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William looked over at Joy. She was his heart and soul. She just didn’t realize it, and he wasn’t the kind of man to go there. “I have no idea what it’s about.”

“They wanted me to come too. That’s what gives me a bad feeling.”

It gave William a bad feeling too. He took her small hand into his large hand and squeezed it, but he didn’t give her any verbal assurances. Which only fed her already frail nerves.

And when the limo stopped at the entrance into the main house, and the house butler opened the back passenger door before William’s bodyguard could step out, she braced herself for the worst.

“Welcome home, Master William.”

Most people would say good to be back when returning home, but not William. “How have you been?”

“Very well, sir.”

“Good,” William said as he reached his hand inside the car to assist Joy out. Then he placed his hand on her lower back as they both followed the butler up the steps and into the mansion.

Instead of going into the living room, which was the usual place where people gathered, they were escorted to the day parlor where William Skeffington the Fourth and his wife Fiona were assembled. They were the same austere people Joy remembered at that country club.

They both were seated in regal-looking chairs beside the gorgeous fireplace. Neither stood up when William and Joy entered the room.

But when William saw Frank Paisley seated in the day parlor, a man William knew very well, his movements slowed. He drew Joy closer to him, and held her hand tighter, as they made their way to the settee.

Not a word was spoken as the butler left, closing the doors behind him, and as William and Joy sat down. Although William was leaned back on his parents’ settee, Joy sat on the edge of her seat. If she had to make a run for it, she was going to be ready to go. She didn’t know these people. She didn’t trust these people.

Especially when William’s father pressed a button, said send her in, and in walked Juanita Lacey.

Joy’s mother.

The woman who was not invited to their wedding because of her antics.

This woman. This thorn in Joy’s side all her life, was in William’s parents’ home? In the home of people like them?

Joy looked at William. William was already looking at her.

CHAPTER FOUR

After Joy’s jaw dropped when she saw her mother walk into the parlor of those blue-blooded people who ordinarily wouldn’t give somebody like Juanita, or even Joy, the time of day, she and William were in a state of disbelief. What in the world was this?

But William maintained his cool, placed his hands around her narrow waist, and pulled her back onto the settee so that she was sitting back and right beside him. Because it was clear as day to him, now that this so-called urgent meeting was about to commence, that it was going to be all about besmirching Joy’s reputation. That would be the only reason her mother would be there. Which was already angering him.

Frank Paisley stood up when Juanita walked into the room and motioned for her to take his seat. Of which she took it without even glancing at her daughter. Frank remained standing behind her.

Then his mother spoke. “You remember Frank. Don’t you, William?”

William looked at his mother. She knew he remembered Frank from all the investigations she hired him to launch on William’s first wife before William decided to marry her anyway. He did not dignify her question with a response.

“And this young lady right here,” Fiona said, motioning toward Juanita, “is your second wife’s mother. In case you haven’t met her yet.”

William continued to stare at his mother. Joy was staring at her, too, curious beyond imagination as to what this was about. But William was getting furious.

“I asked Frank, as a courtesy to you, to look into Joynetta’s background. Just to do our due diligence.”

“What our?” William’s father, called Wills, asked. “Don’t you dare put me in this foolery you’re up to. This is all your doing. I objected then. I object now.”

William wasn’t close to his father at all, but in some ways he respected him. There were always lines he wouldn’t cross. And getting all up in his son’s business was one of them.

“I was doing my due diligence,” Fiona corrected herself. She had no problem going it alone. “I would have done it sooner, but I was blindsided by your sudden marriage. As if she was in the same condition your first wife was in.”

Joy was certain she meant pregnant, but she wasn’t about to ask for clarification. That woman had it in for her, especially if her so-called investigations were relying on her unreliable, will do anything for a dollar, mother.