Don't Say a Word (26 page)

And Jacqueline's face could always be a reminder of the woman he'd loved and lost.

He had no idea where to go, but he couldn't stay here in New Orleans.

November, three months later

I
NSIDE THE HOUSE
, he knew the Duboises had gathered for their Thanksgiving feast. There would be heaping bowls of vegetables, desserts, a huge turkey, gravy and all the trimmings. His sisters and his niece, his two brothers and their wives would all be talking at once.

His throat clogged and he swallowed back emotions. Would they welcome him if he knocked on the door, or look at him as a madman's son?

Antwaun parked his car in front of the Dubois homestead, his gut knotted with tension. The last few months he'd struggled with the fact that they had lied to him. That they weren't his birth family. That Frederick Fenton was his real father.

With the fact that Damon's new wife looked like Kendra.

He'd left New Orleans angry, feeling betrayed, wanting revenge for her brutal murder. And for his child's….

And he'd found Swafford.

Then the unexpected.

The woman sitting next to him slid her hand over his and squeezed his fingers in silent understanding. “I'll wait in the car if you need a moment alone with them.”

He nodded and tried to smile, but his lips felt glued together. Then he opened the car door, climbed out and went to the front door. Several cats appeared at the edge of the property as if guarding it. For a moment, he wondered if they would sense the evil in him and attack. But one loped up onto the stoop, rubbed against his leg and purred.

He relaxed slightly, but his hands felt sweaty. He wiped them on his jeans and knocked. Boisterous laughter and noise echoed from the other side; then the door swung open and his mother appeared.

God, he'd missed her.

“Antwaun!” She threw her hands to her cheeks and burst into a smile, then grabbed him and wrapped him in her arms. “Oh, my baby, you've come back to us. And you do not knock at your own home. You just
come in
.”

She turned and shouted to the others, and he felt himself on the verge of crying, blinking fiercely. Within seconds, his entire family had encircled him, welcoming him back with hugs and kisses. He hugged them in return, nearly choking as his papa dragged him close and clapped him on the back.

“It hasn't been right without you, son.”

His sisters were next, followed by Jean-Paul and his very pregnant wife. Then Damon. Damon was the most hesitant, studying him warily as his wife, Jacqueline, moved up beside him.

Antwaun extended his hand. “Sorry I missed the wedding.”

Damon's guarded look morphed into a smile, and for a moment Antwaun's gaze rested on Jacqueline and he saw Kendra. But then she spoke, and the image faded, and he saw her as she actually was. Kendra's cousin, not Kendra.

Finally, when everyone pulled away, his mother tried to usher him to the table.

“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand. “First, there's someone I want you to meet.”

Puzzled looks met his, and he nearly grinned, knowing they would be as shocked as he had been.

But it was a great surprise.

He hurried back to the car, and a minute later, returned with his surprise. The family had been eagerly waiting.

“Mom, Dad, everyone…this is my wife.” He grinned at the baby in her arms. “And my daughter, Whitney.”

Gasps greeted his announcement. “What?” “When?”

“Tell us more,” his mother said.

His beautiful wife stepped forward. “I'm Kendra.” She turned to Jacqueline, her voice warbling with emotions. “I'm so glad you survived.”

Jacqueline's shock mirrored the others'. “Kendra, is it really you?”

“I know I look different,” she said, touching her face self-consciously. “But, yes, it's me.”

“I don't understand,” Jacqueline said. “How? They said you were
dead…
the fingerprints…”

“I knew Swafford was on to me,” Kendra began, “and that he was working with a dirty cop. I'd already traced him to Dr. Pace, the plastic surgeon, and to some financing schemes with Diego Bolton. By then I feared for my life, and when I found out I was pregnant, I decided I had to disappear until the baby was born. I pleaded with Dr. Pace, and he contacted a friend in the WITSEC program who altered my fingerprints and DNA in all the databases. After I had the baby, I intended to enter the witness protection program, maybe even have plastic surgery. So I hid out until Whitney was born.”

“She's beautiful,” his
maman
said, with tears in her eyes.

Kendra hugged the baby to her. “I know and I wanted to contact Antwaun and tell him everything, but couldn't take the chance. Then when I heard Diego was killed, and that Jacqueline was missing, and I knew she'd intended to confront Diego that day…well…I thought she was dead.” She paused and looked at Jacqueline, her heart in her eyes. “I was devastated. But later I found out about a woman being brought into the hospital mysteriously and that Dr. Pace was treating her, and I starting poking around and discovered it was you.” She clasped Jacqueline's hand. “I was so glad you were alive, but I had to stay hidden.”

