The Forgotten One (The Heirs #2)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Hailey Lynn Stone was born forty-three minutes after her parents Chase and Piper Stone pledged their lives to each other in a hospital delivery room.

The wedding ceremony was witnessed by Chase Stone’s immediate family, including Alexandrea Stone and Maximillian Smith, the Stone’s newly found brother. The officiant, Nicholas Maelstrom, had this to say after the vows were repeated and the rings were exchanged: “Chase might be the only man on the planet that has zero excuses for forgetting his anniversary.”

Mother and daughter are resting comfortably in an area hospital and are expected to be released over the weekend.

Sarah read her short announcement that Patrick ran over the holiday weekend.

He wanted more, but Sarah didn’t have it in her to offer any further details. She added the necessary bios for both Chase and Piper and flowered their love story with the tears they both shed during the ceremony.

Everyone there knew those tears were from pain.

Piper, due to the labor thing and all ... and Chase because Piper tried to fracture her husband’s hand to keep from screaming in said labor.

Max sat across the breakfast table, reading her article and nodding. “Perfect,” he said when he was done.

“Thank you.”

“Is Patrick dealing with the lack of details?”

“Not well. But I don’t really care.” Sarah stared at Max over her cup of black coffee. “I’m losing my taste for the magazine.”

“How so?” Max asked.

She shrugged. “The way they spin the truth. The constant demand for something more sensationalized than it actually is.”

“That’s not how you approach your work. At least from what I’ve read.”

“I’m one person. Besides, I saw what it looks like on the other side of the pen. How the stories affected you and the others. Patrick is on me constantly, wants your mother’s story. I told him he’ll have it once we know more.”

“Have you learned anything?”

“I have feelers everywhere. The social service lady I finally talked to last week said she’ll dig up your file and secure-link it over. I spoke with an investigator in Arizona who has an in with their PD there. The initial report they made when your mother abandoned you had a couple of holes I was hoping to fill. The problem is the holiday. I should have something in a couple weeks ... or it might take until after Christmas. Could go either way.”

Max leaned his elbows on the table. “I appreciate you doing this. I don’t have your patience. I’d be driving all over the place burning energy instead of waiting by the phone.”

“Nothing in government moves quickly.” She sipped her coffee. “You know what this has done, though?”

Max shook his head.

Sarah started and stopped what she wanted to say twice, then spat it out. “I want to write a book. Nonfiction, with personal stories of children that grew up the way you did. Meeting you and hearing your story is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I want the world to know how fucked up our system is and maybe bring about a call to action to make it better. This is America, for God’s sake. There shouldn’t be forgotten children out there.” Sarah felt her hands shake with the intensity of her words.

Max reached across the table and placed a hand over hers. “You’re pretty amazing. Do you know that?”

She shook her head. “I’m not, but I want to be.”

Max squeezed her hand. “I think you should do it. The book.”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah. Who better?”

It was as if all she needed was Max’s blessing, and any fears or concerns about her ability to do this dissipated like fog on a sunny day.

“I think I will.” It felt good to say that out loud. “And in January, I’m going to put myself out there ... see if the Times or the Post would be interested in my work.”

Max was on the plane and en route to Stone Holdings in Kansas City, Missouri, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

From what he saw on the weather report, there wasn’t snow on the ground, but the temperature was below stupid, with wind gusts making it feel even worse. Trusted flannel and jeans for the win.

The goal was to go to the closest hotel to where the distribution plant was located and find a local bar close to happy hour.

Since the location was outside of town, there weren’t any Stone hotels or affiliates, which was just fine with him.

Max shrugged into the warmest jacket he had. It was at least five years old and looked like a man who worked with his hands wore it.

The only thing Max was missing was steel-toe shoes. But the boots he wore when riding his motorcycle felt like coming home.

The cold slapped him hard when the door to the plane opened. Max left Carson with the plan to return the next night by eight in the evening to fly back to California.

The way Max saw it, staying longer wouldn’t accomplish anything. It was the surprise of him being there and talking with employees before they were coached by management on what to say that would be enlightening.

If there was anything to be enlightened about.

Max rented a four-wheel-drive truck and used the navigation on his phone to find his way to a tiny step above a Motel 6.

By tiny ... it meant the doors into the rooms came from a hallway and not the street.

But it was clean, which was all Max truly required. He couldn’t help but wonder if his tastes would change within the year.

Probably.

He just hoped that his siblings would keep their down-to-earth demeanor along with him.

