The Stranger's Sin

by Darlene Gardner

  “Mandy called the pediatrician she used in Harrisburg and authorized him to send Toby’s records,” Chase said. “She also gave me his birth certificate.”

  The very document that proved Toby wasn’t a kidnapping victim—and cast grave doubt on the fact that his mother was a criminal.

  “I’ll be back around six, no later than seven.” Chase nodded to his father and planted his customary kiss on the top of Toby’s head before addressing Kelly. “We’ll talk then.”

  He seemed to take her agreement for granted because he left the room in a hurry, the door closing behind him moments later.

  Kelly swallowed, but her throat still felt clogged.

  She had spent most of the drive back from Fox Tail staring out the passenger-side window, barely taking note of the lush greens of the summer mountains. She and Chase had done very little talking, although he had asked her the time of her preliminary hearing and expressed approval that it was scheduled for early afternoon the next day, saying, “We’ll leave by seven so we can get there by noon.” It seemed Chase meant to deliver her personally to the courtroom.

  “What are you and Chase going to talk about?” Charlie asked, referring back to Chase’s cryptic parting comment.

  She started to say it was nothing important, but Charlie regarded her with such concern that tears pricked her eyes. She dashed them away, annoyed at herself.

  “Oh, Charlie,” she said. “I thought everything would be okay when we found Mandy but it’s not. And the worst part is Chase doesn’t believe me.”

  He was instantly at her side, taking Toby from her and putting him down beside his toys. Then he sat beside her and gave her his full attention.

  “Now tell me what you’re talking about,” he said.

  The story poured from her like water from a tap. She started with her real name and told him about the day she’d stumbled across Mandy and the kidnapped child in the park. He didn’t interrupt, letting her tell the tale at her own pace.

  She owned up to all her lies, refusing to justify them. The only part of the story she left out was what had happened between her and Chase the night before, but Charlie had probably figured out how she felt about Chase on his own.

  “What did you mean about Chase not believing you?” he asked when she finished talking.

  “I can’t really blame him, Charlie. Mandy was very convincing. She even had an alibi.”

  “Then she was lying,” he said. “Chase should know that girl lies like a rug.”

  “Unfortunately, I do, too,” she said.

  “That’s different.”

  “Not so different,” she said sadly. “Now I’m like that boy who cried wolf. I’m telling the truth, but nobody believes me.”

  “I believe you,” he said staunchly. “What are you going to do next?”

  “I’m going back to Wenona for my hearing,” she said. “I can’t live my life on the run. I’ll tell the police about Mandy and try to get them to investigate, but I don’t have much hope of that happening.”

  “When is your hearing?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon.” She released a shuddering breath. “Can I ask you a favor, Charlie?”

  “Anything.”

  “Can you take me someplace where I can rent a car?”

  She heard him exhale. “Why?”

  “Because I have to do this on my own. Chase wants to drive me to Wenona tomorrow, but I couldn’t bear to have him hovering over me, making sure I do the right thing.”

  Charlie’s lower lip jutted forward. “You don’t know that’s why he wants to go with you.”

  “I know what he’s like, Charlie. So do you. He’s the reason you aren’t with Teresa.”

  Charlie recoiled as if she’d struck him in a particularly sore spot. She regretted his pain but she’d spoken the truth.

  “That didn’t come out right.” She thought about how to phrase what she wanted to say. “You told me once that Chase always tries to do what’s right. I have charges against me. Of course he wants to make sure I show up for my hearing.”

  “But you’re innocent!”

  Her throat grew thick. “You’re the first one who’s believed me since I got arrested.”

  “I shouldn’t be the first,” he muttered. “I should sit that son of mine down and give him a talking to.”

  “Please don’t, Charlie.” She put a hand on his arm. “I don’t want him to believe me only because you tell him he should.”

  “But he should!”

  She had to smile at that. “Like I said, it’s good to have you on my side. Now about that car-rental place. Will you take me?”

  IT TURNED OUT THAT THE nearest place to rent a car was at a dealership forty-five minutes away. Charlie stood by her while she filled out the paperwork, Toby on his hip.

  “I’ll take care of the bill,” he said when she got out her credit card. He handed over Toby and pulled out his own wallet before she had a chance to protest. “I won’t take no for an answer. I just wish I could do more.”

  After the paperwork was filled out, she transferred her backpack from the trunk of Charlie’s car to the rental. The only thing left was to leave.

  She’d thought she had said goodbye to Toby and Charlie once already at the bed-and-breakfast. This time was different. This time Charlie knew it was farewell, too. Even Toby seemed to sense it. He started to bat at her nose, then stopped and stroked her face instead.

  “You’re a good boy, sweetheart.” She kissed his baby-soft cheek, smelled his clean scent and felt an ache in her chest. “I’m going to miss you.”

  She tried to hand Toby over to Charlie, but the baby clung to her, his face starting to crumple.

  “Don’t cry, sweetie,” she said in a low, soothing voice. “Everything will be all right.”

  “He doesn’t want you to go, either,” Charlie said.

