Carson shrugged. “It’s Graham’s doing. He didn’t tell you, either?”
“Why would he do something like that?” Brooks flopped down into Carson’s guest chair and frowned. “Who is Tammy Ross? I’ve never heard of her.”
“She is Sutton Winchester’s retired housekeeper.” Graham appeared in the doorway with a smug grin on his face.
That was the last thing Carson expected. Why would they be meeting with Sutton’s old housekeeper, unless… “Does she know anything about Sutton’s relationship with our mother?”
Graham strolled at an obnoxiously slow pace across the Moroccan rug and sat down in the other chair. “She does.”
“Why not just tell us what she had to say? Why bring her here?”
“Because,” Graham insisted, “she wanted to talk to all of us in person. Apparently she feels bad about how it all went down back then. She’s a sentimental older lady who knew and liked our mother. Indulge her a little.”
“Mr. Newport,” Carson’s assistant chirped through the speaker phone. “Mrs. Ross is here to see you.”
“Right on time,” Graham said with a smile. He got up from his chair and went to the reception area. A moment later he returned with a petite older woman with short gray hair and a pleasant smile.
Carson and Brooks both stood to greet their guest. “Mrs. Ross,” Carson said, reaching out to shake her hand. “Please have a seat.” He gestured over to his conference table and followed the others there as they took their seats.
“Thank you for seeing me today. When Graham contacted me and I realized I was talking to one of the twins all grown up—” the woman’s dark eyes grew a little misty “—well, I knew I had to tell you everything I knew. My loyalty to the Winchesters ended with the paychecks.”
“I contacted the agency that Sutton hires household staff through,” Graham explained. “I was able to talk to someone and they passed along my number to her.”
“I read about your mother’s passing in the paper,” she said. “It was hard to believe that the vibrant young girl I knew was gone. Or that the babies I remembered were full-grown men.”
“How did you know about our mother?” Brooks asked.
“At first I knew Cynthia as Mr. Sutton’s secretary. She would call the house from time to time relaying his requests for dinner or telling me what shirt he wanted starched for the next day. She was sweet and we chatted some. She was very excited about her pregnancy, and having two children of my own, I relayed plenty of advice. After the twins—you—were born, I volunteered to babysit a couple of nights while she went out. I didn’t
realize at the time who she was going out with or whose babies I was watching.”
“So our mother was seeing Sutton on the side?”
“Yes. From what I gathered, they were together long before she started working at Elite Industries. It wasn’t surprising, though. Your mother was a lovely young woman, just the kind Sutton liked. I think his marriage to Celeste Van Houten was more business than pleasure, so he was always on the prowl for…extracurricular entertainment.”
Carson’s stomach ached to think of his mother as just one in a line of women who had marched in and out of Sutton Winchester’s bedroom. She deserved better. A real love with a man who wanted to marry her and give her all the happiness in the world. Instead she’d raised his three children alone on a waitress’s salary. Carson wasn’t sure what their mother would’ve done without Gerty’s help.
“Finding out about you was the biggest shock,” Mrs. Ross said, looking at Carson. “Your mother must have left the company so soon into her second pregnancy that I didn’t even know she was expecting again. I’m sure that was part of Mr. Winchester’s plan. Mrs. Winchester was already beside herself over the relationship. I don’t think she knew about the twins, and I’m sure Mr. Winchester didn’t want anyone to know about you, either.”
“If he was so secretive, how do you know about all of this?”
The older woman smiled. “There are different kinds of rich people and in my day, I worked for them all. The Winchesters are the kind of rich people who see their employees as a lesser species. Sometimes Mrs. Winchester pretended I wasn’t even there. Or maybe she wasn’t pretending. Maybe I just wasn’t important enough for her notice. It was annoying, but sometimes it was useful.
“I remember one night Mr. and Mrs. Winchester really got into a row. She was pregnant with Nora at the time. Mrs. Winchester didn’t yell much, but it was a glass-breaking night. They went into the bedroom and closed the door, but it didn’t matter. You could hear them yelling from anywhere in the house, and the house is a mansion. I was in the hallway, sweeping up a glass vase she’d thrown at him, when I heard her mention Cynthia’s name. She told him she wasn’t just going to sit by and let him parade around with his secretary while she was suffering through another difficult pregnancy to have his child. She threatened to divorce him and clean him out. She told him he’d never see Eve or the new baby again. I had no doubt she could do it. Her brother was one of the most ruthless divorce attorneys in Illinois. She told him he would end it, or she would end him.
“It was then I realized that the twins had to be his. I couldn’t imagine Mr. Winchester taking care of a woman with another man’s children the way he did. A week later, a lady called the house claiming to be Mr. Winchester’s secretary. When I asked what happened to Cynthia, she told me that she was no longer with the company. That’s the last I heard of her, or of any of you. She disappeared after that.”
“You can’t be certain that I’m Sutton’s child, though,” Carson said. “She could’ve gotten pregnant by someone else after she left Elite.”
The older woman reached across the table and patted his hand. “You are Sutton Winchester’s boy, no doubt in my mind. Your brothers take more after Cynthia, but you, you’re the spitting image of your father when he was younger.”
Carson swallowed hard. He’d always known he looked different from his brothers and likely took after their father while they favored their mother, but he didn’t want to be the spitting anything of Sutton Winchester.
“Mrs. Ross, would you be willing to testify to a judge about what you told us today?” Graham asked. “Odds are that it won’t be necessary for us to compel the paternity test, but the judge might ask to speak with you.”
“Absolutely. I think I’ve stayed quiet about all this long enough. Mr. Winchester needs to do right by his children. It’s never too late for that.”
“Thank you for coming to speak with us today,” Carson said, shaking the woman’s hand.