“Are you saying my mother lied to me? I grew up hearing stories about how my father had to go spend time with his other family, how he was bringing you all presents and taking you on vacations . . .”
“I don’t know why your mother told you those things. Maybe she thought they were true. Fact is, my father was one of the most selfish men I ever met, and if he behaved differently when he was around you, then you had the far better childhood.” Andrew leaned back. “Are you telling me that you wanted to sabotage my hotel to get some kind of revenge on me? Is that what this is about?”
“Maybe I wanted things in your life not to be so perfect for once,” Aidan mumbled.
“And now that you know my life wasn’t perfect, does that change anything?”
Aidan didn’t reply for a long minute. When he did, it was to mumble, “I miss my father.”
Rob could understand that. From what he’d gathered, Scott Brody had only been gone for a few months, and if he’d been a kind father to Aidan, it made sense that Aidan would still be mourning him.
“Hurting my business isn’t going to bring him back,” Andrew said. “There’s nothing that can bring him back, but we sure could have gone about this differently. If you’d just walked up to me and introduced yourself, we could be getting to know each other right now instead of facing off in a prison. You didn’t think this through, did you?”
Aidan shook his head. “I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.”
“Now that I know you exist, of course I want to talk to you. But not like this—not as a visitor sitting across a table in a cement room.” Andrew stood up. “When you get this mess straightened up, come see me for real, and we’ll talk.”
“Aren’t you going to get me out of here?”
“Is that what you were hoping I’d do?” Andrew puffed out a breath. “Aidan, you misrepresented yourself and came onto my property under false pretenses. I think you owe Rob an apology for that, by the way. You destroyed property. You tried to ruin my hotel. And you think I should get you out of here? You broke the law!”
“Sorry, Rob,” Aidan muttered.
Rob didn’t reply. There was no need—it wasn’t a sincere apology.
“I’m not going to sue you or try to get even with you, but I am going to let the law run its course,” Andrew continued. “I’ll likely be asked to testify in court, if it gets that far, and I won’t be unkind. I might even recommend community service instead of jail time, if I’m asked. But you’re an adult now, and you made a choice. I hope you learn from it, and I hope that at some point down the road, we can try again. Please believe me—this is the kindest thing I can do for you.”
Rob followed as Andrew left the room and walked back out to the car.
“You know what? I used to pray for a brother.” Andrew paused before climbing inside, his keys clutched in his hand. “Every night, I’d kneel down by my bed and pray for a brother. I kept it up even after my parents’ divorce—I had no idea why that made my mother squirm.” He shook his head. “If I’d known that kid existed, even though he’s so much younger than I am, I would have bent over backwards to be the kind of brother I’d dreamed of being. Baseball games, ice cream cones, hiking together … what harm would it have done for my father to tell me I did have a brother? He’s listed on Aidan’s birth certificate—this wasn’t a secret. My mother knew my father was unfaithful—the entire town of Topeka knew my father was unfaithful. What harm would it have done just to tell me?”
“I really don’t know,” Rob replied. He had no answer to give—his father was so very different from how Andrew described Scott. Rob had no frame of reference for a man who treated his family so badly.
Andrew looked down at the pavement for a few minutes, then back up. “We have a hotel to build,” he said at last. “We’ve moved up the opening date, we’ve changed things around, we’ve adjusted and compromised, and now we have an orange dining room floor. We’re going to make this work regardless, and it’s going to be a success. And when people read the name ‘Brody’ on the outside, it will stand for a hundred and fifty years’ worth of strong men and women, not the pride of one or two generations who didn’t know what they had and threw it all away.”
“Let’s do it,” Rob replied. He’d have Andrew’s back until the end.
Chapter Ten
“The first idea was to open in six months,” Marissa told Maggie as she measured where to hang one of the pictures in the kitchen. “That included the addition. Well, that was sort of a crazy plan, so then it was decided that we’d open the main portion of the hotel sooner while we kept working on the new wing. This has been one wild ride, and we aren’t even open yet. I just keep my fingers crossed that when this place is finally up and running, things will smooth out.”
Maggie set down her washrag and looked around. The room sparkled from top to bottom, and now it was a matter of the tiniest little details—like the pictures Marissa was hanging. The next day, they’d unpack and wash all the dishes, cookware, containers, and so forth. It was getting so close—so very close. “You’ve created a beautiful place here. I don’t see why it shouldn’t smooth out.”
“Famous last words, I’m thinking.” Marissa chuckled. “We’ll just roll with the punches, right? Take whatever comes with a grain of salt?”
“Or a mound of sawdust?” Maggie nodded toward the window, where Mack and Danny were cleaning up from the day’s work.
“Or a mound of sawdust,” Marissa agreed, laughing. “I’m glad you came to work here, Maggie. I think you’re going to be a great addition.”
“Thank you. I just hope I can do a good job.”
“You’re already doing a great job. The place looks fantastic, and I think your staff really likes you. That’s pretty major.”
