The Moment of Truth

“You have family money. You’re the heir to your parents’ fortune. And you’re going to deny your child the right to the best of everything? The best schools? The best opportunities?”

Dana hadn’t had the same opportunities he had and she’d come out far ahead of him.

“I’m trying to do what’s best,” he said, developing an ache between his shoulder blades as he stood there.

Was Sam right? Was he, by his own unwillingness to go back to the man he’d been, denying his son or daughter a better life?

He pictured his mother, alone in the mansion on the hill in Boston. She was a good mother. In spite of the staff who’d been available to take care of Josh, his mother had always been a part of his daily life. She’d seen him off to school every morning and been there to welcome him home. He pictured her with a newborn baby in her arms....

“Bottom line is, the woman deserves to know who she’s moving in with.” Sam’s tone brooked no argument. There was no hint of a smile now, either.

Josh was going to lose this one. He wasn’t coming up with the words to turn it around. Wasn’t fighting hard enough.

Maybe because a part of him suspected that there might be truth to Sam Montford’s words.

“I need some time.” This, he would fight for. He had to get Dana and the baby she was carrying into their new home. Once she was settled in, had everything she needed, once he was a little more confident that she’d stay put, at least until after the baby was born, he’d tell her.

“Cassie also wanted me to invite you to Thanksgiving dinner,” Sam said. “I can give you until then.”

An invitation in the form of a threat. He recognized the tactic. Sam was giving him six days.

“Dana’s hosting a dinner for twenty, mostly college kids who don’t have anyplace else to go. I’m helping.” Six days wasn’t long enough.

“Then bring her over for dessert,” Sam said. “Either way, you have until Thursday to tell her or I’ll do it myself.”

Josh didn’t doubt the older man. But he respected him.

“Your time’s up, son,” Sam said when he should have been walking back down the driveway to his fancy truck and driving back to his beautiful life.

Clamping his jaws on the words he might have said, Josh remained silent.

“You know I’ve been where you are.” His cousin’s voice had changed, taking on a warmer note he’d never heard in his own father’s voice. “I left the money behind, too. It’s hard to see what life’s really about when everything comes easy.”

Josh was listening.

“Your point of return arrived much more quickly than mine did,” Sam continued. “Mariah’s parents’ deaths, having the little girl in my care, brought me home. Dana and this baby are your orphan girl. Either you’re going to be the man you want to be, live up to your own expectations, or you’re not. But this I know—you can’t take that girl, or her baby, down with you.”

He didn’t have a comeback.

“Unlike you, I had neither a mind for nor the desire for a life in the business world, and having Mariah didn’t change that. I had to find a way to be who I am, the heir to a fortune and future Patriarch of the Montford family, and be true to myself, as well.”

Josh wanted to turn his back. And couldn’t. Like a little kid, kneeling at this man’s knee, he asked, “What did you do?”

“I started a construction company, doing work that I truly enjoy. And...” Sam paused, gave Josh a long assessing look. “I’m going to tell you something that only Cassie knows.”

Sam expected Josh’s trust so he was going to give his own trust, as well? “Okay.”

“You ever read the SNC comic Burrough Bantam?”

“The one with the worm? I am, I am, I am...”

“Yes.”

“Hell, yeah, I read it,” Josh said, frowning. He’d been reading it for years, since he was a kid. But what in the hell did a comic have to do with any of this?

“I write it.”

Josh was confused. “What?”

“I’m SNC. Sam ’n’ Cassie. That series was born shortly after I left Shelter Valley. It’s my view of this town, the good and the bad. The strip sustained me for the sixteen years I was gone, and has sustained me since I came back, as well.”

“And no one in town knows?”

Sam shook his head. Josh felt like his was shaking. There was so much to take in.

“Cassie and I talked about telling people. I was afraid people here would think I was poking fun at them. Cassie thought they’d be honored, but in the end, we figured it would ruin Shelter Valley and everything that makes it unique if people started flocking here to be a part of Burrough Bantam.”