by Taylor Hart
Ryan had flash backs of going to that cell to visit his father before they’d realized he had that brain hemorrhage from the accident. Before Nathan’s brother had been declared dead. Before everything in his entire life had changed. If there was one part of his life he could trace back to the pivotal moment that changed him, it had been that moment. Visiting his father in that jail cell with the knowledge that he could have prevented Nathan’s brother’s death.
Ryan checked the time. Three p.m. Charlotte had asked him to pick up Sam from school. In fact, it had been the last thing she’d said to Nathan as she’d been cuffed and walked out of the title company. “It’s my day for Sam. Don’t you dare go get him.”
Ryan stalked down the steps to his car. He didn’t have a clue how his life had changed so drastically, but it had. He started the truck and backed up.
His phone buzzed. Alan.
He put it to his ear and answered. “What?”
“Ryan, are you there?”
“Where else would I be?”
“Sheesh, calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. Everything just exploded.”
“Do you want my advice or not?”
“Would I have left you four messages if I didn’t want your advice?”
“You need to ask nicely.”
Ryan seethed, but acquiesced. “Please.”
“Fight.”
Ryan gripped the wheel tighter. “What?”
“Fight for your woman. Fight for your son. Stay and claim the family that you’ve always wanted. Get your son.”
Ryan pulled up to the school and waited. There was a line of cars ahead of him. He swerved the car into a parking spot. The boy wouldn’t know who was coming for him. He definitely wouldn’t know that Ryan was.
His father.
The swell inside his chest increased to a level he didn’t know if he could handle.
“Ryan.”
“She doesn’t want me.”
“What?”
He saw Sam and got out of the truck. “I gotta go.”
“Ryan?”
“I’ll let you know.”
Sam saw him and ran toward him, greeting him with a high five. “Hey, where’s my mom?”
Ryan shooed him toward the truck without answering, guiding him with a firm hand on his shoulder through the carpool lane. “She’s busy at the moment.”
He was not his son. He wasn’t.
“Where’s my grandma?”
Ryan pointed to the truck and Sam moved to the other side. “She’s busy, too.”
None of this was his responsibility.
It wasn’t.
Sam got in the car and grinned. “Cool truck.”
Ryan took off and pulled out his phone.
“Where are you taking me?”
Ryan pressed the button and waited. “You’ll see.”
Sam nodded his head and waved at some kids. “Cool.”
“Hardman Ranch.” Beau answered.
“Hey.”
“What’s up, Ry? Hey, you didn’t do your chores this morning. Don’t be slackin, ya hear. Now that there’s three of us the work can get done faster if you’ll get off your lazy butt and do it.”
“Beau, I need a favor.”
Another pause. “Shoot, I forgot about today. What happened with the deal? Is it done? Are the Hardmans and Talons partners?”
Ryan sighed. “It’s . . . complicated. Hey, call Sean and tell him he needs to get to the jail.”
“Are you in jail?”
“Not me.”
“What happened?”
“I can’t talk. Please, just call him, and tell him to get there ASAP.”
“Tell me what happened.”
He pulled up to the house. “I need Sam Talon to hang out at the ranch for a while. Is that okay?”
Beau stepped out of the back door. Lorna followed behind him. “Yeah.”
Ryan hung up the phone.
Sam jumped out.
Lorna was already at Sam’s side of the door. “You coming in for milk and cookies?”
Beau kept his eyes on Ryan. “What happened?”
Sam and Lorna went into the house.
“Charlotte and Sara are in jail.”
“Perfect.”
Ryan held Beau’s gaze. “I’m his father.”
Beau’s face registered shock then he took a step back to steady himself. “What?” He pointed to the door.
Ryan nodded.
Beau put a hand to his chest. “You gotta slow down, big brother, I’m not keeping up.”
Ryan shrugged and pushed past him. “And I’m leaving.”
Beau let out a short laugh. “Right.”
Ryan didn’t open the door, but turned and lowered his voice to Beau. “I gotta get out of town. Just get him back to Charlotte for me.”
Beau took his arm and yanked him back from the door. “What are you doing?”
Ryan lifted his hands. “I thought this might be home, but I was wrong.”
Beau’s face shifted to disgust then he scoffed. “Of course you do, big brother, you always have to leave when things get hard.”
He wanted to fight it. He wanted to deny it and say it wasn’t true.
But it was true.
Chapter 41
Charlotte sat next to her mother on a dingy, mattress in the cell. They’d been there for over six hours. Her bladder felt like it might explode, but there was no way she would use that dirty hole they called a toilet. No way. She stood and glanced down at her mother. Her mother had refused to say a word to her. She still had that look—the same look she’d had after her father died.
Charlotte moved to the bars and called down the hall. “Bards, give me a break, would you? I have to use the bathroom.”
No movement. She knew he was there. It wasn’t like there was anyone else in this whole jail, and she had to pee.
“Bards!”
“Can’t. Direct orders from the Sergeant.”
“Bards!”
“Keep it down.”