The compliment made Maggie’s cheeks flush. She’d hoped she’d be an effective leader, and hearing that meant a lot to her.
She heard voices approaching from the dining room and turned to see Andrew and Rob coming through the swinging doors that separated the two rooms.
“How’d it go?” Marissa asked.
Andrew shook his head and leaned on the counter. “The kid thinks he’s getting back at me for all the years I spent growing up in wealth and opulence while he scraped by with nothing.”
Marissa blinked. “I hope you explained.”
“I did, and I told him that someday, I’d like to sit down and have a real conversation with him. He’s got some stuff to work through first.”
Rob stood just close enough to Maggie that their arms brushed. It made her smile. “So, what do you need next, boss?”
Andrew pulled in a breath and exhaled. “I need us to stay focused and get this hotel ready to go. Florence has been interviewing cooks—she’s having them make her lunch at her place so she can observe their techniques and see how efficiently they move around a kitchen. She says she has some really good possibilities.”
“Not a bad way to avoid having to cook,” Maggie said, and the others agreed.
“She says she’ll have the whole kitchen staff—cooks and the wait staff—lined up by Saturday. Monday morning, we’ll do a practice service—full meal prepared and served here in the dining room. If that goes smoothly, we’ll go forward with opening on Wednesday.” Andrew shook his head. “That’s so close.”
“We’ll be ready,” Marissa told him. “Everyone knows what we need to do.”
Maggie nodded. “The rooms are ready now, and we’ll give them all a final dusting and vacuuming Tuesday.”
“We’re going to help Jimmy get the flowers in—we’ve paused working on the new wing until the main building is up and running,” Rob said. “Keeping priorities straight.”
“Thank you all,” Andrew replied. “The weight of this project is really starting to press down on me. First it was just an investment, but now—it’s like a living, breathing thing.”
“And you’re the perfect steward over it,” Marissa said, linking her arm through his. “I can’t th
ink of anyone better to preserve this legacy.”
“Thank you.” He bent down and kissed her, and Maggie grinned. They were really cute together.
“I’m going to head out and make sure the flower beds have been dug under,” Rob said. “Want to walk out with me?”
“Sure.” Maggie slid her hand into his, and they went outside through the back door. That section of the property was madness and mayhem—piles of dirt everywhere, concrete forms outlining the huge hole that had been dug, more stacks of lumber for more forms off to the side. “I’m glad this all makes sense to you because I can’t tell what’s going on out here.”
“A big, beautiful hotel. It’ll make sense soon enough.” Rob gave her hand a squeeze. “You seem a little distracted. What’s up?”
Maggie had hoped he wouldn’t notice. “I’ve just been thinking.”
“Thinking’s dangerous.”
“I know, and I try not to do it often, but this thought won’t leave me alone.” She kicked at a clump of dirt that hadn’t quite made it to the neat piles. “I think I want to go visit Zoe in jail.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I thought about it the whole time you and Andrew were visiting Aidan. If I have questions and I want answers, it seems to me that I should go see the person with those answers, right?”
“Right. Are you sure, though? Wouldn’t it stir up a bunch of stuff for you?”
“Oh, trust me. Things are being stirred up whether I want them to be or not.” She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m also thinking of asking Matt to help me find my parents.”
Rob’s brows rose. “Really? Wow. I thought you’d decided you were better off as things are.”
“I did decide that, but then I think I changed my mind. I don’t like what they did or the choices they made, but they are part of me.” She paused. “That’s how I feel about Zoe, too.”
Rob wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Then that’s what you should do. When are you planning to visit Zoe?”
“I was thinking about tomorrow. Hurry and get it done before I change my mind. The kitchen things are in a storage unit in town and Andrew’s having them brought over, but they won’t be here until around eleven, and that gives me some time in the morning before work.”
“Would you like me to come with you?”
She took a step back and looked up into his eyes. “Aren’t you crazy busy? Weren’t we just talking about everything that still needs to be done around here?”
“When something’s important, you make time for it, and you’re important to me. Don’t worry—we’ll get everything done in time.”
“If you don’t think it would throw off your schedule, I’d really appreciate it.”
He laughed. “This schedule’s been thrown off so many times, I don’t think it would make a difference.”
She nestled her cheek against his chest. “Okay. Let’s go together. I’ll probably want to talk to her alone, but maybe you could wait for me.”
“I’ll wait for you as long as you need me to.”
Somehow, she didn’t think he was talking just about the next morning.
***
Maggie got home from work, took off her shoes, then sat down and stared at the phone number Andrew had given her. If she was going to do this, she’d do it fast, just like visiting Zoe—getting it done before she could talk herself out of it. It didn’t actually take that long to talk herself out of doing something, though, and she wondered if she’d already missed the window.
Time to create another window.
She braced herself, dialed, and held her phone to her ear.
“Hi,” she said when the phone was picked up on the other end. “Is this Matt? Um, my name is Maggie Childers, and I work at the Brody. Is there any chance . . .”
She almost hung up—why was she doing this?
