by Eve Gaddy
Nick shook his head. “I have no idea, but Jackson sure as hell wanted us gone.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“WHY DID YOU RUN Nick and Viv off like that?” Casey asked Jackson once they were in their father’s office. “I know you’re upset but you were downright rude.”
Her brother took a seat in Duke’s chair. It hurt to realize she’d never see their father sit there again.
“I had my reasons. And I wasn’t rude, I just needed to see you alone.”
“What is this about?”
“It’s about this—” he said, holding up a piece of paper. “And these—” He set the paper down and picked up a bundle of letters. “I found them in Duke’s files when I was looking for the policy to—to bring them back to the States.”
She shied away from that subject, not wanting to think about that. Instead she concentrated on the paper her brother had held up. “This is a birth certificate.” Frowning, she glanced at Jackson. “I don’t understand.”
“Read it,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.
She read aloud. “Baby girl, Noelani Hana, born October 8, 1975, at Wailuku Memorial in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii. Mother, Anela Hana. Father, unknown.” She looked back to her brother. “So?”
“These letters—” he held up the bundle “—are addressed to Anela Hana in Hawaii. They’re from our father. They were returned to him, unopened. They’re postmarked twenty-eight years ago.”
Her stomach hurt, though she wasn’t sure why. “What are you trying to say, Jackson?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Noelani Hana is our half sister.”
“Are you crazy? How can you—? She’s only a few months younger than you are. That would mean Duke…that he—” She was unable to finish that thought. “How can you even think such a thing of our father?”
“For God’s sake, don’t act like I want to believe it. I don’t. But it’s the obvious conclusion, and one we can easily validate. Don’t take my word for it—open the letters and read them.”
She reached out to take one, anxious to prove him wrong. Her hand dropped. But what if Jackson was right? “I can’t. You do it.”
Jackson picked up one of the letters and slit the envelope open. “This is the last one. I’ll start with it first.” He pulled out a sheet of paper and read, then shook his head and looked at her. “Do you want to read it?”
“Do I need to?” She could tell by his expression that it was bad news.
“Yes.” He handed her the letter and opened another one.
Casey began to read. As always, her father’s handwriting was bold and decisive. Like the man himself.
My love,
I know now why you’ve refused my letters, why you felt you had no choice but to break off all contact with me. I received our daughter’s birth certificate from Bruce Shiller yesterday. I wish you had told me. I wish I could have made another choice, but Angelique needs me. She gave birth to a son a few months before Noelani was born. I told her everything, and she has forgiven me. Now if I could only forgive myself for the pain I’ve caused two fine women.
I know you wish you’d never heard of me. I never intended to cause you heartbreak. I did love you, Anela. I always will. But my duty is to my family. Soon, God willing, my love will rekindle as well. I have arranged with Bruce to care for our child, and for you. Please don’t refuse me this, at least. Raise our daughter knowing that we loved each other very much, even though we weren’t fated to remain together.
With all my love,
Duke
Casey closed her eyes and raised a clenched fist to her mouth. Her father had been unfaithful. Not only that, but he’d loved another woman. How could he have done it? How could her father have betrayed his family this way? Another woman? And even worse, he’d had the affair while her mother was pregnant with Jackson.
“Do you want to read any more?” Jackson asked.
Sickened, Casey shook her head. “I wish to God I hadn’t read that one.” She got up and started to pace. Grabbed a pillow off the couch and heaved it across the room. Her eyes lit on the crystal decanter and glasses. She started to grab a piece, but Jackson’s voice stopped her.
“Don’t even think about it. The last thing we need with Megan around is broken glass everywhere.”
Casey gritted her teeth. He was right. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe Duke would do such a thing. I thought he loved Maman.”
“He did. You know he did.” Jackson picked up the phone and punched in numbers.
“Who are you calling?” Casey asked.
“Shelburne Prescott,” he said, referring to the family lawyer. “He’ll know about this. Duke would have arranged everything through him. We need confirmation.”
Casey didn’t listen while her brother talked to the lawyer. She could hear nothing but the crash of her fantasy about her parents’ marriage.
Jackson hung up the phone and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked exhausted, angry…grief-stricken. Everything Casey herself was feeling.
“Shelburne confirmed it. As far as he’s aware, Aunt Esme doesn’t know, either, so we’ll have to tell her. He says there’s a provision in the will for Noelani Hana, and she has to be notified of Duke’s death. He wants to hold off on the formal reading until she arrives.”
“Arrives? You mean here? That woman is coming here? To Bellefontaine?”
Jackson nodded. “I told him to put off sending for her until after the funeral. The last thing we need is for our father’s illegitimate daughter to arrive during our parents’ funeral.”
“What did he leave her?” she asked abruptly.
Jackson spread his hands. “I don’t know, but I have to admit I’m worried. We’ll find out when she gets here, I guess.”
And when their illegitimate sister arrived, would she tear the family—and Bellefontaine—apart?
Her parents were dead. Her father, whom she’d always adored, had been unfaithful. And he had an illegitimate daughter to prove it. “I just can’t believe this.”