  “I have to go.” She was finally successful in handing over Toby, but he looked seriously unhappy. She kissed Charlie on the cheek, tenderness welling inside her chest. In a few short days, she’d come to love this man like a father. “Thanks for being such a good friend.”

  “What should I tell Chase?” he asked.

  The tears she’d been fighting threatened, but she held them back. Tell him I love him, she thought. Tell him I wish he’d found it in his heart to believe me.

  “Tell him not to worry. I won’t skip the hearing.”

  She’d show up in the courtroom at the scheduled time, just as Chase would want her to. Even if it meant spending the next year in prison.

  CHARLIE STOOD UNOBSERVED AT the gate that led to the backyard of the big house where Teresa had lived with her husband and children.

  She hunched over in the portion of the once-large vegetable garden she’d continued to tend, fingering a tomato that wasn’t quite ripe. The sun bathed her in light. Even in an oversize shirt and stained khaki shorts, he thought she was beautiful.

  Beautiful and stubborn and maddening.

  But if she wasn’t all those things, she wouldn’t be Teresa.

  He unhooked the latch on the gate and pushed it open. It creaked. Teresa’s chin rose, and their eyes met across the expanse of yard.

  She stood up, brushing her hands on her shorts. She did not look surprised to see him. “Hello, Charlie.”

  “Hello, Teresa.”

  Her eyes widened. “That’s it? No, ‘Hello, gorgeous’? Or ‘Who let you out of heaven?’”

  “I’m not that corny,” Charlie said.

  “Yes,” Teresa said, “you are.”

  “Not today I’m not,” Charlie said firmly. “Today we have things to talk about.”

  After he’d seen Kelly off and put Toby down for his afternoon nap, his mind had been consumed with Teresa. Not surprising since he’d thought of little else since the for-sale sign had gone up in front of her house.

  He’d initially planned to bring Toby along on this visit and had even written a note to Chase on the grease-board to that effect, but then he’d spott
ed Judy Allen outside with her kids and asked if she’d watch him.

  The things Charlie had to say were better said without Toby distracting him.

  “It won’t make any difference, but by all means, let’s talk,” Teresa said.

  She bent down and picked up three ripe tomatoes she’d set aside, then led him to her back porch. It was a simple structure, little more than a painted cement slab covered by an awning, but she’d made it pretty by hanging baskets of colorful flowers and covering the wrought iron chairs with patterned seat cushions. She put the tomatoes on a round table, then sat down herself, waving a hand in silent invitation for him to do the same.

  By not inviting him into the house, he suspected she was trying to drive home the point that they were already through.

  His stomach lurched, the prospect making him too nervous to sit. He leaned against the porch railing.

  “If you came to try to talk me out of selling the house, save your breath.” Her chin had a stubborn lift, but her mouth sagged, as though she wasn’t quite as in control as she’d like him to believe. The droop gave him hope.

  “I think you should sell,” he said.

  “What?” She looked more shocked than if he’d told her to burn down the place.

  “You should sell,” he repeated. “Look around. It’s way too much house for one person.”

  She jumped up from her chair and crossed to where he stood, placing her hands on her hips. “This is one of your tricks, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You’re agreeing with me, even though you don’t agree so I’ll take up the argument you should have made.”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t you tell me that you think it’s a good idea for me to move away from all my friends and the town I love.”

  “I don’t,” Charlie said.

  She took her hands off her hips and threw them into the air. “You just said you did!”

  “I said you should sell your house, not move away from town,” he clarified.

  “You’re not making sense, Charlie Bradford.” Her eyes flashed. “If I sold my house but stayed in town, where would I live?”

  He swallowed and straightened from the railing, cutting the distance between them to not more than a foot or two. “With me.”

  “With you?” She looked well and truly confused. And just maybe, a little bit hopeful.

  What the heck, he thought, and dropped to one knee. Once his knee was touching the porch, though, his throat swelled with emotion.

  “Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” she whispered.

  He cleared his throat. “Only if you think I’m asking you to marry me.”

  She promptly burst into tears. He straightened, damning his creaky knees for not moving faster. His leg bumped the table, knocking a few tomatoes to the cement floor in the process, but he paid them no mind. He took her beloved face in his hands. The tears streaming down her cheeks could have been staining his own face. He couldn’t believe their romance would end this way but neither could he bear to see her so sad.

  “Don’t cry, sweetheart,” he said. “I know Andrea and your grandchildren need you. I won’t make you choose.”

  The tears flowed harder, but she managed to choke out between tears, “Yes.”

  “If you have your heart set on Philadelphia…” He stopped, gaped at her. “What did you say?”

  “Yes,” she said, sniffling but smiling. “I said yes. I’ll marry you.”

  He wasn’t sure who moved first, but suddenly they were wrapped in each other’s arms, their lips locked, their hearts touching. He smoothed her hair back from her face, caressing her cheeks, her lips, her nose, his fingers coming away damp with her tears.

  “I don’t even have a ring,” he said. “What kind of a proposal was that without a ring?”

  “A wonderful proposal.” Her watery smile was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen. “I don’t need a ring. I only need you.”

  “Now who sounds corny?” he asked, and she laughed. He kissed her again, more lingeringly this time, drawing back only because there were things they hadn’t yet discussed, matters to be decided. Yet he found he couldn’t let her go, not when he’d come so close to losing her.

