Chapter 21 Amber

Amber left Jackson at the police station where he was waiting to meet with someone from the Department of Children and Families to see about bringing the girls home with him. Jax's constant babbling was on her last nerve and the first thing she did was call for Chloe to take him. She hated noise, and now she'd have two more noisy children running about. At least Chloe would do most of the heavy lifting if that came to pass. And anyway, Amber would be gone in a few days. She'd have to make the best of it while she was still here. Tallulah wouldn't be a problem—she and Amber had formed a tenuous bond over the girl's desperation to be in touch with Jackson. It would be fun to lord that over Daphne and even help to sabotage Tallulah's relationship with her mother before Amber left. It had always irked Amber how loyal those little brats were to Daphne. Unfortunately, Bella was most likely a lost cause, but then again, Jackson had told Amber how taken she was with little Jax. She could use that to her advantage. The more she thought about it, she could probably turn them both against their sainted mother. Especially now that it appeared as though Daphne had gotten drunk and high and put her own children's lives at risk.

The plan had come fully together a few days ago. Jackson had spotted the Klonopin in Daphne's medicine cabinet during one of his many visits to her beach house. Nosy as he is, he counted them and saw only one had been taken. That didn't surprise Amber—Daphne had always been such a boring straight arrow. The combination of pills and Beluga vodka, which Jackson said was so pure and smooth that it tasted like water, did the trick. Once she drank the drink he'd laced, it was less than half an hour before she was passed out. In the meantime, Jackson had let the girls take the paddleboard out past the swim buoys and toward the public beach. He'd timed it so that the tide was coming in and the water would be deep where they were. Amber, parked a short distance away, ran down to the beach as soon as she got Jackson's text, and she sat on the sand with Jax. Jackson stood out of sight of the lifeguard watching Tallulah and Bella paddleboarding. The day was windy, and when it became obvious that the girls were tiring and having a hard time getting in, Jackson ran to the lifeguard and yelled for help. Once they were safely onshore, Jackson told the lifeguard that their mother was supposed to have been watching them. Amber was the one who called the police. Not only had Daphne let her own daughters almost drown, she told them, but the woman had left Jax unattended on a blanket next to her. Amber used her best sobbing voice to explain that when she arrived, poor baby Jax was almost in the water. Amber had played her part beautifully and Jackson had given her back her passport. But before she started a new life abroad, she had some scores to settle. If she didn't, Amber would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, wondering who was out there trying to destroy her. By the time she was through, Daisy Ann would rue the day she ever declared war on Amber. She would be sorry she hadn't left the past in the past.

Jackson was keeping his end of the bargain to help her get back at Daisy Ann, and his financial expertise had come in handy as they formulated the next plan together. After some extensive research into Daisy Ann's company, Amber had discovered that even though it was privately held, stock had been issued. The Texas Secretary of State website listed only two current stockholders, Daisy Ann Briscoe, who held 70 percent, and Wade Ashford, who held 30 percent. Why did that name sound familiar? When she typed it into Google images, a man in his late sixties with a ten-gallon hat and a round craggy face populated the screen. She remembered now. He had been a friend of Daisy Ann's father, Jake. Amber had actually met him at the café in Gunnison when he'd come to Colorado to meet with Jake on business. This was before she and Jake were a couple—when she was still a waitress there. But after they were married, Jake confided to Amber that he no longer had respect for the man. When she'd pressed him for a reason, he wouldn't say—Jake was not a gossip. But curiosity got the better of her when she overheard Jake terminate his business with Ashford. She'd wondered why. Wade was as rich as Jake, and the two of them had planned to buy a development together. So, Amber tearfully confessed that when Wade had been in town, he'd hit on her quite aggressively and she'd had to fight him off. It was a total fabrication, of course, but it enraged Jake and he then told her the reason for his antipathy. And what a reason it was. And now little Daisy Ann was in business with the man. She supposed Jake had died before he was able to warn Daisy Ann about him. Amber was going to do some digging and if she was right in what she suspected, Wade would be her first line of attack in getting back at Daisy Ann.

As for the disintegration of their marriage, Jackson had agreed to tell everyone it was her idea. That she wanted to move on. He would get his half of the diamond money as soon as they completed her plan of revenge against Daisy Ann. Jackson didn't know about the three diamonds she'd kept in reserve for herself. They would bring another six million, according to Mr. Stones's assessment. Jackson and Amber were meeting with the lawyer to set up the shell company that would act as Amber's front. Once that was taken care of, she'd follow through with the second part of the plan and go to where her immediate future beckoned. Dallas.

Hours later, Jackson arrived at home with the girls in tow. At Amber's instruction, the cook had prepared a feast of fried chicken, mac and cheese, milkshakes, and double fudge brownies. Tallulah and Bella were quiet as they followed Jackson into the house. Amber pasted a sad expression on her face and embraced Tallulah, then a stiff Bella.

"My dears, what a traumatic day this has been. You must be starving. I've cooked up all your favorites." She texted the nanny to let her know the girls had arrived, and moments later Chloe arrived with Jax in tow.

Jackson gently pushed them toward her. "Go on, girls; Chloe will get you settled. I need to talk to Amber for a minute."

He and Amber went into his study.

"Where's Daphne?" Amber asked as he closed the door behind them.

"At the hospital. She was so out of it that they wanted to check her out. I made sure I didn't give her anything lethal but of course I couldn't tell them that. I was granted emergency custody of the girls until DCF's investigation is completed."

"I'm surprised you were able to bring the girls back so quickly."

"It helps when your lawyer is golf buddies with a judge. I'll have them for at least thirty days, maybe longer. Depends on how long their investigation into Daphne takes."

"How do you think the girls are doing?"

He shrugged. "They'll be okay. They were surprised and shocked, but I explained that their mother had done this before. That sometimes when she gets overstressed this is what happens. They're obviously going to want her to come here. Which is exactly how I'll get her to come."

"Okay, well, I assume it won't hurt your temporary custody if I'm out of here in the next few weeks?"

He shook his head. "No, and your being here is not exactly conducive to my campaign to get Daphne back."

Amber laughed. "You really think she's going to come back to you after what you've done?"

Jackson walked over to the bar cart and poured himself a bourbon. He gave Amber a sardonic look. "I know this is hard for you to understand, but in some women, the maternal instinct is strong. Primal. Daphne will do whatever she needs to make sure the girls are happy and safe."

Amber felt a spark of jealousy despite the fact that she wasn't in love with Jackson. What was so special about Daphne that he would go to such lengths to get her back, while he didn't give a shit about Amber leaving? "Answer me something."

"Shoot."

"Why do you want her back so badly? She doesn't love you; in fact, she hates you. She's just a suburban mom. Don't you find her boring?"

He gave her a disparaging look. "Daphne is my finest creation. I molded her into a polished, elegant woman of refinement—qualities you only pretend to have. And I want that back in my life. With more of my masterful honing, she'll be even more perfect than before. And for your information, I happen to find her anything but boring."

Amber felt the fury build up and before she could stop herself, she slapped him across the face. Hard. She braced herself for his reaction, but he merely began to laugh.

"See what I mean. You just proved my point. You're nothing but an alley cat disguised as a purebred."