I know, are normally sealed. Wolf, am I correct?”
“You are,” Wolf answered, and Chess recognized that soft, steely-edged voice indicating his friend was on the brink of warfare. “The only way to get to those records is if someone paid off a corrupt records clerk. Which means, the person inquiring is equally corrupt and morally reprehensible.”
“Margery has a right to know,” Kyle said smugly.
“You have no right. None at all,” André snapped. “How dare you and your weaselly helper here stoop so low?”
“He’s going to hurt our name and reputation once this gets out. Everything this family worked so hard for.”
“Then maybe I don’t want to be part of this family anymore.”
“Don’t say that,” she cried. “You’re my son, and I’ll never want to stop protecting you.”
“Enough already, Mother,” Henry’s firm voice warmed Chess. “You’ve done more than enough damage.”
Chess’s mouth fell open at Henry’s intervention. He had another person on his side.
“Stay out of this.” She flicked a dismissive glance his way. “It has nothing to do with you.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re talking about the person my brother wants to spend the rest of his life with. Why are you being so hateful toward him? Even knowing as little about him as I do, I can see this man has more character than just about anyone I’ve ever met. Look at what he’s accomplished, all on his own. The man has a PhD, for God’s sake.” He pointed at Chess. “I was in the bathroom at the club yesterday evening, and I heard Chess talking to someone he once knew.”
His stomach cramped. Oh God, he must’ve been in one of the stalls and heard him talk to Oliver. All the things he’d said…Chess’s head spun, and he muttered, “Jesus, I can’t believe you were listening in on my conversation in the bathroom.”
Henry shook his head. “No, Chess, I swear I wasn’t spying on you. I figured you’d be embarrassed if you saw me, so I waited to come out until you’d both left. But I heard everything you said. How you weren’t that person anymore, and that you weren’t with André for the money.”
“I knew that already,” André sputtered. “He’s the least materialistic person I’ve ever known.”
“He just happened to fall for a man with a multimillion-dollar bank account,” Kyle sneered.
“What do you know about love?” The words fell out of Chess’s mouth in a torrent, and he couldn’t stop. “You’re so busy planning tricks and pulling off schemes, you have no time to listen to your heart, if you even have one. Love is about giving, not taking. About sharing, not thinking only of yourself. Love is choosing the one person who brings you happiness, not because of what he does for you, but for how you can make him happy. André is that person for me. I’d love him with no money in the bank. I’d die for him. You know that old saying, ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’? I am sorry. I’m sorry my ugly past was dredged up like this, at a time when we should be celebrating. Yes, I hid who I was because I didn’t want him to be ashamed of me.”
André’s strong arm slid over his shoulders and held him tight. “I’ve never been more proud.”
“Proud to be with a man who was a hooker?” With his lips thinned to white lines and his eyes narrowed, Kyle resembled a snake more than a well-dressed attorney.
Those words hit Chess like an arrow straight through the heart, and he flinched. André’s arm dropped from him, and he jumped out of his seat.
“Get out. Get out of this house,” André snarled.
“Told you before, sweetheart, it’s Margery’s house, not yours,” Kyle responded with a smile.
“The fucking balls,” he heard Henry breathe, and Chess watched him prepare to enter the fray of the argument, but André beat him to it.
“Mother. Listen to what I have to say, because I will not repeat myself.”
Chess knew André’s cut-and-dried business voice, as well as his warm, loving tone when they were together. But he’d never heard this flat, emotionless sound coming from his lips, and he hoped never to again. Gooseflesh raised over his arms.
“I love you, but that doesn’t mean I have to put myself in a situation that will cause Chess and me harm. Kyle is actively harming the man I love, therefore hurting me. As your son, I’m telling you, if you continue to have this man as your counsel, I will cut