In Love with a Stranger (21 page)

“Check that filing cabinet over there. He may have put it in with family photos,” my mother pointed to the cabinet by Hannah.

She turned around and opened the drawer that would contain the “M” files. A few folders forward, there was one that had “Emmaline Harrison” written on it.

“Mum?” I held it up, wondering why in the hell my father would have a file on my mother.

She snatched it out of my hand. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Did dad blackmail you into marrying him?”

“No, I told you, I’d known him before, when we were children. He isn’t a bad man.”

“He has a file on you!”

“On my family, not me, per se. You need to get her file and quickly. We only have ten minutes until lockdown.”

“Lockdown?” That didn’t sound good.

“Once the door is closed, we only have fifteen minutes to find our file or type in a second code, which I don’t have. So please move quickly.”

There were three Madison files. I didn’t stop to see which one we needed. I grabbed all three, and we rushed through the door hidden behind the picture. My mother quickly shut it and poked three rosettes on the frame. There was a loud clunk behind it, and my mother once again hurried to the desk, unlocked the drawer and typed in a code. The barrier on the study didn’t open.

“We’re still locked in.” I was getting nervous.

“It’s fine, dear. The doors stay locked until the files are returned. They can’t leave the study. It’s a failsafe that keeps people from trying to steal them. Even if they got in that far, the code to get out of the room is different, and the code to leave the room with a file is altogether another matter in itself. It’s easiest to just look at them here and then return them. I thought it best to get the curiosity out of the way, so we could enjoy dinner. Now, tell me what the detectives have found,” she asked, like she was serving tea, not secret files.

“William,” Hannah said my name with a gasp. She was holding a file, her eyes focused on the name, and she shook her head no. “This can’t be right. I don’t understand.”

“I’m not surprised if he found something on you,” my mother dismissed and picked up the file with “Hannah Madison” on it.  It was sitting next to Scott Madison’s folder, so I could only assume she held Penelope’s file.

“Surely he can’t have anything on Penelope.” She was much too young to get into any trouble.

“No, it’s my mom.” She clutched it to her chest, and I pulled her over to a chair to sit with me. “She’s supposed to be dead. I thought she was dead. She went to a hospital and never came back, and everyone always said they were so sorry for our loss. It doesn’t make sense. My dad said I wasn’t allowed at the funeral, because I was so young at the time. He said she was sent to California to be buried by my grandma.”

I pried the file from her hands and opened it carefully. There was a woman, tagged as Audrey Taylor Dubois (Madison), mother of Hannah. She’d been photographed on a beach, presumably California, if you went by Hannah’s story. I flipped through the papers and quickly found why her mother had been reported to Hannah as dead, and why her father hated foreign men.

She’d run away with a man from Greece and had developed a very bad drug problem. The man had turned abusive, and after being gone for three months, Audrey returned to Scott, asking for help. He obviously still loved her, because he’d put a second mortgage on the house to pay for her rehabilitation, where she met some French guy, Marcelle Dubois, and left Scott once again holding the bill.

“She left me,” Hannah whimpered.

I hugged her tightly. “Please, beautiful. Some people are just too messed up to love others.”

“She was my mom, William, and she just left me, like a reject, for some Marcelle jerk from France, who obviously didn’t care if she had a child, either! How could someone do that? How could they just throw a child away like that? I can’t even comprehend…” She was a crying mess.

I put the file aside, it had done enough damage. “You’re a wonderful woman, that’s why you can’t understand what happened. There’s no way you’d ever leave our daughter for any reason, so you’ll never understand or accept any lame excuses that woman would give you. I can only guess that was why Scott let you believe she was dead. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. Now, shall we get back to the task at hand?” My mother brought over the thickest of the three files. When I opened it, I felt sick to my stomach. There were pictures of Hannah, so young and innocent, just like I remembered. She was laughing and smiling with friends, with me, and then there was a note about the hospital she’d been in after her attack and the name “Mary Harper.”

