Cara Summers – Twin Temptation: Twin Temptation (страница 2)

And she was stalling. Screwing up her courage, she stepped into the room and one by one met the gazes of the five people who’d turned to stare at her. She began with the mustached and balding man who was sitting at the desk. She guessed him to be Edward Fitzwalter the Third. Then Maddie looked to the three people seated to the left of the desk.

Fitzwalter had given her a thumbnail sketch of each member of the Ware family. The handsome gray-haired man in the red leather chair must be Carleton Ware, Eva’s brother. Carleton wasn’t involved in Eva Ware Designs. He ran the Ware Bank, which had been established by his great-great-grandfather and whose branches were scattered all over Long Island. Carleton, his wife and son resided year round at Ware house. Eva, though she’d inherited half of the house, had lived in New York City. Carleton’s hazel eyes were cool and assessing as they met hers. The younger man seated to his right had to be her cousin Adam. He had wavy, chestnut-colored hair that he wore long and tucked behind his ears. His brown eyes held hostility.

According to Mr. Fitzwalter, Adam was very involved in Eva Ware Designs. He’d gone to work there right after college and he’d been trained by Eva from the time he was in high school. Fitzwalter had described Adam’s mother Dorothy, the woman seated to Carleton’s left, as a society matron with a very active social life both on Long Island and in Manhattan. She served on several charitable boards and spearheaded fundraisers for institutions like the Museum of Modern Art. She was a tall slender woman with a model’s figure. Her gaze was several degrees cooler than her husband’s, and superiority radiated off her in waves. Dorothy Ware’s perfectly coiffed brown hair and impeccably tailored black suit had Maddie feeling underdressed.

Growing up on a ranch had never allowed her much time to spend on fashion, and her khaki slacks, embroidered denim jacket and leather ankle boots were perfectly acceptable business attire in Santa Fe. She shifted her attention to the small Chinese man sitting farthest away from the attorney. He had to be Eva’s longtime assistant, Cho Li. He wore his long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and it had begun to thin on top. According to Fitzwalter, Cho Li had been with Eva even before she’d opened her Madison Avenue store. When he nodded his head and smiled at her, she finally found the courage to turn to the one familiar face in the room—Jordan Ware’s.

On the long flight from Santa Fe, she’d imagined this moment so many ways. But she hadn’t anticipated the swift punch of recognition in her belly or the instant sense of connection. For a second she couldn’t quite catch her breath. It wasn’t like looking in a mirror—not exactly. In the dove-gray suit and turquoise blouse, Jordan looked as though she’d stepped right out of a fashion magazine, making Maddie feel even more the country bumpkin.

But the woman who rose from her chair and faced her now had the same blue-violet eyes and the same facial features. And though Jordan Ware wore her hair in a chic style that framed her face in a sleek curve and Maddie wore hers in a long braid down her back, the color was the same honey gold.

Everything that Fitzwalter had told her on the phone was true. For the first time, Maddie felt the reality of that sink in. She really did have a twin. A sister.

Maddie had no idea how long they stood there in that freeze-framed moment taking each other in, nor how many times Fitzwalter cleared his throat before the sound penetrated.

It was Jordan who moved first, rushing forward and taking Maddie’s hands. Looking into her sister’s eyes, Maddie saw her own feelings mirrored—curiosity, excitement and fear. Would they have anything in common? Would they even like each other?

“Welcome,” Jordan whispered.

For the first time since she’d entered the mansion, some of Maddie’s tension eased.

Then Jordan turned to the others in the room. “Uncle Carleton, Aunt Dorothy, Adam, Cho Li, this is my sister, Madison Farrell.”

For a moment there was silence in the room.

Cho Li was the first to speak. Stepping forward, he bowed. “It is my pleasure to meet Eva’s other daughter.”

Maddie found herself bowing back.

Then Carleton rose from his chair. “You’ll have to forgive us, Madison. The shock of my sister’s death coupled with the news that she had a second daughter tucked away all these years in Santa Fe…well, we’re still trying to absorb everything. Until you walked into the room right now, I’m not sure that any of us really believed what Edward had told us. Dorothy, Adam and I want to welcome you to Ware House.”

