Lost and Found Family Read online

  Dedication

  For all those hard-working women out there who do it all the best they can for the ones they love

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Reading Group Guide

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Endorsements

  Also by Jennifer Ryan

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter One

  “Why now?” Sarah sank deeper into her office chair, wallowing in her desire to be defiant, knowing this reckoning disguised as a visit was a long time coming.

  Sarah stared at the letter Margaret’s attorney, Luke Thompson, sent her two weeks ago basically telling her to either allow Margaret to see the boys voluntarily or face a court battle.

  All Margaret had to do was ask.

  But no. She had to be difficult and get a lawyer.

  “Why can’t Sean’s mother come here if she wants to see the boys? She can make the drive just as well as I can. Why demand such a long visit when the kids have school and I have a business to run?”

  Her best friend and assistant, Abby, kept her features and response neutral. “You haven’t taken a vacation in four years.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Spending time with Sean’s mother is not a vacation. It’s an endurance race through hell.”

  Sean’s mother and sister knew nothing about the man Sean had become before his death, and treated her with open hostility, making it clear they hated her. She’d endured their disdain followed by two years of cutting silence, and now, out of the blue, Margaret had demanded to see her grandsons.

  Sarah despised Sean for making her keep his deep dark secrets.

  She did it to spare his family, for the sake of her children, and the company they owned and had built into a thriving enterprise.

  But keeping the secrets weighed on her mind and heart.

  Abby pressed her lips into a flat line. “Maybe you’ll resolve the differences between you. Put the past to rest, then she won’t be so unkind.”

  That was a tepid term for the scathing words Margaret liked to spew.

  “She doesn’t want to be friends, or even play nice for the boys’ sake. She blames me for Sean’s death and thinks I stole his company from him.”

  After the company’s IPO and Sean’s sudden death, the stocks were up and down like a roller coaster. She did what she had to do to stabilize the business and show the investors the company was still solid. “We came so close to losing everything. The boys deserved some small piece of their father to survive.”

  Abby folded her arms across her chest. “You are Spencer Software. Everything this company is only exists because of you and your genius at programming. You’ve always held the company’s reins. You catapulted us to where we are now.”

  Sarah found it difficult to accept the accolades she’d worked hard to deserve but wasn’t comfortable flaunting.

  “Spencer Software is the best in the industry, and there are your successful side businesses as well.” Abby prodded Sarah to see her life for what it really was, not how Sean’s family saw it, and how she hid it. “People are banging down the door to get you to do their projects. The boys will have some legacy. Thanks to you. Not Sean. Stop letting him take credit for your work. You should have left him long before he started treating you like an employee instead of his wife and the mother of his sons.”

  No sense arguing. Sarah had saved the company and, most important, everyone’s jobs. “You’re right. So why the hell did I agree to spend six weeks with his mother, who hates me, and pretend that all the things I allowed her and the world to believe are really true?”

  “Tell. Her. The. Truth.” Abby held her hands out and let them fall. “What difference does it make now? He’s gone. You shouldn’t have to pay for his mistakes and misdeeds forever.”

  Sarah didn’t see an upside to revealing Sean’s true character. “He was everything to her. The perfect son, who could do no wrong. I can’t take that away.” She understood Margaret in a way. “As a mother, I look at my boys and want to believe they’re perfect in every way. Let her have her untarnished memory of him. I wish for the boy’s sake he’d been that person.”

  And telling Sean’s mom everything opened the door to the boys remembering things better left forgotten.

  Abby let it go.

  Sarah glanced at her calendar and worried about all the meetings she’d have to take remotely. “Did you call Margaret and give her the details about our arrival?”

  Abby rolled her eyes again. “Yes. And Margaret wanted me to tell you”—she released a frustrated huff—“and I quote, ‘She could have taken five minutes between lunch with friends and spending Sean’s money to call me herself.’” Abby might get a headache from all that eye rolling.

  “And so it begins.” Sarah waited for the tide of resentment to pass.

  Abby made a disgusted face to let Sarah know what she thought about Margaret’s attitude.

  Abby leaned over the desk and put her hand over Sarah’s. “I just wish, for once, someone gave you as much as you give to others. Only the good things you do in the name of the company are public knowledge. But that all changes at the benefit next month.” Abby gave her a mischievous smile, excited Sarah would be publicly celebrated—mostly against her will.

  “I just want to focus on the job I love. I get people want to celebrate a woman in my position and that I’m a role model for young girls who want to be in the tech industry. But I hate doing press.”

  “As co-CEO you should take credit for all you do and not let Evan hog the spotlight.”

