A Son's Tale

Whatever it was, he’d fix it. Somehow, some way, he’d help her. “I’ll be waiting.”

“Thank you.”

He was sure she was crying as she hung up. Cal needed to hold her, to make her world happy once and for all.

He’d do it, too. No matter the cost.

The feeling was new to him.

* * *

STANDING IN HIS OFFICE doorway, Cal listened for Morgan’s footsteps on the stairs. With his arms waiting to take her in, he met her halfway down the hall.

She slipped past him.

“You’re going to want to close the door,” she said over her shoulder as she walked into his office.

Her gaze was hard and there was no sign of tears. No sign of the warm, loving woman he knew he was going to marry. As soon as she’d have him.

Closing the door, he approached her again, but she held him off with one arm up in front of her.

“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t come near me.” He hardly recognized her voice.

“What happened?”

He’d missed the folder she had with her until she opened it and threw it on the floor at his feet.

And then he knew.

“Your father had me investigated.”

But it wasn’t the investigation that bothered him. It was Morgan’s reaction. “You can’t possibly believe any of the things he’s telling you,” he said.

The idea that Lowen might look at him had occurred to him, certainly. He’d thought about it in terms of the danger to Frank. It had never occurred to him that, if the truth came out, Morgan would choose her father’s side over him.

“How can I not? You lied to me. You said you hardly knew that little girl who went missing.”

He’d forgotten that he’d told her that. He’d been so vague that night, their relationship still so new… .

“Morgan…” He reached out a hand to her, trying to look her in the eye. He’d lost a lifetime of opportunities for a crime his father didn’t commit. He couldn’t lose Morgan. “I should have told you. I admit, I deliberately chose not to. But Sammie—and you—were perfectly safe at all times, I swear. The suspicions, they’re all lies, Morgan. But no one has ever believed us. My silence was due to a lifetime of being on the run, of protecting my father from the lies and suspicions that have all but killed him. And me. This detective in Comfort Cove, he’s found another suspect. I’m waiting to hear from him and then this will all be cleared up.”

Her expression hadn’t changed. It was like she was completely closed off to him. Unable to hear him.

“Don’t you see? For the first time in my adult life, I had a chance at a life. With you…”

“Did he do it?” she interrupted, her voice shaking.

“No.”

“There’s proof that little girl was in his car.”

“I know. I’m the one who saw her there. I’m the one who told the police.” He took a small step forward. She backed up immediately.

“Her bear was there. After she went missing. Can you explain that?”

“No.” He’d never been able to explain that. “She had it at breakfast that morning. And then I left for school. Except I didn’t go to school. I’d told my father that I didn’t want to go, and why, but he was making me go anyway. I left and then made my way back home cutting through backyards. I was watching my father’s car so I’d know when the coast was clear and I could go into the house again. That’s when I saw Claire standing on the back seat.”

“Tell me one thing.”