My Three Girls (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Floyd, Susan

  “Maybe?”

  He hesitated, then confessed. “I don’t think Carson’s guilty.”

  Dana sat up. “What? What do you mean? You said he was a criminal.”

  Brady sat up, too, looking straight ahead, wishing there was a television in the room to stare at, so he didn’t have to look into her eyes.

  “I wanted to believe he was a criminal.”

  “Which is different than his actually being a criminal?”

  Brady’s tight smile was more like a grimace. “I’ve never told anyone that. When Carson was arrested for laundering money through his accounting firm, I was secretly glad. I thought he was getting what he deserved. He told me he was being set up by one of his employees. But I didn’t believe him. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. I’d talked to the investigators, seen their evidence. And I couldn’t forget what he’d done to my mother. When she was dying she kept asking for Carson. All she wanted was to see her grandchildren. That’s all. If a man was capable of that, he could do anything.”

  “So what makes you think he’s not guilty now?”

  “When I went to tell him about Bev and the custody arrangement for the girls, he said it again. He said that he didn’t do it.”

  “And you said…”

  “I didn’t say much of anything. I just got out of there.”

  “So what does this mean?”

  “I don’t know. I think I need to hear his side for once, and I think you were right. We need to take the girls to see him.”

  LONG AFTER BRADY had fallen asleep, his arm slung over her waist, Dana remained awake. She should have felt good about Brady’s confession.

  She’d gotten what she wanted. But she wasn’t happy. A knot of dread had settled inside her. She understood Brady’s sense of right and wrong, admired it. What if Carson was truly not guilty? She knew Brady would do everything in his power to prove it, to free Carson. And what would that mean for them? For the girls? For her?

  CARSON WAS ALREADY WAITING in the visitors’ room when Brady entered. His fingers tapped on the metal table and he gave Brady a small smile. “This can’t be good news,” Carson said. “This is your second visit in as many months. If there’s nothing I can do about it, I don’t want to hear it.”

  Brady sat down. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I need to know a few things.”

  Carson was cautious. “How are the girls?”

  “They’re doing really well.”

  “Dana?”

  Brady couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “Dana is just fine. Not many women could do what she’s done. You couldn’t ask for a better mother than Dana.”

  Carson gave Brady a speculative glance. “Married life seems to be treating you well.”

  “Yes.” Brady couldn’t begin to find the words that would describe just how well married life was treating and changing him. “I just need to ask you a question.”

  “A question?” Carson arched an eyebrow. “Okay, ask.”

  “If you didn’t do what you’re here for, who did?”

  Carson was silent for a long time. Finally he shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know that I didn’t do it. Yes, he was my client, but I had no idea he was involved in money laundering. I just thought he was very successful at what he did. I only made the deposits, kept his books. Maybe I should have known, but I wasn’t exactly focusing well those days—what with Mom and the problems with Bev and all.”

  Brady inhaled deeply. He pushed away his reaction to Carson’s mention of their mother. He wasn’t here to discuss that. “Could Bev have done it?” Brady asked.

  Carson stared at his hands. “I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it every day. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to just think that it was all a mistake.”

  “Did Bev have access?”

  “Yes. She had access to everything. The office, the safe, the computers. She often went to dinner with the clients when I was too busy. It would have been very easy for her to—”

  “But you didn’t say anything.”

  “You and I weren’t exactly on speaking terms then, if you recall.”

  Brady acknowledged Carson’s point. “But still—”

  “I was thinking about the girls and the lousy marriage and I felt it was all my fault. If I made more money, if I were a different kind of guy, if I were more like you, none of this would have happened. You never liked her.”

  Brady corrected him. “I never liked what she did to you. You changed. Mom missed you especially.”

  Carson swallowed. “I know I didn’t make the best decisions. It was so hard. You had your choice of women, though you didn’t seem interested in any of them. You were too busy working. I was very interested and no woman ever looked at me that way, until Bev.”

