Disillusioned (Swept Away 2)

“What if these shares are a setup?”

“What if they aren’t? If the merger goes through, I might not get anything.” I thought back to what I’d read in the newspaper.

“You have a claim to Bradley Inc. in your hand now, Bianca.” Jakob’s voice was intense. “You can share in any profits that the company receives from the merger.”

“I didn’t think of that.” I gasped.

“And I think that Larry was hoping that wouldn’t cross your mind as well. He made a mistake giving you the shares. For some reason he wants you to stop the merger because it’s in his best interests, not yours.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“What is it that you want?”

“I want what my father worked hard for.”

“Do you think Larry would just hand you your shares out of the kindness of his heart?” Jakob asked me grimly. “Do you think that after all this it would be this simple?”

“I don’t know.” I sighed deeply. Why did Larry care about me getting the shares? How would this help him? “I don’t think he would hand me the shares after all these years out of the kindness of his heart, not really.”

“Think, Bianca. Please. This could be a setup.”

“How? What sort of setup is giving me my rightful shares? Maybe he knew that he was about to go down and wanted me to get a claim to what was mine before he went to jail?”

“I sincerely doubt that those were his intentions.” Jakob shook his head. “And at this point, we don’t really know what your rightful shares are or were.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Let me see those papers again.” He grabbed them from my hand and read them more carefully this time. “These were signed off by David.”

“So?” I was upset at the snark in his voice when he had said rightful.

“So why would David sign off on papers giving you a major interest in the company?”

“Maybe he felt guilty as well?” My stomach churned as I spoke. I knew David didn’t even have the capacity to feel guilt. And if he did, he didn’t go along with a kidnapping to prevent me from getting access to any shares to signing over shares in less than a few weeks.

“Think, Bianca, think. Larry has a daughter, a long-lost daughter, called Roma. Roma came into his life a few years ago. Roma came into my brother’s life a few years ago. Roma is dating my brother.”

“Do you think David knows who Roma is?”

“No.” Jakob shook his head. “I don’t think he knows there’s a connection, but I could be wrong. I mean, this is all larger than I thought it was in the beginning.”

“So we need to find Roma now?”

“Hold on.” A light went off in his eyes as he stared at me. “Do you have your phone on you?”

“Yes, why?”

“What did Mrs. Renee just say?”

“What? That Larry had a daughter?”

“No, no. I think she gave us a clue.” He snapped his fingers. “She made it a point to tell me Larry was the one who chose Mattias’s name.”

“Yeah, so?”

“She also made a point of saying ‘that’s my name’ right before she left.”

“And?” I was confused.

“Give me your phone.” He grabbed it from me and typed something in. “?‘Reborn’!” he exclaimed.

“What?” I was even more confused than I’d been before.

“Renee means ‘reborn.’?”

“Okay, so?”

“So what if Larry’s last name wasn’t really Renee?” Jakob grabbed my hand and dragged me to the car with him. “What if he changed his name?”

“To Renee?” I frowned.

“He likes symbolism, so maybe he thought Renee was smart.”

“I guess so.” I nodded. “I guess it could make sense. He was reborn as a new person.” Then it hit me. I suddenly understood what Jakob was saying. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

He nodded. “What if Larry was Maxwell?”

“But why would he change his name?”

“That’s what we need to find out. He has to be Maxwell, though. It makes the most sense. That’s why I always thought he was with the company from the beginning, even though he only started as an attorney when Maxwell left.” Jakob was about to say something else when my phone started ringing. “Here you go.” He looked at the screen as he handed it to me. As soon as he saw the screen, he blanched and the phone fell to the ground as he stared at me in shock.

“What is it?” I bent down and picked up the phone—somehow it had escaped significant damage. I had a missed call from Rosie. “What’s wrong?”

“The—the photo on the screen when the phone rang.” He stumbled over his words.

“Yeah, I like to do phone indicators in my phone book.” I nodded. “So?”

“Do you have any photos of your friend Rosie that I could see larger?” he asked urgently.

“Let me check.” I frowned. “Why?”

“Just pull one up,” he demanded.

I went to my photo album and opened it quickly. “Here you go.” I showed him a photo of Rosie and me at a bar a couple of months ago.

Only his sharp intake of breath betrayed his concern. “Bianca—Rosie is Roma.”