She took
a deep breath and resumed a seat in the torture chair. “Can we walk through it once more?”
“Of course.”
He turned his computer monitor around so she could see it, then tapped a few notes into a search bar. In a matter of seconds, an image from a society event popped up and Nikolas clicked on it, expanding it so that it fit the screen. The man she recognized as her father smiled back from the middle of the photo, dapper in a tuxedo, with two women, one under each arm. The women’s resemblance to each other was easy to see, even without the caption below the picture.
Asa “Ace” Colton poses at the annual Mustang Valley General Hospital Pediatrics Gala with his sisters Ainsley Colton (left) and Marlowe Colton (right). The Colton family are patrons of the hospital and established the gala in memory of Tessa Ainsley Colton, late first wife of Colton Oil CEO, Payne Colton.
“Those are my aunts? Or sort-of aunts?” She swallowed around the lump in her throat, the image making things real in a way it hadn’t been up to now.
“I know them both. The blonde is Marlowe and the darker-haired one is Ainsley. They’re both good women and devoted to the family. They’ll want to meet you, Nova. I know they will.”
Nova drank in the image, struggling to believe it could be so easy after all this time. Even if the women in that photo weren’t related to her father by blood, they shared history and a lifetime together.
They were still her father’s family, which meant they were her family, too. They’d be her child’s family.
As the reality of that sank in, something she’d been holding onto very tightly crumbled.
The idea that she had to do this all alone.
“Let’s make the call.”
Chapter 4
Nikolas hunted through his files for the numbers he’d accumulated over the course of building his business. Some contacts he’d known even longer and some he’d acquired through hard work and the daily grind of owning his own firm.
When it came to Marlowe and Ainsley, one fitted the first category and the other into the second.
He’d been a freshman in high school when Marlowe was a senior and he’d known her to say hi at school. After college they’d ended up with some friends in common and he’d see her from time to time at various parties.
As for Ainsley, their relationship had been all business. Her position as one of Arizona’s top attorneys and lead counsel for Colton Oil had come with her own sizable work ethic, and there had been any number of cases that he’d helped her on. A surprising number of people looked to a large entity like Colton Oil as a prime fraud target and he’d done work on everything from finding deadbeat dads to helping uncover a well-hidden money launderer working double duty out of one of Colton Oil’s refineries.
They had a good working relationship and he trusted that, just like Marlowe, she’d give Nova a shot to tell her story.
If he had to guess, both would also quickly welcome their unknown niece into the fold.
With both numbers handy, he opted to call Marlowe first. Their vague personal connection, as well as the fact that Marlowe had recently had a baby of her own, just felt like the right place to start.
What he was amazed to see was how Nova seemed to calm now that she’d made her decision.
Although he’d feigned busyness, he’d watched her as she paced his office, one side to the other. Every so often she’d rub her baby bump, whether in reassurance or protection, he hadn’t quite figured out.
Maybe both.
But he’d observed it all as she’d mentally gone over the ins and outs of her decision.
He hadn’t been putting her on before, either. For all his usual reticence to get involved in his clients’ personal lives, there was something about her that made him want to help her out. Assuming her story was true—and based on her resemblance to Ace Colton, Nikolas couldn’t see how it wasn’t—Marlowe, Ainsley and the rest of the Colton siblings were going to want to know her.
To know the truth of what had come of Ace’s failed relationship so many years ago.
Nikolas pointed to the image still looking out from his computer screen. “Marlowe just had a baby. She’s still on maternity leave from Colton Oil, which means she’ll likely be easier to reach.”
“She had a baby?”
“Yep. A little boy named Reed.”
“Oh.” Nova’s puzzlement shifted quickly, her pretty eyes brightening. “My father was young when he met my mother. I guess it does make sense his family is having babies at the same time I am.”