He heard the door open behind him and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see his beautiful wife. Instead, the sight of his brother deflated the joy swelling Andre’s heart.
“Oh, it’s you,” Andre said, making no attempt to cover his disappointment. He turned back to the rose garden, dimly-lit by solar lamps. While the display was not as spectacular as the spring showing, the late summer and early fall blooms were still lovely to behold. And a far better choice than Julian—who’d probably come to gloat some more.
“Why are you so blue, little brother?” Julian sat in the chair kitty-cornered from Andre. “You should be happy. You have, somehow, managed to convince the one woman who could actually help you pull this off, into marrying you. Well done.”
“I didn’t marry Tasha for the sole purpose of the will. I married her because I love her. In case Claudette and Papa didn’t tell you…”
“Oh, they told me.” Julian chuckled, and Andre shot him warning glare. “Don’t worry…” He shook his head. “I won’t bring up the will or its stipulations in front of Tasha. That would be ill-mannered.” Julian shrugged. “Besides…I don’t want her to leave any more than you do.”
He had a point. Tasha’s staying was imperative if Julian hoped to inherit his share of Uncle Edouard’s estate—fifty million dollars.
“There’s far more at stake than money.” Above all else, Andre didn’t want Tasha or his child to leave. He’d gladly forfeit the money if it guaranteed she’d stay. But the fact remained that he was married now, and he and his wife had a child on the way. Andre needed to do what it took to provide for his family. His children deserved every possible advantage he could arrange for them. And making sure he inherited what his mother’s uncle left him was a good start.
“Yes, but you and I both know that money is power.”
“Money isn’t power. You want to know what is power?” Andre peered at his brother. Once he had his undivided attention, he continued, “You and I, we can control de Laurent Enterprises, and pretty soon Mont Claire…but that’s just control. It’s not power. Not really.” Andre shook his head and clasped his hands together between his knees and stared at them while he tried to wrangle his emotions into submission. Finally he looked back at his brother, stoic-faced, and said, “Love is power.”
Andre was afraid that if Tasha found out about the will’s stipulations, she’d leave him. She’d go back to America, taking his child with her. He wouldn’t know from one day to the next how the child was, if it was all right, or, if it missed him.
“Good Lord!” Julian exclaimed. “If this is what getting married does to you…just wait until you have children.”
Andre laughed at Julian. “You really need to catch up, brother.”
Julian raised his eyebrows.
“Tasha is pregnant.” Andre nodded. “And she’s due right around the same time as Camille.”
Julian threw his hands into the air. “Can’t you give me anything?” There was a pleading quality in Julian’s voice now, and it surprised the hell out of Andre. Julian had never begged anybody for anything in his whole life. “Do you have to surpass me in everything now?”
“What?” Andre’s mouth fell open. “I’ve lived every day of my life in your shadow.”
“But it was a safe place, wasn’t it?” Julian asked. “Didn’t I always take care of you?”
“Yes. You did.” Andre paused, trying to figure out why Julian had this newfound outlook that Andre was the one who was always on top. “But I don’t get how I’ve surpassed you in anything.”
Julian hesitated. “Well, I was always taught that I would be the provider for this family. You would help me, of course, but ultimately it was up to me to see that everyone was taken care of.”
“And how has that changed?”
“I’m not in charge anymore, Andre.”
“What are you talking about?” Andre showed his palms and shrugged. “You are, and always will be, the majority shareholder in de Laurent Enterprises.”
Julian snorted and rolled his eyes. “de Laurent Enterprises is child’s play compared to Mont Claire.” Julian cleared his throat. “There was a reason Papa married our mother, besides her beauty. She came from a family of enormous wealth.”
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Andre had always known this—well, at least about the degree of wealth in his mother’s family. The yacht she’d left Julian, and the villa in St. Tropez Andre had inherited from her all spoke to it. That’s not to say that Papa didn’t have his own money when they married, the de Laurent family had been thriving for generations. But coupling the de Laurent money with Renault wealth had helped to shoot de Laurent Enterprises into the Forbes 500—where it remained to this day.
“All that is nothing new,” Andre said. “But what does it have to do with the here and now?”
“You’ve bested me.” Julian’s choice of words were more likely to be heard in some Paris nightclub than inside the halls of Pacifique de Lumière. Andre crinkled his brow, trying to figure out when he’d managed to outdo his brother at anything, and Julian added, “Mont Claire could swallow up a little fish like de Laurent Enterprises and it would never be heard from again.”
Andre didn’t know why Julian was feeling sorry for himself, but Andre wasn’t about to play that game. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not ridiculous. And you know it too.” Julian cleared his throat and shook his head. “In a year’s time, you will have taken my place as head of this family—well, second to Papa.” Julian rubbed his chin, then spread his palm open as he added, “The first grandchild in the family was all I had left.” He shrugged. “And now, you very well might steal that from me too.”
“You are overreacting.” Andre propped his elbow on the arm of his chair and laid his forehead against the inside of his fingers.
“No, I’m not. In a matter of days, Papa’s whole world has turned to revolving around you. He keeps saying to me, did you ask Andre what he thinks?” Julian said in a wavering voice. For the first time in his life Julian was showing fear, and it made Andre feel guilty.
“Look, I never wanted to unseat you,” Andre said in earnest. “I would simply like to carve out my own place in this world.”