My father had known all along. There were copies of medical reports and ultrasounds. From the notes, my father was hoping to pin the pregnancy on Brody Hawkins. There were pictures of my wife, eight months pregnant, looking so lost, as Ophelia led her around. I set Hannah aside and moved across the room, trying to gather myself. If my father had walked in the door just then, I would’ve ripped him limb from limb.

“HE KNEW THE WHOLE TIME!” I shouted at my mother. “He knew, and he didn’t say a word, completely ignoring that I had a child, a family, and he chose to keep it from me.” I snatched up the picture of a heavily pregnant Hannah and shoved it in my mother’s face.

“I didn’t know, William. I had no idea. He never lets me rummage through those files. I only know about my family’s file, because he’d shown it to me shortly before we were to be wed. I didn’t know about Penelope. I would’ve loved to keep her for my own.”

“Your own,” I scoffed.

“I know you don’t believe it, but I love my granddaughter dearly. Nothing would’ve changed that, then or now. We need to get to the section about the fire. I know what you’re thinking, William. He didn’t start it. He doesn’t show anyone these files. This investigation was his own doing. It would’ve never seen the light of day. If the guilty one was found, the appropriate evidence would’ve been sent to the proper authorities anonymously. He’d never risk exposing his work.”

“He’s looked into all of the investors who funded my store except for one, the one who’d held the largest share in it. Carter had set it up so I had several backers. Lion’s Shield nearly owns the store. If anyone would gain anything from it being burnt to the ground, it’d be them, so why didn’t he look into them?” Hannah asked upset.

I knew exactly why my father hadn’t looked into it, and once again, his actions left me angry and baffled. “He didn’t look into them, because he
is
them, beautiful. My father funded your shop.”

Chapter 25 - Intentions

WILLIAM

With my father’s file on Hannah in front of me, I knew now was the opportunity to see if he’d really tried to kill my wife seven years ago. I flipped to the back and found a few pictures of her at a café around the corner from our old apartment. I could even see Marvin in the background, backing up the story that he’d been there.

The notes read that a Gregory Sax had been the man sent after Hannah. The first offer of fifty thousand pounds had been refused.  Sax suggested seventy-five thousand pounds. My father had reminded him that the longer it took him to convince her to take it, the less money Sax would be paid. At the third contact with my father, one hundred thousand pounds had been requested. It was noted that she’d agree to take it, and a bank account numbers was given, but no name.

My father had deposited the money and noted that it’d taken me seven hours before I’d realized I’d lost contact with her. He’d sent another PI in to keep an eye on where she was. He’d wanted to make sure she hadn’t planned on returning or contacting me. It was two weeks later that she’d been found in the hospital under the name Mary Harper. By that time, I’d already contacted Scott Madison, and my father had stepped in to remove me from the states to keep me from further prosecution.

He also didn’t like that Gregory Sax had disappeared. His PI’s had never found him. It was like he’d dropped off the face of the planet. My father had the account number and checked the balance for the next several months. He suspected Sax had taken the money, but no withdrawals had ever been made.

He also had a copy of every checkup Hannah had ever had. The date of conception was circled on one, showing she was pregnant, and also the range of fluctuation. Because Penelope had been a big baby, they’d suspected Hannah might’ve been further along. My father had investigated several men, Brody being one of them, along with two others she’d been friends with in college. Marvin had been one of them, since he’d moved from Nevada to New York around the same time as we had. His close proximity to Hannah in several of the photos led my father to believe the child was most likely Marvin’s.

That was a shocker.

As soon as it was noted that the baby was a girl, there was a huge gap of disinterest in her parentage.

The next notes were made when Hannah woke from her coma, and when she moved in with Ophelia. He’d kept a PI on her to make sure she didn’t try to find me.

There was a picture of Hannah with Penelope shortly after she’d been born. It was tucked aside, and he’d ordered his PI to find a way to receive a DNA sample.  The test results were conclusive, right there in black and white.  My father had known all along Penelope was mine.

I set the file down and stepped back to keep from throwing it across the room. Hannah examined where I’d left the file open.