Jacqueline wiped at her tears and hugged her cousin. “And I'm happy you're here. I've missed you so much.”

Damon frowned. “But Dr. Pace never said a word.”

Kendra smiled sadly. “I convinced him that secrecy was the only way to keep me, my baby and Jacqueline alive. In the end, he wasn't such an entirely bad man.”

Damon cleared his throat. “But Pace said that Jacqueline received your skin, the skin of a cadaver.”

Kendra touched her face again. Antwaun knew she was still getting used to the way she looked, as was he. But he loved her and didn't care whose face she wore. Just knowing all she'd sacrificed to save their child had melted his anger and intensified his love for her.

“I planned to have plastic surgery anyway, in case Swafford's people came after me. Jacqueline had rejected another donor's skin and was near death, so we figured her only chance was a relative. So I let Dr. Pace remove my skin and transplant it on to Jacqueline, then I received the cadaver's face.”

“So what about the woman Cal killed?” Jean-Paul asked. “He thought she was you?”

Kendra swallowed hard. “Yes, she was my informant, had worked for Swafford's minions. She was scared and was staying at my place at the time.” She shivered, and Antwaun knew she still blamed herself for the other woman's death, as she did for her mother's. “Cal thought he'd killed me, and told Dr. Pace so. Dr. Pace convinced Cal to let him use the cadaver for her skin.” She paused again. “He made sure Cal believed I was dead, and that the prints and DNA matched.”

The family was gaping now in obvious amazement. Damon turned to Antwaun. “How did you find her?”

Antwaun scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “When I first left here, I was angry. Felt betrayed. All I wanted to do was find Swafford and get revenge.” His voice grew low. “And I did.”

His mother gasped. “Oh, Antwaun…”

He looked his mother in the eye. “It's okay,
Maman
. I found him and planned to kill him, but then I realized if I did, I'd be just like Frederick Fenton, my father.”

“
I
am your father,” his papa said defensively.

Antwaun gave his papa a grateful look, moved by the conviction in his voice. “And that's what I realized. At least I knew I wanted to be like you. So I turned Swafford over to the authorities.”

“We heard he'd been arrested,” Jean-Paul said. “But not that you were responsible.”

Antwaun shrugged. “My next order of business was to confront Fenton.”

His sisters moved up beside him to squeeze his arm.

“Before I could, though, I got a call from Kendra. She'd seen news of Swafford's arrest, told me she was alive and that we had a baby.”

Kendra slid her arm around Antwaun's waist, and he pulled her in the crook of his arm, wanting to protect her forever. The baby gurgled and swiped at his hand, and Antwaun let her wrap her chubby fingers around his pinky. He loved his daughter so damn much it hurt to think that he'd missed a single moment with her. But he wouldn't dwell on the past, only the future.

“Kendra explained everything, and I was so happy to know that they'd both survived that we got married that night. And together we went to confront Fenton,” Antwaun said. “When I looked at him, I realized he wasn't my father. That I had to come back here.” His eyes grew misty. “I know I'm not blood, but I'm grateful to have had you all. And I'd like very much to raise my daughter as part of the Dubois family.”

His mother shrieked with joy. “Of course you will.”

His father choked on emotion and dragged him in his arms, and the entire family engulfed him and his new family in their arms.

“We have to sit down and eat now!” his mother finally said with a laugh. “I'll set a plate for Kendra.”

Antwaun glanced at the table and noticed his usual place was already set.

So they had been hoping he'd come. That meant more to him than anything.

The family hurried to the table, hugging and crying and laughing. His
maman
quickly made a place for Kendra beside him, and his papa grabbed a chair to sit the baby seat in so she, too, would be part of the family.

Then his
maman
waved her hands to quiet everyone and gestured for them to link hands. “Now Papa will give thanks, because we have so much to be grateful for this year.”

When they bowed their heads, his father thanked the heavens for bringing them all together again, for the love they shared and for the new additions to the family, the wives and children, and those to come in the future.

Antwaun silently gave thanks, as well. New Orleans was slowly recovering from the storms it had weathered, and so was he.

All because of the love of a wonderful family.

* * * * *