Dare to Desire (Dare to Love 2)

Anger grew once more at the unfair accusation. “I have no idea how his mind works. All I know is I spend more time with her than he does. I’m sure he’s going to claim I pressed her into making me her power of attorney. It’s just not true,” she said, getting worked up at the thought.

Alex squeezed her hand harder in reassurance that he was there. Solid and beside her.

She forced o

ut a calming breath. “Eric has always resented the very air I breathed, from the minute I came into that house.”

Jon glanced at the papers. “When was she diagnosed?”

“About a year ago. Her husband was her power of attorney and health care proxy before me.”

“She changed it after he died?”

Madison nodded.

“After she’d already been diagnosed,” Jon said grimly.

“Yes.”

Jon blew out a breath. “When did your foster brother find out?”

“When Franny started talking about going into a care facility.”

The other man made notes then asked, “Were you their only foster child?”

She shook her head. “There were others in the past, but I was the only one who stayed on. Others were transferred out quickly.”

“Hmm. I’d like to get my P.I. to do some digging. Maybe we can get something on him that’ll scare him enough to make this go away easily. Let me see what I can turn up. Okay with you?”

More money she’d owe Alex if she agreed. “Umm…”

“Whatever you have to do,” Alex said.

Jon looked to her for confirmation, and she nodded, both resigned and grateful at the same time.

He rose from his seat, and both she and Alex did the same. “I’ll take things from here,” Jon said. “I need you to send me a list of people who saw your interaction with your foster parents when you lived there, possible witnesses for us and for them.”

“I’ll do that. Thank you.”

Jon smiled at her. “Do your best not to worry, okay?”

She nodded. “Thank you. Franny was really good to me. I just want to do right by her.”

A few minutes later, they were out in the hall by the elevators. Madison decided not to call Alex on showing up today. How could she be angry when he was behaving so thoughtfully? She appreciated having someone by her side even if she had to constantly remind herself not to get used to it.

“Ready to go back to work?” she asked as the elevator door opened and they stepped inside.

The large doors slid shut.

“Actually, I think we should call in sick.”

“What?”

“Play hooky. Take the day off and do something fun.”

She raised an eyebrow, considering his words. “Like what?” She couldn’t believe she’d asked him that. Why wasn’t she just saying no to doing anything or going anywhere with him?

“Somewhere you can forget about your problems and relax.”