With Cora clutched in his arms, he bolted between houses and across yards, over shrubs and through clusters of trees, until he was certain they weren’t being followed. Gasping for breath, he leaned against a dilapidated building and hugged Cora to his pounding chest. Hard sobs shook her body and she gripped his neck.
“It’s okay, princess. You’re safe now. Daddy’s got you.”
He stroked her back and let her cry, knowing she needed the comfort, and that he needed the time to catch his breath. His shoulder was killing him, and he had no idea where he was.
“I don’t want to go b-back there,” she cried.
“You won’t, princess. Not ever. Daddy’s taking you home.”
“Is Mama there?”
“No, she’s waiting for you at a friend’s house.”
Cora’s face was covered in tears. “Can we see her now?”
His throat closed and he could only nod, unable to bear the devastation in her eyes.
She looked at his cheek. “That woman s-scratched you.”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Nothing hurt but his heart. He pulled out his handkerchief and cleaned her face, and helped her blow her nose. Then he pulled his coat around her and held her against his chest to keep her warm in the cold night.
“Ready to go?” he asked cheerfully, but inside he raged, wanting to wrap his fingers around Stone’s neck and kill him.
Duke stayed to the alleys and backyards, trying to avoid walking the streets as he navigated in a northeasterly direction. The neighborhood could only be called dilapidated, the people destitute and desperate, and he wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.
But Cora’s squeal brought him to a stop. “There’s grandma’s house!” she said, her face lit with wonder as she pointed at a big house on the corner. “Is Mama there?”
Shocked, Duke looked again at the enormous two-story house. It wasn’t as shoddy as the surrounding homes, several of which were being torn down and the lots cleared, but it was far from what he would want to live in.
“Can we go there?” Cora asked.
He nodded, feeling a deep need to see the root of all his troubles.
They scared off two young boys who were playing on the front stoop. Duke forced the back door then went through the big house where Faith’s mother and aunts had sold their bodies, and where Faith had used her beautiful hands to give other men pleasure.
“This is pretty,” Cora said, ogling the gaudy parlor. “Grandma only let me and Adam come in the kitchen.”
Thank God.
Other than the loud I, the house was unremarkable. Still, Duke couldn’t help wondering which room Faith had worked in—and where she’d lost her virginity to Jarvis.
“Our house is out back,” Cora said, tugging his hand as if she were giving him a tour.
She showed him a ramshackle greenhouse where Faith had grown her herbs, and where her mother had tended roses. Then Cora showed him the house where she, Adam, and Faith had lived.
It was a shack.
A one-room, one-bed, miserable little shack.
But Cora trotted to the bed like it was her favorite place in the world. “I slept here,” she said importantly. “And Mama and Adam did too.”
He’d suspected that. Their spare existence outraged him, but Cora seemed to think she’d had a fine house. With a cry of joy, she scrambled off the mattress and dove for something beside the bed. “My book!”
She lifted the book, and a brush fell to the floor with a clunk, but she was too absorbed with the book to notice. But Duke noticed. He knelt beside Cora, picked up the brush with the silver handle and painted porcelain back, and tucked it into his coat pocket.
How on earth had Faith survived this?
Knowing she had spent twenty-five years living in this barren little room sickened him. It must have been a prison. No wonder she had spent her time in the greenhouse. How easy it would have been for a well-traveled man like Jarvis to mislead a desperate girl into believing she was finally getting an opportunity to escape this life.
“We need to go, princess,” he said.
“Can I take my book?”
“Of course. Take whatever you’d like.”
She rooted between the wall and the mattress like a dog digging for a bone. She found another book and proudly hugged it to her chest as she headed for the door.
Duke lifted Cora and her two precious books into his arms. He peered out the window to make sure they hadn’t been followed then stepped outside and closed the door on a place he never wanted Faith, Adam, or Cora to see again.
“Bye, Grandma.” Cora’s comment confused him, until he saw her waving at a small rosebush behind the shack. “Mama says grandma’s sleeping beneath the rosebush now.”
As much as he wanted to remain indifferent, or silently curse the woman who’d allowed her children to live in such sordid conditions, he couldn’t bring himself to walk past the grave marker. Faith, Adam, and Cora loved her. Even their crazy aunts loved the woman. She must have had some saving graces.
With Cora tucked inside his coat, Duke knelt by the bush. “I’ll take care of your children for you,” he said, speaking his first words to his motherin-law.
Cora reached out and plucked a dried, withered rose from a thorny stem. “Mama will like this,” she said, closing her fingers around the ugly brown flower.
It was nearly dark when Duke found the lawyer’s house. And not a minute too soon. His shoulder throbbed, the scratch marks on his cheek stung, and he was starving.
Cuvier opened the door before Duke could knock. “I was preparing to come look for you,” he said, hurrying them inside.
Faith rushed into the foyer, but when she saw Duke holding Cora, she burst into tears and threw her arms around them both.
“Thank God. Oh… thank you, Jesus.”
“Mama, I got my books!” Cora said, but Faith sobbed too hard to respond. She pulled Cora into her arms and rocked her.
“Oh, baby, I missed you.”
