SEAL of Approval

by Lynn Faye

  He took his eyes off her a second to ponder the current situation. The kidnapper, who they hadn’t yet seen, was in custody, but according to the FBI, he hadn’t said anything to them. Ethan wanted to know who he was and why he took Hailey.

  Momentarily, the doctor came out. Both Ethan and Kristen met him halfway.

  “She’s fine. No injuries… not visible ones anyway,” the man in the white coat informed them. “But you should consider having a psychiatrist check her. These things can weigh heavily on a child.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Kristen said.

  Relief washed over Ethan. Leaning against the wall, he allowed himself to breathe. One part of the ordeal was over. The next part was to find out who was responsible. While this was happening, he felt so helpless that he could do nothing. He was trained for this and he couldn’t even save his own daughter.

  “Ethan,” Kristen’s voice interrupted his thoughts as she touched his arm. “She’s fine. He said she’s fine.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded.

  After the Doctor declared Hailey to be injury free, they took her home. That night neither Ethan nor Kristen slept. They both stayed with Hailey in her room to make sure she felt secure.

  *

  Three days later, Ethan was supervising Hailey’s bath and was watching her brush her teeth. As it was bedtime, he knew she would want him to read her a bedtime story. He was wondering which one she would choose when she placed the toothbrush on the sink and looked at him through the mirror.

  “Daddy?” Hailey was wearing a frown on her little face.

  “Yes, pumpkin?”

  “Are you mad at me?”

  He knelt at the bathroom sink and caressed her face. “No honey, Daddy’s not mad at you.”

  “Are you mad at Mommy?”

  That question made his heart flutter. Yes, he was mad, but how could he tell Hailey that?

  “Please don’t be mad at Mommy. She cries when you’re mad at her.”

  “What?”

  “I saw Mommy crying before and she was telling Auntie Camie that you’re mad at her.”

  “I promise, I won’t be mad anymore. Now you promise me something,” he said, his voice thick. Hailey nodded her head. “Promise you will never go with anyone except for mommy or me. If someone comes to get you, you ask for the password.”

  “Password?”

  “Mommy and I will tell you the password in the morning. Now it’s bedtime. Give Daddy a kiss.”

  She threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, Daddy.”

  “I love you too, Pumpkin.”

  Ethan stood and lifted Hailey in his arms. When he turned to the go through the door, Kristen was watching from the bathroom entrance. Her eyes were bloodshot, proof of what Hailey saw.

  They both tucked Hailey into bed, but before she went to sleep, she told them what happened. They’d learned from the FBI that the kidnapper’s real name was Matthew Newman. Hailey said that she met him at her school and not at her grandmother’s house. The man came often and told her he was her uncle. The day he took her, Hailey said he told her that Kristen asked him to get her because they were planning a surprise.

  “We need to talk,” Ethan told Kristen after turning out the lights in Hailey’s room.

  “I know,” she replied with a sigh.

  They went downstairs where Ethan stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and stared into the fire. Many questions ran through his mind, but he needed to know where he stood with Kristen.

  “I know you must be hurt, but you have to understand my side, Ethan,” she ventured, her voice soft.

  “I just want to know one thing. You said Andrew drugged both of us, but you remembered. How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he gave you more. All I know is I knew it wasn’t Andrew in the bed, but it was too late… I…” she trailed off.

  “Then why the hell were you so angry at me all this time? You made it seem as though I did something wrong.”

  Kristen looked away. Even now, she refused to tell him the truth. But Ethan was not letting this go so easily. All the secrets needed to be out in the open.

  “Damn it, Kristen, answer me. Why were you angry with me and not Andrew?’

  “Of course, I was angry with Andrew, but you said you loved me that night and then you just left. Next time I saw you, you acted as though nothing happened.”

  “I’m sorry, but I did not remember, not really. But how would…” he paused.

  It then dawned on him that maybe Kristen was angry because she wanted it to be true. He needed to know. Ethan was about to ask her when the doorbell rang.