  “But you married her the next day.”

  “And you can talk?” Carson asked. “You knew Dana—what?—three hours? You took the chance that you’d make it.”

  Brady shook his head. “I never thought of this marriage as lasting. It was simply so I could get custody of the girls.”

  “And now?”

  “Now, it’s different. It’s better than I thought it would be.”

  Carson gave him a thin smile. “You have what I’d hoped for. I guess you have better judgment than I do. So why all this now?”

  “I’m just wondering if you can think of anything that might get you a new trial, something that I can investigate, something I didn’t do before.” Those words stuck in his throat.

  Carson didn’t say anything for a long time. When Brady looked over to him, he saw that his brother had started to cry.

  “Thank you,” he whispered to Brady. “I do have some things that I’ve been thinking about. Five years is a long time to do nothing. I am so sorry about Mom. I wanted to bring the girls, but Bev wouldn’t let them out of her sight.”

  “Then you should have come by yourself.”

  “I know I should have. But I didn’t, and I was too late. I never got a chance to tell her that despite the way things looked, they were going to get better.” He sat up and met Brady’s eyes dead on. “I don’t blame you for not helping then. I wouldn’t have helped me, either. I’m just grateful that you’ve taken on the girls.”

  “Why wouldn’t I? They’re family.” Brady clenched his hands. “I had no idea that Bev would mistreat them, neglect them so badly. If I had, I would have checked on them. But after you got the divorce, she told me to stay away. And I did. She wasn’t pleasant.”

  Carson nodded, a bitter expression on his face. “She promised she’d bring the kids by once a week. She did…for a month, then it was twice a month, then twice a year. The visits stopped altogether when Ollie was about two. I didn’t even know where they were after they moved.”

  “They ended up just on the other side of the mountain,” Brady said.

  “Did they ever figure out what happened to her?”

  “Suicide. She had a lot of debts. I think the stress got to her. There’s no other explanation.”

  “How are the girls adjusting?”

  “Very well. Karen’s the most depressed, but she gets better every day.” Brady paused. “The girls sure like getting your letters.”

  “Thank Dana for me, because I sure do like getting theirs.” Carson smiled, a real smile. “I read them over and over.”

  “I will.” The frank honesty of their conversation had Brady admitting, “I feel like I’ve taken your family. I know Dana isn’t Bev, but the girls are what makes our family a family.”

  Carson’s face didn’t mask the pain he felt, and Brady once again found himself looking at the brother he’d thought he’d lost when Carson and Bev married.

  “Well, given my situation, that’s a good thing, right?” Carson leaned back from the table with a smile. “The girls have a good home. I can’t ask for more than that.”

  “I brought pictures.” Brady reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small stack of photos.


  Carson snatched them out of his hand.

  Brady would have moved his chair closer to Carson, but it was bolted to the floor. He leaned over awkwardly and pointed to the smiling face in Carson’s hands. “There’s Ollie. We laughed when we realized the pumpkin was almost bigger than she was.”

  Brady continued, “That’s the girls in their Halloween costumes. There wasn’t any place for them to go trick-or-treating, so we had a Halloween party at the school. All the students came.”

  Brady watched Carson study every angle of the girls’ faces. He traced their smiles with his finger, memorizing them.

  “That’s Karen and Jean rehearsing their parts in the Thanksgiving play. And that’s Jean bobbing for apples.”

  He studied the picture, his eyes riveted on Jean’s laughing face. “She’s six, now, isn’t she?”

  “Yes.”

  He picked up one of Karen. Carson’s eyes began to redden as he looked at his eldest daughter, her gray eyes big and serious. “Look at her. She looks just like Mom.”

  Brady cleared his throat and got up abruptly. “I’ve got to get a drink of water. You want something?”

  Carson shook his head, his eyes never leaving the photos, and Brady knocked on the door for the guard.

  “Are you coming back?” Carson asked.

