The Boys Club Read Online Free PDF Page B

his wife. When her
mother passed away from cancer, he took Sara into the fold as if she had always
been a welcome child. Sara, however, knew that if her mother had not died, she would
still not know her father.
    After Stephen became her father’s right-hand man, her father
encouraged them to date. Even when she told her father that she didn’t think
things were going anywhere with Stephen, he pushed their relationship,
convincing her time and again to give him one more chance.
    She continued dating him to keep her father happy, but it
didn’t take long for her to figure out his motivations. Her father wanted them
to marry so Stephen would become his legitimate heir. Then they would have a
child, a boy if her father got his way, and another heir would be in place. The
arrangement had nothing to do with her happiness. She would be taken care of
for the rest of her life, as long as she gave her father what he wanted.
    When they moved in together, she fell into a comfortable
routine with Stephen. Sometimes she believed she loved him, but other times she
regarded her feelings for him as forced. Stephen always told her that he loved
her, and for the most part he acted like he did, but she never knew whether it
was a ploy to stay in her good graces. Yet, he had a tendency to push her like
her father did, to talk her into things she didn’t necessarily want. They were
so much alike that it was hard to believe Stephen wasn’t on board with all of
her father’s ideas. The rush to get married after dating for less than a year,
the constant mention of starting a family, the push for her to take the
teaching position. They played the same record to her all the time and just as
she had given into their wishes for the wedding, she would do so with
everything else.
    Sara closed her eyes to try to catch some more sleep rather
than think about how out of control her life had become, when Stephen stirred
beside her. He rolled over to face her and she greeted him with a good morning
kiss.
    Running his fingers through her hair, he asked, “What are
your plans today?”
    “Just boring old wedding stuff that wouldn’t interest you.”
    “Of course our wedding interests me. It’s interested me
since our first date.”
    She grinned and her eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
    “Yes, really.” He slid his hand under her and flipped her on
her back. After her giggle died down, he became serious and ran his thumb over
her lips. “I really do love you, Sara.” He lowered his mouth onto hers.
    The little statements and gestures always made her think he
did love her, and not just her father and his money. As he pulled the covers
down from their bodies and lifted her top over her head, Sara told herself that
it wouldn’t be so bad to live the rest of her life with him. She could learn to
like it, maybe even love it.

Chapter Seven
    “His daughter?”
    Logan’s question echoed through the suddenly quiet chapel.
    “Sara Langston,” Schaffer said. He used a small remote to
bring the projector to life. A photograph of an attractive girl flashed on the
screen behind him. “Langston had many mistresses over the years, but only one
resulted in a pregnancy. Sara’s mother, Ruth Bennett, passed on his last name
to Sara on the birth certificate. Of course Langston refused to have anything
to do with his daughter, or even the mistress once she announced her
pregnancy.”
    Logan looked back to the woman on the screen, her windblown,
shoulder-length russet curls captured by an unseen cameraman at the end of a
zoom lens. With his connections to Hugh Langston he had heard mentions of his
daughter in the past, but had never seen her picture before now. He recognized
bits of Langston in her small, rounded nose and deep-set, brown eyes, but had
he passed her on the street he wouldn’t have guessed their relation.
    “Sara’s mom died from a brain tumor shortly after Sara
turned twelve,” Schaffer continued. “Apparently her mother had raised her