So, I was wary as we all settled in Mortimer’s office, a place of cedar, leather bound books and manly red walls. Sinclair sat me in a chair in front of the desk beside Willa, who had followed us in, but he remained standing even when his father took his place behind the desk.
“It was you,” Sinclair started.
I couldn’t see his face but I knew from the tone of voice that he had discovered something horrifying.
It took me about two seconds to clue in so I was gasping when Mortimer nodded, “Yes. I was the one who told the press about Paulson’s unique… tastes.”
“How did you know?”
“You forget that I am the one who introduced you,” Mortimer said simply.
“Daniel,” Willa interjected when the two men just continued to stare at each other. “We didn’t mean to cause you real problems. We just wanted to… give you a push in the right direction.”
“Meaning?” he growled.
“Meaning, we wanted you to take your rightful place in politics,” Mortimer explained calmly.
“You are kidding me, no?” Sinclair asked in his glacial way.
Willa froze over accordingly, her eyes wide with fear. I wondered if she was worried about what other people would think if they found or if she truly regretted crossing the line and risk that doing so now posed to her relationship with her son.
“Unfortunately, no,” Mortimer said before heaving a huge sigh and focusing on a point over Sinclair’s shoulder. “I know we didn’t go about it the right way, trying to manipulate you into following my path. It was wrong of us. I can see that now. But you have to understand; every single Percy since we settled in this country from England has been in government. You are my son. I don’t care if we don’t share the same blood. I wanted that legacy for you.”
“That’s so fucked up,” Sin breathed out.
It totally was.
To his credit, though I didn’t really give him any, his father nodded sadly, “Agreed. I know we haven’t been the best parents--”
I snorted, unable to keep quiet anymore. “You have been abysmal parents as far as I can tell. And before you tell me that I have no business in this conversation, you are wrong. If it involves Sinclair, it involves me. You two made the deliberate choice to be his parents and you have never done right by him.”
“We gave him the best education money could buy, the tools to succeed in this life,” Willa snapped, aghast at my audacity.
“I have no doubt that Sinclair would be successful even if he had remained an orphan on the Côte d'Azur. What he needed, what you promised to give him by adopting him, was love.”
“We love him,” Willa mouthed, her voice lost to the grief those words stirred in her. She turned to Sin with both her lips and her eyes opened wide, punctured with remorse. “We love you. You know that, Daniel.”
He cocked his head to the side as he studied her. “I do. But Giselle was the one who taught me how to love properly, with my whole heart. You don’t use your loved ones to better yourself in society.”
“That is not what we did,” Willa objected sharply.
“It wasn’t what we meant to do,” Mortimer amended quietly.
The two of them shared a long look before Willa turned to Sinclair with wet in her eyes. “Sinclair, my darling boy, I’ve always loved you. Since the minute I saw you on the streets in Nice, I loved you.”
I watched Sinclair swallow hard. “Honestly, I don’t really care anymore. I’m done with family drama. I have Elle now and we are going to have our own family. If you want to be a part of it you will do what you can to rectify the mistake you made in contacting the press about the Paulsons and you will start treating both of us like family.”
He looked down at me and despite his little speech, I could tell he was rattled, both by the betrayal he felt and by their sincere remorse for it.
I took his offered hand and followed him to the door but we paused when Willa called out to us.
“I just want you both to know that we are going to do better,” she shot her husband a look and gathered her composure so that when she looked back at us she was once again the immaculate society lady. “I want to be in my grandchild’s life.”
“Do better and you will be,” I said.
Sinclair squeezed my hand and together we left.
Chapter Nineteen.
Sinclair
I wanted to marry her. The thought consumed me to the point that it was affecting my work. Margot had caught me browsing Tiffany’s website for engagement rings when I should have been have been in the town car on my way to the construction site on the Hudson River. She’d paused dramatically before suggesting that Giselle might prefer something more unique, an antique or something custom made. She was right and the fact that she had warmed up towards my relationship with Elle was enough to make me cast her a massive grin. Her shocked but happy reaction made me realize that Giselle was right. I didn’t smile enough.