“There’s still time for us to get to know one another, and I’d like for us to have a relationship,” Nina said as she held out her hands in a pleading manner. She must have taken acting classes at some point in her career, because this was quite the performance.
“Is this about the will?” I asked bluntly. “Because Babulya officially disinherited you, there’s nothing here for you.”
“Hardly,” she said haughtily. “Don’t you know who my companion is?” She waved a hand at the middle-aged gentleman, but I looked at her blankly until she told me. “Richard Wilder, of Awake.com?”
The Logans didn’t look too surprised, but Ryan and I stared with our mouths open. Almost everyone in the country shopped online there – you could buy just about anything. And with a premiere subscription, you could get it brought to you for free within a couple of hours. The company had to be worth billions of dollars – this guy had Bill Gates level money. What the hell was he doing with a snake like Nina? I obviously recognized Richard’s name, but I stayed away from celebrity gossip pages these days, so I’d never seen a picture of him.
Babulya told me that my parents had died when I was just a baby, but the truth came to light when I was around ten. Ryan’s father was the lawyer who handled Nina’s emancipation, and one of the few people who knew of my relation to her.
Ryan had let the secret out of the bag after overhearing his parents discussing my situation. After I knew the truth, I would constantly look through the magazines at the checkout lines, hoping to glimpse a picture of the elusive woman that Babulya didn’t want to talk about. I would fantasize that I would write her a letter and she would be shocked to hear that I hadn’t died at birth. She would tell me that she had no idea that I was alive and that she had been staying away from home because the memory of my death was too painful for her. Obviously, that never happened, and my fascination and curiosity turned to hate and bitterness. I now avoided anything that might have her picture or her name.
I guess it wasn’t too shocking that Richard Wilder would want to be with a supermodel, but I would think he could get one of the ones at the top of her game. I doubted he had to settle for an aging one that was almost completely out of the spotlight. Maybe he wanted someone who was closer to age-appropriate for his forty-something years?
“Why are you here now?” I was embarrassed that my voice came out a little too high-pitched, but I kept my face blank. Despite my exhaustion after a challenging performance, anger was creeping up. It leaked through the wall that kept my emotions at bay.
Nina, because I refused to call her my mother, gave a sad sigh. “I want to get to know my beautiful daughter.”
I just stared blankly at her and waited for her to break character. I wasn’t going to play along with this charade. Her eyes grew harder as the seconds ticked by, and I remained silent. What was her game? What could she possibly have to gain from being here?
Richard cleared his throat. “Ekaterina, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He extended a hand toward me, and I felt obligated to break eye contact with Nina to return his greeting. I might hate my mother, but I wasn’t going to be a bitch to a stranger just because I didn’t like his choice in bedmates.
“Likewise,” I murmured as we shook hands. “I go by Katya.”
“These are my sons, Kingston and Maverik.”
The blond one, Kingston, was texting on his phone and completely ignoring me. Maverik was simply staring, his face expressionless, but his eyes were dark with challenge. He looked like he hated me just as much as I hated my mother.
If the two of them had been the usual pretentious rich boys, I would have laughed at their elitist names. However, these guys had an edge of swagger. They might be spoiled, but they weren’t soft or weak.
“Um, hi,” I said awkwardly before turning back to Richard. “Mr. Wilder-”
“Please call me Richard,” he interrupted.
I gave him a small smile. “Richard, it was very nice to meet you, but this is a lot for me to handle right now. I never expected to meet my mother, or…any of you.”
I had been completely oblivious to the fact that the infamous Richard Wilder had sons around my age, but none of that really mattered. My classmates would probably be thrilled to hear that a famous billionaire and a supermodel had watched us dance. But me? I resented their presence here. What gave them the right to invade my life without warning? To ruin what should have been one of the highlights of my year? I wanted them gone.
Kingston looked up from his phone. “No hug for your new brother?” He held out his hands expectantly with a teasing grin on his face, but I could see a hard edge in his eyes that made me nervous. The friendly face was just a mask hiding whatever ugliness hid beneath. Ugliness that I had no desire to get near. “C’mon sis, don’t leave me hanging.”
I reluctantly stepped forward and leaned towards him, intending to give him an air hug that would last less than a second. He had other intentions, and pulled me tight against him,