“Neither can I. But I guess we’d better get used to it.” They were both silent for a time, then Jackson said, “I’m going to call Italy now, and make arrangements to bring them home.”
He stopped, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t understand this any more than you do. But I do know one thing. Maman forgave him, Casey. We have to remember that, and make our peace with it.”
“Maman had a bigger heart than I do. I don’t know if I can forgive him.”
AFTER DROPPING VIV OFF at her house, Nick returned to the boat and spent a couple of hours trying to deal with the problems he’d been working on earlier. Guy still hadn’t shown up. Finally, around midnight, Nick gave up and went back to the garçonnière.
Casey was sitting on his front step when he drove up. She stood when she saw him.
“Have you been waiting there long?” he asked her. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Not that long. I didn’t mind waiting. It gave me a chance to think about some things.”
He couldn’t see her well in the dark, but her voice was thick and hoarse—from crying, he was sure. “Your parents?” he asked, and let her inside. “Did you hear anything else?”
“Yes, but not what you’re thinking.”
“Can I get you something to drink? Water?” She didn’t look good. In fact, she looked like a gentle breeze would knock her over.
She shook her head, saying nothing. He did the only thing he could think of to comfort her. He took her in his arms and held her. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
She slipped her arms around his waist. “I want it not to be true. But since it is…”
“Come on.” He made her sit on the couch, then sat beside her. “Talk to me.”
“You probably think I’m a fool. I mean, we’re not even together and here I am, crying on your shoulder. But I can’t help it. I have to talk to somebody, and you’re the only one it won’t hurt.”
Not
true, because whatever was hurting her hurt him, as well. But he was glad she’d come to him. “Casey. Talk to me,” he repeated. “What’s wrong? Something besides your parents’ deaths?”
Biting her lip, she nodded, then took a deep breath. “Remember this afternoon when we were talking about my parents? And I said they’d had a wonderful marriage and I threw it in your face when you said all marriages weren’t like that, that my parents were the exception?”
He didn’t have a clue where she was going with this. “I remember.”
“The joke’s on me,” she said, and gave a humorless laugh. “It was a lie. I thought they had this perfect marriage. And every bit of it was a lie.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Can I have some water?” she said abruptly. “I don’t feel very well.”
“Have you eaten anything today?”
“I ate some lunch.”
And nothing since, he bet. He’d seen her picking at what Betty had brought in earlier. He went to pour her a glass of water and looked around the tiny kitchen for something to feed her. All he could find was some cheese and a box of undoubtedly stale crackers, so he brought that with him.
“Here.”
She didn’t comment, just ate a few crackers and a bit of cheese, then drank her water while he waited. When she finished she looked at him and said, “Jackson and I found out today that we have a half sister. Our father had an affair with a Hawaiian woman, and she had a child.”
Nick winced. “That obviously came as a complete surprise to you.”
Casey shook her head. “You could say that. No one knew, other than my mother—not even Aunt Esme. Our family lawyer confirmed it. This woman— H-his daughter is only a few months younger than Jackson. Duke had an affair while my mother was pregnant. Who knows how many others he had or how many half siblings he’s got stashed around, waiting to surprise us?”
“Just because it happened once—”
“Oh, please, spare me. The lawyer assured us this is Duke’s only other offspring. That he knew about, anyway.” She glared at Nick, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “He did it once. Who’s to say he didn’t do it multiple times?”
“Do you really believe that?” Nick hadn’t known the man, but from what Casey and Jackson had said, Duke Fontaine hadn’t sounded like a womanizer.
“I don’t know what I believe!” She clenched her fists, her voice anguished. “I believed my parents loved each other. I believed they had a good marriage.” She turned her head to gaze at Nick. “My mother knew. She knew about his affair, knew about the child. In the letter, the last letter my father wrote to the other woman, he said he’d told Maman everything, and she had forgiven him.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes. He couldn’t imagine how she was feeling, couldn’t begin to see how he could help her.
“How could she forgive him? He betrayed her, he betrayed all of us.”
“He stayed with you, didn’t he?”
She paid no attention to the question. “He conceived a child with another woman. He talked about leaving my mother. About leaving…me.”
Nick covered her hand with his. “But he didn’t. He chose to stay with his family. Shouldn’t that count for something?”
“Why should it? Who’s to say it wasn’t the easy way out? And why are you defending him?”
“Did he stay with you?” Nick repeated. “With his family?”
She stared at him, then said reluctantly, “Yes.”
“Not all parents do. That’s all I’m saying.”
She pulled her hand away and buried her face in her hands while she rocked back and forth. “She forgave him. How could my mother forgive him?”
“Because she didn’t want to break up your family. And maybe she still loved him. Casey, he made a mistake that a lot of other people have made. If he wasn’t your father, you wouldn’t be condemning him categorically.”
She was glaring at him as if she wanted to spit-roast him over an open fire. She wanted him to agree that her father deserved castration, not understanding or reasonable explanations of his behavior.
