The Forgotten One (The Heirs #2)

Chapter Thirty-Five

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

Sarah held a minty chocolate martini and a smile.

The office Christmas party actually took place in the office. Probably because Patrick was too cheap to spring for an outside venue. He sucked like that.

“He’s out of town,” Sarah told Kiev.

“Someone said you’re living with him,” Merik said.

“News to me.”

“You’re seen at that fancy Beverly Hills place more than your own,” Josephine, who was one too many drinks in, said.

The office was decked out with cheesy tinsel and garlands that looked like they were taken from an old lady’s garage sale once everything was picked over and left on the sidewalk for the garbageman. A plastic pink tree was decorated with white ornaments. Tiny silver wreaths hung on the pink limbs, with pictures of each of the staff members in the center.

The twelve days of Christmas were highlighted by the twelve biggest stories that the magazine ran for the year.

Sarah’s initial exclusive on Max came in at number two. Number eleven was the interview she ran as a follow-up shortly after Thanksgiving, where Max talked candidly about how his life had changed and what his new family meant to him.

There wasn’t a day that went by that Patrick didn’t harp on her for more. His “more” was the need for something controversial. Something that would end the year with an overload of downloads and clicks. The magazine’s equivalent of Black Friday.

Sarah refused to give anything that wasn’t expressly approved by Max or his family, which pissed Patrick off.

Sarah sipped her cocktail and then glanced around the room. “Do you think I’d still be working here if my boyfriend moved me into his million-dollar mansion?”

“It’s more than one million,” Kiev expressed.

“You know what I mean.”

Merik shimmied up to her. “What’s he getting you for Christmas?”

Clearly, the office staff needed a little liquid courage to ask her all the questions.

“We’re not exchanging gifts.”

Kiev’s smile turned into a scowl. “Why would you agree to that?”

“We’re going to Hawaii for a long weekend. I told him that was plenty and more than I’ve ever gotten from anyone.” She pointed her drink in Josephine’s direction. “And before you ask, I’m putting a ribbon around my neck ... that’s his gift.”

Kiev looked her up and down with a playful smile. “Fair.”

“Rumor has it you might be looking for a new job,” Josephine said.

“Who told you that?” Sarah asked.

“Maybe someone from a certain newspaper that was throwing your name around.”

Sarah had put a few feelers out with friends in other places and smiled at the thought of her name circulating in any capacity.

“It’s never good to stay in one place forever, unless you own the paper,” replied Sarah.

“McNeilly?” Kim yelled over the voices from the other side of the room.

Sarah looked over several heads. “What?”

Kim raised a hand to her ear as if she was talking on the phone.

“Are you working?” Kiev asked.

Sarah excused herself from the conversation. “I’m always working.”

Truth was, she was waiting on two calls in hopes of giving Max a little more than a ribbon for Christmas.

She weaved through the staff, drink in hand, toward the corner of the office where her desk lived.

Thankfully, the Christmas carols weren’t blaring, and she could hear a conversation over the phone.

A red dot indicated a waiting call on her line. “Sarah McNeilly,” she answered, having done away with the pen name she used once she’d been linked with Max and the mainstream media called her out.

“It’s Sanchez.”

Sarah’s heart leapt. “Hey, Miguel.” Miguel was an older brother of one of Sarah’s college roommates who worked as a fraud investigator in Sacramento. They both had a different set of friends and often helped each other out when they could. Sarah had written more than one piece from the facts she’d been given by Miguel just to flush out more evidence to secure his case. In turn, Sarah asked for him to tap into his buddies for things like finding Lisa Davis.

“I have a Christmas present for you.”

Sarah glanced around to see if anyone was watching her.

They were all doing their best to wake up with a hangover. “You’re serious?”

“I found your Jane Doe. Well, her parents, so the next best thing, right?”

If anyone knew where Lisa Davis was, it should be her parents. “I’m listening.”

“Patricia and Joseph Smith, not Davis, live in Batesville, Arkansas.”

Sarah fist-bumped the air. “Yes.”

“And a few more facts on Ms. Doe.”

“Perfect.”

“I can email you the details.”

She shook her head. “Send me a fax. I don’t want this in any inbox.” Emails were hacked every day. No one ever thought to reprint a fax. Sarah gave him the number and walked over to the machine.