  They both frowned, as they were not expecting anyone at that hour. Kristen went to answer, but Ethan stood only a few feet away in the next room – just in case.

  “Can I help you?” he heard her ask.

  “I have a delivery for Mrs. Kristen Broderick,” a man’s voice returned.

  Ethan moved towards the door, curious about a delivery at eight in the evening. The man held out two business-sized envelopes and Kristen took them and then signed the delivery note.

  “What are they?” Ethan asked as she closed the door.

  With jerky movements, she opened one of the envelopes and extracted a sheet of paper. Her eyes widened as she scanned the document.

  “It’s a lawsuit. You mother is suing me for the wrongful death of her son!”

  Ethan snatched the document from Kristen’s grasp and scrutinized it while she opened the second envelope. Kristen’s gasp caused his head to snap up.

  “She’s also suing me for negligence of her granddaughter. I can’t take this anymore,” she mumbled, staggering towards the sofa.

  Helen was too much. Ethan knew he had to do something about his mother. He decided to take the simple approach and if that didn’t work, they’d take the hard road. Without saying anything, he picked up the car keys from the side table and stalked to the door.

  “Where are you going?” Kristen asked, her voice was weak.

  “I’m going to see my mother.”

  *

  Ethan rang the doorbell of his childhood home. Many memories assailed him as he stood waiting for the butler to answer the door. The last time he was there he said what he thought was his last goodbye, vowing never to return.

  With his back to the door, he scanned the expansive front lawn with three bird fountains, a coy pond, and two angel sculptures. He recalled his last days at home as if they were yesterday.

  “Master Ethan,” a familiar voice made him turn around. It was the butler he’d known since childhood.

  “Anderson, you look well.”

  The man beamed. “Thank you, and you sir, have grown up a lot.”

  “Touché!”

  “Will you come in? I’ll let your father know you are here.”

  Anderson moved off, while Ethan hesitantly entered the drawing room. The place hadn’t changed since he was last there. Harold’s La-Z-Boy armchair was in the same spot beside the fireplace. His parent’s portrait hung over the mantle and beside that was an enlarged photo of his older brother Andrew.

  “Ethan?” Harold exclaimed upon entering the room.

  “Hello, Father.”

  Harold approached, his eyes questioning. Their eyes met and for a while, they watched each other in awkward silence. Neither seemed to have anything to say to the other.

  Ethan was first to speak, his voice hard. “Is Mother around?”

  “She’s in her bedchamber. She spends most of her time there these days,” his father informed him, visibly relaxing. “May I ask what this is about? You look upset.”

  “Don’t act innocent with me, Father. You know what Mom is up to and you just let her get away with it.”

  “What are you talking about, Son?”

  Ethan was losing his patience. “These lawsuits of hers. Hasn’t Kristen been through enough?”

  Harold creased his brow. “What lawsuit? The custody case is closed as far as I recall.”
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  “You really don’t know what your wife has been up to, do you Father?”

  “No, I swear. Your mother does what she wants. She’s even coming after me now.”

  “Divorce?” Ethan was curious. He wouldn’t be surprised if his parents separated. They never seemed like a loving couple to him. His mother was always preoccupied with planning her charities when she was plotting some evil scheme. As for his father, he was always working.

  “No, it’s a long story. We’ll talk about it some other time. Can we have lunch somewhere, away from here?”

  Was this an olive branch or was his father playing dumb? Their conversation from ten years ago came back to him. He recalled his parents asking him to sign over his inheritance if he insisted on staying in the Navy against their wishes. He’d always had a feeling that his mother was behind it. However, his father allowing it to happen was just as painful.

  “Yeah, we’ll have lunch. Now, I have to see Mother.”

  “Go ahead,” replied Harold.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, Ethan was knocking on his mother’s door within a minute.

  Her face registered her surprise at seeing him. “Ethan?”

  “Hello, Mother.”