“What’s the matter, Maggie?” Matt’s warm voice was comforting.
“I wonder if you could help me find my parents.”
“Your parents? You’ve lost touch with them?”
In a manner of speaking . . . “My father was sent to jail when I was a teenager, and my mother disappeared not long after that. I was raised by a friend’s family.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s just part of my past.” A past that kept creeping into her present—time to take control of it. “Do you think you can help?”
“I’d certainly be willing to try. What are their names, and where are they from?”
“Here in Topeka, and their names are Kyle and Birdie Childers.”
“All right. I’m on my computer now, if you have a second to wait.”
“You . . . you can do something that quickly?” She’d thought this would take a long time, that she’d have more of a chance to prepare herself. But nope.
“I should be able to . . . yes, here we go.” Matt paused. “Maggie, I’m very sorry to tell you this, but it looks like your mother passed away about four years ago.”
“Drug overdose?”
“Yes.”
Maggie had known. She had known somewhere in the pit of her soul that this was the answer she’d get. Still, it made her gasp, and Matt asked if she was all right.
“I’m fine,” she said after she got her breath back. “I’m not surprised, but it’s still a shock, if you know what I mean.”
“Yes, I understand. Things like this are never easy.” She heard Matt click on a few computer keys. “I have the address of the cemetery, if you’d like that.”
“I would. Thank you.” She grabbed a pen off the coffee table and scribbled down what he told her. She’d driven past that spot dozens of times, but still, writing it down gave her the ever-important something to do with her hands.
“And now to see what we can find about your father.” Matt tapped a few more keys. “Hmm. No, he wouldn’t be an emeritus professor lecturing on prehistoric man at the college next month, I’m thinking.”
“No, wrong guy.” She couldn’t even picture her father going to college, let alone being a speaker at one.
“Okay, here we are. He’d be forty-five, date of birth April fourth?”
She swallowed. “Yes, that’s him.”
“Hang on a second.” It was the longest second of Maggie’s life. Then Matt continued, “I have an address for him. Are you ready?”
Was she ready … she had no idea.
“Once you have this information, you can choose what to do with it,” Matt said. “You’re not obligated in any way to contact him.”
“I guess that’s true,” she replied. “All right. Lay it on me.”
Matt chuckled, then read her off an address. It actually wasn’t too far from the home where she’d grown up. That seemed weird in a way.
“Thank you,” she said after she’d stared at her notes for a minute. “What do I owe you?”
“That only took me five minutes—no charge.”
“Are you sure? I mean, this was kind of a big deal to me, even though it didn’t take very long on your end.”
“Maybe the fact that it’s a big deal to you is why there’s no charge.”
She felt tears well up in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said again. “You’ve been really generous.”
“Good luck. And I hope you’re able to find what you’re looking for.”
Chapter Eleven
When Rob came to pick Maggie up the next morning, she thrust a piece of paper in his hands, wanting to know what he thought. He looked at it and frowned. “Is this where we’re going? It doesn’t sound like the jail.”
“We’re not going there—at least, not yet. Or maybe never. I don’t know.” She paused and tried to sound more reasonable. “That’s my father’s address. My mother passed away from a drug overdose, but my father’s still alive, and that’s where he lives.”
“Wow.” Rob pulled her in for a hug. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not entirely sure.” Maggie had to think about that que
stion in order to answer it. “I was up pretty late last night thinking about things. I somehow knew that my mother was dead—that part didn’t surprise me. But I’d never really thought about my father having a life after prison. He went there, I never saw him again, and that was that—but of course it makes sense that he’d get out and live somewhere and maybe have a job. He might even be remarried. I should have asked Matt.”
“You said you aren’t sure if we’re ever going there?”
“I haven’t decided. I think that first, I need to wrap my head around the idea that jail wasn’t the end for him, that he still exists and has a life and didn’t just disappear the day he stepped out of my life.”
“A step at a time, and you’re in total control,” Rob told her.
“Yeah, that’s what Matt said too.” She tucked the piece of paper into her purse. She’d deal with that later. Right now, she had another Band-Aid to rip off. “Are you ready?”
“I am. Are you?”
“No. But let’s do it anyway.”
As they drove, Rob asked, “When was the last time you saw Zoe?”
“That would be about a week and a half ago, when the police came to pick her up and told me I had fifteen minutes to get out of there.”
“So, your landlord and the cops have kind of the same idea going on there—fifteen minutes is all a person gets?”
“Apparently so.” Maggie shuddered. “They put handcuffs on her and marched her away like . . . well, like a prisoner, because that’s what she was. It was so awful.”
“I’m sorry.” Rob reached over and squeezed her fingers.
“She wouldn’t even look at me. She just kept her eyes glued to the floor the whole time, even when I tried to talk to her. I just don’t get it.”
“Well, maybe she’ll be more talkative today.”
When they reached the police station, Rob chuckled. “Never thought I’d be here two days in a row.”
“I’m just glad they haven’t moved her to a bigger prison yet. That would seem so . . . final.”
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