Cora buried her face in Faith’s neck. “Daddy says I won’t go back there no more.”
“You won’t, sweetie. Never again.”
“I got this for you.” Cora opened her hand to show her the crushed rose that was falling apart. “It was on Grandma’s rosebush.”
Faith frowned and raised wet eyes to Duke. He nodded to say that Cora wasn’t confused, that they had been to the brothel and he finally understood.
“Oh, no.” Her lashes swooped down to cover her eyes, but he’d seen the shame in them.
“Don’t you like it?” Cora asked.
“Yes, baby. I like it very much.”
As they clung to each other, Duke began to understand that they were never sisters. From the moment of Cora’s birth, this little girl had been Faith’s daughter.
And now she was Duke’s daughter.
He felt small for having judged Faith, for condemning her for keeping secrets and marrying him to secure Adam’s and Cora’s future. She’d chosen that path out of necessity. He couldn’t blame her for that. But still knowing she’d had to marry him, left a hollow hole in his chest.
*
FAITH GAVE CORA a bath, read her books to her and rocked her to sleep. She put her in bed then went downstairs to her father’s study where he and Duke were talking. She accepted a glass of wine from the lawyer then sat in a large leather chair.
Cuvier stood by the fireplace, deep in thought. Finally, he sighed and turned up his palms. “There’s no easy way to explain this, so I’m going to state the bald truth. I was a young man just out of law school when I first visited your mother’s brothel,” he said. “My flower of choice was Rose. Every time. She told me it was foolish to care about her, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love. I thought we could find a way to be together, but she insisted it was impossible….”
His subsequent silence unnerved Faith. If he left the story unfinished, she would never feel settled. “Did you know about me?”
“Not right awa
y,” he said, refilling his glass from the decanter on the wine cart. “My uncle offered me a job at his law firm in Chicago, and Rose insisted I take the opportunity to start my law career. I thought if I earned enough money, I could bring Rose to Chicago with me.” He rested his wineglass on the stone mantel. “I didn’t make it back to see her until the second year, and it was only twice, but each time I asked her to come to Chicago with me, she refused. By the third year, I was miserable. I quit the firm and moved back to Syracuse.” Sadness filled his eyes. “That’s when your mother finally told me she had a daughter. But she insisted you weren’t mine. I didn’t know what to believe because she was always twisting her words and changing her mind about seeing me.”
Faith nodded to let him know she understood, that his absence in her life wasn’t completely his fault.
“It didn’t matter to me. I wanted to marry your mother and move us to another city, but she refused. When I pushed, she called me a fool and said I was becoming bothersome, and that she didn’t want me to visit her anymore. I stormed out, feeling like the fool she called me. It took me ten years to discover that my father had paid her a visit. He’d told her about my successful family and my achievements in law school, and explained that I would forfeit everything and ruin my life if I continued to visit her. So she made sure I didn’t come back.”
Of all the possible scenarios Faith had imagined about the man who fathered her, this wasn’t one of them. He’d always been the one at fault. Her mother had always been the victim. But the truth was harsher, because they were all victims. Her mother had loved a man enough to save him from his own destructive love. Her father had loved a woman from the wrong side of town. And their children had suffered the shame of their sins.
“I loved Rose from the minute I first saw her, and I still wanted her, so I went to see her. She welcomed me as a lover, but refused to marry me. Being continually spurned and lied to finally wore me down, and one day I just decided not to go back.”
Which explained why he didn’t know about Adam. Because if he’d ever seen the boy, he would know Adam was his son.
“I thought by helping the judge push the theater project, it would raise property values and your mother could sell the brothel and buy that house she wanted.”
Pain squeezed Faith’s heart to know her mother had shared her dream with this man—and that he might have been able to make her dream come true.
“I didn’t know Judge Stone was working against us. I thought he was an honorable man like his brother and father. He promised me great career rewards if I worked hard and kept my nose clean. So when he warned me to stay away from the badlands section of the city, I never suspected it was because of your mother. But now I see what a blind fool I’ve been. Your mother sent me a letter shortly before she died, but I thought…” He sighed, a deep sadness filling his eyes. “I didn’t trust her. I suspected that my father was using her again to manipulate me. He wants me to go back to his brother’s firm in Chicago.”
“May I ask what was in her letter?” Faith asked.
“Rose said Stone was trying to strip her of her property. I did some digging while I was at the courthouse watching Stone this evening, and it appears she was right. Stone has recently filed papers with the city to list the property as abandoned and seize it for his theater project.” Cuvier shook his head. “I feel like the world’s biggest fool. Judge Stone was using me and your mother to protect his investment.” He handed the letter to Faith. “I let your husband read it while you were tending Cora.”
Faith’s hands shook as she accepted the letter. Her mother’s pretty script filled the page and brought an ache to Faith’s heart.
My dearest Steven,
I need your help. Your father may have directed my actions years ago, but he was right. You would have regretted the sacrifices and losing your position of respect. To confess that Faith was your daughter would have tipped that first domino in your downfall—and perhaps your eventual hatred of me. I kept the truth from you, planning to take our baby away from this place and give her a decent life, but I didn’t have the money and neither did you. I loved you, Steven, and couldn’t stay away from you, but when I got pregnant with Adam, I knew you would recognize him as your own so I had to drive you away before we both did something foolish and ruined your career.
