Twin Seduction

The spacious room Adam had ushered her into was furnished with antiques from the Victorian era. Velvet drapes in a rich shade of burgundy had been pulled back to allow in the dim light. When they’d reached the far end of the room, Adam turned to face her. Even in the dim light, he was incredibly handsome. He had his father’s tall, athletic build, and his mother’s rich chestnut-colored hair, worn long enough to push behind his ears.

“I want an explanation,” Adam said in a tight voice.

“An explanation of what?”

“I want to know what you’re up to with this sister you’ve manufactured. My father said that he’d received a call from Fitzwalter and that you’re suddenly producing someone you claim is your long lost sister.”

“I received the same call from Fitzwalter.” Jordan worked to keep her voice calm. “I believe my parents are the ones who must be given the credit for producing her. Fitzwalter can show you the birth certificate. At my mother’s specific request, he contacted Madison and arranged for her to travel here today because my mother wanted her here for the reading of the will.”

“Why? Why reveal this second daughter now?”

Excellent questions, Jordan thought. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“I want to know what it means.”

Jordan studied him for a moment. There was a hint of near panic in his eyes. “It means you have a cousin you never knew about.”

He made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “That’s not what I mean. I want to know how this person is going to affect my position at Eva Ware Designs.”

“Very little, I would think.” Adam wasn’t the only one asking these questions, Jordan decided. He was probably only parroting his parents’ concerns. She suspected there was a lot of parental pressure on Adam, particularly from his mother, to one day take over Eva Ware Designs.

“From what I’ve been able to gather, Maddie has her hands full running her ranch and her own jewelry-design business out in Santa Fe.”

“She designs jewelry?” Adam’s tone was incredulous.

“You can check out her Web site.” She made a point of glancing at her watch, then turned to stride toward the door. “My sister is due to arrive any minute. So I think we ought to join the others in the library.”

Before she could step into the hallway, Adam grabbed her hand and jerked her around. “You don’t know any more than that?”

She met his eyes steadily. “No.” Then she pulled herself free and led the way out of the room.

Lane was waiting down the hallway, and as they approached, he reached for the handles of the paneled double doors and pushed them open. As she entered the library with Adam a step behind her, the scents of lemon wax and lilies assaulted her senses.

Jordan paused for a second to let her gaze sweep the room. It was huge. Three walls were lined with bookshelves, and four stained-glass windows nearly filled the fourth. Fitzwalter sat behind a carved oak desk with his back to the windows. Red leather chairs had been arranged in two semicircles around the desk.

Cho Li, her mother’s longtime assistant at Eva Ware Designs, had chosen a seat in the second row of chairs, and she returned the warm smile he sent her.

Uncle Carleton and Aunt Dorothy had already taken their seats to the attorney’s right. Adam strode directly to them and said something to his mother. A report on their conversation, Jordan thought.

As always, she was struck by how handsome her uncle was. And how quiet. For as long as she’d known him, he’d been a man of few words. Her mother had always claimed that he was totally focused on Ware Bank, which had been established by his great-great-grandfather and whose branches were scattered all over Long Island. Considering her mother’s focus on Eva Ware Designs, Jordan privately thought that brother and sister had a sort of tunnel vision in common. She wondered if Maddie would turn out to be the same way.

Carleton’s hazel eyes were cool and shuttered as they met hers. Jordan wondered what her uncle thought of the news of Madison Farrell’s existence. Dorothy, too, for that matter. Her aunt was even harder to read than her uncle.

Jordan took her seat to Fitzwalter’s left.

“It’s two o’clock. Surely we can get started now.” Dorothy Ware spoke in the same cool, unruffled tone she always used. As usual, her aunt looked as if she’d just walked away from a cover shoot for Vogue, but Jordan noted her hands were folded tightly on her designer bag.

Fitzwalter removed his glasses as his cell phone rang. Picking it up, he said, “Yes?”

After a moment, he disconnected the call, took his glasses off and said, “Ms. Madison Farrell will join us shortly. Her car has just pulled up.”

