The McKettrick Way by Miller Linda Lael

Author:Miller, Linda Lael [Miller, Linda Lael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: McKettricks
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2007-02-02T06:00:00+00:00

Meg stood as if frozen in the hallway of Indian Rock’s only hotel, wanting to turn and run, but too stunned to move.

She’d just gathered the impetus to flee when her father stuck a hand out. “Ted Ledger,” he said, by way of introduction. “Come in and meet your sister, Meg.”

Her sister?

It was that, added to a desire to commit matricide, that brought Meg over the threshold and into her mother’s simply furnished, elegantly rustic suite.

Eve was nowhere in sight, the coward. But a little girl, ten or twelve years old, sat stiffly on the couch, hands folded in her lap. She was blond and blue-eyed, clad in cheap discount-store jeans and a floral shirt with ruffles, and the look on her face was one of terrified defiance.

“Hello,” Meg said, forcing the words past her heart, which was beating in her throat.

The marvelous blue eyes narrowed.

“Carly,” said Ted Ledger, “say hello.”

“Hello,” Carly complied grudgingly.

Looking at the child, Meg couldn’t help thinking that the baby she’d lost would have been about this same age, if it hadn’t been for the miscarriage.

She straightened her spine. Turned to the father who hadn’t cared enough to send her so much as an e-mail, let alone be part of her life. “Where is my mother?” she asked evenly.

“Hiding out,” Ledger said with a wisp of a grin. In his youth, he’d probably been handsome. Now he was thin and gray-haired, with dark shadows under his pale blue eyes.

Carly looked Meg over again and jutted out her chin. “I don’t want to live with her,” she said. “She probably doesn’t need a kid hanging around anyhow.”

“Go in the kitchen,” Ledger told the child.

To Meg’s surprise, Carly obeyed.

“Live with me?” Meg echoed in a whisper.

“It’s that or foster care,” Ledger said. “Sit down.”

Meg sat, not because her father had asked her to, but because all the starch had gone out of her knees. Questions battered at the back of her throat, like balls springing from a pitching machine.

Where have you been?

Why didn’t you ever call?

If I kill my mother, could a dream-team get me off without prison time?

“I know this is sudden,” Ted Ledger said, perching on the edge of the white velvet wingback chair Eve had had sent from her mansion in San Antonio, to make the place more “homey.” “But the situation is desperate. I’m desperate.”

Meg tried to swallow, but couldn’t. Her mouth was too dry, and her esophagus had closed up. “I don’t believe this,” she croaked.

“Your mother and I agreed, long ago,” Ledger went on, “that it would be best if I stayed out of your life. That’s why she never brought you to visit me.”

“Visit you?”

“I was in prison, Meg. For embezzlement.”

“From McKettrickCo,” Meg mused aloud, startled, but at the same time realizing that she’d known all along, on some half-conscious level.

“I told you he was a waste of hair and hide,” Angus said. He stood over by the fake fireplace, one arm resting on the mantelpiece.

Meg took care to ignore him, not to so much as glance in his direction, though she could see him out of the corner of one eye.

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.