Our Happily Ever After: BWWM Interracial Romance Black Women White Men (That Forbidden Love Book 3)

by Ellie Etienne

  Martha sighed.

  “When Harrison graduated from college, I got one note. I kept that one. It was an email. I thought it was a regular, congratulatory email. But I thought there was something odd about it. It kept nagging at me. I finally figured it out.”

  Leigh pounced.

  “We need that. Mom…”

  Martha got up and left to look for it. Leigh turned to her father.

  “You didn’t know about this.”

  “I didn’t. If I’d known, I might have said something. I kept in touch with the detective who investigated the old accident. I might have passed it on to him.”

  Another lead, thought Leigh.

  “Can you put me in touch with him? Maybe if I talked to him, he might tell me something.”

  Samuel nodded.

  “Sure. But I’d suggest not telling him you’re a defense lawyer.”

  Leigh chuckled, glad for the little moment of levity.

  “Here, I printed it out. I don’t have the email anymore. I forgot my password to this old AOL account ages ago. But I printed out the… What is it, the meta data?”

  Leigh smiled and took the piece of paper, beginning to get yellow with age.

  She frowned.

  CONGRATULATIONS! What goes around comes around. Success is just around the corner. Harrison Ford smashes it!

  Leigh frowned as she read it.

  “It doesn’t sound like congratulations. It sounds like some kind of veiled threat.”

  “That’s the feeling I got, too. But there was nothing more, and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so I just ended up letting it go. Maybe I should’ve said something, but it was such a happy time. I was just so…”

  Leigh nodded and took her mother’s hand.

  “I know. I know, mom. I don’t blame you at all. But now it does look like there’s something there. I’ll get in touch with that detective and see if I can get those files. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Leigh, if there’s any trouble…”

  “You know Harrison. He’s already got so much security that… Oh, Don, you’re back. Looks like you might be stuck with me for a couple of days, Don.”

  “That’s fine, Ms. Wells.”

  Leigh felt better by the time she left. At least she could do something. Watching Harrison and Darius do what she couldn’t understand was stressful.

  Finally, she could do something she was good at – putting pieces together and making it all make sense.

  Chapter 10

  “Thank you, detective! That’s very helpful. I’m so sorry to have taken your time like this.”

  Leigh listened for another few seconds before nodding again.

  “Of course. I’ll be there at lunch time, if that’s all right? I’m sorry to interrupt your lunch, truly I am…”

  Leigh hung up after another minute and checked the time. It wasn’t nine yet. She was at work.

  There was a reason why: she was avoiding Harrison. She put the queasiness down to that. She was lying to Harrison by omission after all the stuff she had told him about honesty and being a team.

  She felt that she had an excellent reason for it: if it turned out to be nothing, she didn’t need to get Harrison all stirred up. She would tell him about it, but after she’d figured out whether there was something to the story she’d gotten out of her parents the night before. Even if there was nothing to it, she would tell him, of course she would. He deserved to know. He needed to know.

  Things had been calm since that flurry of activity. Harrison had gone to work, declaring that he couldn’t let some damn hacker interrupt everything. Going back to living their lives, to Leigh, felt like a rebellion, and she would embrace it.

  But she needed to see this through first.

  “Leigh, are you all right?”

  Roger broke into her reverie and she smiled, shaking her head.

  “It’s just all been so…”

  Roger smiled but he shook his head.

  “I know, but that isn’t what I mean. I mean about you – are you all right?”

  Leigh frowned.

  “Yes, of course I’m all right. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, you look a bit pale, and your face is a bit puffy. You have had that coffee in front of you for a while, but you haven’t even had a sip of it.”

  “To be honest, it’s making me kind of sick. I don’t know, maybe I’ve pushed my body beyond its caffeine endurance limit.”

  Roger frowned.

  “Leigh, I don’t mean to get too personal, but have you been feeling sick?”

  Leigh was surprised.

  “I’ve been a little queasy here and there. It’s no big deal, it’s just one of those things. Stress can do that.”

  “So can pregnancy,” said Roger, not too gently.

  Leigh was about to wave that away as nonsense when she paused and considered.

  Well, shit.

  She could be pregnant, couldn’t she? She rapidly did a few calculations, and came up with yes, yes she could indeed be pregnant, and she was about eight days late. That was a lot of days for somebody who was usually as regular as clockwork.

  Leigh could feel herself getting pale. Pregnant? She wasn’t ready for a baby! She was practically still a baby!

  “All right, I’m getting you a glass of water, and after that I’m going to tell you that it’s going to be fine. It really is. You should get a test before you jump to conclusions, and then you should talk to Mia. Trust me, that helps. It really helps. Mia has been so wonderful throughout everything.”

  Leigh nodded, gripping the glass of water Roger had given her as if it was her lifeline. She was grateful that Roger was still talking, though the words were just some kind of a buzzing in the background. Just the fact that he was doing something as normal as talking made her feel better. It meant that the world was still turning.

  “There, do you feel a bit better?”

  “I need to get a test.”

  Roger nodded.