  “Have you told Chase?” she asked.

  “Not yet. I didn’t know myself what I was going to say until I got over here.”

  Her expression changed. She extricated herself from his arms and put a few paces between them. “Then how could you ask me to marry you?”

  “I asked you to marry me because I love you,” he said. “And you love me. Otherwise you wouldn’t have said yes.”

  “Of course I love you,” she said. “But Chase’s reaction could be too big an obstacle for us to overcome.”

  “I won’t let it be,” he said stubbornly. “It took that for-sale sign for me to realize what was important. I’ll make him understand.”

  “You still should have told Chase before you asked me,” she said.

  “Told me what?”

  Charlie turned to see his son standing at the foot of the porch. It was obvious he’d come through the open gate to the backyard, but it was less clear how long he’d been there.

  Teresa said nothing, but it wasn’t her responsibility to break the news to his son. It was Charlie’s.

  His stomach tightened at what was to come. He loathed hurting his son, but he couldn’t give up Teresa.

  “Told you that Teresa and I love each other.” Charlie moved closer to her, presenting a united front. “We started seeing each other a few months ago.”

  “Seeing each other?” Chase struggled for words. “Mom just died.”

  “We know the timing’s not great, and it doesn’t change the way we felt about your mother,” Charlie said. “We both loved her. We both miss her. But we can’t bring her back.”

  “Dad, she hasn’t even been dead a year!” Chase rasped out the words.

  “Teresa and I didn’t plan what happened. It just did.”

  “Not even a year, Dad!”

  Charlie realized now he’d never felt disloyal to his late wife. Only to Chase.

  “In a lot of ways, you’re just like your mother,” Charlie said, “but you’re acting like an ass.”

  “What!”

  “An ass,” Charlie repeated. “I knew your mother better than anybody. She’d want me to be happy again. She’d want Teresa to be happy. She wouldn’t keep some damn schedule about when it’s okay to love again.”

  Chase opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.

  “I asked Teresa to marry me,” Charlie went on. “She said yes. We’d like your blessing, but we’ll get married without it.” Charlie took Teresa’s hand and found that it was trembling. “I can’t keep hurting Teresa because of you.”

  “Because of me?”

  “Charlie didn’t want you to find out about us, but I refused to keep sneaking around.” Teresa spoke for the first time since Chase had showed up. “I was going to move to Philadelphia.”

  “Because of me,” Chase said, but this time it wasn’t a question. It was a statement. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, then met Charlie’s eyes. “I hate that you felt you couldn’t tell me.”

  “I hate that you can’t wish us well,” Charlie said.

  “Whoa! I never said that.”

  “So you’re okay with us getting married?” Teresa asked.

  He hesitated, and Charlie could see emotions chasing across his son’s face. He thought he read grief and resistance but couldn’t be sure what else.

  “You’ll have to give me time to get used to the idea, but I should be able to manage it,” Chase said slowly, with difficulty. He looked at Teresa. “I already think of you as family.”

  Charlie’s heart felt like it was filled with helium. He let go of Teresa’s hand and wrapped his son in a hearty bear hug. Teresa excused herself to go mop up her tears, but Charlie suspected she was giving them time alone.

 
“This means a lot to me, son.” Charlie heard the catch in his voice and decided it was time to lighten the mood. “But I don’t think you should start calling her Mother Teresa.”

  The corners of Chase’s mouth lifted. He hadn’t completely adjusted to the idea of his father remarrying, Charlie thought, but he’d get there.

  “I haven’t even told her she’s going to be Grandmother Teresa to Toby yet,” he said. “Everything happened too fast.”

  “Where are Toby and Kelly anyway? After I saw your note, I thought I’d find all three of you here.”

  Charlie had been so caught up in how Chase would react to his new romance that he’d forgotten that Chase had been equally disapproving of Kelly. He stiffened. “Toby’s with Judy Allen and her kids. Kelly’s probably back in Wenona by now.”

  “Back in Wenona!” The tone of Chase’s voice spiked. “But we were supposed to drive up there together tomorrow morning.”

  “She told me.” Charlie didn’t try to keep the displeasure from his voice. “She also told me about the kidnapping charge and her hearing. I can’t say I blame her for leaving town.”

  “How could she leave town without a car?” Chase seemed visibly upset, but Charlie couldn’t muster any sympathy for him.

  “I rented her a car.” Charlie scowled at Chase. “She said to tell you not to worry about her showing up for the hearing. She’ll be there even without a watchdog.”

  “A watchdog?” Chase shook his head. “But I don’t understand. Why didn’t she tell me she was leaving?”

  Thinking back over the last fifteen minutes and his own reluctance to confide in Chase, Charlie cocked a brow. “Do you really have to ask?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Kelly’s lawyer demanded the instant they were in the austere downtown Wenona law offices of Bergman and Dietz and behind closed doors. “Do you know how many messages I left you?”

  “Ten.” She hadn’t deleted the messages she’d checked remotely and had counted them last night when she arrived home. Spencer Yates had left one message on her answering machine for every day she’d been gone.