As Sarah had said, the Stones were normal. Yeah, they had high-powered jobs and money, which equated to influence. But as of yet, none of that had gone to their heads. Max realized that would have likely been different had Aaron been a better father to his legitimate children. As it stood, because Aaron was an ass to them and pretended that Max wasn’t alive, it bridged the gap slightly between Max’s past and Alex and Chase’s. For that, Max was grateful. Should Alex have been a conceited socialite and Chase an arrogant philanthropist, there was no way the three of them would have gotten as close as they were starting to be.

Max felt his guard lowering. He supposed that the door opened the moment the millions ended up in his bank account. Then there was the repeated concern with how he was dealing with his new identity, and his sibling’s tutelage on how to navigate it, which made them very easy to trust.

There was zero ulterior motive.

For the first time in Max’s life, the people forced into close proximity of him genuinely wanted to be there.

With all the foster families and group homes, Max always felt like a burden. There were moments when that emotion wasn’t front and center, but that didn’t last long.

Looking back as an adult, Max knew he wasn’t the easiest child to care for. His earliest memories were filled with anger. Anger that the last home cast him out. Anger that the system didn’t put him back with the group home he knew, which sucked, but at least it had been familiar. Then he would get another placement and end up fighting—either with the family or with the students in the new school he was forced to attend.

All the mandated counseling he’d attended didn’t stand a chance when the atrocities were being piled on faster than he could unpack them.

One day, the wrong kid did the wrong thing to one of the girls in the group home they were in, and Max unpacked all his baggage in one place.

The judge hadn’t been easy on him.

Which Max now knew had been a blessing.

Juvenile hall had been nothing more to Max than another group home with larger walls. He went in cocky, then realized how comfortable he was there. How the dominance of the biggest kids was just as it was on the outside. As long as he didn’t show fear, he was set.

Three weeks in, a youth director started talking to him. His name was Glenn. It was just conversation at first, more of Glenn doing the talking than Max. Until it wasn’t.

Max found himself expressing how his only real desire in his life was to be in complete control of it. Yeah, a job would require a boss, but Max wasn’t afraid of hard work. Hard work kept his mind from thinking about his shitty situation. Max told Glenn that one day he’d have a house. And a yard. Maybe even a dog.

Glenn just listened ... for weeks.

And in those weeks, Max had started paying more attention to the education they were being given. He’d been so behind that it would take at least another year of night classes when he was out to get his GED, but he was going to get it. That conviction came from all the kids in juvie telling him he’d never graduate.

Eight months to the day after Max was sent to the detention center, he was released.

Glenn personally drove him to the bus station and handed him five hundred dollars.

Max promised to pay him back.

Glenn stood there and shook his head. “The best way you can repay me is to never see me again.”

Turning eighteen in a detention center for delinquent teens would be the only time Max would turn a digit on his clock in that situation.

That didn’t mean Max didn’t have a temper, or that he’d sit back and watch someone go down without jumping in ... or defending a woman who was forced to the ground with a camera lens ... That last thought had him thinking about Sarah.

Seeing her hurt was the first time since he was seventeen that he truly wanted to feel his fist connect to someone’s face.

It was a visceral reaction, even delayed.

But cooler minds prevailed, and her wise words helped Max keep his promise to Glenn.

“Captain America,” Max repeated what Sarah had called him before he could charge out the door. He laughed.

Damn, she was something.

Max had always pictured himself ending up with a tall, leggy blonde, only now he was convinced that the only type he was attracted to was a not-so-tall, curvy, redheaded fireball. Who wore glasses. The image of her nudging those glasses up on her nose made him smile even wider.

He really didn’t want to mess things up with her.

The moment Max tossed his duffel bag on the motel bed, he reached for his phone.

Sarah answered on the first ring.

“Hey, hon. I just got to the hotel and needed to hear your voice.”

Sarah cooed into the phone and made Max’s day.

Max met Alex in her office later that week.

She was perfectly polished, like always, but there was some serious tired behind her eyes.

The moment the door was closed behind him, she toed off her shoes, sat across from him on the office sofa, and leaned back. “What did you find?” she said on a sigh.

“Never mind that ... are you okay?” Max asked.

“Nothing that a week in the Bahamas wouldn’t fix.”

“What’s the likelihood of you going to any island and not calling here daily?” Max asked.

Alex kicked her feet up on the sofa and closed her eyes briefly. “Mr. Slim ... meet Mr. None. I don’t have time to walk away right now. There’s just so much I don’t know,” she admitted.

