Tracking His Secret Child by Tara Taylor Quinn

Author:Tara Taylor Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-06-03T15:27:49+00:00

* * *

“My parents were going before the parole board next year,” Amanda said, a stonelike coldness inside her as she sat with Hudson on the couch. Jeanine and Mariah would be there soon. They were picking up lunch for all of them.

Curious to meet Mariah, the woman who’d been a friend to Hudson for more years than Amanda had spent with him, she was mostly just on automatic pilot. Her mind working, her heart on standby.

“They’ve been communicating through their lawyer all these years. And through a delivery person who services both the male and female facilities,” she continued, delivering to Hudson the information she’d just received from the detective. Her mother had given up the goods.

“Their lawyer was in regular touch with Mack Walters. Turns out Mack was involved in my father’s schemes. They made an agreement. Mack would draw a specified amount of money off the hidden account each year, and he wouldn’t make a plea deal with the feds to turn evidence against my parents if he was ever charged. If Mack ever took more than his specified amount, my father would testify to Mack’s part in the crimes they all committed.” She paused for just a moment. “With the parole hearing coming up, Mack was supposed to speak on my father’s behalf. It was perfect: a man who’d turned against my father, who claimed to be one of my father’s victims, would now be willing to forgive him. My father was getting antsy with the hearing coming up, needing to communicate with Mack directly, and in I walk with a granddaughter whose email he can use.”

Hudson didn’t touch her, for which she was mostly thankful. Had he done so, she might have melted down. As it was, she was thankful he was there, and no more than that.

She couldn’t let herself fall in love with him again. She couldn’t let the love inside her flourish. She couldn’t afford the risk. It had taken way too long to fix what he’d broken inside her.

And with the secret she’d kept...he’d said he couldn’t forgive her. She believed him. And she didn’t blame him for that.

For leaving...maybe she did. Maybe it was time to own up to that.

As soon as Hope is found.

“My mom... When Hope went missing, my father tried to get an emergency meeting with his attorney, but we showed up first, and he knew we were going to see my mother. He sent a message through the delivery guy to my mom. It was supposed to be a strong message to just stay quiet. To let things play themselves out until he could get their attorney on it. The guy wasn’t supposed to hold her wrists behind her back and shove her face into the wall...” She wanted to cry as she thought about her beautiful mother reduced to such a position, but she didn’t. She just took it all in. Sat there with it.

“Mom’s the one who told Jeanine everything this morning,” she finished. Finished with that part of it, anyway.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.