  “He can have it.” Sarah held the position so she had a say in how the company was run, but she left the majority of the public aspect of the CEO job to Evan, who knew how to run the company and loved being the face of Spencer Software.

  She and Evan ran the company the way she’d hoped she and Sean would have done if Sean had been a different kind of man.

  “Your new security program will innovate the market. And though everyone knows a woman is behind the bestselling Andy’s Antics games, the press and consumers can’t wait to find out that it’s really you behind the obscure photo and bio on the website.”

  Because Andy’s Antics wasn’t a public company, Sarah had been able to keep her identity somewhat secret. Insiders knew
, but she’d kept the narrative on the games, not who made them.

  “It’s about time you had your coming-out party.” Abby held up her hands. “That’s all I have to say. You should get credit for all you’ve accomplished.”

  “Margaret won’t like it when I do. I don’t even know how much Margaret knows about what I’ve done with Spencer Software, let alone if she even knows about Andy’s Antics.”

  “She’ll know soon enough. If you come clean to Margaret about Sean, you could get all the secrets out of the way in a matter of weeks.”

  “Some skeletons are better left buried. You should go home. It’s late.”

  “How much longer will you work tonight?”

  “Not long. I’ve got a call for the Knox Project, and then I have to pack up the laptops for the trip.”

  “How many are you taking?”

  “Only three. I have the Knox Project to finish, the Knight’s Revenge game for Tyler to test, and another data storage project for Cadence Medical.” She liked to use a different computer for each project to keep everything straight and because it was easier to hand off to her team when she had the programming done and they could test it, work out the bugs, and implement it for the client.

  “Assign some of the work to the programmers downstairs and take some time to yourself during this trip.”

  “They’re as overworked as I am. Besides, look around. There are twelve laptops representing my various projects.” She took on the big, complex projects that had catapulted the company’s name and profits. “Be thankful I’m not taking more than the three.”

  “Only twelve right now.” Abby opened her mouth in mock surprise.

  At any given time there could be more than twenty laptops in Sarah’s office. Twelve wasn’t so bad. The fact that she’d only work on three projects while away meant she might get more than four hours of sleep at night. Maybe. Probably not.

  Abby headed for the door. “I’m out of here. Make your call, then go home, see your kids, and get some sleep tonight because tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day.”

  “Thanks, Abby. Go have some fun for both of us.”

  She wished she could ditch work, cancel the trip, and go to Hawaii with the boys instead of Carmel.

  She picked up the letter from Luke again and cursed Margaret for going to an attorney when a simple phone call would have sufficed. She did not look forward to the long car ride tomorrow, facing Sean’s mom, and dredging up all those memories of him, what had happened, and a past she tried to bury but always seemed to find a way to rise to the surface.

  Chapter Two

  Excitement warred with anxiety in Margaret’s stomach. “They’ll be here tomorrow. I can’t wait to see my grandsons. It’s been too long.” She regretted that in her grief and because of her anger and resentment, she’d let so much time go by.

  “I told you the letter would work.” Luke stood in the kitchen, wearing a tailored suit, tie loose. Luke was a defense attorney. When she asked Luke for help with her Sarah problem, he’d convinced her to start with a letter requesting to see the boys.

  She was surprised it worked.

  And she had Luke to thank for it.

  He and Sean had been close as brothers growing up, though they’d gone their separate ways after high school. Still, she thought of Luke as a second son.

  But she’d kept the bad blood between her and Sarah private until now.

  “Two years is a long time to let this go on.” Luke didn’t understand.

  Depression had stripped her of any sense of time. One day dragged into the next. “At first, my grief was too great to see anyone. A mother shouldn’t outlive her child. When Sarah took over Sean’s company, I got angry. After the funeral, she didn’t grieve him, she just took everything and shut us out.”

  Sarah got everything Sean worked so hard to build and erased him from the boys’ lives.

  They probably didn’t even remember him. Their own father. It made her sick.

  So she put her foot down and insisted on this visit. She deserved to see her grandsons.

  The company envelopes Sarah sent monthly sat piling up on the credenza behind her desk in the library. They reminded her of all Sarah had taken and Sean had lost.

  She refused to open them and allow Sarah to rub it in her face.

  “I bet you miss the boys. Take this time to try to mend the relationship with Sarah so it’s easier for you to visit the kids.” Luke’s sympathetic tone didn’t lessen the turmoil roiling inside her.

  “She wants nothing to do with me or Bridget.” Her daughter, like her, hadn’t liked what Sean told them about Sarah either.

  “No one really wins in court. Everyone pays a price. Remember, Sean loved her.”

