Chapter1

The mansion was tucked away in the lush green forests of the countryside just north of New York City. It was the family home of the Madison’s. It had belonged to several men and women of the Madison family, having been built shortly after the country had become a nation, and having been remodeled throughout the years here and there. It had housed generations of their family since the day the first Madison family had had it built and had moved in.

The most recent owner of the mansion was Andrew Madison, and he had been lord and master of the home, and of the considerable family fortune, until his imminent death at seventy-nine years of age. He had only one son, Derrick Madison, and he had groomed his son, from the day that he had been born, to take over the vast estate, the mansion, the businesses, the money, and the well-respected name of their family.

Derrick had taken his father’s years of training and teaching seriously, and he had never had more respect for any man than he had had for his father, but he hadn’t really considered the fact that one day, his father truly would not be around. He knew it as a matter of practicality, in the back of his mind, but he had never really felt that the day would actually come. His father was the picture of health and happiness. He was a strong man who had lived like a king and had taken good care of himself.

When Andrew had come home after a routine doctor’s visit and sat Derrick down to talk with him, their conversation and the words that his father had spoken to him had seemed like a strange dream to Derrick, as if they were some far away story that made no sense to him and were spoken in a way that he could not comprehend.

His father had spoken of a tumor. It was discovered in his brain, and the doctor said that he would fade fast. The doctor said that there was no cure. There was no way out, save for death. Andrew had taken the news like the kind of man he had always been; it was a blow that brought him to his knees, but he stood right back up and faced it with a bravery that Derrick felt he could never achieve.

Andrew had changed swiftly, from strong unbeatable tycoon to weakened and helpless old man, lying in his bed as tubes hung from his body like outward veins, hooked to bags of strange concoctions, tethered by wires to machines that beeped and hummed, and the old man’s blue eyes had stared listlessly toward the ceiling, unseeing, barely blinking, no longer taking in the world around him.

Derrick had stayed at his father’s bedside, terrified of what it would mean when the man he knew—a titan among other men, the foundation of his life—would leave him. He hadn’t been able to let himself think about what would come afterward. There had only been the immediate moment, from one moment to the next, in which Derrick had stared and watched in stunned and pained disbelief as the man who had brought him into the world slowly suffered and left it.

He had been holding his father’s hand when his father passed away, his last breath causing the machines around him to erupt in panic with flashing lights and sirens wailing and beeping. He had felt his own heart stop in that moment. The truth had finally hit him like a freight train, knocking the wind out of him. His father was gone. The mighty had fallen. He was alone in the world.

The shock of his father’s death had hung on him with the weight of the world, keeping him in a trance for a few days. The funeral had been a blur to him. He barely spoke a few words to the masses of people who seemed to appear out of the woodwork and then fade back into it. Their words were not much more than mumbled ramblings in his mind, not really finding his ear and not really ever reaching his mind or his heart, though he knew that many of them were meant to.

He shook hands and nodded; he kissed cheeks and hugged shoulders. He watched as a beautiful ebony box holding his father’s remains was lowered into the ground and roses were tossed on the top of it, where it lay in a canyon of earth, seeming as if it couldn’t possibly be further away.

The steady stream of visitors began to stem. The phone calls slowed and finally stopped. The medical equipment that had filled the sick room, the pseudo bedroom on the main level of the house where his father had spent his last remaining weeks, was taken away, and the space was emptied.

There was a strange silence in the house, and it felt to Derrick as if all of the ghosts of the Madison’s of the past were whispering to him somehow. He could not hear them. He could not make out what they said, but he could feel them, all around him, waiting for him to step into his father’s shoes and continue a legacy that he was a part of. A legacy that he had a paramount responsibility of carrying on, now that his father had gone.

Derrick’s mind shifted from shock to some muted version of panic as it began to set in that he was now lord and master of the house, of the business, of the tremendous fortune, and of the whole of the estate. It was intimidating enough that he only found himself lost, with no idea what to do next, how to pick up the pieces that were left behind, and what to do with them once they were all picked up. He was a boat without a sail, adrift with no direction. Because of that, he was profoundly relieved when his father’s oldest and dearest friend came to pay him a visit one week after his father had been buried.

Franklin Van Buren was one year older than Andrew Madison. They had been in school together since they were boys and had grown up with one another as best friends. They had married their wives, and each of them had had a child. They had been in business together from the time that they had gotten out of college, and each of them had taken the considerable inheritances that they had received from their old family money and more than doubled it by working together and consolidating their minds, their ideas, and much of their business dealings.

