The Millionaire's Tainted Legacy

Wanting More

Tito  studied Caylee across the table. Did he want her advice? To be honest with himself, that was probably why he'd told her the whole story. He needed a reaction from someone who wasn't emotionally invested in his whole family drama. He wasn't going to make a decision without talking to Maria, of course, but right now he wanted to get some clarity in his own mind before he even approached his sister.

"Ok. I'm listening."

"But first, let me ask you a couple questions. Do you believe Eleanor? Do you think she was telling the truth about not knowing you and Maria were here in Miami all these years, struggling? Not even knowing you were twins?"

Well, that was the question, Tito thought, as he bit into one of the sweet dinner rolls that was Juana's specialty.

"I don't know," he finally said. "It seems crazy that her husband and her son could both have hidden that from her for so many years, but she seemed like she was telling the truth." He shrugged. "I don't know her at all, so it's hard to judge whether she was lying."

Caylee nodded. "That makes sense. My other question is, if she is telling the truth, would you be open to having a relationship with her?"

He spent a moment thinking about that one, too. "Yeah, I would," he decided. "If what she says is true, then she hasn't done anything wrong here, and I'm not going to blame her for the actions of her husband and her son." He shook his head. "But it's a hell of a leap to imagine that she's everything she claims to be, considering what I already know about Bradford Thornton, and now about his father. If she is what she says she is, then that part of it just doesn't make sense."

"Families are complicated," Caylee said. "I am nothing like my mother. I hope you wouldn't judge me by the kind of person she is."

"Of course not, but listen-"

"No, you listen. Are you anything like Bradford Thornton? Is Maria?"

"No. God, no. That asshole? But you're missing the point. She lived with them, day in day out. How could she do that if she didn't share their attitudes, their beliefs? Their complete distain for someone they considered beneath them in social status." He surpassed the rage that always threatened to bubble to the surface when he thought about how derisively Thornton had treated Maria at the fundraising event that should have been her triumph - and instead had sent her running away from the venue, and almost destroyed her relationship with Ritchie. All because of the seeds of doubt Thornton had planted in her head.

"People don't always reveal who they really are, even to those closest to them."

She sounded like she was speaking from experience, but at the moment Tito's brain was laser-focused on the Thorntons.

"So you said you had an opinion, Caylee. What is it?"

She leaned forward, grasped his hand on top of the table.

"Take her up on her offer, Tito. Move in with her for three months. Find out who she really is. Maybe she didn't see beneath the veneer her son and her husband presented to the world. Maybe she didn't want to. But you'd be going into it with your eyes open. You'd know what to look for."

Caylee's eyes were damp with emotion. Funny, he'd never really noticed the color of her eyes before. Oh, he'd known they were brown, but not that they actually were the color of a fine brandy, but with gold tones. He guessed the best description of them was amber. And they looked right now like they were peering directly into his soul.

"How are we doing here?"

Juana's voice broke his concentration and he looked up to see her setting another basket on the table and picking up some of the empties.