I thought Judge Stone with his big promises could help me and the children break away from this life. He promised to buy the brothel property for double its value if I became his mistress for a year. He talked of tearing down the brothel and building a grand theater right here on this very property. I thought it a noble and admirable plan. He promised to move me and the children to a nice house in a new town where we could build a respectable and happy life. Like a bird following a trail of bread crumbs, I was too busy gobbling up his promises to realize I’d walked myself into a cage.
Stone intends to strip me of my property and home, Steven. He swears he’ll ruin you if I disappear. He is threatening to take Cora from me if I don’t sign the deed over to him. I can’t run and I can’t stay. I have begged Faith to pose as a widow and take Adam and Cora to a safe place, but she fears we’ll never see each other again.
I’m afraid to take a step in either direction for fear of causing more harm, but I refuse to let Judge Stone take away my only means of escaping this life. Please, Steven, go back to Chicago and take our children with you. I know I’ve sacrificed my chance at love and happiness but please help Faith, Adam, and Cora find the life they deserve.
Please accept my love and apology, and respond quickly.
Celia Rose
Faith lowered the letter to her lap. For the first time in her life, she understood her mother’s deep sadness. Each time her mother had prodded her to move away, Faith wondered if they were too much of a burden to her. But her mother had just wanted them safe. She’d made awful choices, and there were many things she could have done better, many ways she could have made Faith, Adam, and Cora feel wanted, but for all her faults and failings, she was only guilty of being naive and thinking with her heart instead of her head.
“Can this letter be used as evidence against Stone?” Duke asked.
Cuvier nodded. “It might not do much good, but I’m willing to face the consequences.”
“You can’t do that.” Faith lifted the letter. “My mother sacrificed her heart to protect you from ruin. To bring all this out now would make her sacrifice worthless.”
Cuvier sighed. “It may not serve us anyhow. But Stone has undoubtedly swindled others. I’ll look over the deals I did for him and see if I can track down any of those former homeowners.”
“Don’t let Stone know what you’re doing before we have a noose around his neck,” Duke said.
“No worry. Now that I know how corrupt he is, we all need to be careful.”
“Why would he do this?” Faith folded the letter. “Why would he manipulate my mother and orchestrate a plan that took twenty years just to make money?”
Cuvier finished his wine and set his glass on the mantel. “I don’t know that it’s about money. But if I were to guess, I’d say he’s trying to outshine his brother Gordon, who is the governor of New York.”
Duke’s mouth fell open. “Governor Stone is the judge’s brother?”
Cuvier nodded. “They’re twins, but they’re as different as night and day. Before Gordon left Syracuse, he donated his money and intelligence to building the courthouse. The statue out front honors him and his work.”
“So by turning the badlands into a thriving theater and business district,” Duke said, “Stone not only gets rich but gets the fame and glory for instituting the project, and possibly upstages his brother.”
“It makes sense. His brother is running for senator, a position once held by their father. Maybe the judge is feeling pressured to measure up to his brother’s success.” Cuvier shrugged. “I don’t know what’s driving him, but I’m going to make him answer for his crimes.” Cuvier crossed to Faith. “I’
m sorry I disregarded your mother’s letter, but I never knew when she was being sincere. Every time I believed her, she would do something to tear my heart out. I thought she was lying about Stone because she knew I admired him, and that the letter was a ploy by my father to get me back to Chicago.”
Faith sighed and handed the letter to him. She didn’t blame Cuvier for being suspicious of her mother’s motives; all her life, Faith herself hadn’t known her mother’s thoughts or feelings about anything.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” her father said, his voice filled with remorse. “I let my pride and my pain blind me to a truth I didn’t want to see. Despite your mother’s coldness, I sensed her love, and I sensed you were my daughter. But I didn’t want to know for sure, because with your mother’s constant rejection, I couldn’t bear to have a daughter in my life I wasn’t free to love.”
His honest confession didn’t ease her pain or the years of heartache she’d suffered from being fatherless, but it finally satisfied her question of why he hadn’t come to see her. Steven Cuvier was too easily controlled by others, but he seemed a decent and sincere man. That was far better than the man she’d imagined him to be. And she could forgive him.
“I know it’s too late for me to be a proper father to you, but would you consider letting me come see you from time to time?” A mix of hope and fear filled his eyes. “I can understand if you object, but I hope you’ll allow me the chance to get to know you.”
Her whole life, she’d longed to hear those words from her father. To hear them now was both healing and wounding. It was too late for her to sit on her father’s lap like Cora did with Duke, to feel secure and comforted in his arms. But it wasn’t too late to befriend a man she’d been missing all her life.
She extended her hands to him. “I’ve always kept a place for you in my heart, and I can make a place for you in my life.”
*
AS FAITH RECEIVED her first hug from her father, Duke felt as choked by emotion as he had at his own father’s funeral. It shamed him to think he’d taken so much for granted.
Good Guy Heroes Boxed Set Page 58
