Page 46

She didn’t sob. She didn’t shed a single tear. Because she wasn’t playing on that field anymore. She was over it. She was ready to find out who tried to kill her or William or both of them, and why. And why they were implicating her grandfather. She wasn’t certain of many things in this life, but she was certain of this thing: There was no way, shape, or form that Gramps was involved. Point. Blank. Period.

Full stop.

And anybody that told her otherwise was telling a dirty lie. She’d bank her life on it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Early the next morning and Joy was seated on the foyer bench waiting for William to come downstairs. She wore shorts, a tucked-in sleeveless blouse, and sandals. She was so nervous that she kept rubbing her hands. She was so nervous that one of her legs wouldn’t stop shaking. She was just that unnerved.

Word had arrived that Donte Jamison had been transported from California to Chicago and was waiting to be questioned. She was about to find out why Maximus Bluff believed that Gramps was involved. Gramps wasn’t involved was how she saw it. There was no way the man she knew would hire a hit man. She was certain of that.

But her anxiety was all in the what ifs. What if something changed in his life that she knew nothing about? What if somebody came in his life, a very bad influence, that she knew nothing about? The Gramps she knew definitely wouldn’t be involved in any kind of mischief or plots and schemes against anybody. But what if something changed? She remembered what he used to tell her when she was a little girl: “You never know everything about anybody. So don’t assume you truly know anybody but yourself. Because you never know.”

William finally began walking downstairs. Unlike Joy, who had to at least be comfortable today, he was dressed in his usual dark-blue business suit, white shirt, dark-blue tie, and a pair of his expensive Berluti Oxfords. But underneath his cool exterior, he was as nervous as she was. Because he knew, if her grandfather was involved, it could destroy the little faith in mankind she still had left. And the chances that he could repair her trust in him would be next to zero.

“Ready?” he asked as he entered the foyer.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said as she stood up.

William placed his hand around her waist, but as they were about to head for the exit, he stopped, turned her so that she was facing him, and lifted her chin. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, Joynetta. You aren’t alone in this, you hear me?”

She nodded her head.

“And I’ll say it again: I’ll never cheat on you. I’ll never hurt you.”

It still meant something to her when he looked at her the way he was looking at her and said those comforting words. But a part of her felt that he’d already hurt her by omitting to tell her that while they were developing feelings for each other, he had slept with another woman. They weren’t in an “official” relationship, but she couldn’t imagine even thinking about another boy once her eyes, and her heart, were fixated on William. How could he have risked losing her before he had her locked down? She was falling in love with the man, and it looked as if he was falling in love with her, but he was still playing the field? That bothered her.

And the fact that he, a forty-four-year-old man, had never been faithful to anybody in his life until she became his girlfriend? That was incredible to her. Now that she knew the full story, she had a hard time believing that a man like that, a confirmed player, could ever be monogamous.

But William was searching her wary eyes. “You believe what I’m saying to you. Don’t you, Joy?” he asked her with nothing but sincerity in his eyes.

Joy never lied to him, and she wasn’t about to start now. “It’s too soon to tell,” she said.

It felt like a gut punch to William. He had hoped last night would have at least turned a corner for them and solidified her confidence in knowing that he was all-in with her. But apparently their battle-tested relationship wasn’t there yet.

She headed for the exit. And he followed her.

As soon as they stepped out of the front door, they were under heavy guard. Four armed men, two on either side, escorted them to the middle of three waiting SUVs. Max was on the passenger seat of their SUV supervising, by his two-way radio, the security details in the other two SUVs, and William’s longtime driver, Ed Rivers, was behind the wheel. Max was taking no chances with any newbies.

As they drove off, Joy looked at William. He wasn’t holding her hand, and he didn’t have his arm around her. And she felt alone. It was as if a distance had developed between them just because she wouldn’t declare that she was certain he would remain faithful to her. She didn’t have doubts as much as she had concerns. And she still wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t being gaslighted. Yes, Max showed her a different date-stamp. But who was to say that Max hadn’t manipulated that date-stamp, just like he said Diana’s opponent had done, in order to help William?

But when she looked over at him, and he looked at her, she could see sadness in his eyes. Regardless of when he slept with Diana Davenport or any other woman, and regardless of his questionable past behavior, he was still the man she loved with all she had within her. He was still a good man. “I’m just worried about Gramps,” she said in a voice that seemed to have a be patient with me tone. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

William tried to look reassuring, and to even smile, but he couldn’t pull it off. “Yes, I know.”

“Can you imagine Gramps hiring a hit man?”

“No, I cannot imagine it,” William confessed. “But stranger things have happened, Joynetta. And that’s what I want you to understand. Don’t dismiss it until we disprove it so you don’t get blindsided. Nobody could have ever told me in a zillion years that I would outlive my precious little girl. But it happened before she turned five. Stranger things happens.”

Joy’s heart dropped. And in that instant she realized she was wrong. William had been faithful to someone before. He’d been faithful to his child. He’d loved her with every ounce of love he had to give. And she was taken from him.

“Oh William,” she said heartfelt and gave him such a big hug that he ended up pulling her onto his lap. “You were a great father to little Kaitlyn I’m sure.”

“But I haven’t been a great husband to you.” He looked at her. “Have I?”

Joy couldn’t lie. It hadn’t been a fairytale so far, that was for sure. “We’re just getting started good. It takes time to build a marriage. We’re still getting to know each other. And you never know everything about anybody.” Then Joy scrunched up her face as the words she said came back on her.

William saw her anxiety. “Trust your gut, Joynetta,” he implored her. “You don’t know everything about Gramps. But you know him.”