Exasperated, he sighed. “Look, I’m not saying he didn’t do something wrong. But it’s not going to help you to hold on to this anger. Especially when underneath it you’re still grieving.”
“So I’m just supposed to forget what he did? That’s going to be a little hard, since my new sister is named in the will. She’ll be coming to Bellefontaine sometime after the funeral.”
Nick frowned. No surprise, he guessed, but still not good news for Casey and Jackson. “You don’t have to think about that now. You’re having a hard enough time with your parents’ deaths. Anyone would. Can’t you let it go, at least for now?”
“I don’t know.” She turned her head away and spoke so softly he had a hard time hearing her. “It’s easier to be angry. If I’m angry I don’t think as much about the really bad part.” She looked at him. “I don’t want to think about never seeing them again.”
“I know.”
Her eyes filled with tears, of sorrow this time. He took her into his arms, put her head on his shoulder and listened to her cry.
And later, when she’d stopped crying, he took her upstairs and held her through the long night.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CASEY SLEPT in Nick’s bed, in his arms. She talked, she cried. She raged and despaired. And through it all, he listened and comforted her, lending her his strength.
She’d been too exhausted, had needed him too much to even question why he was there. But the next morning, as she lay listening to his even breathing, she knew last night had been about far more than simply helping a friend. Nick loved her, and nothing he said, certainly no fixation with his past, was going to convince her that they were better off apart.
She got up and showered, feeling marginally better, even though her eyes were still gritty and swollen. When she went downstairs to the tiny kitchen, she found Nick having coffee and talking on the phone.
“Yeah, she just walked in,” he said, handing her the receiver. “It’s Remy Boucherand. He’s got some news for you,” he said and poured coffee into a mug for her. Then he left the room to take a shower.
Remy had dropped by Bellefontaine the day before to offer the family his sympathy, so Casey wasn’t quite sure why he’d tracked her down to Nick’s. After the bad news that had been dogging her lately, she was afraid to ask. “Hi, Remy.”
“Hi, Casey. Sorry to bother you, but something important has come up. I’m afraid it can’t wait.”
“That’s okay. What is it?”
“We have Harold Broderick in custody. Picked him up last night in a bar brawl.”
Broderick. God, that seemed like a lifetime ago, and it had only been a matter of days since he’d tried to kill her. She touched her neck reflectively. “Good. I’m glad you found him.”
“Casey, I realize it’s a bad time for you, but I need you to come identify him as your attacker. I’d like Nick to come, too. And your aunt Esme.”
“Aunt Esme? Why?” She took a sip of coffee and tried to clear her mind, unsuccessfully.
“The fire at Bellefontaine. Remember your aunt said a dark-haired man shoved her down? It’s possible Broderick is that man.”
“You think Broderick set the fire? No one seemed to think much of her statement at the time. You said it was too unclear to be of much use.”
“It was unclear. And then this joker attacked you. The crimes might be related. We have evidence that could tie Broderick to the arson, but I need reasonable cause to go farther. I know it’s a lot to ask, especially right now, but do you think you can come down here to the station and bring your aunt with you? I’ve already talked to Nick, and he said he’d come with you.”
“I’ll try.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Aunt Esme’s having a rough time.” Remy made a sound of sympathy. “We—” She hesitated, not wanting to expose all of the Fontaine’s dirty laundry, but if Noelani Hana came to Bellefo
ntaine, everyone would know soon enough who she was and what she was doing there. Besides, Remy was a friend. “We had some other news yesterday that’s upset her. Something in addition to my parents’ deaths.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding concerned. “Anything you want to talk about?”
“Not really.”
“Will I hear about it later?”
“Probably.” Undoubtedly. “I’d better tell you. Duke has an illegitimate daughter.”
Remy was silent for several seconds. Then he whistled. “Wow. Guess that was a shocker for all of you.”
“Understatement of the year,” she agreed. “Jackson and I had no idea. Not even Aunt Esme knew about it.”
“I don’t know what to say, Casey.”
“That’s because there’s not much to say. I just wanted you to know before the gossip starts to spread. We’ll be down there as soon as we can.”
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER Casey and Nick had both positively identified Harold Broderick in a lineup. Esme had been less sure, but Remy seemed to think he had probable cause to proceed with his case. They left the station with Remy’s promise to call once anything definite happened.
Casey had asked Nick to drive them in her mother’s Cadillac. As they neared the house, she shot a glance at her aunt, seated rigidly in the front seat. Esme hadn’t even complained about Nick.
Casey was really worried about her aunt. Although only in her early sixties, lately she looked fifteen years older, and broken. On top of not complaining, she had even allowed Nick to help her in and out of the car, leaning on him on the way into the station, as if she’d never said a bad word about him. Casey decided even her aunt’s scathing commentaries on Casey’s behavior would be preferable to the way she was behaving now.
But Esme had been devastated, just as they all had. One thing after another had happened to shatter their peace. It would be foolish to expect her to bounce back right away. Casey sure hadn’t, and she was a lot younger than Esme.