely. “Of course. The police were summoned because Caro insisted the girl had stolen something from the house when she left. I think your mother knows who the girl in that photo is just as well as I do, but she just didn’t want you to know that she knows.”
“Back to the nanny. She stole something?”
“Yes. Caro was livid. She’d fired the girl the day before, but when Vivian left she took something of Caro’s. As soon as she discovered it was missing, she stormed down to Hollister’s office and demanded I help track her down. I tried, but none of the contact information I had worked. Caro claimed I was to blame because I’d recommended Vivian.”
“Do you remember what she stole?”
“A ring. Caro’s wedding ring, if I remember correctly.”
“What?” Griffin asked, leaning forward.