The fax started to hum as it spat out two sheets of paper.

Sarah skimmed the information. “Lisa Smith married ...” Sarah started to laugh. “Am I reading this right?”

Miguel laughed. “I don’t make this shit up.”

“Billy Bob Davis. Why do parents saddle their kids with names like Billy Bob?”

Miguel laughed, and Sarah kept skimming. Lisa and Billy Bob annulled their marriage one year after they said I do .

She looked at the information on Lisa’s parents—current address, which community groups their names came up with. An Elks Lodge and a church youth camp. The church camp information was dated back ten years. “Are they still alive?”

“The house hadn’t changed hands, and there is nothing in the obituaries. Small southern towns love their obits,” Miguel said.

“This is perfect.”

“I found something else. Not sure if you know anything about it.”

“Okay.”

“Hold up. I’ll send another fax.”

Sarah glanced up. Didn’t see anyone looking her way.

“Any idea if Jane is in Arkansas?”

“Not by the name you gave me. Maybe she remarried. If she did, it wasn’t in Batesville.”

Sarah looked at the fax. “Did you send it?”

“It’s not there?”

“Nope.”

“This thing gives me trouble. I’ll try again.”

A few seconds later, Sarah was looking at something entirely different.

Maximillian Smith’s juvenile police record. “Oh, damn.”

“Did you know?”

“No.” But she wasn’t terribly surprised. Maybe by the fact that Max hadn’t told her about it, but that was about all.

“Why didn’t I find this when I did a search?”

“It’s sealed. You can only see this if ... well, if this person is applying for certain jobs,” he said.

“Okay. I don’t want to know any more.”

“I only passed this on because you’re dating him. If he’s still like this and just hasn’t been turned in—”

Sarah pushed her glasses up on her nose and kept reading. “He’s not that guy. But this can’t get out. This family is dealing with a lot of fallout from their father’s poor decisions. This will only hurt.”

“I’m shredding the document as we speak,” Miguel told her.

She walked right over to the shredder and did the same. The one with Lisa Davis’s report, she folded and shoved in the back pocket of her tight black jeans.

“Thanks again, Miguel. If there’s anything I can do.”

He cleared his throat. “I am taking the wife to Barcelona next summer. If your guy can get me a decent rate at one of his fancy hotels, I wouldn’t turn it down.”

Sarah grinned. “I’m sure he can help you out.”

“Great. Merry Christmas, Sarah.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Sarah considered the information in her pocket and saw it in a huge box with a big red bow ... Max opening it on Christmas morning. Yeah. That would be perfect. They could easily postpone the Hawaii weekend and visit the South for Max to find some closure.

“McNeilly! Give it up and tell us what it’s like to drive a Ferrari.”

Sarah returned to her desk, grabbed her drink, and went back to the party. “You drive a Ferrari one time ...”

Max stood in the foyer of the house he’d called home for over a month.

Sarah had her arms wrapped around him through a fuzzy bathrobe. Her eyes were half-open; the morning coffee had yet to kick in.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said with a half-hearted moan.

Max kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be back by noon Christmas Day.” He was on his way to Texas with Alex, Chase, Piper, and baby Hailey. Gaylord was going to pop the question on Christmas Eve and wanted everyone there. Including Max.

Sarah bowed out on Texas since Max’s plan was to join her and her family for Christmas dinner.

For the first time in his life, he was meeting his girlfriend’s parents.

Instead of being nervous, he was actually looking forward to it. He wanted to meet the people who were responsible for raising such an amazing and beautiful woman.

“I’m being selfish, I know.” Sarah lifted her chin, asking him for a kiss.

Max tasted the coffee on her lips.

She didn’t break away but talked through their kiss. “Call me when you land.”

“I will.”

“Take pictures of Gaylord’s proposal.” Again, she kept her lips on his.

He chuckled, kissed her deeply, then pulled away.

“I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

Sarah blew him another kiss as he walked out the door.

Less than an hour later, he was on the plane with his family.

And Kit . . . the dog.

For the first time in weeks, Alex looked relaxed.

Holding Hailey had a way of purging the stress right out of you.