  “Yes, you do. I’m pretty sure you are, though. Having a pregnant wife makes you really aware of all these signs. I wouldn’t have seen it if it weren’t for Mia.”

  Leigh nodded, and she knew that the test was a formality. She felt as if she could sense a tangible presence of another entity inside her. She wasn’t too sure how she felt about that – she was very close to freaking out.

  A proper freak-out.

  Holy shit, she was pregnant.

  She was going to have a baby. She and Harrison were going to have a baby – right in the middle of some kind of weird blast from the past when somebody wanted to destroy all that Harrison held dear to him.

  Suddenly, the idea of a hacker going after Harrison seemed a lot scarier. Suddenly, the stakes seemed so much higher.

  “We’ll manage, Leigh. We’ll sort it out. You’re not alone,” said Roger, and his calm presence made her feel so much better.

  “Anyway, we already have, Don.”

  “And it might just be gas.”

  Leigh chuckled, but she knew it wasn’t. Thankful was she for the moment of levity, when, half an hour later, she held the stick in her hand and it said, very clearly, that she was, indeed, pregnant, she wasn’t surprised.

  The fierce determination to protect this child growing inside her came as a surprise. Leigh had always meant to have a family, in that vague way in which you make plans that you imagine were in the distant future, and something you didn’t think too much about. When the time came, she had imagined that she would be ready. She had always hoped to be the kind of mother that Martha had been to her, and to Harrison.

  Now that the ‘someday’ was here, she was shocked to realize just how intense and visceral the need to protect her child was.

  It made her more determined than ever to find whoever was threatening their family – they now had a family to think of – and make them stop. There would be no mercy.

  Leigh was grateful that Don offered to drive her to the detective’s home. She wasn�
��t sure she was up to driving herself. The day had already been a bit of a shock, and now that she knew that she was pregnant, she felt it catching up with her.

  “We’re here, Ms. Wells,” said a soft voice, and Leigh realized that she had fallen asleep.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, and took the box of donuts she’d stopped to get.

  Detective Mendez would, she hoped, appreciate the little joke. And the donuts. It had become a cliché because it was true.

  Detective Mendez had retired and lived in a pretty cottage that looked like it was tended with great care. There was a small but very sweet garden out in the front.

  Leigh had a good feeling about this. She walked up the short path and was about to ring the bell when she was hailed from the side of the house.

  “Ms. Wells! Why, the time sure got away from me. Hold on just a minute, will you? The wife has gone visiting her friends. I was emptying the gutters, as a nice surprise, since she’s been nagging me about them for two months.”

  Leigh turned as the voice got closer and saw a tall man with the beginning of a slight potbelly walking towards her. His weathered face was wide and had a smile on it.

  Leigh immediately warmed to him, and then she wondered if that approach had worked wonders with suspects. It probably had, she decided.

  “Come on in, Ms. Wells.”

  “Thank you. Here, this is for you, and I hope your wife doesn’t disapprove too much.”

  Detective Mendez chuckled appreciatively – retired or not, detectives didn’t shed their titles, and you didn’t forget that when you wanted them to take to you.

  “We have grandchildren coming over later. We’ll give them a sugar rush and let our children complain. Our children gave us plenty of reason to complain, so we’ll consider this a little bit of sweet revenge.”

  Leigh’s hand moved to her stomach protectively as he said that. She didn’t even notice it. But he did, and guided her swiftly to a chair, offered her juice.

  “Now, Ms. Wells, tell me how I can help you.”

  Leigh smiled.

  “I really hope you can, detective. You investigated my husband’s parents’ accident.”

  He nodded.

  “Yes, you said you were interested in that old case. It was over a couple of decades ago. Mind if I ask why?”

  She had no choice but to put a few cards down on the table, so Leigh did. She showed him the email that her mother had gotten when Harrison graduated, and gave him a quick outline – after swearing him to secrecy, and hoping she could trust him – of what had been happening.

  She saw the sharpness that had given him a reputation as one of the most tenacious in his squad as she told him, and he quickly put the pieces together.

  “I never was very good at the cybercrimes business, but for the rest of it, it sounds like solid analysis and investigation to me, Ms. Wells. You could’ve been a policeman. Missed a calling there, I think.”

  Leigh smiled.

  She hoped her profession wouldn’t come up.

  “But it’s no profession for your family’s sanity and well-being. Of course, I remember the case. There was all kinds of stink about it. None of it seemed to fit to me. The accident itself – by the time I got on the scene, it was just about impossible to reconstruct it all. There were a few rumors that the man had been drunk, but that was a complete lie. Then there was the fact that he had trained as a racecar driver when he was younger.”

  Leigh frowned.

  “I didn’t know that. I don’t think Harrison does, either.”

  “It wasn’t common knowledge. There was no Internet back then, every detail wasn’t public. But yes, Mr. Bloom senior wanted to race when he was younger. He changed his mind, but he was apparently good enough to get the chance to do it professionally. Another thing that stuck out was that the car had been kept in good condition. It had been serviced recently – never missed a date, in fact. It was in much better shape than most people’s cars. All things put together, the idea that he just lost control of the car and crashed never really struck me as plausible.”

  Leigh nodded.