Charlotte felt like every part of her would explode. Ryan had promised that he’d make sure she got out of jail. Her gut hurt as she thought of Ryan promising to go pick up her son. She clutched the bars in her hands. Nathan would pay for this, and she would keep her son. She would find a way.
“Do you want to know why your father didn’t leave me?”
Charlotte swerved back.
Her mother sat motionless on the filthy mattress.
She tentatively sat beside her. “You never told me all the details.”
Her mother reached for her hand. “Repentance.”
Charlotte didn’t respond. “After I’d gone to stay with your aunt, after a few months your father drove out to see me. He said he needed to apologize.”
“To you?”
Her mother nodded. “To me. He said the Lord had already forgiven me. He thought he should forgive me, too.” Her eyes misted.
Charlotte thought of the weeks and weeks of her parents’ separation. How her father had been so lonely.
Charlotte had been so sick with Sam. She hadn’t been able to be there for either of them, and truth be told, it had rocked her.
Her mother stroked her head. “I don’t know why I didn’t see the plain fact that Sam wasn’t even his in front of me. I should have known that.”
Charlotte sighed and leaned back against the wall. “I’m coming to realize that there’s so much I should see that I don’t.”
Her mother leaned back with her. “Charlotte, I know this is hard at the moment, but I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter if your kids are young or old they are resilient. They can come back from anything. I’m so proud of you and the mother you are. You survived me. Sam can survive this.”
Charlotte put her arm around her mother. “Mom, you don’t know what Nathan is capable of. He could take Sam. He could take him away for good.”
Her mother frowned. “No. He won’t. We’ll fight this. Ryan will fight this.�
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Charlotte swallowed. “I don’t know what Ryan will do.”
Her mother quirked a brow. “Sweetheart, he’s a soldier—he’ll fight.”
They both sat there for a moment lost in their own thoughts.
“Your father was a good man.”
“The best.”
“He always looked at me like I was the only woman he saw.” Her voice went softer. “The same way Ryan looks at you.”
At her mother’s words, there was a nervous pinprick that radiated into her chest. “I told him to go.”
“Oh, sweetie, why did you do that?”
“Because Nathan has something…big on me.”
A deep, creased sadness took over her mother’s eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Charlotte pulled her hand back, sickened. Sickened by her own inability to be something she should have been—strong. Sickened by the way she’d let Nathan bully her from day one. Sickened by the fact she was still letting him bully her. “After Ryan left and you and daddy were separated, I discovered I was pregnant.” Pain richotted through the center of her chest. She’d never told anybody about this. “I…I took a bottle of pills one night.”
“No.” Her mother reflexively put an arm around her shoulder.
“It was stupid. It…I guess I felt lost and alone.”
“Oh, Charlotte.”
“Nathan found me. He’d come over and he’d seen me on the floor through the front window. He took me to the hospital and they pumped my stomach. Then he took me to Charleston and checked me into the psych ward.” Tears streamed down her face. She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I’ve never told anybody this. I…I have felt so guilty that I could have taken Sam’s life, too. I…Nathan told me it would be our secret. He would never tell. But…that’s what he throws in my face. That’s how he gets his way.” Shame coursed through her.
Her mother took back her hand and stared at Charlotte with raw emotion. “I thought somehow I’d lost you, Charlotte, before you divorced him. Not physically, but you went somewhere else emotionally. It was like one day you were my Charlotte and the next day you were this person making all these decisions and doing all these things that were not you. Now I know the truth.”
Charlotte couldn’t stop her tears. “I made a mistake, and then another mistake.”
Her mother put an arm around her shoulders. “Shh. The Lord forgives us. You know that. He loves you.” She cleared her throat. “When you finally divorced him and started the bookstore, that was the happiest I’d seen your father in a long time.”
Charlotte’s heart pounded as she listened.
Her mother closed her eyes. “One day I was walking the ranch, and a memory popped into my mind. A powerful memory. One where your father and I were talking about how Ryan would take over this ranch and marry you and raise our grandchildren.”
“What?”
“And then I saw Ryan’s vita online, associated with Vincere Real Estate. I’d decided to try and sell the land, but then I saw his picture and remembered that memory and I knew it was the answer.”
This frustrated Charlotte. “The answer to what?”
Her mother’s smile widened. “I knew if I could get him to come here—you two would fall in love again.”
Charlotte’s heart went into overdrive.
“For six years he worked every day with your father, making the ranch into what it is. And—we always hoped . . .”
Charlotte couldn’t take it. “Mom, I sent him away.”
Her mother held her tightly then pulled back. “We will. We will figure this out. Plus, I believe that destiny is working itself out when we think everything has gone awry.”
Chapter 42
Looking back, Joe had done the right thing the night of the accident that took Nathan’s brother’s life.
He had. Hadn’t he?
He had honestly been trying to do the right thing.
The sharp, twisted pain in his gut told him he never should have agreed to keep his silence. What was the saying, money is the root of all evil.
Joe still remembered how they felt—the papery, crisp newness of the bills, in exchange for his silence.