Her statement surprised him. She always seemed so in control of everything. “You wouldn’t know it to watch you.”

“Smoke and mirrors.” Alex opened her eyes. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t curse our father for not preparing us for this. And now there is Melissa to deal with. I’ve never even been on a board, and now I’m running one with that vindictive little ...” Alex stopped herself. “I’m leaving it with the lawyers. Hopefully we can find a way to move her along.”

“I wish I had something helpful to say.” But Melissa and boards were way outside of his wheelhouse.

“It’s okay. Tell me what you found out?”

Max sat back. “I didn’t find a lot at the local bar. Monday after a holiday wasn’t my brightest idea.”

Alex offered a pathetic laugh. “I didn’t think about it either.”

“The bartender let on that the Stone Holdings employees that drank during happy hour weren’t any more disgruntled with their jobs than anyone else. In his experience, regulars at bars were generally unhappy in their lives as a whole.”

“Good point.”

“I first met with Ed, the plant manager. Nice guy, middle-aged. I didn’t let on that there were any issues with the company, and he didn’t either. It’s a huge warehouse, but surprisingly, a third of it was empty. I asked why ... Ed directed me to his boss. By then, word had spread that I was there. His boss, Bryan, dealt directly with someone at Via Corp.”

“The management company,” Alex confirmed.

“Bryan said that Via Corp was in charge of making the contracts with the local suppliers and customers. Only the supply chain had slowed down in the last year, which drove the prices up for the customers and resulted in less of everything all the way around.”

“That would match up with the numbers in the books.”

“I asked what Via Corp was doing to increase the supply issue and if there was anything at the plant that should be changed to make up for the loss of revenue. He didn’t know. Word from above said the problem was temporary. Which he believed because he has a buddy in Wichita that works in a similar plant that is run by the same company, and they were overflowing.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. “How far is Kansas City from Wichita?”

“I had the same question. Three hours. Bad weather, four or five. Chase would have a better idea of what the shipping issues out of Kansas City versus Wichita are.”

“We’re not bothering Chase. But Busa would know. We can ask him. Either way, that doesn’t sound right to me.”

“Bryan was pretty candid with me. He said he found it odd that the management company hadn’t asked for a staff reduction. And even went so far as to tell him not to cut anything until it came from us.”

“From Stone Enterprises?”

“Yup.”

“Bryan thought it might have had something to do with Aaron kicking it.”

“They’d had issues for two quarters before Dad died,” Alex said.

“The bottom line ... I saw an overstaffed, undercapacity warehouse with content employees that have no clue that they’re in trouble.”

Alex dropped her chin to her chest. “God. That makes it even worse.”

“It’s the management company,” Max concluded.

“Yup.”

Alex swung her legs off the sofa like it took effort. “I’ll make some phone calls.”

“Hold up,” Max stopped her, fanning a hand over the hair on his face. “What would you say the profitability percentage of Stone Holdings is on the bottom line here?”

“Right now, it’s a negative.”

“But potentially it’s a moneymaker.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you spoken with anyone from Via Corp?” he asked.

“No.”

He sighed, looked Alex in the eye. “Then I’ll take it on,” Max said as if it was already a done deal.

Alex looked hesitant. “But you said this wasn’t your wheelhouse.”

“It isn’t. Just like running this entire company wasn’t yours or Chase’s. Why should my piece of the pie be any different? Sure, my background is doing the work and not managing it. That doesn’t mean I can’t do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“The way I see it, Via Corp has to talk to me because of who I am. And if they are hiding something, they’ll lie to me. If they are willing to lie to me, they will lie to you. Therefore, it makes no difference who talks to them.” He paused. “And I’ll learn. Just like you. Just like Chase. I’ll learn, I’ll sometimes fail, and I’ll sometimes succeed. In the end, my successes will overshadow my failures. And ...” He paused, took a breath. “I’m smart enough to know when to wave the white flag. These are people’s livelihoods we’re dealing with, not just a line item on a spreadsheet. Besides, it truly isn’t in my wheelhouse to see someone”—he pointed at Alex—“working themselves to the bone like you are and not do something to ease that burden.”

Alex shook her head, nodded, shook it again. “You’re right. You’re right!” She lifted both hands in the air. “Take it on. You let me know how I can support you instead of me letting you know how you can support me.”

Max left Alex’s office realizing that he’d accomplished his life goal after all. He wasn’t dependent on anyone, even a boss, for his ability to get along in the world.