  She stepped aside and bade him entry. She invited him to take a seat on one of her armchairs but he chose to remain standing.

  “What brings you here at this hour… wait, don’t answer that. I can tell you’re here on behalf of your wife,” she said, her tone dripping with contempt.

  Ethan’s eyes blazed. “Cut it out, Mother!” His voice sharper than he intended. “What has Kristen done to deserve this hatred you have of her?”

  “I don’t hate her,” she said easily. “I feel nothing towards the little witch.”

  “Stop it, Mother… just stop.”

  “She’s got you twisted around her little finger that you can’t even see straight,” she snapped. “Why are you here, Ethan?”

  “Drop those ridiculous lawsuits you filed against her.”

  “Not on your life.”

  Ethan lowered his voice, “Why, Mother?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I understand perfectly, Mother. It’s all about your precious son, Andrew. Did you ever once care that you had another child?”

  Helen gave him a frosty look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know very well what I mean. You never cared about me. It’s always been about Andrew. Well, newsflash, Mother, he was not as perfect as you’re making him out to be.”

  Ethan strode to the door. Talking with Helen was getting nowhere. He was more upset now than when he arrived. His mother was not going to give in. He could see it in her eyes.

  As his hand reached for the doorknob she stopped him. “Ethan, there’s one way I’ll drop the lawsuits.”

  He whirled to face her, his heart thudding. He knew that she was about to bargain and he didn’t like the smirk she was wearing. That evil grin he knew well. She expected something and it was going to his soul.

  “Come back home and I’ll never bother Kristen again.”

  Chapter 25

  It sounded easy, but for Ethan, it was the most difficult thing to settle. He’d left the mansion in turmoil. On the one hand, he was angry with Kristen and hurt that perhaps he’d expected too much from their marriage.

  They’d signed a contract that the marriage was supposed to be one of convenience, but when she lost her memory, everything changed. He could not stop the relationship from cannonballing into something else. Something beautiful. Now, all that may have been only in his head. Still, he wanted to protect her, to keep her from harm. There was one way to stop his mother and that was to prove she tried to kill Kristen and that she orchestrated Hailey’s kidnapping.

  After speaking with his mother, Ethan returned home contemplating her words. Kristen was already asleep when he slipped into bed. He watched her sleep for a long time while thinking about Helen’s proposal.

  This wasn’t just about stopping the lawsuit, he thought. It was about putting an end to all the bullshit. It was about stopping Helen. The only way he could do that was to get close to her, earn her trust.

  *

  Kristen turned, her eyes fluttering open. With a yawn she stretched, her eyes setting on Ethan. He was picking clothes from the closet and dropping into his duffel bag.

  She eased herself from the bed and stood. “So, this is it?”

  He turned his head. “Yep.”

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be upset. Our marriage was supposed to be one of convenience because of Hailey.”

  Ethan’s back stiffened and he paused what he was doing. “You remember?”

  “I found the contract last night while searching for the court papers for Hailey’s custody case,” she told him. “I was such a fool thinking that our marriage was real. No wonder you’re so quick to jump ship. Two brothers, both fucking fake!”

  Ethan dropped the last shirt in his bag and turned. “Aren’t you being a little over-dramatic here?”

  “Over dramatic? You made a fool out of me!”

  “Pray tell, how did I make a fool of you?”

  “You could have told me that we weren’t supposed to cross the line. We agreed that it was supposed to be in name only.”

  “You came on to me, remember?” Ethan snapped.

  Kristen’s nostrils flared. “Now it’s my fault? I didn’t remember anything. You took advantage of me.”

  “So those feelings you professed to me, they were all a lie?” Ethan asked, his face dark.

  “Does it matter to you now? Look at you, your bags are packed and ready to go. What does it matter now whether they were real? You wouldn’t care.”

  “Then what’s the big deal?”

