Chapter 114

8 p.m. Friday

Edward and Renee McKenzie had put their belongings into their rooms and returned downstairs without seeing any of their granddaughters. Regan's door was closed but she hadn't answered when her grandfather had knocked. Ashlyn and Tori could were in their rooms but Edward really wasn't interested in talking to them.

Rita and Robert had been entertaining the Rileys when the McKenzies arrived so the pair headed upstairs after a short greeting.

"Where is Regan?" Edward asked when he joined his daughter, his son, their spouses and the Rileys in the sitting room. "I've been looking forward to speaking with her."

"She's not had a good week, Dad," Rita said sharply. "She'll find you if she wants to talk to you - but I don't think you're going to like what she has to say."

Edward McKenzie lifted a bushy eyebrow at his daughter. It was unlike his daughter to speak harshly to him.

"She and her boyfriend broke up this week," Rita said.

Edward shrugged slightly.

"Probably for the best," he said. "He might have come into some heritage but he's always going to be an inner-city thug."

Robert was on his feet in a flash.

"I'm going to say this once, Old Man," he said, angrily pointing his finger at Rita's father. "If I ever hear you utter another unkind word about Andy or any other guy Regan chooses, I will toss you out that front door and you will never be welcomed in this house again!"

Edward brushed off Robert with a slight scowl. He knew who ran the household - so he turned to Rita to judge her reaction.

"You heard what he said, Dad," Rita said. "I did a little research this afternoon. It seems you had a pretty big stake in a candidate running for the AG's office back there. How'd that work out for you?"

"Unfortunate," Edward said, looking away.

"You know who he was carrying those things for, you old bastard?" Robert asked, not bothering to mask his anger. His parents had heard the story and sat silently but Renee McKenzie saw her son and daughter-in-law looked as irate as Rita's husband. "Your granddaughter. But you know that, don't you?"

"Edward?" Renee said, turning to look at her husband.

"Dad was backing Mark Carter for public office," Rita said. "He gave the guy's son our private number here - apparently because he thinks Regan is incapable of deciding what sort of person she'd like to spend time with. Dad seems to think a potential rapist with a politician father is a better catch than a sweet guy from a humble background who just happens to be heir to an earldom. I say 'just happens to be' because no one here cares about that in the slightest. So, Dad decided - without speaking to me, Robert or Regan - to interfere where his opinion doesn't matter. Scott, Robert and I are putting everyone in this room on warning. We will tolerate no interference in our children's relationships - with others, with each other or with us."

"Of course not," Jim Riley said. He knew Edward McKenzie, of course, but now he was staring at him as if he'd never seen him before.

"Edward," Renee said angrily. "You and the Carter family. I told you that entire family was trouble. The boy is a ... predator ... I knew he was a little creep but I didn't expect that!"

"He was arrested this week," Robert said. "He had arranged to meet our underage daughter at a restaurant across the bridge."

He casually slid a screenshot taken from Joy's video. It wasn't the clearest image in the world - and had been cropped to exclude Rico - but it was enough for Renee to see clearly what was going on.

"Is that ... alcohol on the table?" she asked.

"It's a glass of wine," Rita confirmed. "Regan ... Regan was not permitted to go out with a 22-year-old man but one of her friends was nearby and knew of the call to set this up. He had the wine poured while he waited for her. You'll notice the candles on the table. He certainly went to great effort to set the scene. Wouldn't you agree?"

"It appears so," Renee agreed as she studied the grainy picture. She tried to hand it to her husband but he pushed it away.

"I'm sure you recognize the man in the photo, Dad," Rita said acidly. "I'm sure you know what happened next."

"I know his father dropped out of the race but I was busy getting ready to come out here," Renee admitted. "Edward, I will say, hasn't been speaking of it. What, exactly, happened?"

There was a brittle tone to her voice that everyone in the room heard.

"Well," Regan said, walking into the room with her cousins. "Apparently, Grandfather's choice of guys for me decided to drink the entire bottle of wine and then drive his car. He was speeding through the city streets and was stopped. He was arrested for DUI and taken to jail. The police searched his car and found cocaine and date-rape drugs - oh, and a box of condoms. At least he was going to be careful when he raped me."

"Edward!" Renee roared.

"I had no idea," Edward protested.

"You had no right!" Regan yelled. "I don't care what you think about my boyfriends - or me! So stay out of my life - because I don't want you there."

"Regan," Edward said in the same condescending voice he used to use when Rita would get mad at him. "You're young. The boy you were seeing..."

"Don't," Rita cut in warningly. "I won't stop Robert from throwing you out - and I will never let you back in. So you think very carefully about what comes out of your mouth next."

Robert had already stood up.

"I just told you that I don't care what you think," Regan said, putting a hand on her father's arm. "You don't get to make that decision for me."

"Or any other decision," Robert added, his eyes blazing.

"Or any other decision," Regan agreed. "If, in the unlikely event, I ever see you again after this weekend and I want your opinion about something, I will ask you. Until then, stay out of my life. The only reason I didn't call you and tell you to stay home this weekend is because I wanted to say this to your face. Now, I've said it. Dad, I would prefer he not stay in the house with us."