Adam and Dorothy, their eyes cool, remained silent.

Grateful that she didn’t have to walk into the room alone, Maddie let her sister lead her to a chair.

As they sat, Jordan sent her a smile and a conspiratorial wink. “Once the will stuff is over, we’ll talk.”

Chapter One

JORDAN WAS still holding Maddie’s hand when Fitzwalter opened the file in front of him and lifted the papers. Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie studied her sister. Jordan’s lips were pressed tightly together and her eyes were totally focused on the attorney.

She was nervous, Maddie realized. And it went beyond the fact that they’d just met. Since her chair was located at the right of the desk and angled in a way that gave her a view of the other occupants of the room, she took a moment to study the other Wares.

With his arm draped casually over the back of his wife’s chair, Carleton appeared to be perfectly at ease. But there was a stiffness in his shoulders and his mouth that belied that. At first glance Dorothy appeared to be bored, but her hands were clasped so tightly in her lap that the knuckles had turned white. Adam sat poker-straight, his hands gripping the arms of the chair.

If there was one thing her father had taught her it was the importance of reading facial expressions and body language. According to Mike Farrell, it was an essential skill in all kinds of activities—from playing poker to bargaining for a price on his cattle. Two things were clear to Maddie. The other Wares’ nerves were stretched as tightly as Jordan’s were. And the family didn’t seem to be very close-knit.

Why not? Had any of them provided support for Jordan as she’d dealt with the terrible news of her mother’s death? Something tightened around her heart as Maddie recalled the numbness and the piercing pain she’d felt when her father had passed on a year ago. That had been sudden too. She still felt guilty about the fact that she’d been at a jewelry show in Albuquerque, and Mike had suffered a heart attack while he’d been out checking some fences. Alone. Cash Landry, her neighbor and lifelong friend, had found the body the next morning.

Since she’d never met Eva Ware, Maddie couldn’t know exactly what Jordan was going through. Was there someone her sister could turn to as Maddie had been able to turn to Cash? As Edward Fitzwalter donned a pair of reading glasses, she linked her fingers with Jordan’s.

Gripping the papers in two hands, Fitzwalter peered over his glasses, first at the Wares and then at Jordan and Maddie. “My plan is to make this brief. If any of you want a complete draft of the document including all the whereases, wherefores and so on, I’ll be happy to make a copy. But if no one objects, I’ll get right to the bequests.”

Silence reigned in the room. When the attorney shifted his gaze back to the paper he was holding, Jordan’s fingers tightened on Maddie’s. She was worried about the contents of the will. Maddie’s heart sank. Of course she would be. So would everyone in the room. The only reason that Eva Ware would have requested her presence today was because she’d left something to the daughter she’d deserted. And that something would be taken out of someone else’s inheritance.

“To my personal design assistant Cho Li, I leave the sum of five hundred thousand dollars so that if he chooses, he can retire. But my hope is that he’ll remain in his position until the new owners of Eva Ware Designs get up to speed.”

Dorothy Ware whispered something to Adam and he jerked forward in his chair. “New owners? Who are the new owners?”

Fitzwalter glanced up. “I’ll get to that part sooner without interruptions.”

Adam opened his mouth and then shut it.

“To my brother Carleton, I leave all of my shares in the Ware Bank. I hope that he’ll finally make the fortune he’s always believed I’ve prevented him from getting.”

Maddie noted that the news didn’t seem to make Carleton very happy.

Fitzwalter cleared his throat. “The rest of my estate, including stocks, bonds, cash, Eva Ware Designs, my fifty-percent share of Ware House on Long Island and my New York City apartment, I leave to my two daughters, Jordan and Madison, to be shared equally. It is my sincere hope that they will run Eva Ware Designs together. However, there is one requirement. They must change places and walk around in each other’s lives for three consecutive and uninterrupted weeks beginning within seventy-two hours from the time this will is read. If they refuse to fulfill the terms as I’ve set them out or if they don’t stay the course for three weeks, my fifty percent of Ware House will go to my brother Carleton. Everything else, including the business and my apartment, will be sold and the profits divided equally among all my surviving relatives.”