"I don't think so." Blake laughed along with Jakob. "We have to figure out exactly where he is. I'll make some calls and we can all go tomorrow morning."

"Why don't we try to find Penny first?" Jakob suggested. "If we can get some concrete facts from her, then maybe we can approach Larry with someone real. Then maybe he can prepare us for what Steve and Rosie have planned."

"Or what he has planned." I sighed. "If Larry is the mastermind behind it all, he's not going to tell us what's going on."

"Yeah, but if he's the mastermind, there is something he wants," Jakob said. "And if my father is alive, then Larry is still number two."

"If your father is alive, then what does he want? Why pretend to be dead?"

"Heaven only knows." Jakob sighed.

"Heaven and Penny Case." Blake tapped his forehead. "Even if Mrs. Renee isn't Penny Case, she has a story."

Jakob stood there, a distant look in his eyes. "Why do I have the feeling that no matter what we find out, we're still going to be blindsided at the ball?"

"My mother used to dream of being a famous writer," Jakob said as we got dressed to go out to dinner later that night. "She told me that when she was younger, she would write poems for everyone she met, but she knew her parents wouldn't approve of her trying to be an author."

"What were your grandparents like?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "They died before I was born." He took out a crisp white shirt. "Sometimes I wonder what would have been different for my mother if she hadn't had to fend for herself from such a young age."

"I didn't know that."

He started to do up his shirt, and I watched as his fingers deftly handled the b.u.t.tons. "Black or red?" He held up two ties to me.

"You have to wear a bow tie." I grinned. "A black one."

"Yes, ma'am." He winked at me. "What are you going to do to me if I don't?"

"Spank you." I winked back at him, and he laughed.

"Ooh, I think I'll wear a pink one, then." He turned around and bent forward. "I'll take my spanking now."

"You wish." I laughed. "So how did your mom meet Jeremiah?"

"She used to work in the cafeteria at Harvard," he said softly. "They had a relationship, and he ended up marrying someone with a name and money to match his family's."

"David's mom?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"And she was okay with the fact that he already had a kid with another woman?"

"I don't think Macy Vanderbilt cared." His lips twisted scornfully. "My mom said she would have done anything to be with Jeremiah. In fact, she stole him from someone else."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he was a player." Jakob shook his head. "Typical man, my mom always said."

"That's sad."

"I know." He sighed. "I wish she hadn't gotten involved with him. I just don't understand what she saw in him, why she loved him so much. When she died, I found a book full of poems, and most of them were about her love for him."

"That's so sad. He wasn't even worth it." I could feel tears coming to my eyes. "Why does the heart always fall for the wrong person?"

"It doesn't always." Jakob grabbed my hands and pulled me toward him. "Sometimes the heart falls for exactly the right person."

"Do you ever think about the fact that if it wasn't for all of this, we wouldn't have met?" I said softly, and gazed up at him.

"All the time." He nodded and sighed. "And I don't know what to think about that. If it wasn't for my mother's heartbreak, I might never have found you."

"Maybe we would have found each other in a different way."

"Maybe."

"Do you think your dad is still alive?" I changed the subject as I thought about the night ahead of us. "Do you think he's the one pulling all the strings?"

"I don't know." Jakob sighed, and I could see that his eyes had hardened. "It wouldn't surprise me. For all intents and purposes, he died in a plane crash." He looked up at me. "But I wouldn't be shocked if he faked his death."

"Why would he do that?" I asked him softly, and he pulled me into his arms and held me close to his body. I could feel his heart racing as he stroked my hair.

"That's what we need to find out." He pursed his lips. "Something seems off though. Why would Steve and Rosie want you to meet my dad?"

"I don't know." I bit my lower lip. "And does David know? He would have to, right?"

"I don't know why they would keep it from him," Jakob said, looking thoughtful. "But yeah, I don't think that David knows anything. To be honest, I think Rosie's playing David."

"And she's being led by Larry?"

"Yeah." He looked at me with puzzled eyes. "But I don't know what Larry gets out of it."

"Money?"

"He has money." Jakob shook his head. "Unless my dad really is alive, and he's the one calling the shots."

"Larry seems like he would do anything for your dad."

"Yeah. I guess." He shrugged. "I guess we'll find out tonight."

"Yeah, I hope so." I suddenly thought of something and grabbed his hand. "Will you be okay if he's still alive?"

"It wouldn't matter either way to me." He shook his head, his eyes hardening. "Hold on, I want to read you one of my mom's poems before we leave."