"Well, Old Man, I hope you didn't get too comfortable upstairs," Robert said. "I'll call a taxi and you can either get a hotel or head back to New York."

"Let's be reasonable," Edward said.

"I think the fact I haven't physically assaulted you is as reasonable as I'm going to be," Robert said.

"I've noticed that you didn't offer to apologize, Dad," Scott said. "Maybe if you had admitted that you completely fucked up and told them how sorry you are that you interfered, maybe they wouldn't be so pissed off. But, no! The Great Edward McKenzie could never admit he's wrong. And heaven forbid that he apologize for being such a total prick his entire life. Well, this isn't something you can buy your way through. This is personal. You made it personal when you butted in. You've always thought you were smarter than everyone else but now Regan has decided to stand up to you and tell you to stay the fuck out of things that don't concern you."

Renee McKenzie frowned at her husband - but also at her children. She was embarrassed that the discussion was being conducted in front of the in-laws and the children.

"Perhaps we should sleep on things and discuss this at another time," she offered.

"Perhaps, this is the last time we will have the opportunity to discuss this," Regan spat. "Because I wasn't joking. Right now, I have no intention of ever seeing either one of you again in my life."

"Oh, I'm certain you'll want to see us next week to sign your trust fund over to you," Edward said. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, you can forget about that."

Rita flinched and looked away. She didn't want to see what was about to happen to her father.

"Grandpa," Regan said, because he hated that term, "you can take every dollar from that trust, roll it into a ball and then stuff it right up your ass. I wouldn't take a penny from you on a dare."

"The trust is irrevocable," Estrella said. "You can bluster and you can threaten but I made sure you could never hold money over our children's heads. I revised the text when I reviewed the papers. It's a shame you didn't have a better attorney look it over for you before you signed it."

"What?" Edward asked, jerking his eyes from his granddaughter to his daughter-in-law.

"See, Dad," Scott said smugly. "You were never the smartest person in the room."

Regan plopped down heavily on her bed and sighed. It had felt good to go off on her grandfather. She had been almost inconsolable when Rita and Robert had informed of what had transpired in Jase Carter's life.

"May I come in?" Carol Riley asked from the doorway.

"Sure, Grandma," Regan said. Unlike Rita's parents, Robert's mother and father seemed to revel in the simple terms. Carol came in and put her arm around Regan's shoulder and let the younger woman rest against her.

"I feel terrible that this has happened to you," Carol said sincerely. "When your parents told us about it on the drive in, I was stunned. I can't tell you how nice it has been for us to talk to you every few days over the past few weeks. Even through the telephone, I could tell that you have started to find yourself and that you were happy."

"I really was," Regan agreed. She found that she enjoyed the light floral scent of Carol's perfume more than the Chanel that Renee McKenzie had worn.

"All is not lost just yet," Carol said. "Did you know that I almost called off the wedding to your grandfather over something similar?"

"No," Regan admitted.

"Oh, yes," Carol said with a laugh. "I still recall the name, too: Julia Callum."

"Grandpa's parents tried to set him up with her?" Regan asked.

"Nothing that devious," Carol said. "You see, unlike your Andy, I truly had a reason to be worried. Julia was one of your father's old girlfriends."

"He isn't my Andy anymore," Regan said sadly.

"Oh, I think he is," Carol said confidently. "I'm afraid that your mother showed us the recording. If you recall, he told you to let him know if you preferred him or someone else. I think it's pretty evident that you prefer Andy."

"I just have no way to let him know!" Regan said. "He left his phone here and even his mother didn't know exactly where he went. He called to let her know he was safe but that's all!"

"That is something I wanted to ask you about," Carol confessed. "I know the boy only through what you've told me but ... I was a bit concerned that might be a bit of a bully."

Regan laughed at the thought.

"If anything, he's just the opposite," she told her grandmother. "He is really, really sweet. He is really, really protective - not only of me but of everyone. I think whatever you saw might have given you the wrong impression. I'm sure anyone watching the video would think I'm an idiot."

"That might be a bit harsh," her grandmother said. "But, it is evident that the person on the phone had appealed to your vanity is some way."

"He did," Regan said in a sad voice. "He knew exactly what to say. He ... he said he remembered seeing me when I was at Browning and he'd always thought I was cute when I was a kid. Then he said he saw a picture of me from the cancer event that I'd turned into a real babe as a woman."

"I would imagine he's used those words before," Carol said in a gentle voice. "A man like that tends to rehearse his lines until he perfects them. I'm not certain how much involvement your grandfather had in arranging things with the Carter boy. Oh, I'm certain he gave the boy your number here and I'm positive he believed his interests would be better served if you were to be amenable to Mr. Carter's advances. It's still hard for me to believe that he would be so unthinking as to suggest the boy call you."

"That's only because you and Grandpa Riley wouldn't do it," Regan said with a sigh. "The truth is, he's always tried to control things. Now that I'm older, I can understand things that I really didn't get before. He'd make a suggestion to Mom or have someone call Dad. He's the one that suggested Barrett in New York. He's the one that set it up so I could meet the girls I hung out with there. He pushed me to come back to New York for college. If I didn't want to go to Columbia, he suggested Princeton. A few days later, I got a call at school from one of Princeton's recruiters letting me know she'd be in the area if I wanted to meet.