A mix of nerves and anticipation jittered in Jordan’s stomach. There was a part of her that wanted to dash out of the library and greet her sister at the front door. But there was another, more cautious part of her that was still struggling to accept what Fitzwalter had told her and what she’d seen when she’d examined the birth certificates.

Her sister. In a matter of seconds, she was going to meet her sister. How many times had she let herself imagine the moment? But this was real.

The grandfather clock ticked off the seconds. On the other side of Fitzwalter’s desk, the Wares sat in silence, their eyes on the library door. Did they all suspect what Adam did—that she’d somehow conjured up a sister after all these years? Or knowingly kept her existence hidden?

A sudden spurt of anger had Jordan springing to her feet and turning to face the door. She’d had grown used to Adam’s paranoia, but this was ridiculous. And her sister was about to walk into this frigid, hostile atmosphere. In her mind, she pictured Maddie entering the house, then following Lane down the long hallway to the library doors. Her own nerves paled in comparison with what she imagined her sister must be feeling. She started toward the doors.

When they opened, Jordan froze, and suddenly she and Maddie might have been alone in the room. As many times as she’d let herself imagine this moment, nothing had prepared her for the instant sense of connection and recognition that hit her like a punch in the gut. She felt winded—as if she’d just sprinted up a steep hill. It was one thing to see a photo on a Web site and quite another to come face-to-face with your mirror image.

Well, almost your mirror image.

Maddie Farrell had the same blue-violet eyes, the same facial features and hair color, but she wore a different hairstyle. Jordan kept hers cut just below chin length, while Maddie wore hers in a long braid just as Eva had done. How many times had she tried to convince her mother to switch to a more modern style?

Just as she had countless times in the past few days, Jordan pushed aside the little twinge of pain near her heart. She and Maddie had different taste in clothes, too. But Jordan liked the casual Southwestern style of Maddie’s khaki slacks and embroidered denim jacket.

Jordan had no idea how long she and Maddie stood there taking each other in. Taking the reality in.

Everything that Fitzwalter had told her was true. She did indeed have an identical twin sister. And she was here.

And she was standing on the threshold like a deer caught in the headlights.

Jordan rushed forward and took her sister’s hands. What she saw in Maddie’s eyes—curiosity, excitement, anticipation—mirrored her own feelings so well. Once again, the sense of recognition struck her and some of her nerves settled. It was going to be all right. Whatever else happened, they were going to be all right.

Suddenly filled with joy, she whispered, “Welcome.”

Then she turned to the others. “Uncle Carleton, Aunt Dorothy, Adam and Cho, this is my sister, Madison Farrell.”

Cho rose and bowed. “It is my pleasure to meet Eva’s other daughter.”

There was one long beat of silence before Carleton Ware rose from his chair. “You’ll have to forgive us, Madison. The shock of my sister’s death coupled with the news that she had a second daughter tucked away all these years in Santa Fe…well, we’re still trying to absorb everything. Until you walked in right now, I’m not sure that any of us really believed what Edward had told us. Dorothy, Adam and I want to welcome you to Ware House.”

Jordan shot her uncle a grateful smile. For a man of few words, he could sometimes be counted on. Then she squeezed Maddie’s hand and led her to a chair and whispered, “Once the will stuff is over, we’ll talk.”

1

THE SKY was still pitch-black when the limo pulled up to the JFK terminal at 6:00 a.m. When Jordan got out with Maddie, her sister turned to her in surprise. As she met her twin’s eyes, she experienced that same odd sense of connection that she’d felt the moment she’d first seen her.

Maddie smiled. “Jordan, I can get onto the plane back to Santa Fe by myself.”“I know.” Jordan led the way through the revolving doors of the terminal. “You must think that I’m some kind of control freak, not to mention a nonstop talker. But I still have some things to say. I’ll walk you to the security check.”

In the little inn in Linchworth where she had taken her sister after they’d left Ware House, they’d stayed up most of the night talking and talking and talking. But when Maddie had finally drifted off to sleep, Jordan’s mind had replayed over and over the voice of Edward Fitzwalter III reading Eva Ware’s extraordinary will.