He’d gone to the best law school, and he’d never paid one single dime.
He popped another antacid into his mouth and stared at his computer.
Nathan strode into the office, back from some meeting. “Are you ready to go file that yet?”
The smallest prick of annoyance surged inside of him. After all these years, Nathan still treated Joe like he was the foster kid on the outs—to be bossed, to be told what to do. “Almost.”
Nathan sat halfway on the desk.
Joe hated it when he did this.
“Assault and full custody. It’s a good day.”
Joe pushed back from the computer. “I don’t think so.” He knew Sam. Sam was a good kid.
Nathan kept rambling. “Why give a bully a simple bloody nose? We need to show her that if she messes with me, I’ll burn the house down. Take no prisoners. Burn the boats. You know what I mean?”
The ulcer in his stomach flared. He stood. Ever since Nathan’s father had passed away two years ago, Nathan had gotten edgier, crazier, and meaner then he’d ever been before. “No. No. Bad idea. You don’t want to hurt Sam, and that’s what you’d be doing.”
In a flash, Nathan was in front of him—invading his personal space. “That’s exactly what I want to do. Why, hot shot attorney, with his education paid for with the Love trust, I might add, why would I do that?”
Joe bit into the side of his lip. It was a tactic he’d learned when his abusers had tried to force him into a confrontation. He’d done this from a young age, but he hadn’t done it for the last four years. He’d broken himself of this habit, or he thought he had. “To hurt her.” The words came out tight and quiet.
The side of Nathan’s lip pulled up into a sneer. He stepped back and clapped a hand down on Joe’s shoulder. “Exactly. I guess the fancy education worked.”
Joe glared at him. “Children shouldn’t be used as leverage.”
Nathan matched his glare. “Stay out of this. This is a family matter. He is my son, and he’ll stay my son. Sometimes, you have to fight a war to get peace. Get those drafted and filed by the end of the day.”
Nathan walked down to his office and pulled the door shut.
Joe looked out the window where Charlotte and her mom had come out of the jail and gotten into Sean’s cop car. He thought of Sam. He thought of pushing him on the swing when they’d gone to the park with a picnic. He thought of the way Charlotte smiled as Sam laughed so triumphantly when Joe had given him an underdog.
He thought of the sadness that he’d seen in her eyes today when Nathan yelled at her.
He thought of her father entrusting him to destroy the life estate after he’d gotten back together with her mother.
It made him sick. He hadn’t tried to be a bad person. He hadn’t. He’d always tried to do the right thing—which turned into the wrong thing.
He sat down and opened up another document. He hadn’t been able to save Charlotte from Nathan’s wrath today, but, there just might be a final way to give everyone something they needed—justice.
Chapter 43
The next morning, Charlotte sat on the couch in the front of the bookstore.
She just sat.
She’d been just sitting for a long time.
Longer than she could remember.
The door dinged.
“Hey.” Angela pulled to an abrupt stop.
Charlotte stood and went behind the glass that held the pastries. She picked up the spray. Everything inside of her felt dark. She began cleaning the glass.
Angela crept behind her and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Hmm.”
Charlotte cleaned faster, efficiently doing small circles and sprays.
“What’s the word on the property?”
Charlotte didn’t want to talk about the property. “I don’t know
.”
She did know. Her mother had told her on the phone earlier that Richard had been looking for another potential partner to help pay the million, but it didn’t look good.
Angela moved in front of the glass and stared at the pastries. “I told your mom I want to learn to make pies.”
“Uh-huh.”
Angela went into a crouched pose and touched the spot in front of the apple pie slices. “Do you think people like the apple or peach better?”
Charlotte moved around the glass and quickly wiped away the smudge from Angela’s finger. “I don’t know.”
Angela stood, but didn’t move. “Do you want to smell the new lotion I whipped up? It’s a cross between the beach bikini and the grapefruit you like.”
Charlotte scooted to the other side of the glass.
Angela didn’t move. “I’ve been trying to find the right candle for you, but—”
Charlotte whirled on her. “Can you see I’m trying to get this cleaned?”
Angela held the bottle of lotion, the cap in one hand and the lotion in the other. “Okay, you’re aura is totally out of whack.”
There would be no way to describe how much Charlotte wanted to yell at Angela in this moment. Not just yell, but scream like hysterical women in movies screamed as they threw stuff across the room. She reached under the counter and procured the folder that had been delivered to her shop an hour ago. She handed it to Angela.
“What’s this?”
Charlotte sat back on the couch, every part of her hollow.
Angela slumped into the chair beside her and began reading. “Holy cow, he’s really going to get full custody of Sam?”
Charlotte let out a sigh. “Richard says the only way to prove that Sam does not belong with Nathan is to come forward with DNA that proves who Sam’s father is. His biological father.”
Angela touched the row of little earrings up her ear. “What are you going to do?”
Charlotte shrugged. “I don’t know. Ryan won’t return my calls.”
Star walked through the front door.
Charlotte saw her determined anger and closed her eyes. “I’ve been trying to call him, Star. He won’t call me back.”