  “I feel used Ethan, by your entire family! First, it was your brother, now you and your mother. How much more am I supposed to take?” A pained expression crossed his face, but Kristen wasn’t done. “I can’t take any more pain. I thought that perhaps I’d found my happy ending. It was all a lie!”

  When Andrew died, Kristen never felt the grief she now experienced seeing Ethan packing his bags. Her heart seemed to have stopped as a dark cloud descended on her. She did feel used by the entire Broderick clan, but the pain she was now feeling was much more than she could handle. A sharp pain stabbed her core causing her to grimace. Her hand flew to her chest as the ache intensified. Kristen stumbled back.

  Ethan rushed forward trying to steady her and she brushed his hand away.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice gentle.

  Sitting on the bed, she waved him away. “I’m fine. As if you care.”

  Kneeling by the bed, he chose to ignore her last comment. “Kristen, you’ve got to tell me what happened all those years ago. Tell me everything.”

  Their eyes locked as she tried to steady the uneven drumming of her heart. She closed her eyes to shut him out, but she could still feel his presence.

  “Kristen, if you feel so betrayed by all of us, even Andrew, why are you keeping his secrets? Were you that much in love with him?”

  Her eyes shot open and she gave a sarcastic laugh. “Love? Is that what you think this is?”

  “Then what is it? Why don’t you tell me why he drugged us? You bottle everything up inside and I can see it’s eating at you.”

  Inhaling a quavering breath, she straightened her shoulders. “Maybe you’re right. If I tell all, it would certainly end this thing with Helen. She’d leave me alone once and for all.”

  “You mean, this secret of yours would stop my mother?”

  “I think it would break her.”

  As soon as she replied, Ethan stood and he began unpacking his bag. Kristen was confused.

  “What are you doing?” she queried.

  “Unpacking, what else? She promised to drop the lawsuit if I moved back home and joined the company.”

  “That’s why you were leaving?” she felt like an idiot. Her face became red with embarr
assment when Ethan looked directly at her and nodded.

  “And you believed her?”

  “No, but that would have given me an opportunity to make her trust me again.”

  “Look, Ethan, I don’t want you working against your mother on my behalf. She’s still your mother, regardless of what she’s done.”

  “It’s too late for that. If I’m to salvage any relationship I have with her, she needs to be stopped.”

  “So, you’re not leaving?”

  Ethan rested a hand on her shoulder. “Kristen, I know when you said you loved me you weren’t in your right mind. Still, I want to make this work.”

  “What are you saying?” she whispered.

  “I want this marriage to work… a real marriage,” Ethan replied. “Tell me everything from start to finish about my brother and I’ll forget that you hid my daughter from me.”

  “I want us to be a family too, Ethan. It’s just so hard,” she stood and stepped into his arms.

  He held her close as she wrapped her arms around him. “I know it’s hard, but he’s not here anymore. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it together.”

  Kristen wanted to tell Ethan everything, but first, she needed the security of him. The relief she experienced by him not leaving made her body tingle. To show her elation, she tipped her head and pressed her lips to his. He opened his mouth and deepened the kiss by taking her tongue.

  His erection pressed into her belly as she pressed closer to him. They tumbled to the bed where she quickly unbuckled him, helping him from his jeans.

  Chapter 26

  Kristen hadn’t heard from the FBI in days and when she called the police station she was unable to reach Detective Cross. She was growing impatient as she’d hoped that she would have something to use as an advantage against Helen. The woman had filed not one, but two lawsuits against her. Camila was also on edge. Kristen noticed she wasn’t eating well and she was quiet most of the time. She’d received a veiled threat from Helen when the woman sent her a photo she’d had taken of Camila and her son.

  They were in the living room, absorbed in their own thoughts when the doorbell ringing broke the silence. Both women looked at the door. Camila had dread written on her face while Kristen rushed to open it. Standing at the entrance with serious expressions were Detective Cross and the FBI agent who processed Hailey’s case. Their faces told her they had some news and she was anxious to know the outcome.