Derrick was sitting at his father’s desk when the butler showed Franklin into the library, a room his father had used as an office as well as a library. Derrick stood up to meet Franklin and shook his hand warmly, and Franklin hugged his shoulder. Derrick felt a slight bit of the weight in his heart lift as the familiar old man comforted him.

Franklin let him go and motioned to him to take his seat again, while he himself sat before the great old wooden desk.

“How are you doing, son? You look as if you haven’t slept much,” he began, his old blue eyes taking in every finite detail about the younger man in front of him.

“That’s probably because I haven’t slept much,” Derrick replied quietly.

The old man pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes slightly, drawing in a shallow breath. “Perhaps you should have Dr. Farnsworth prescribe something for you, you know, just something to take the edge off a little bit and help you to get some rest. You’ve got a lot coming up very soon, and you’ll need all of your wits about you.”

He clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his chair, his clear blue eyes leveled at the younger man. “I realize that you’ll be grieving for a while, but you need to come to some kind of terms with what has happened, and you need to let your father go enough that he doesn’t occupy your mind so much. There are other things at hand that need your attention.”

Derrick glanced down a moment and folded his fingers together. He had expected that someone would be along with some kind of patronizing phrase like that at some point. Get it together, Derrick; you have a lot of responsibility now, Derrick; you can’t keep grieving forever; you have to come back and face the real world. He wondered if he had expected people to begin saying it to him because it was true.

“I know you’re right,” he sighed, looking back up at his father’s best friend. “It’s just hard to let him go at all.” He felt the familiar knot harden in his throat as tears stung the back of his eyes and threatened to flood his vision.

Franklin gave him a nod. “I know it is. I was your father’s best friend almost all of our lives. I know it’s difficult. You don’t have to let him go completely; neither of us do. Neither of us ever will. You can keep him in your heart, but you do have to set your mind to the things that need your attention now. You have to focus on the future, my boy. That’s what I’m here for today.”

Derrick’s thoughts shifted slightly for the first time since his father had passed away. His eyes and his mind both pivoted to Franklin Van Buren. The slightest tingle of curiosity sparked, and for the first time in days, he found that something other than the loss of his father had piqued his interest.

“What is it? Can I help you with anything?” he asked, realizing that he had been selfishly locking himself away from anyone else who might be grieving over his father. It occurred to him that he might be able to help Franklin, and that in doing so, it may ease some of his own pain.

Franklin smiled gently. “Well, son, it’s partly for me, but it’s for many more than just me, and it’s for yourself as well. We need to look at some of the business that your father and I were working on, and we need to talk about your personal future as well. What have you and your father discussed regarding the change in ownership of the company? Have you talked to Levinson?”

Levinson was the family attorney. Derrick shook his head and shrugged. “I’ve met with them a couple of times. I’ve signed some paperwork. They said I’d be inheriting everything, but… I guess I thought that any inheritance would be decades away. So much further in the future. I never paid too much attention to anything that they had me sign or to what they were telling me. I know how the business runs because dad had me working it with him often, but he didn’t go into too much detail about any of his business dealings or what was going on currently with it. I guess he must have thought that he would be around a lot longer too. There was no way that either of us could have known that he would be gone so quickly.”

The hard knot formed again, and Derrick struggled to swallow it. He cleared his throat and looked away from Franklin.

Franklin was polite and looked away from him as well, at least for a moment. “Derrick,” he replied in a steady, paternal-sounding voice. “Your father and I have been working on merging all of our companies. We have some of them already merged, as you are likely well aware, but we wanted to get all of them brought together to make one large company. Were you aware of that?”

Derrick felt sickened, thinking how wrong it was that he should have to be handling any of his father’s business. It should be his father sitting in the chair before the desk in the library, talking to Franklin about his business. It should be his father taking care of all of the loose ends and dealings with the business. His father should still be there. He tried to force himself to let go of all of the thoughts that were convoluting his mind.

His father should be there, but he wasn’t, and he never would be again. Derrick did have responsibilities looking him in the face, and he had to find a way to let go of the pain that was binding him and face what was coming at him at the speed of life.