  Margaret waved that away. “And look where that got him. Dead. She and Sean came from different worlds. It was obvious she only wanted to use Sean to elevate herself from a poor foster girl. She had no family and little education before she ended up at MIT.”

  “Really?” Interest lit Luke’s eyes.

  Margaret had a brilliant idea. “You should look into her teenage years. She got into trouble. Sean didn’t know all the details. Find out what really happened. If she’s got a criminal past, that will help my case.”

  Luke’s eyes turned thoughtful. “I’ll look into it, but juvenile records are sealed. And you should really try to come to an agreement you can both live with.”

  “I want to be prepared. Just in case.”

  Luke pressed his lips tight. “All right. If that’s what you want, I’ll see if I can find out anything.”

  “I want her to pay for what she’s done. Short of that, I want to see my grandsons whenever I want.”

  Luke sighed. “Do you know anything else about her life before she met Sean?”

  “No. Not really. They met at MIT. She wasn’t doing well in school.”

  “Sean told me how hard and competitive it was there. Lots of people dropped out or couldn’t cut it. Most graduates are headhunted for top companies and the government.”

  “Exactly. He had a bright future ahead of him. But he fell for a pretty face, her charm, and then she rushed him into a wedding at the courthouse. Not even a proper ceremony with family and friends.”

  “I remember hearing about it from a mutual friend.” Just out of college himself, Luke had gone to work for the family law firm, building his reputation for winning difficult cases.

  “The poor girl married well and got the life she always wanted when Sean used the money he inherited from his father to start his own business. He said she constantly pushed him to make more money, so she could keep spending it. Just before he died, he told me he wanted to divorce her and take the boys. She was too busy doing God knows what to be bothered with them. But she got it all, and now she’s head of the company—but I assure you someone else is doing the work for her while she continues to reap the rewards. Those boys probably never see her because she’s at the spa, shopping, and lunching with friends.”

  “Some people care more about money than who they use and hurt.” Disillusionment filled Luke’s words.

  Margaret smacked her hand on the table. “That’s her.”

  Luke put his hand over hers. “It’s happened to me many times. Someone finds out who I am, and how much I’m worth, and something changes. They don’t see me, but what I can do for them.” Luke sat back with a sigh. “Sean must have been disappointed by her and the marriage. I get why you’re angry, but why do you hold her responsible for his death? She wasn’t driving the car.”

  Margaret clenched her hand into a fist. “No. But he was working late into the night, making deals to keep her happy. He should have been home with the boys, enjoying the life he had already made for them.”

  “Focus on your grandkids. Enjoy your time with them. Take this opportunity to watch how she interacts with them and see how they’re doing. I imagine this will be the most time you guys have spent together.”

  “I’m surprised she went along
with the six weeks. But that will be long enough for me to really get to know the boys and them to become comfortable with me.” So that if she had to take them from Sarah, they’d be happy to stay with her. “But I’m not sure I can endure her that long. She refused to send the boys alone, so I have no choice. You’re right, though, this is the perfect opportunity to make sure those boys are being taken care of properly. She couldn’t even cook when she and Sean got married. I only hope she’s put aside her selfish behavior and finally put those boys first.”

  “Maybe it’s time to sort the whole mess out. At least for the kids’ sake. Without lawyers,” he added, trying to get her to back down.

  But she wouldn’t. Not when it came to Sean’s boys. “I’ll spoil those boys rotten while I can, but I won’t make nice with her.” Margaret would make sure Sarah remembered just what she had taken from her. If those boys weren’t happy and healthy, she’d follow through on her threat to take them away from their mother, no matter the cost to herself. They were all that mattered.

  “I’ll come by tomorrow for moral support if you’d like.” Luke stopped by several times a month to check on her.

  She lived alone in a secluded area. As she grew older, it seemed that over the past couple of years she went fewer places, had fewer visitors, and the house and land had fallen by the wayside because she physically and financially couldn’t keep up with them. She appreciated so much that Luke kept in touch. Especially since Bridget only stopped by because she needed something, usually money or a babysitter.

  Luke returning to the neighboring ranch where he’d spent summers had been a wonderful surprise and a much-needed gift in her life.

  She patted his hand. “I’d love the moral support. Face it, you’re curious, aren’t you?”

  “You like most people, so the fact that you despise her intrigues me.”

  “You’ll see tomorrow. I’m sure she won’t disappoint either of us. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, even when it is camouflaged in a Chanel suit.” Margaret eyed him and prodded, “You’ll see when you run the full background check and dig up every speck of dirt on her.”

  Margaret wouldn’t let Sarah get away with taking her son and her grandsons from her.