“I thought we were looking for clues on the fire?”

“I wanted to find out if he was behind your attack.”

“Well?”

I shook my head no. “I don’t think so. There was no ordered attack, just bribing. The man who’d been offering you the money disappeared and was never found, though. Apparently, the money is still sitting untouched in an account. He couldn’t use it to trace anyone. He knew Penelope was my daughter. He followed your pregnancy, and after you had her, he had a DNA test done. He knew the whole time!”

My mother stepped forward to look through the file herself. She looked heartbroken that her granddaughter had been hidden from her. “He kept tabs on the account. Once he realized she wasn’t using the money to support herself and Penelope, he looked for an anonymous way to help her. He even went so far as to stage her winning a contest and giving her a three-thousand-pound gift card to a children’s boutique yearly, until Penelope was six.  William, your father isn’t a bad man. He was caring for your daughter in his own way. He was the one behind the scholarship for your daughter to attend her private school as well.”

“Oh, my god, the pediatrician said she’d submitted Penelope for the scholarship, because she was so advanced as a child. I wonder who else was in on it,” Hannah growled. She really didn’t seem happy with my father’s meddling or other people’s secrecy. “That scholarship included her uniforms, school supplies and meals. I knew it was too good to be true. I thought it was strange that it didn’t require her to keep a certain grade point average and covered her until she graduated high school.”

“See, William, he was helping her, caring for her,” my mother once again defended my father.

“It wasn’t his place!” I shouted. I didn’t care that my father had looked after my daughter. It was MY job, my right and privilege, and he’d denied me that. He’d taken that chance from me, taken my daughter from me.

“He’s not a heartless man. He may not have always done things right, but he’s always looked out for his family.” My mother didn’t get it. Keeping my daughter from me was far from caring for us.

“There’s nothing you can say that’ll change my mind about him!” I was sick of her excuses.

There was a knock on the study doors. “Mommy, Daddy?” Penelope sounded worried.

“We’re still busy, darling. Where’s Ms. Maggie?” my mother asked.

“Where’s my mommy and daddy?” she cried.

“We’re in here as well, Poppet, working on a few things,” I answered her.

“I’m in here as well,” Hannah called to her.

“Don’t leave me here!” Penelope was still upset.

“I promise we won’t ever leave you behind, alright, Poppet?” I tried to comfort her.

“See, sweet girl. I told you, your mummy and daddy are still here. Now, let’s go finish making dessert,” we heard Maggie coddling her.

“We’ll be out soon and come looking for you in the kitchen, so you’d better stay with Ms. Maggie, okay, Poppet?”

“Yes, Daddy, but be fast,” she complained, and I listened to Maggie usher her away.

“Maggie was never good at keeping you children occupied. You were always peeking in on us during functions and such. Camille was the worst. Maggie finally convinced me it’d just be easier to have Camille attend as well. At least she was able to teach her proper etiquette before she joined us. Maggie was useful in her own way.”

“We were kids! We wanted to see our parents.” I was so sick of her.

“We had our outings, William. Don’t act as if you were neglected. You were your father’s little sidekick for years. I had a fit, when he let you smoke a cigar when you were seven. From then on, I put my foot down. If he’d kept you around like he wanted, you would’ve most likely ended up an alcoholic addicted to nicotine. It was best for you both to be cared for by Maggie.”

“I’m sure parenting your own children wasn’t exactly considered proper,” William spat.  “Best leave the messy stuff to the help.”

“We have a role to play, William, and I had to keep face for our family. Your father has made that difficult, though, since he’s made enemies by the dozen with his damned files, but no one ever crosses him or his family. We’re tolerated, we just aren’t well liked. When it came time for you to consider getting married, he was a wreck. He wanted so much for you and Camille, and he was afraid you’d both be shut out because of him. He arranged meetings with safe women for you every free moment he had. He wanted you to be happy.”

“I only wanted Hannah!”

