The Secret Child & The Cowboy CEO Read Online Free PDF Page B

never once have to worry about money.
    She stood unnoticed in the doorway for several minutes, just watching the interplay between the two men. The Sinclair males had never been the type to wear their hearts on their sleeves, but Bryn knew they loved each other deeply. They were a tightly knit clan.
    Unfortunately, she was still outside the circle.
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    The following morning, Bryn was shooed out of the sickroom so Trent could help his father get dressed and leave. Unbidden, her feet carried her upstairs to Jesse’s room. It was as far from Mac’s as it was possible to be in the rambling house. On purpose? Perhaps. Jesse would have wanted to avoid his father’s watchful eye.
    A thin layer of dust coated everything. Mac paid a weekly cleaning service to come in, but they must have been given instructions not to enter this room. Nothing had been touched since the day Jesse died. Even the bed was still unmade.
    Though it made her stomach hurt, the first thing shedid was to gather a few items that could be used for testing…a comb that held stray hairs, a toothbrush, a razor. She couldn’t afford to be squeamish. This was why she had come.
    Bryn continued to straighten the mess as her mind whirled with unanswered questions. She had seen the coroner’s report. Mac had laid it out in full view on the dresser in his bedroom. She suspected he wanted her to read it for herself so he wouldn’t have to say the awful words out loud: My son was a drug addict.
    What a waste of a young life. She picked up a neon blue iPod, plugged it into the dock, and flipped through the selections. Nostalgia and grief hit hard as she saw one familiar title, “Jessie’s Girl.” How many times had the two of them played that oldie at full volume, singing along, careening down a Wyoming road?
    She had believed it with her whole heart. She had been Jesse’s girl, and even though he wasn’t Trent, he had made her feel special and wanted. She’d been happy mostly, relieved to know that she would forever be a part of the Sinclair clan.
    But it had all been an illusion.
    She opened the closet door and reached to put the sports equipment on a top shelf. As she did, she dislodged an old shoe box held together with a rubber band. It fell at her feet. Something about it made a cold chill slither down her spine.
    She sat down on the double bed and took off the lid. She’d been expecting drugs, maybe a gun. Certainly not what she found.
    The box held letters, maybe two dozen in all. As sheriffled through them, she saw that the earliest ones were dated the year Jesse turned sixteen. The return addresses were all the same…a single line that read RRIF. The postmarks were all Cheyenne.
    Had no one at the house ever questioned Jesse about them, or were they spaced so far apart that no one took notice? Or had Mac known all along? The three older boys would have been in college when the first ones showed up in the mailbox.
    Bryn opened one at random and began reading. Horrified, she went through them all. Her stomach clenched.
    What kind of mother would poison the mind of her young son, a boy she had abandoned when he was six years old?
    The damage was insidious. A child might have missed the venom behind the words. But what about Jesse? Had he been happy his mother contacted him? Happy enough to not to look beneath the surface? Or as a young adult, had he been able to see the subtext beneath the whining, manipulative words?
    Jesse, you were always my favorite.
    Jesse, Mac was a tyrant. I was so unhappy. He wouldn’t let me take you.
    Jesse, I miss you.
    Jesse, Trent and Gage and Sloan never loved me the way they should.
    Jesse, you have my brains. Brawn isn’t everything.
    Jesse, you deserve more.
    Jesse…Jesse…Jesse…
    Bryn couldn’t imagine why Mac’s wife would havebeen so cruel. To punish her ex-husband? To bring discord into the family? Why? She had left them, not the other way