Behind the Shadows Read Free Page A

other horses.”
    Anger and disappointment clouded her face. She changed the subject. “What about Seth? Will you give him a contribution?”
    He should have known that was coming. Hell, it probably had been her first goal. Make a request she knew he would refuse, and he would feel obligated to grant the second.
    Good God, he was tired of saying no. He wished Ed Westerfield had just given her the money rather than establishing the damned trust and conning him into being trustee with a strict list of rules.
    â€œWesterfield Industries doesn’t give contributions,” he said, citing the old man’s philosophy. “You give something to one politician, then all the vultures descend. As an industry doing business with the state and U.S. governments, we can’t single out one lawmaker or one party. You know that.”
    â€œThis is different. He’s a Westerfield. Family. People will understand that.”
    â€œHe’s a politician first.”
    â€œDammit,” she exploded. “It’s not fair. He and David should have gotten more of the inheritance. Grandfather just wanted to bend everyone to his will and when he couldn’t, he cut them off.”
    â€œTrue,” Max admitted. “But you have a big allowance. You can contribute.”
    â€œI already have. The max.” She lifted her chin. “I don’t know why you’re still his lackey. He’s dead.”
    â€œI make promises, I keep them. It’s my one virtue.”
    â€œAnd you believe you owe him,” she said angrily. “That’s bunk, and you know it. He got far more from you than he ever gave. All those years you did every nasty little chore. Hatchet man. That’s all you were to him.”
    â€œProbably,” Max said. “If you think that bothers me, you’re wrong.”
    â€œYou would have to be human to be bothered,” she said, turned around, and marched out of the room.
    True. He had lost his humanity when he was ten years old. A succeeding series of foster homes erased any remaining remnants. He’d resolved then never to be a victim again.
    He leaned back in his chair. It was in his freshman year in college when he’d caught Westerfield’s eye while he was a janitor in the Westerfield office building. He was caught reading Plato when he should have been scrubbing floors.
    Ed Westerfield had questioned him at length, then become his mentor as well as employer. On his part, Max had made sure he became indispensable to his boss. When he graduated at the head of his business school class, Westerfield paid his tuition to Georgia State University Law School and slowly moved him up the ladder to corporate attorney.
    The price had been complete dedication and loyalty. Whatever the old man wanted, he got. Didn’t matter if Max found it distasteful. He was Westerfield’s man.
    Still was. Even two years after his death.
    As Westerfield had known he would be.
    Leigh was now his albatross.
    The phone rang and he snatched it to his ear. His secretary had instructions not to disturb him unless it was about a state contract he was finalizing for the company.
    He switched his mind to a different frequency.
    The contract crowded out everything else.
    The results of the new DNA test were the same as the initial ones. Kira could not be her mother’s biological daughter. Couldn’t be any relation.
    She weighed her options now. The enormity of someone’s error three decades ago was mind-numbing, and she had to act carefully. The news could kill her mother. She was that fragile.
    There were no more straws left to grab. She had to find out what had happened thirty-two years ago. She had to discover the identity of her mother’s genetic daughter. She had to convince that person to donate a kidney to Katy Douglas. And she had to do it within a few weeks.
    The physician looked at her sympathetically, even more so than before. She knew he believed that her