“She was too great a risk, William. I explained that to her. She was a wildcard. There was no way he could keep her from hurting you.”

“It wasn’t his place to interfere!”

“It’s over!” Hannah broke us up. “We need to get back to work. Penelope is waiting for us, and we have an arsonist to find. We should use our phones to take pictures of what we have in here. We can blow them up and study them closer when we get home.” She passed me her large file and then grabbed her parents’ files and took pictures of them herself.

As I flipped through the pages myself, it became abundantly clear that my father wasn’t the one who’d burned down the shop. It’d been his means to care for my daughter, who he seemed to feel some sense of obligation to.

I just couldn’t understand why he’d insisted on keeping her from me. Once I took the last picture, I looked up at my mother and asked, “Does he have a file on me?”

She shrugged. “I doubt it. We can check when we return these.”

“I’m done with my files, are we ready to put them back?” Hannah asked.

My mother quickly typed in the code for the hidden room, and I let them put away the Madison files, while I searched for mine. He did have one on me. I quickly snapped pictures of it. It was thick. My mother anxiously rushed me, so I didn’t have a chance to read anything he had on me. I wondered if he’d ever planned to blackmail me, too.

Once everything was put away, I was happy to see the study doors unlock. Hannah asked where the kitchen was, and I happily showed her to where several of my most pleasant memories had been made.

Penelope heard us enter the room and was off the stool and jumped into my arms. “Have you been having fun with Ms. Maggie?” I asked.

She nodded yes and cast a wary glance at my mother. We settled down for dinner, and my mother asked if we planned on enrolling Penelope in finishing school.

“What on earth is that?” Hannah asked.

“It’s a school that teaches little girls how to behave like proper ladies. A child of her station…”

“She isn’t a child of any station!” I snapped. I wondered if my parents would ever get the hint that I wasn’t going to raise my child in the peerage.

“I know how you feel about that, William, but you must leave the option open. What if she hits her teen years and wants to embrace her heritage? We’d be happy to have her come and stay with us while she explored her options.”

“She’s my daughter, not yours. She’s not going to live with you to explore anything.” My mother had crossed a line by even suggesting it.

“She’d have Ms. Maggie at her beck and call. You like Ms. Maggie, don’t you, sweetheart?” she asked Penelope, who just scooted closer to Hannah.

“Let’s just focus on dinner tonight and try and have a pleasant evening. Emmaline, if for some reason my daughter decides to get involved in the royal stuff, William and I will guide her through it. If you prove yourself to be a sincerely worthy grandmother, we’d gladly accept your help, but she’ll never, under any circumstance, move in with you. She’s our daughter, and it’s our responsibility to care for her,” Hannah bluntly put my mother in her place.

My mum took a deep breath and nodded her head. I didn’t like that Hannah had said she’d let Penelope have the option of exploring the world of being a Lady. I was pretty sure that was the only reason my mother kept her mouth shut. It was a whole lot more than she’d get out of me.

The rest of the evening was quiet. My mother asked after Penelope’s hobbies and was happy to hear about her piano lessons. “Your dad is a very talented player as well. He never liked to play in front of others, but he did wonderfully in our home. Do you like to perform for others?” my mum asked Penelope.

She shook her head no. I wasn’t surprised.

“She’s also an avid reader. She’s advance for her age,” Hannah offered.

“How exciting! We have a library here. You’re welcome to peruse it while you’re staying in London. Your Aunt Camille enjoyed books when she was younger, at least until she figured out how to shop. Have you gone to any of the boutiques yet?” she asked, looking at Hannah.

“No, we’d just gotten in when you called.”

“We must go! We can have Camille join us and make a day of it. What do you say?” she asked Hannah.

I was sure she’d say no, but she nodded yes. “That sounds like fun. Don’t you think so, Penelope? It’d be neat to be shown around a bit, if you’re willing?” I couldn’t believe she was humoring my mother at all, and then she asked to spend even more time with her…shocking, absolutely shocking. I’d have to ask her about that insane lapse of judgment, once we put our daughter to bed.