"Okay." I watched as Jakob walked over to his nightstand and opened the top drawer and pulled out a leather-bound notepad. He flicked through the filled pages and then walked back toward me.

"'Silence. Silence is what I feel when I see him now. No birds are chirping. No sunshine is burning. No rain is pouring. The world is still. And I lay awake in all my glory. Waiting. Waiting for him to come back to me. Not even my heartbeat makes a sound. My eyes don't blink. I can't miss the second when he comes back to me. The second he is mine. The second that the silence stops. The silence is deafening.'" He closed the journal and looked up at me. "I read this, and I think of my mother. I think of her crying late at night when she thought I was asleep. I think of her sitting at the kitchen table every night writing, and I wonder how long she waited. How long she hoped. How long her heart ached . . . for him. I read this, and my hatred for Jeremiah Bradley grows. He's nothing to me but a blood donor."

"That's so sad." I put a hand on his arm. "How can one man cause so much pain?"

"She said he was kind." He looked at me thoughtfully and shook his head in disbelief. "She said he was the kindest man in the world."

"Jeremiah?" I looked at him in shock. "I'd never have thought Jeremiah Bradley was a kind man."

"Yeah, me either, but I can remember her clearly telling me. She told me that the man she loved was her first friend. The first person who was truly kind to her. He didn't care that she was poor or that she worked in a cafeteria. He was the first man to ever look her in the eyes and ask her if she'd had a good day. She said he was the first man who had seen her as a person." His voice broke. "And I hate Jeremiah for being that person. I hate him for making her fall in love with him. I hate him for ruining her life. I hate him for fooling her. He didn't love her. He just used her." Jakob's voice was angry, and he looked away from me. "How could she love him? How could she have spent so many years heartbroken?"

"I'm sorry." I stroked the side of his face. "I'm so sorry, Jakob."

"She wrote a poem about her heartbreak," he said. "I think it was that poem that really made me hate your parents, your mother especially."

"I see." I looked down, not sure what to say. I could empathize with him. I felt for his mother as well, but I didn't know how to accept his hatred of my mother. I didn't even know how to feel myself. How could my mother have cheated with Jeremiah Bradley? I didn't know why she would have done that to my father.

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "I shouldn't have said that. I don't blame them, Bianca. Not anymore. I don't know what happened, but I don't blame them."

"Are we ever going to get over this, Jakob?" I sighed.

"Bianca, there's something I want to say to you." Jakob's face was serious, and my stomach lurched. I wasn't sure how much more I could take. What was he going to say? How was he going to break my heart?

"Go on, then." I turned away from him, unable to look in his eyes as I prepared for the worst. I wasn't even sure if I'd have a heart after all of this. How many times could it be broken and heal itself again? My father and Rosie had pushed me to the limits, but Jakob had the power to stop my heart from beating ever again.

"I know you might find this hard to believe," he said softly. "You matter to me more than anything in the world. Your love, your heart, your safety, your happiness is what I live for now. My mother was my whole world, and her memory has guided me all these years, but all that is secondary to what I feel for you. My mother will always live on in my heart, but she's not the one guiding my life anymore. She's not the one I think of late at night." He grabbed my hands and squeezed. "You're my number one priority, Bianca, and I don't care what happened in the past. I don't care what happened with our parents. Whatever we find out next, it won't change anything. It won't stop how much I love you."

"I just don't know why my mother would have-"

"Stop." He put his fingers against my lips. "We don't know what happened. Until we know, let's not guess."

"If I see your father at the ball, I'm going to . . ." My voice trailed off, and I sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Have you spoken to Blake?"

"He said he's going to come over so we can all chat before we leave." I held up my black dress with the delicate black feathers running down the side to match my mask. "Do you think this is okay? Will I look like the Black Swan?"

"It's s.e.xy." He stared at the dress in my hand and touched the fabric lightly. I glanced up at him in his suit and my stomach flipped at the s.e.xiness he exuded. "Soft and silky with a high slit, what are you thinking will happen at the ball, Ms. Swan?"

"What do you mean, Louis the Fourteenth?" I teased him as I ran my fingers down his long regal jacket. Jakob had agreed to try on our outfits early to check the fit, so that on the night of the ball, we weren't rushing around to fix anything. And if it meant I got to see him in his s.e.xy king getup, so much the better.

"I mean are you hoping to get lucky while we dance the night away?"