“I didn’t know about any of the business that you two were doing together, if I’m being honest. Why were you putting all of the businesses together? Why the total merger?” Somewhere in the back of Derrick’s mind, a thought caught itself and wouldn’t budge. It struck him as slightly odd that his father would actively attempt to put all of his business in conjunction with Franklin’s. It was true that he had had many partnered businesses with Franklin, but Derrick had heard his father say many times over the years that it was vital not to put all of one’s eggs in a single basket, and to him, it seemed as if combining all of their businesses into one would be doing just that.

Franklin smiled tightly, and it crossed Derrick’s mind that the hard smile looked as if it was some kind of a door that was shut firmly, keeping all that was behind it hidden away. “I must admit, I’m a little disappointed that he hadn’t discussed the total merger with you, but it is in the works. There are many reasons that we decided to do it, but one of the biggest reasons is because of you and Felicia.”

Derrick blinked. He couldn’t begin to guess why Felicia had anything to do with his father’s businesses. She was Franklin’s daughter. He and Felicia had grown up together since they were born. They had been friends and had even shared a couple of youthful romantic flings together in their teens and a few times in college, but there was nothing that was coming to his mind as to why Franklin and Andrew might have had any business arrangement that might concern Felicia.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What is it that brings Felicia into this at all?” he asked as sorrow began to cloud his thoughts again.

Franklin leaned forward further and rested his hands on the desk between them. “Son, from the time that you and Felicia were both little babes playing together with your toys, your father and I have been planning on the two of you marrying and combining our families as well as our businesses. We’ve both felt that bringing you two together and merging the businesses would give you both the strongest future… together. It’s what we’ve been working for nearly all your lives. We fully expect you and Felicia to marry and take over the businesses together as one. Now, with Andrew gone, I feel that it is my duty to make certain that that happens. We want children born to you both, and soon, especially now that he’s gone. It seems more important than ever that the legacy live on both within our families and our businesses.”

He watched Derrick closely with his old blue eyes. Derrick felt his stomach harden into a knot. “Marry Felicia? But… we aren’t even dating. I don’t know if she’s even with anyone else right now.”

“She wants to be w

ith you, son; she’s always wanted it. She loves you. You know that. We let you get your wild oats sowed in college… kind of exploring the field a little as a man will do, but you’re grown now. You’re an adult. It’s time to take over the business. It’s time to settle down and think about taking a wife and starting a family. It’s time for you to get serious about yourself and your life. You have no choice any longer. Your days of freedom left with your father’s passing. Now is the time when you must face your responsibilities. You take Felicia now, you marry her, and you start a family with her. That’s what your father wanted, and that’s what I want. It’s what Felicia has wanted most of her life. We’ll bring the businesses together. We’ll create an unbreakable empire. My wealth and yours, my daughter as your wife, you as my son, and we will forge a family that will be stronger than almost any other on the east coast. That’s the next step, Derrick. That’s the plan.” He smiled again, though his eyes were serious.

Derrick felt as if his entire life had somehow flashed before his eyes as he was sitting there. Marriage. He hadn’t even considered it. He was twenty-seven. Marriage hadn’t even been a flicker at the back of his mind. He hadn’t fallen in love with anyone. He hadn’t felt as if there was anyone that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

“Franklin,” he began with quiet uncertainty, “I’m not exactly sure that I’m the right man for her.” He didn’t want to admit that he wasn’t in love with her; speaking those words to her father seemed like such a cold thing to admit to. But he wasn’t sure that marrying her would be the right road for him, and he wanted her father to know it.

Franklin’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his voice grew deep. “You are the right man for her. There is no doubt in my mind about that. There was no doubt in your father’s mind, either. In fact, he was so certain that it would be right for you both that he left your mother’s wedding ring with me so that I could give it to you when the time was right so that you could propose to Felicia.”

He reached into his pocket, slid out a black velvet box, and handed it to Derrick. Derrick’s heart pounded as he took it from the old man’s withered hand. He held it in his fingers and stared at it for a long, silent moment.

“Well, go on, open it up,” Franklin urged him, his old eyes shifting from the box to Derrick.

Derrick’s breath was held tight in his chest, and it felt as if he couldn’t inhale or exhale at all while the realization of just what Franklin was asking him gripped him. Slowly, he reached his free hand to the box and lifted the lid of it, and the sight of the beautiful diamond ring inside it made him gasp. It was his mother’s wedding ring, as Franklin had said, though Derrick hadn’t seen it since it was on his mother’s hand when she was alive.

“I didn’t know my father had given it to you…” he whispered as he looked at it wistfully. Thoughts of his mother flooded his mind, and again, his throat tightened.

