Texas Redeemed Read Free Page A

ceiling.
    “Can I please not hang
out in the kids’ ward today?” No surprise she didn’t like being in the place
where she’d spent three months sick with meningitis—the infection that had
taken away her twin and part of her hearing when she was six years old.
    “There’s always the hospital library.”
    “Not fun, Mom.”
    Unlike her parents, Lucy wasn’t interested in medicine or
manning a ranch. Her niche was fashion. She was an artist, a wannabe designer,
and wanted to have her own label one day.
    Lucy stomped into the Pediatrics waiting area restroom to
change, then emerged wearing scrubs, corduroy boots and a bold multi-colored
scarf. She plopped on the sofa and rooted around in her hobo for a green apple
and a paperback, then pulled out her cell phone and began to fiercely type on
the device’s keyboard with her thumbs.
    “Who are you texting?” Valerie asked.
    “Gramps.” She paused to adjust her behind-the-ear hearing
aid and continued texting.
    “Gramps” was Nathaniel Turner, who’d been ready to move
heaven and hell to be involved in Anna and Lucy’s lives when he’d learned the
truth about the girls’ paternity during their illness. Family meant everything
to Nathaniel Turner and Valerie just knew that a man with his influence would
bring down anyone who tried to deprive him of grandparental rights. Peyton had
left town before she’d realized she was pregnant. And with him in no uncertain
terms out of the picture, she’d gone as long as she could without involving his
grandfather in a situation that she’d set in motion with secrets and lies that
had led Peyton to her bed.
    No, her car, to be precise. The Grand Prix, for years,
had been a reminder, able to stir memories of a night of frenzied sex and dark
destruction … a night that shouldn’t have happened.
    “Lucy, this isn’t about your birthday, is it?”
    “I’m asking Gramps to get you to let me have the best
party ever,” the girl said bluntly.
    Valerie sighed, checking her wristwatch. Two minutes
until the board meeting began. “I won’t be manipulated into changing my mind,
Lucy.”
    Last night they’d had a heated argument about Valerie
turning down Nathaniel’s offer to splurge on a lavish weekend party for Lucy’s
thirteenth birthday in February.
    Lucy snapped the phone shut. “Everyone at school keeps
asking me why I live like a farmer when my great-grandpa’s, like, the richest
guy in Texas.”
    “It’s because you’re my kid, not his.” A fact she’d reminded Nathaniel of only weeks ago, when he’d
broached the subject of preparing Lucy for a place in his company—as the leader
of an entire division that didn’t exist yet. The man was waiting in the wings,
ready to deliver all her dreams on a platinum platter.
    Valerie had turned him down, refusing to be strong-armed,
refusing to even clue her daughter in on what Nathaniel had in mind. Granted,
Lucy was creative, talented. Gifted, some said. But she was too young to be
cemented in a career—especially one that’d remove her from the ranch and the
lifestyle she knew.
    And it was more than a little apparent that Nathaniel saw
Lucy as someone to take on business left unfinished by his son and grandson.
    “Let me go to the diner tonight, Mom. Isn’t detention
punishment enough?”
    Valerie kneeled down to be eye level with Lucy. “You
smart-mouthed a teacher. Not cool. Plus, you’ve a history test to study for.”
    “Just wait. When I grow up, I’m going to be ridiculously
rich and famous,” she shot back. “I’ll move away, and go where I want when I
want.”
    Valerie frowned. Peyton had also had a hankering to
travel. He’d been desperate to the point of recklessness to be rid of his
mother, who’d abandoned him but continued to pop into his life whenever her
pockets came up empty. All the while he was buying her affection, he was
slipping into a dark place from which only a few people could yank him back.
She had thought she herself was one