  “Did you find any suspects? Nobody was charged and it was concluded to be an accident.”

  The detective nodded slowly.

  “Yes, because we couldn’t really come up with any solid evidence either way. Everything except my gut pointed to an accident. Even the best drivers in the best kept cars have accidents. It was pretty late, maybe he nodded off, or maybe he got distracted – there are a million reasons why it could’ve been just an accident. It just didn’t feel right to me, that’s all.”

  “Did anybody stand out?”

  The detective sighed.

  “Ms. Wells…”

  “Please, call me Leigh.”

  “Leigh, then. I’ve kept my files. We have our personal files, and then there are the official ones that we’re not supposed to keep.”

  Leigh held her breath for a moment.

  “I know this is a lot to ask, but do you think you could let me take a look at them?”

  Detective Mendez winked at her.

  “I can do one better. I can let you take a copy of it – as long as you return that promise of secrecy you got from me.”

  Leigh nodded so hard she felt like a bobble-head doll.

  “Oh, yes, of course! Of course.”

  “All right. And congratulations. If there’s a vendetta of some sort at work – and it’s a long shot, but it’s a shot – then that child you’re carrying might suffer for it, too. I don’t like vendettas.”

  Leigh smiled, surprised.

  “You noticed.”

  “You’ve had your hand over your belly every time you speak of any threat. I’ve seen that before, with my wife, every time she was expecting. So congratulations, and I hope you’ll buckle in for the wildest ride of all.”

  Leigh took the files gratefully and went back to the car, where Don was waiting for her. She couldn’t wait. She flipped open the file and started poring over it immediately.

  “Wow, he was very thorough,” she muttered as she went through page after page of notes.

  Detective Mendez, and his partner, who had died in the line of duty, had chased down every lead. It looked like he had chased down a few in his own time, even after the case had been considered closed, too.

  There was extensive background about Harrison’s parents.

  “I don’t really remember them, but Harrison looks so much like his father. He has his mother’s eyes, though.”

  Don only nodded.

  Leigh gave up talking to him and went back to reading. Quite a bit of it was revelatory. She had, for instance, had no real idea about what business Harrison’s father was in. She had assumed that Mr. Bloom senior had been the one in charge. But it looked like Harrison’s mother had been an active part of it, too, even if Leigh’s memory of her was that of a stay-at-home mother.

  Apparently, they had been in the import-export business, and it had been quite profitable. The Blooms had had quite a bit of power back then. They had also made a few enemies along the way.

  It struck her that looking for the enemy in his parents’ lives back then must have looked a lot like what they were doing now, with Harrison. Except they were going to find whoever was targeting him now. Unlike in the cold case, they wouldn’t get away with it.

  Leigh realized that, somewhere along the line, she had accepted that the accident hadn’t been an accident. Somebody had targeted Harrison’s parents, and they were targeting him now. It was also a shock to see that the business had been targeted. There was a reference to a few suspiciously personal anonymous threats. Flipping through, she hoped to find the copies, and was rewarded when she found one.

  Quickly, she compared the language with the email. She didn’t find any similarities.

  She frowned.

  Was she wrong?

  “Ms. Wells, we’re here.”

  Leigh was tempted to take the rest of the day off – she could take advantage of Roger
’s soft spot for pregnant women – but decided not to. Still, the sleepiness that hit her in the afternoon came as a bit of a shock. By the time she got home, she was so tired that even the thought of going through the file again seemed like more than she could manage.

  Harrison wasn’t home yet.

  She needed to get a few answers before telling Harrison about what she had been doing. That was her last thought before she closed her eyes – just to rest them for a few minutes, she told herself – and she fell fast asleep.

  “Leigh?”

  Leigh woke up with a start.

  “I wasn’t sleeping, I was just resting my eyes,” she sputtered as she opened her eyes, lying unabashedly.

  “Leigh, what is this?”

  She managed to open her eyes, that weren’t very well-rested, and got a good luck at what Harrison was holding.

  “Shit.”

  “Yes, that’s my summation of it, as well.”

  Leigh sighed. She’d been planning on telling him, but not like this.

  “Harrison…”

  “Why do you have a copy of my parents’ accident investigation? Along with the private notes of the detective in charge?”

  “You weren’t supposed to look inside that,” she tried, but not with any real heat.

  “Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

  Leigh deflated quickly.

  “I didn’t want to tell you I was chasing down that particular path if it turned out there were only wild geese at the end of it.”

  That sounded like a reasonable explanation to Leigh, even under the circumstances.

  “Really? You thought that looking into my parents’ accident wasn’t a decision that needed my input.”

  Put that way, it didn’t sound quite so reasonable.

  “It’s not… I mean… Harrison, it might have been nothing. I might have been chasing a stupid red herring. I just had this feeling, and nothing to back it up with, so I just wanted to get all the facts. You were chasing down all the digital leads. I can’t help you with that. I was trying to do what I could.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Talk to me about it? I thought honesty and being a team were all very important.”

  Leigh swallowed, hard. She deserved that. Despite the best of intentions, she was beginning to feel like a perfectly minted hypocrite.