A Hard Man to Love by Delaney Diamond
Prologue
It was a day like any other day, but it wasn’t an ordinary day. Today, Derrick Hoffman became a very rich man.
Twenty-six hours ago, his stepfather—Phineas Hoffman—had been placed in the family mausoleum. Two hours ago, his will had been read and he’d left everything to Derrick, his adopted son. The family was not happy.
The smoke from a Cuban cigar snaked upward and dispersed in the night air as Derrick stood outside on the concrete balcony of the mansion he had called home since he was a child. He stared out across the wooded acreage of the property that now belonged to him.
“What were you thinking, Phineas?”
Even though they’d always had a good rapport, Derrick was grateful that in the last days of his father’s life, they had grown closer. He regretted the years he’d spent not appreciating the father-son relationship, skeptical of Phineas’s love for him, even while he longed for his acceptance.
Derrick shook his head and continued the conversation with himself. “You had to know this would cause major problems for me. Why not leave me a nice little inheritance to live off of, instead of everything?”
If he felt like the odd man out in his adopted family before, it was even worse now after the bombshell dropped. His cousins, his uncles, and their wives had stared back at him with stricken looks at the end of the attorney’s reading of the will.
Then the tears fell. Before the tears dried, indignation filled the room as Phineas’s younger brothers rose to their feet and started yelling words like “preposterous,” “not of sound mind,” and “this must be some kind of joke.”
But it wasn’t a joke, and they all knew it. This was Phineas Hoffman’s last will and testament, and his instructions were very clear. After the distribution of the charitable donations, the rest of his estate, which included the mansion in Atlanta, his homes around the world, his cash reserves and investments, and his highly profitable international logistics company, would all go to Derrick.
Derrick was now worth almost a billion dollars, and he had no idea why his father had made such a decision.
“I don’t know why you did this,” he muttered, “but you were a smart businessman. I have to assume you must have had a good reason.”
He stepped back into the first-floor study and stuck one hand in his pocket. He took a deep draw on the cigar and let the smoke ooze slowly past his lips.
A wave of deep sadness washed over him when he looked up at the portrait of his mother and father over the fireplace. Both of them had been taken suddenly from him. His mother died in a plane crash fifteen years ago, and Phineas died from heart failure. His real father, the man he’d never cared to know because he’d never cared to know Derrick, died in the same crash with his mother.
He closed his eyes. Life was short, and death could come at any moment. Time to make some changes in his life.
Chapter One
As Eva Jacob left the house to go to work, she said a silent prayer of thanks that she hadn’t thrown up her breakfast of buttered toast and ginger tea this morning. At almost four months pregnant, she was finally getting a bit of relief. Less than a month ago, she could hardly keep down any of her food.
Before her passing, her mother had told her stories about her own pregnancy with Eva, and she had worried she’d find her pregnancy equally as difficult. She was relieved her doctor’s prediction she would feel better soon had finally panned out.
The drive to the clothing and accessories store in Pier Village on St. Simons Island, the largest of the Golden Isles off the coast of Georgia, took ten minutes. The village was the central location for cultural activities and commercial businesses on the island. Antique stores, souvenir shops, clothing stores, and restaurants lined the main street and the waterfront.