"Jakob, tonight we can have fun." I poked him in the chest. "But on the night of the ball, we have to be serious. That means we will be focused. There will be no getting lucky while we are working. We have to have all of our wits about us and concentrate."

"That doesn't mean we can't have some fun as well." He grabbed my fingers and brought them down his chest to his crotch, so that I could feel his hardness pulsating beneath my fingers.

"What fun do you think we're going to have?" I said breathlessly.

"Don't wear any panties, Sharon Stone, and you'll find out."

"You're never going to forget that, are you?"

"You got that right. Even when we're old and gray with grandkids, I'll be joking around about how I married the second coming of Sharon Stone. No pun intended."

"You better not." I laughed, but my insides warmed as he talked about us with grandkids.

"You owe me." He grinned. "Wear no panties to dinner tonight, then I won't expect that on the night of the ball."

"I guess you'll see what I decide when we get to the restaurant," I said, licking my lips slowly.

"You tease." He grinned as he started to take off his costume. "Thank G.o.d I don't have to wear this getup every day."

"Hmmm," I said as I stared at his bare chest and grinned. I walked over and ran my fingers down his abs. "What time is our reservation again? There's something we need to do before we go," I whispered as I dropped to my knees and started to unb.u.t.ton his Louis XIV breeches. Jakob groaned as I pulled the pants down and I grinned up at him, feeling a surge of power before I took him into my mouth. The night of the ball would be serious, but that didn't mean we couldn't have fun tonight.

seven.

Nicholas London Decades Ago As much as things change, they stay the same. Love, jealousy, and hate all make the world go round.

"I'm going up to see Jeremiah," I told Andy, the doorman. He nodded and waved me toward the elevators without signing me in. He always let me go up without signing in, even though the protocol of the building required it. But Andy had known me for years. He'd known me when I'd been Jeremiah's friend, he'd known me when I'd been Jeremiah's business partner, and he knew me now that I was just an employee. And he'd never treated me differently. I liked that about Andy.

I pushed the b.u.t.ton for the penthouse, and as the elevator doors slid closed I thought of Bianca, my beautiful daughter. She was only a small child, but she was so intelligent, and her wide hazel eyes were wise beyond her years. My heart was filled with joy and a nervous sort of angst as I rode up to see Jeremiah. I knew I was doing the right thing, yet it didn't feel good. I wasn't sure how he'd react to what I had to tell him. I'd have to find a way to make sure Bianca was well taken care of. She was the one who would suffer if things went wrong.

I smiled as I thought of my daughter. Angelina and I had wanted kids so very badly. And even now, when things were so tense, Bianca could still bring us together. She was our lifeline to the future. I rubbed my temple gently as I felt a headache setting in. Life was so complicated now, so full of mistakes and regrets. Sometimes I wished I could get back to the beginning. Sometimes I wished that I'd never gone to Harvard, but then I realized that I never would have met Angelina, and I knew that I wouldn't change a thing.

The elevator ride seemed excruciatingly long, and when I finally arrived at the penthouse, I felt surprisingly calm. I held my head high and called out for Jeremiah.

"Jeremiah, it's me, Nick. Where are you?" I headed for the living room, but it was empty. The whole apartment was oddly quiet, and I supposed Macy must have taken David out shopping somewhere. I was glad she wasn't home. We still didn't get along, and I knew she blamed me for the fact that Jeremiah had an illegitimate son with Joanie. After all, I was Joanie's friend. I was the one who had introduced her to the group. I wished now that I hadn't. It had ruined her life-but then, the group had ruined so many lives. I was lucky to be left unscathed. I heard a faint noise coming from the bedroom, and I walked toward it slowly, hoping that Jeremiah wasn't occupied with a prost.i.tute, as was his penchant when he was stressed.

"I love you, Jeremiah." The familiar voice sounded soft and begging. "I won't let you discard me again. I've done everything you've ever asked of me." I froze as I peeked into the room and saw the couple on the bed.

Jeremiah looked down at his companion and my hand flew to my mouth as I watched them embrace. I let out a loud gasp, and they both looked up at me in shock.

"I didn't want you to find out this way-" Jeremiah grimaced, but I had nothing to say. I turned around and ran back to the elevator, furious at his betrayal. As I stood in the elevator my head pounded, and I knew nothing would be able to dull it. I hurried out of the building with one thought in my mind: Nothing was going to be the same again. Absolutely nothing.

eight.

Bianca London Present Day "I have good news and bad news," Blake said as he walked into Jakob's apartment early the next morning.