  Brady nodded. “Yeah. I just got something stuck in my throat.”

  Brady waited outside the room for about ten minutes to give Carson time alone, then he signaled to the guard, who let him back in.

  Carson put the pictures down and swallowed. “Thanks.” He handed the stack back to Brady.

  Brady didn’t take them. “Those are for you, if you want them.”

  Carson put them in his pocket.

  Brady swallowed. “So I have another surprise for you.”

  Carson gave him a wry smile, looking a lot more like the older brother that Brady knew. “Any more surprises from you and I’ll probably have a heart attack.”

  “You might want to sit down for this.”

  “I am sitting.”

  “Oh.” Brady laughed nervously. “I’d better sit down.”

  “Just spit it out.”

  “They’re here.”

  “Who’s here?”

  “The girls. They’re outside in the visiting area with Dana. They’re waiting to meet you.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  DANA SAT on a bench in the prison’s visiting area. It wasn’t what she’d expected. Yes, there was the barbed wire and guards everywhere. They’d all been thoroughly searched, but the outside area actually resembled a garden. Nothing at all the way she’d imagined.

  Now that they were here, she was extremely nervous. Karen sat next to her, dressed in the same dress she’d worn for the wedding. It was a beautiful fall day, the weather crisp and cool. Some of the orange and red leaves had been caught by the slight breeze, and Ollie and Jean chased them close by. They ran back and forth, determined to find the prettiest leaf.

  “What’s taking Uncle Brady so long?” Karen asked. “We’ve been out here for hours.”

  It wasn’t much of an exaggeration. It was an hour and a half since Brady had disappeared down a hall with a prison guard.

  “He’s talking to your dad. Your dad didn’t know we were all coming today.”

  “He probably doesn’t want to see us.”

  “I don’t think that’s true. He answered your letters. And he said how much he missed you.”

  “It’s easier to say stuff in a letter than face-to-face. He’ll be different.”

  “Since he and your Uncle Brady are brothers, I would expect them to be similar. You like Uncle Brady, don’t you?”

  “I love Uncle Brady.”

  Dana smiled. “Then you’re going to love your dad.”

  “Does he know about Mom?”

  Dana nodded. “Uncle Brady told him.”

  Karen put her hand into Dana’s. “Good. I wish he would come.”

  “There’s Uncle Brady!” Ollie cried.

  Dana and Karen stood up and watched him walk down the trimmed concrete path, alone.

  “My dad’s not with him,” Karen said, disappointment crossing her face. She turned away from Brady. “See?”

  “I’m sorry, Karen.” Dana patted the girl on the back. “He might not have been ready today. But that’s okay. We’ll come back next weekend and maybe he’ll change his mind. We’ll keep writing letters, too.”

  When Brady reached them, Dana put her hand out. “You don’t have to say anything. It was worth a try.”

  Brady shook his head and gave her a huge grin. “He went back to his cell to change into civilian clothes. The perks of minimum security on visiting day.”

  Dana looked around, and sure enough, the other inmates were dressed in jeans and casual cotton shirts. She hadn’t even noticed. “S-so, he’s going to meet them?”

  Brady nodded. “He told me there’s a picnic table underneath a scrub oak on the other side of this area. We’re to meet him there in fifteen minutes.”

  Karen’s eyes were wide. “My dad wants to see us?”

  Brady tugged on her hair. “Yes. You’ll probably be the only one who remembers him.”

  She wrinkled her forehead. “I’m not sure I remember him too well.”

  “I think you will, when you see him.”

  Brady and Dana sat on the bench while they waited.

  “It’s got to be fifteen minutes now,” Ollie insisted, leaning up against Dana’s knee.

  “No,” Dana said as she glanced at her watch. “It’s only been eight minutes.”

  “Maybe we can start walking over now,” Karen said.

  “Let’s give him the full fifteen minutes,” Brady suggested. “You’ve waited five years for this.”

