All It Takes (Romancing Manhattan 2)

“You may be angry, but you’ll watch your language,” Dad says. I can only laugh humorlessly, staring at him as if he’s crazy.

Because he just might be.

“I’m taking this.” I hold the book up. “It’s part of Grandpa’s estate, and that’s part of evidence in an ongoing case.”

“You can’t do that,” Dad insists, but Uncle Patrick shakes his head.

“Yes, she can.”

“Hello, everyone! Wow, there’s quite a party going on.” Mom walks in from the kitchen and stops short when she sees us all in our standoff. “What’s happening?”

“Did you know?” I demand.

“Did I know what?”

“No,” Dad says with a heavy sigh. “She didn’t.”

“Did I know what?” Mom asks again.

“That Dad and Uncle Patrick had the proof all along that Bruce House doesn’t actually own the park, and that they were bribing him to make the proof of that go away?”

She stares at both men, her jaw dropped, and shakes her head.

“Louis, tell me this isn’t true.”

Dad just shakes his head and Uncle Patrick sits on the couch, his head in his hands.

“They’ve both committed real estate fraud, they’ve cost the city a lot of money, and we could throw bribery into the mix, which is all illegal and could put them away for a while.”

“We wouldn’t go to prison,” Uncle Patrick says, but I shake my head.

“We don’t know that.” I turn to Mom, who’s also gone pale, and take her hand in mine.

“You really didn’t know?”

“How could you ask me that?” Her voice is hollow.

“I didn’t think they could do something like this either.”

I’m shaking. I want to hit them both, to rage at them and demand to know what in the hell they were thinking.

But I will never forget the tone of their voices just a few minutes ago when they thought they were about to get away with it. They were not the men I know and love.

“You need to turn yourselves in, before I do.”

“Sienna Marie Hendricks,” Dad says in shock. “You would not do that to your family.”

“Oh, you clearly underestimate me.” I shake my head and then laugh humorlessly. “Actually, that’s exactly what you did. You didn’t think that I’d win this case.”

“We knew you wouldn’t because we had the final proof that you’d never find,” Uncle Patrick says, his voice as flat as a stranger’s.

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Mom says.

“Me neither,” I reply, suddenly needing to get away. I leave the room, to the kitchen where my phone is sitting on the countertop, then hurry back to the living room. No one has moved.

“You have two hours to do the right thing,” I say. “I’ll be telling my boss exactly what’s happened, and I’ll petition the court to dismiss the case.”

“Don’t do this,” Dad says. “Sienna, we’ll give you a cut of the money.”

Uncle Patrick’s head whips up in surprise, staring at Dad as if he just offered to sacrifice a virgin.

“You just tried to bribe the city attorney?”

“I’m pleading with my daughter to not do something that you’ll regret.”

I shake my head, watching both of them in horror. “Who are you? Both of you? How could you do this?”

“I would hate for you to lose your job over your canoodling with Quinn,” Patrick says in a pathetic attempt to scare me, and I immediately see red all over again.

“We’re done here. You’re not going to bribe me or threaten me into dropping this. Two hours.”

And with that, I hurry out to my car and drive away, glancing at my phone.

Quinn knew.

Quinn knew.

And he didn’t tell me.

That might be the biggest betrayal of all.

God, I feel like such a fool. My family was lying to me, and Quinn was lying to me.

I can’t go back to Quinn’s office, or his condo. I’m too angry. I’m too hurt.

First, I have to handle my case. That’s the most important thing.

I drive directly to my office and hurry inside to Dave’s office.

“Long time no see,” he says when he looks up from his desk, an unlit cigar in his mouth. He frowns. “What’s going on?”

I calmly explain everything that I heard at my parents’ house, and when I’m done, the cigar is gone and he’s shaking his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Jesus, Si.” He sighs deeply. “I’m sorry.”

I clear my throat, unwilling to start crying now. “I’m going to petition the court to drop the case.”

“Agreed.”

“I’ll write it up now. And I recommend that the city press charges.”

“Are you sure?” He stands, walks around his desk, and leans against it, his arms crossed over his chest. “This is your family.”

“I’m sure. They broke the law, and they wasted hours and hours of the city’s time. At the least they should have to pay for that.”

“I’ll get that going,” he says. His face is grim. “Sienna.”

“No.” I shake my head. “No, Dave, don’t get mushy on me. I need to see this through and then I need a week off.”