Franklin shook his head. “No, son. Your father didn’t give it to me. He’s giving it to you. I was only holding it until the time was right to give it to you so that you could give it to Felicia and ask her to marry you. The time is right. This is what your father wanted. Hell, for that matter, this is what your mother wanted as well. We all want it. You and Felicia are meant to be. You’re made for each other. It’s a perfect match. It’s all any of us have ever wanted; that and for the two estates and businesses to come together the way that you two kids will, and everything will be combined as one.”

Derrick hesitated and glanced back up at Franklin with a strong look of uncertainty. “I realize that you’ve all been planning this for years and that you think it would be best if she and I…” he began, but Franklin cut him off.

“We have been planning it for years because it is for the best. It’s exactly what we always wanted, and now it’s time to make it happen. Don’t disappoint poor little Felicia, don’t disappoint me, and for heaven’s sake, do not disappoint your late father. This is what he wanted for you; this is his dream for you and for her, to have your futures sewn together. Now, you take that ring, and you ask my daughter to marry you. You do it soon. You have all the responsibility of running your estate and the businesses, and it’s time to take up that yoke and do it, and the best woman to have at your side is my daughter, my Felicia. She’s been groomed for it all of her life, to take her place at your side. Now, do as your father has always wanted you to do—obey him, respect his wishes, and marry Felicia.”

It was clear that Franklin wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Derrick wished that he could wait or have some time to think about it, but he knew deep down that Franklin wasn’t about to let it go. He never would. Derrick’s own father had been in on it, or he wouldn’t have given Derrick’s mother’s wedding ring to Franklin. He knew that the old man was speaking the truth to him. He knew that there really was no option or choice in the matter. He was going to have to do it.

“I guess I’ll do it,” Derrick said with a sigh of resignation, closing the box. “I’ll ask her to marry me.”

“Soon,” Franklin replied pointedly.

“Soon,” Derrick answered, giving him a nod. He meant it. He would call her up and think of something. Perhaps take her out to dinner and propose. It would be for business, not love, and it would be what their parents wanted them to do. Everyone else would be pleased.

Franklin talked with him a while longer about a few other things, and at long last, he finally left. Derrick pocketed the ring box, feeling its weight pulling down on him like a ton of lead. It was as if his entire life had just been mapped out ahead of him, and there was no way out of it—no option, no choice, no place to go but forward, directly into everyone else’s expectations. It wasn’t what he wanted, but he knew that they were right, and he knew that it didn’t matter to any of them that he wasn’t in love with Felicia and that he didn’t really want to spend the rest of his life with her. What mattered was the business and the families, and keeping them all together. There was nothing else.

***

Derrick pressed the lock button on his key fob, and the jaguar behind him beeped at him as the alarm was set. He was meeting Garrett Hawkins for a drink. He needed a drink; it was the only way he was going to get through the conversation he knew he was going to have to have with his best friend.

Garrett already had prime real estate reserved for them at the bar, and he was holding their chairs as Derrick walked in and gave him a nod. They shared a hug and a hearty clap on the shoulder before Derrick took the seat beside his friend and ordered a drink.

Where Derrick was six feet tall and change, with dark brown hair, warm brown eyes, and a solidly muscular frame, his best friend Garrett was about six inches shorter than him, with a wild crop of blond hair and sky blue eyes. His form was a little more lanky than Derrick’s. They could not have been more different on the outside, but they were oftentimes twins as far as thought, manner, and morality was concerned. They could have been natural brothers of the heart and of the mind.

“So, what’s got you down here having a drink tonight? This isn’t a casual beer with me, that I do know,” Garrett started straight in without waiting for any kind of pleasantry.

Derrick sighed heavily and raked his fingers through his dark brown hair. “Franklin Van Buren was over at the house yesterday.”

“That’s not a surprise. He lost his best friend. How’s he doing?” Garrett asked as he tipped his own beer back and took a healthy swig.

“He’s fine. He misses my dad, but he’s doing alright. He’s not so focused on what has happened, though. He’s a lot more focused on what’s coming up.” Derrick swallowed a gulp of his beer and set the mug down, staring into the froth on top of it.

Garrett raised one eyebrow. “Is he? And what’s coming up?”

“I’m not sure you’re going to believe it…” Derrick hesitated. “I don’t believe it, and I have to.” He turned and looked at his friend. “He says that he and my father have both been working on merging their businesses together.”

