He knew how his brothers’ minds worked and knew they were having similar thoughts as him. Even though their father had been a monster, their mother had been Mother Teresa. She’d raised them with values, integrity, and morality. They didn’t always follow her advice, but they could consider themselves assets to society.
“What does this mean?” Crew finally asked after a long, long silence.
“I have no idea,” Finn said. “But we won’t find out unless we read what’s in here.”
“Do you trust him?” Noah asked.
“No,” Finn said. Then he shook his head. “I don’t think he’s a man to lie, not with his business ethics, but he can’t just be told we’re family and automatically want to take us under his wing. Who in the hell does that?”
“We know his business practices, but we know nothing about the man himself,” Crew pointed out.
“How much do we want to know?” Finn asked.
“If he’s family, we should want to know a lot,” Hudson said.
“He doesn’t need us in his life, since the man is basically God, so maybe he does want to know us if he’s putting in this much effort to come up with a project,” Noah said.
“He’s just a person,” Brandon pointed out. “Definitely a powerful person, but still just a man—definitely not God.”
“Keep on saying that a few more times,” Hudson said. “Maybe we’ll actually believe it eventually.”
The room went silent again as the brothers reached for the files and opened them. They had no idea what was about to happen in their lives. If they had known the storm that was descending upon them, they might’ve run from that room without ever laying a finger on the folders Joseph had given them as casually as a mother giving a piece of chocolate to her child.
CHAPTER TWO
Finn didn’t know what to think as the large Hummer limo pulled up the long driveway lined with giant oak trees. They turned a corner, and the famous Anderson mansion rose high in the sky in front of them.
Finn wasn’t that guy to be awed by much, but it was impossible not to be impressed or in shock at the massive building before them. Yes, he knew how wealthy Joseph was, but seeing his property brought that into clear perspective. It also brought home the fact that he shared the same blood with the man who’d built such an impressive empire.
But what in the hell did that matter? Finn was the oldest of the five siblings; therefore, he had the most memories of his deadbeat, alcoholic, selfish father. The man had been a monster. He’d abused his wife and children and hadn’t known the meaning of the word love.
The Andersons had a hell of a lot of wealth, but what did that matter if they didn’t give a damn about the people who should mean the most to them in this world? It wasn’t the Anderson blood that flowed through his veins that made him who he was. No, that was from his sweet mother’s side.
Finn wasn’t sure he wanted to know this family. He’d heard good things about Joseph, but everyone was capable of slipping on a mask, then hiding their true selves in the darkness behind closed doors.
“Damn, could you imagine growing up in this place?” Brandon asked.
Finn shrugged. “Just because the house is huge and filled with what I imagine is every luxury known to man doesn’t mean it was a happy home.”
“You gotta admit it’d be a lot better than the two-bedroom home we all had to crowd into,” Noah said.
“I disagree,” Crew said with a smile. “Do you have any bad memories of that place?”
Hudson smiled. “Luckily I was too young to remember the old man, and once Mom moved us back to Seattle, he had nothing to do with our house; so no, I don’t have bad memories there.”
“See, size really doesn’t matter,” Brandon said with a laugh.
“Ha ha, not a problem with size in our family,” Finn said, feeling a bit better about having to step into this monstrosity of a house in a couple of minutes.
“You guys seriously need to grow the hell up,” Crew said with a roll of his eyes.
“Why is that? We’re just chatting here,” Hudson said with an innocent smile.
“Mm-hmm,” Crew said as the car stopped.
“Why does your mind have to immediately go into the gutter? Do you need some counseling?” Hudson asked.
“You’re such an ass,” Crew told him.
“Now, now, is that any way to speak to a patient?” Hudson said, not able to keep a straight face.
“I’d quit my profession for life if you were my patient,” Crew said.
“I’m crushed. Seriously. Down to my soul,” Hudson told him as he patted his heart.
The door to the car opened, shutting them all up.
“Here we go,” Finn said. The smile he’d been wearing fell away as he stepped from the limo, then waited for his brothers to follow. They all got out, almost battle ready as they stood there and looked up and up at the huge mansion. It had to be an optical illusion, but it appeared as if the thing went up ten stories and stretched out farther than the eye could see.
“Seriously, who in the hell needs this much space to live?” Finn asked.
“Apparently Mr. Anderson,” Brandon said with a chuckle.
“He’s been described as larger than life,” Crew pointed out. “Maybe large men need more room.”
“We aren’t exactly small,” Finn said with a grimace. “And we’ve been just fine in normal-size homes.”
“But I can still imagine all the adventures our cousins had growing up here,” Brandon said.
“You’re referring to them as our cousins already?” Finn asked, feeling a bit of disgust.
“Hey. When in Rome . . .” He paused for a moment. “I don’t know, wear togas?” he finished with a shrug.
That had them smiling again.
“Right this way,” the driver said as he held out a hand toward the huge cement staircase. They could walk side by side up them and still have room for dates on their arms.
“Here we go,” Finn said as he led the group up the stairs. As they reached the top, the door opened. Was someone just standing there waiting for them to step into the right position? It was such an odd place.
“Good evening. Mr. Anderson is waiting in the den,” an elderly gentleman in a nice suit said as he held the door wide open.
Once they were inside, the door shut, and the man led them down massively oversize hallways in a maze that would’ve confused most people. Luckily, Finn was always aware of his surroundings. If there was an emergency, he’d know exactly how to exit this place.
He tried not to look around too much, not wanting to be impressed with the furniture and artwork that definitely cost more than he’d made in his entire lifetime. But as much as he wanted to fault this huge place, he had to admit it was done tastefully. Yes, there were a lot of expensive pieces, but there were more family portraits than priceless collectables.
Finn had heard Joseph was a family man, but again, a person could show the world exactly what they wanted the world to see. But it was hard to keep a hard edge when he was walking down hallways lined with family pictures of adventures Finn would’ve loved to have taken when he was a child.