Somewhere over Arizona, Piper handed Hailey over for Max to hold.

She weighed nothing. She sucked on her tiny fist while she slept and occasionally squirmed.

Every time she moved, Kit moved closer, his nose either on her or no more than six inches away. “Looks like she has her own bodyguard.”

“He hasn’t slept in our bed since she was born,” Chase told Max.

“We have something for you,” Piper said as she stood and went over to a bag she’d brought on the plane.

“I thought we said no gifts.”

“It’s not a gift—it’s just a thing,” Piper said.

Max looked at Chase. “Does that make sense to anyone?”

Chase rolled his eyes.

Alex laughed.

“They’re not wrapped. Therefore, they’re not gifts.”

Piper sifted through the bag and came up with two shirts. She handed one to Alex and the other to Max.

Alex opened hers up and revealed a shirt that had a character with an uncanny resemblance to Alex on the front with Auntie Alex written below. And in even smaller script were the words Established 2024 . “Adorable,” Alex said.

Piper took Hailey from Max’s arms and handed her to Chase.

Max unfolded his shirt. Above the words Uncle Max was a cartoon character of him on a motorcycle.

“We have shirts for everyone that we’ll hand out after Gaylord proposes.”

“Any idea how he’ll ask?” Alex asked.

While they talked about the what-ifs of Gaylord’s plans, Max stared at the words Uncle and Max and felt a sudden and unexpected wave of pure emotion wash over him.

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt tears threaten to form behind his eyes, but they did now.

He took a long, deep breath to find the control that was always close by.

“Max?”

He pulled his gaze off the shirt. “Yeah?”

Everyone was staring.

He cleared his throat. “I never thought I’d see the word Uncle next to my name.”

They were all silent for the span of a good minute.

Alex broke it when she walked to him with tears in her eyes. She stood in front of him and opened her arms.

Max unfolded to his feet and accepted her hug, offering one in return.

“You’re stuck with us,” Alex said. “Brother, uncle ... whatever title you acquire. We’re your family, and that is never going to change.”

He felt a tear fall down his cheek and held on to that moment for as long as he could.

Sarah stood in front of the bathroom mirror, her phone on speaker while she did her makeup before going to her parents’ house. The tradition was to go to Midnight Mass and pretend they were Catholic once upon a time. Truth was, they only stepped into a church a couple of times a year at most and for the occasional wedding.

Still, it was the reason she wasn’t with Max now, witnessing what he was explaining to her.

“All the details.”

“You’re never going to believe—”

“Wait, first ... did she say yes?” Sarah hesitated, looked at Max through their video call.

“What do you think?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay ... tell me.”

“He bought her a horse.”

Sarah stopped with her mascara. “What, like ... ‘here, you’re worth two horses and a goat’ kind of thing?”

Max laughed. “No. It has ... she. It’s a girl horse. A mare?”

“That sounds right. I know nothing about horses.”

“Someone said what breed ... I don’t remember. With a pearl white coat. Like a fancy paint job on a car. Gorgeous. Anyway ... he led everyone out to the barn, where he had hundreds of white roses.”

Sarah sighed. “Oh my God.”

“They’re everywhere. On the walls, in giant vases, a massive collar on the horse like a necklace. Then he told her that if she wanted the horse, she needed to take the old man that came with it. When he took a knee, the damn horse took one, too. It was pretty cool.”

Sarah stopped playing with her makeup and all but sobbed, “I should have gone with you.”

“Piper has it on video.”

“Sounds beautiful.”

“The guy is something else.”

“You sound like you’re having a good time.”

“It would be better if you were here.”

She stuck out her bottom lip.

“I want to suck on that,” he told her.

Sarah pretended to look at her lip, then back at him. “It will be available tomorrow night.”

Max smiled. “I’ll let you go.”

“I can’t wait. I have a surprise for you tomorrow.”

He narrowed his eyes. “We said no presents.”

“It’s not a gift.”

“I keep hearing that today. We all got white cowboy hats, and there’s a guy here making sure they fit properly ... That wasn’t a gift either,” Max explained.

“I didn’t buy you a hat.”

“We’ll discuss this not-a-present present when I get back.”

She blew him a kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night, Lois Lane.”