“Haven’t they already got some of their businesses merged together?” Garrett frowned slightly.

“Yes, but he means all of them. Everything that his family and my family have, into one big corporation.” He looked pointedly at Garrett.

“Why would he do that? He’s a billionaire, you’re a billionaire… what difference does it make if the businesses are together or separate?” Garrett tilted his head questioningly.

Derrick pursed his lips a moment, regretting having to speak the words aloud. “He wants to build a secure dynasty for his daughter when she gets married.”

There was a moment of confused silence as Garrett thought over what he had just heard. “Is Felicia getting married?”

“Not until I ask her, and then yes, she will be getting married.” He sighed again, quieter the second time, looking back down into his beer. No amount of alcohol was going to erase what was coming at him like a freight train.

Garrett blinked several times. “You’re… you’re going to ask Felicia to marry you?”

“Yup.” It was succinct to say the least.

With a doubtful shake of his head, Garrett eyed his friend closely. “Do you want to marry her? I mean, I know you guys have a little history from years ago, but… I tho

ught she was dating some guy from Europe, and you have been on the strictly single but playing list for a long time now. Did I miss something?”

“No, you didn’t miss anything. That’s about the size of where it is right now, but her father wants us to merge the companies, merge the estates, merge his daughter with me…” He rubbed his hands over his face and then dropped them flatly on the surface of the bar. “I guess he says that my father wanted that too, although I can’t remember my father ever really talking about it with me. Maybe he just didn’t get around to it before…” he trailed off and shook his head.

Garrett frowned thoughtfully. “How do you know your dad wanted you to marry Felicia? What if Franklin’s just pulling your leg to get the businesses?”

Derrick looked back over at him. “No, Franklin’s not pulling a fast one. He’s not like that. He has the best interests of his businesses and his daughter at heart, and there’s no doubt in my mind about that. Also, he had my mother’s wedding ring. I guess dad gave it to him to give to me when the time was right. They both expected me to give it to Felicia and marry her. Consolidate everything under the sun. It’s just that dad never said anything about merging business or family, and now I’m looking at doing it alone. It’s… unexpected.”

A dark look came over Garrett’s face. “Well, I think if you do have any doubts about it that you should do whatever it is that you want to do. Do what feels right to you. You shouldn’t have to change your whole life and future just because of some agreement your dad and his best friend had. They aren’t living your life; you should be making your own decisions for yourself about what you want to do. Don’t let them dictate to you.”

Derrick let out another sigh, then finished his drink and set the empty glass back on the bar. The bartender brought him a fresh one. “It’s not really that easy, Gar… it’s just not. I feel like I owe my father everything, and I don’t want to disappoint him. I don’t want to let him down and mess up everything he spent his whole life building, and for that matter, everything that my grandfather and his grandfather spent building. I’m the most recent inheritor of a long line of Madison’s, and I have a duty and an obligation to continue that. I’m a legacy. I need to leave a legacy. I don’t have the luxury and freedom to run off and do whatever I want to. More than all of that, I just can’t let my dad down.”

Garrett was quiet for a long minute. “Do you love Felicia?”

Derrick shrugged and answered nonchalantly. “I don’t hate her. We’ve been sort of friends most of our lives. Close a few times when we were younger. We know each other pretty well, I guess.”

He took another long drink and looked back at Garrett. “I could do a lot worse for a wife, I’ll say that. She’s smart, she’s hot, and she’s wealthy. She’s always had kind of a crush on me. I just… don’t love her romantically. I guess that’s not a deal breaker for me, though. I’m not really sure that real love exists, at least for me. I know my mom and dad had it, and my grandparents, but… not me. She has a thing for me, but I don’t know if I could ever really love a woman.”

“Sounds like a match made in heaven.” Garrett rolled his eyes.

Derrick scoffed a laugh almost inaudibly. “So, I guess I need to ask you to be my best man.”

Garrett looked away from him and then turned back to face him. “Yeah, of course, whatever… but, are you really sure? You really want to tie yourself to Felicia for the rest of your life when you aren’t in love with her?”

“Why not? I don’t have anything else going on. She’d be a good wife. She likes me. It will please her father, and I guess mine, if there’s a heaven and he’s actually there. It wouldn’t be terrible, would it? I could think of it as another business arrangement.” Derrick finished his beer.

“You old romantic you…” Garrett shook his head and waved at the bartender for another drink.