A New Foundation Rochelle Alers (read aloud .txt) 📖

Since 1988, nationally bestselling author ROCHELLE ALERS has written more than eighty books and short stories. She has earned numerous honours, including the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Iota Theta Zeta Chapter. A full-time writer, she lives in a charming hamlet on Long Island. Rochelle can be contacted through her website, www.rochellealers.org.

Also by Rochelle Alers

Home to Wickham Falls

Her Wickham Falls SEAL

The Sheriff of Wickham Falls

Dealmaker, Heartbreaker

Second-Chance Sweet Shop Claiming

the Captain’s Baby

Twins for the Soldier

Sweet Dreams

Sweet Deception

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A New Foundation

Rochelle Alers

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-91011-2

A NEW FOUNDATION

© 2021 Rochelle Alers

Published in Great Britain 2021

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine

by the sides of thine house: thy children

like olive plants round about thy table.

—Psalms 128:3

Contents

Cover

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Bible Verse

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

“Momma was really full of surprises today. I still can’t believe she waited until today to tell us that she bought a condo in a gated community, listed the house with a Realtor, and now she plans to take a two-hundred-forty-five-day around-the-world cruise. But what really threw me for a loop was willing us a dilapidated property and expecting us to restore it.”

Taylor Williamson met his sister’s eyes for a millisecond before he shifted his gaze back to the road and the bumper-to-bumper traffic heading for the tunnel leading into New York. “Firstly, Mom is a widow and an empty nester, and that means she doesn’t need a house with six bedrooms. And she’d always talked about taking an around-the-world cruise when Dad was alive, but she knew he would never go with her because his parents were killed during a boating accident.”

“I’m aware of that, Taylor, but why didn’t we know that Daddy had inherited a mansion he’d planned to restore once he retired?”

“That’s something I can’t answer, Viola.”

“And when Momma asked if you would supervise the restoration of his ancestral home I couldn’t believe you said yes.”

Elise Williamson had waited until her children were all together at the same time to reveal the details of her late husband’s will. Conrad Bainbridge Williamson had left her and their sons and daughter a mansion in northern New Jersey.

“I agreed because it’s something both Mom and Dad wanted. And, don’t forget I wasn’t the only one to agree. Tariq said he was willing to get involved once he finished his postgraduate program, and then later fulfill his obligation at the horse farm. Even Joaquin is willing to become involved as the landscape architect. Only you and Patrick are the holdouts.”

“But that means you have to quit your position at the engineering firm where you’ve just been promoted to an assistant project supervisor.”

A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Taylor’s mouth. “I know, but if I assume the responsibility of overseeing the restoration, then not only will I supervise my own team, I’ll be working for the family.” His mother had given him two steamer trunks filled with blueprints, floor plans, correspondence and documents linked to Bainbridge House. Conrad had stored the trunks in the attic of the farmhouse with the intent to review them once he retired.

“Right now, you’re the only one in the family that has actually committed. There’s no guarantee that Joaquin and Tariq won’t change their minds a year or two from now.”

Taylor wanted to ask Viola why she insisted on being a Negative Nelly. He really did not want to argue with his sister, not when he’d grown tired of her complaining that she wanted to run her own restaurant kitchen. As a professionally trained chef she had secured a position at an Upper East Side Michelin-starred restaurant. And if she did agree to come on board once the hundred-room mansion was restored to its original magnificence she would have the autonomy she’d craved since graduating culinary school. She would supervise her own staff at the