  “I think I cried when he went away.” Karen swung her legs back and forth. “I didn’t know where he was going.” She looked around. “This isn’t bad. It’s not like it is on television.”

  Jean crawled onto Brady’s lap, her hand filled with the brightly colored leaves she’d collected. “For Daddy,” she told him solemnly.

  “He’s going to like them.”

  “Now, it’s got to be time,” Ollie said.

  Brady checked. “Just a few more minutes.” He knew that Carson wanted to be at the picnic table when the girls got there. He waited another five minutes and then stood up. “Okay, let’s start walking over.”

  “Did you give him the pictures?” Dana asked.

  Brady nodded. “He said to thank you.”

  “Maybe I should wait here.” Dana hung back.

  “No,” Karen protested, grabbing Dana’s hand. “You have to come, too.”

  “What do you think?” Dana asked Brady. “I think this is a family moment, and you should have some privacy.”

  Brady smiled at the woman who’d opened her heart to all of them. “You are the family.” He wrapped his arm around Dana’s waist and led her and the girls across the visiting area. It took a minute for them to find the scrub oak.

  Dana was smiling in approval. “What a nice place!”

  Still some distance away Brady could see Carson pacing, then when he caught a glimpse of them, he stopped and stood still. Karen slowed down and clung to Dana’s hand. “There he is,” she breathed.

  “Why don’t you go meet him?” Brady suggested. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  Karen looked up uncertainly.

  “Go on,” Dana encouraged. “Go see him.”

  Reluctantly, Karen let go of Dana’s hand and started to walk toward Carson. Brady and Dana slowed down, holding back the other two girls.

  “We want to go, too,” Ollie said with a whine.

  “I know,” Brady said. “But let Karen go first.”

  The closer she got to Carson the faster Karen went, until she broke into a full run and threw herself into Carson’s arms. Carson wrapped his arms around Karen and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around. Brady looked down at Dana, who was searching in h
er purse for something. When she sniffed, he knew it was tissue.

  “You are such a mush pot,” he murmured teasingly, then was punished when he cleared his own throat.

  They let the other little girls go, and following Karen’s lead, Ollie and Jean ran full speed until Carson had all three girls in his arms.

  By the time Brady and Dana got there, Ollie was sitting comfortably in Carson’s lap and Jean was giving him her leaves. Karen sat beside him with one arm through his. Carson stood and gently placed Ollie on the bench. Then he walked over to the adults.

  Brady was surprised when Carson went straight to Dana and pulled her into a tremendous hug.

  “I don’t need any introduction to you,” Carson said. “Thank you for taking care of my daughters.”

  “You’re welcome. It’s been my pleasure.”

  “And thank you for taking this guy on.”

  “That’s been my pleasure, too.” Dana sent him a sly glance, and Brady felt his face flush.

  “Dana and I thought we’d go get a bite to eat. Will the four of you be okay for an hour?”

  Carson nodded. “If the girls don’t mind.”

  Karen came up to clutch her father’s hand and the younger two were all eager smiles.

  “It doesn’t look like they mind.”

  “Brady, can I talk to you a minute?” Carson asked. He extricated himself from Karen’s grip and said, “I’ll be right back.”

  Once they’d stepped away, Brady asked, “What can I do for you?”

  Carson took a large manila envelope off the seat on the far side of the bench.

  “What’s this?” Brady took the envelope.

  “I told you I’ve been thinking about this for the past five years, but I’ve been doing more than that. Maybe you can find something in there that will, uh, help.”

  “Any particular direction you think I should go in?”

  “I trust you to go anywhere. I didn’t do it.” Carson started to head toward the girls. He didn’t take two steps before he turned back to give Brady a bear hug. “I can’t thank you enough. For everything.”

  As Brady and Dana walked out of the prison to find someplace to eat, Dana asked, “What did Carson give you?”

  Brady shrugged. “Some papers.”