Hidden Talents

payments. Like I said, it will be a relief.”
    “ Blackmail ?” Roland surged to his feet. “What the devil is that supposed to mean?”
    Caleb braced his legs slightly apart and confronted Roland. “All of my life I've paid for what my parents did. I've never been allowed to forget for one damn moment that I was the cause of all the scandal and tragedy that this family endured.”
    “Now just one goddamn minute—” Roland snarled.
    “It has always been made clear to me that if I hadn't existed, things would have turned out differently. Perhaps Crystal Brooke could have been bought off. Perhaps my father would have eventually come to his senses and come home to his wife. Who knows? But things didn't turn out right because I was born.”
    “You've got it all wrong,” Roland whispered.
    “Have I? How many times have you told me that you were afraid of making the same mistakes with me that you'd made with my father? How many times did you say that I had to be better at everything than my father had been? That I had to prove that I wasn't tainted with my mother's bad blood?”
    “You don't understand,” Roland said fiercely.
    “How often did you lecture me on my duties and responsibilities to the family? How many times have you called my mother a slut ?”
    “Crystal Brooke was a slut,” Franklin raged. “She ruined everything.”
    Caleb ignored him. He kept his attention on Roland. “I've spent my whole life trying to give you what you wanted. But it was never enough, was it? I could never win enough ball games for you. I could never collect enough trophies to satisfy you. I could never make enough money for the family.”
    “Now see here,” Roland thundered, “if I was a little hard on you, it was for your own good.”
    “No, it was for your own good,” Caleb said. “You tried to use me to undue the mistakes of the past. You made me pay for them. That's blackmail. And the one sure thing about blackmail is that it never ends. But I can choose to stop paying it. And that's what I'm going to do.”
    Roland's mouth worked. He turned away from Caleb and leveled his finger at Serenity. “So help me, if you leave this house to go off with that woman, you'll never be welcome here again.”
    “I haven't been welcome here since the day I arrived,” Caleb said softly. “I was allowed to stay on sufferance. You had to make do with me because I was all you had left.”
    “Damn you, you sound just like your father,” Roland said.
    “Bad blood always tells, doesn't it?” Caleb held out his hand to Serenity. “Let's get out of here, Serenity.”
    Tears stung Serenity's eyes. It was like being on board the Titanic , knowing what was going to happen but being unable to stop the impending disaster. Slowly she put her hand in Caleb's.
    He strode toward the door, hauling her along in his wake.
    “She's done this to you.” Franklin was almost hopping up and down in his agitation. “It's all her fault.”
    “I'm sorry,” Serenity whispered.
    “I'm not,” Caleb said. He nodded brusquely at Dolores, who had appeared in the doorway. “Goodbye, Dolores.”
    “Please don't do this, Caleb,” Dolores begged.
    “I have to do it,” Caleb said. He paused to glance back at Roland. “You shouldn't have pushed me. I'd probably have gone on paying the blackmail forever, you know. I'd have continued to do my best to give you everything you wanted. But you made one mistake. You tried to come between me and the one thing I want.”
    Roland gazed at Caleb with white-hot fury burning in his eyes. “Go on, get out of here. Take your little slut and don't ever come back.”
    Caleb turned without a word and started through the door into the hall. Serenity tugged sharply on his hand and frantically dug in her heels.
    “Wait,” she said. She looked back at Roland. “It doesn't have to end like this. This isn't the past. You can make it end differently this time.”
    “Come on, Serenity,” Caleb muttered. He yanked her forward into the hall.
    “Just a second.” She clawed frantically at the edge of the doorway, her eyes still locked with Roland's. “Come for dinner on Thursday. Day after tomorrow. Please. I'll make vegetable curry. You'll love it.”
    “Serenity, for crying out loud.” Caleb pulled hard on her wrist and managed to break her death grip on the doorjamb.
    “Witt's End,” Serenity called as Caleb dragged her down the hall. “An hour's drive. Once you get there, just ask anyone where I live. If