LITMIR.BIZ

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her eyes flashing. “What’s Raymond talking about?”

      “Nothing of any import, Mother. I merely asked Raymond a few questions about Angel Morris. I was curious since Derek had been seeing the woman for a while.”

      Celia turned quiet and gave her attention to her food. His mother wasn’t so reserved. Her hands fisted on the table, yet she managed to keep her tone calm. “He wasn’t seeing her, for heaven’s sake. He merely associated with her to ease the effort of the takeover. She was a secretary of sorts, no one important. Certainly no one important to Derek.”

      Forcefully keeping his emotions in check, feigning a certain lack of interest, Dane asked, “Do you know what happened to her?”

      His mother carefully laid aside her fork, then looked down her nose at him. She sat to his right, Celia and Raymond to his left.

      “After she was terminated, you mean? Why would I care?” She made a rude sound of condescension. “You certainly didn’t expect us to employ the woman, did you, not after she gave away company secrets.”

      Celia spoke up for the first time, her voice clipped, her expression stern. “I already told you, Mother, Derek stole that information from her.”

      Dane felt as though he’d taken a punch on the chin. His mother made an outraged sound and Raymond sat watching them both, his expression somewhat satisfied. He stared at his sister and saw that two spots of bright color had bloomed on her cheeks. “What did you say?”

      Celia gave her mother a lingering frown, then turned to face Dane. “Mother persists in making this woman out as a villain, even though I’ve told her repeatedly that it isn’t so. If anything, she was a victim, and we certainly should have employed her in an effort to make amends. Derek explained to me himself that Angel hadn’t volunteered the information to him. He rifled through her personal belongings until he found what he wanted.”

      Raymond held his fork aloft, using it to emphasize his point. “Ah. But she should have seen to it that the material was well secured. That was her responsibility. The heads at Aeric trusted her, and she let them down.”

      “I suppose part of the blame is hers,” Celia agreed, her tone snide, “in trusting Derek too much, in thinking him honorable toward her—”

      Dane’s mother gasped, coming to her feet in furious indignation. Her hands slapped down on the cloth-covered tabletop while her voice rose to a near shriek. “How dare you suggest otherwise, Celia Carter? He was your brother!”

      Looking belligerent and stubborn, Celia forced a shrug and met her mother’s gaze. “Mother, he stole that information from her. He led her on, made her believe he cared for her, and then took shameful advantage. Would you rather I call that honorable?”

      Raymond patted Celia’s hand. “Sweetheart, he only did what was best for the company. That was always his first priority.” His eyes slid over to Dane. “As is true of any CEO.”

      Dane waited, watching while his mother visibly struggled to regain her control. Such an outburst from her surprised him and piqued his curiosity. When she had grudgingly reseated herself, pretending to be appeased by Raymond’s words, and Raymond had taken a healthy bite of his braised pork, Dane asked, “Are you saying, Raymond, that you wouldn’t have a problem with using a woman that way?”

      Raymond promptly choked, covering his mouth with his napkin.

      “Really, Dane, enough of this nonsense!” his mother protested. “Raymond has been an enormous help to us and deserves better from you.”

      Celia looked at Dane, a wicked smile of appreciation curving her lips, then proceeded to pound her fiancé on the back until he’d managed to catch his breath. Dane leaned back in his chair, enjoying the dinner for the first time that evening.

      Damn, so much to think about. So Angel was innocent all the way around. That fact twisted his guts, making him feel guilty as hell, as if he were the one who’d betrayed her. He determined to make it up to her somehow. Whether she wanted him to or not.

      An hour later as they all gathered in the salon for drinks and conversation, Dane cornered his sister. Raymond was busy schmoozing their mother, and Celia was blessedly alone, staring out a window at the dark night. As he approached, she looked down at his hand and the drink he held.

      “I thought you abstained.”

      He lifted the glass in a salute. “Pure cola and ice. Nothing more.”

      “It irritates Mother, you know. That you won’t have a social drink.”

      Dane thought of Mick, so defiant as he explained his mother was an alcoholic. “In my line of work, I see too many drink-related cases. Men and women who abandon their families in favor of a bottle. They all started out as social drinkers.” Shaking off his sudden tension, he smiled at Celia. “Besides, I enjoy irritating Mother.”

      To his surprise, his teasing wasn’t returned. Celia turned fully to face him. “How do you do it, Dane? How do you just turn your back on everything, on all of us?”

      A frontal attack. He hadn’t expected it of his sister, but he relished a moment to clear the air. He’d missed her in the time he’d been away. Though she was a lot like his mother, her strength and determination not to be underestimated, she was also a woman who thought for herself, who didn’t blindly accept his mother’s dictates. He’d found that out tonight. In the years he’d stayed away, his sister had evidently come into her own.

      Too long, too damn long. “There’s nothing for me to stay here for, Celia. You know that. Mother made certain she drove me away—”

      “She’s sorry for that, Dane.” Celia touched his arm. Her eyes, the same hazel shade as his, were dark with concern. “She realizes now that you really did love Anna, that she shouldn’t have interfered.”

      He snorted. “Is that what you call it, interference? She deliberately destroyed my life, accused my fiancée of all kinds of reprehensible things, and just because she didn’t approve of Anna’s family.”

      Celia bit her lip, then forged on. “You were both so young. Besides, she did take the money, Dane. Mother didn’t force it on her.”

      “She made Anna feel as if that were the only option, as if she couldn’t possibly be my wife. Mother made sure she knew she’d never fit in.” Even as he said the words, he accepted that he wasn’t being a hundred percent truthful with her or himself. “Anna was pregnant, you know. After she ran off, she lost the baby. My baby.”

      Celia covered her mouth with a hand. “Oh no, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

      “I told Mother. I was angry and hurt and I wanted her to understand exactly what her manipulation had cost me. Do you know what she said?”

      Numbly, Celia shook her head.

      “She said it was for the best.”

      Celia lowered her forehead to Dane’s shoulder and her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “Mother’s set in her ways, Dane. She means well, and she really does love you. It’s just that sometimes she doesn’t think.”

      He had nothing to say to that. It amazed him that his sister would always try to defend their mother, no matter what she did.

      “Will you stay on at the company this time? We need you here.”

      Lifting a hand to his sister’s fair hair, giving one silky lock a teasing tug, he said, “You already know the answer to that.”

      She sighed. “I suppose I do. But I was hopeful.”

      “It’s not for me, sis. I don’t feel comfortable there and besides, I love playing detective too much to give it up.”

      She smiled at his teasing, then turned to face the window again. “I miss him so much.”

      “Me, too. Even though we hadn’t been in contact much lately, I always knew he was here. There were only miles separating

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