I took Maggie through security to get backstage again. The musicians’ lounges were a better option to take the call, and when Jared saw me he was surprised.
“What’s up?” he asked, getting up from strumming his guitar with Marcus.
“Um, is it okay if I call Michelle back from in here? It’s a little noisy out there.”
“Of course. You can go in there if you want more privacy,” he pointed to the dressing rooms.
“Um, okay. Thanks. Come on, Maggie,” I motioned.
“She can hang out here if she wants,” he said. “Maggie, you want some soda?”
He knew he needed to bribe her since there were other people in the lounge. She had no problem being around Jared, but she got a little shy around the rest of the band.
Maggie was eager to pick out a drink, and I laughed when Jared said, “But you can’t have the whole thing, okay sweetie? I don’t want you to have to go pee in the middle of my show. I’d be sad if you missed it.”
That made her giggle, and she agreed to just a small cup of soda.
“How long do you have?” I asked. “I went out there when they said you had ten minutes.”
“Ten more,” he replied. “They’re still switching the stage. Just make the call; we’re fine.”
Maggie picked out a drink, so I nodded and closed the door behind me. Michelle answered the phone on the first ring.
“Are you still in Arizona?” she asked.
“Um, no, we’re in New Mexico. We’ll head back to California tomorrow. Do you need me? Did something come up? I can fly out tonight if—”
“Uh, let’s talk about that in a minute,” she replied. “But there is something pretty big that you need to know, Taryn. And I really hope this doesn’t have an effect on, uh, your life or…”
“What is it? Just tell me.”
“Okay,” she exhaled. “Um, the professor theory? Turned out to be incorrect. Somewhat.”
“What do you mean ‘somewhat’?”
“Well… Rachel was in relationship with someone while she was at Berkeley. But it wasn’t a professor at the school; it was a guest lecturer in a public relations seminar.”
I thought about that for a second. “Okay… So she hooked up with this guy while she was a student? When?”
“Um, about six years ago.”
I could tell by the sound of her voice what she was implying. “We already established that Maggie’s father is James Graham,” I said.
“I know that’s what the evidence says.”
“It’s on the birth certificate.”
“I know. But there’s a little more to the story, Taryn.”
“Okay, fine. I’m listening.”
I could tell she took a deep breath again, and then she said, “The man she was in a relationship with six years ago was John Miller.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I think my heart stopped. And even though I could hear voices on the other side of the door, it seemed like the world came to a halt.
“No, it-it can’t be,” I stammered.
“John was a guest speaker at Berkeley at that time, and I have a witness that can testify that she saw Rachel with him outside of campus even a month after the seminar. Taryn… I talked to John this morning and…he didn’t deny it. He said that he did meet Rachel after the seminar that day, they ended up going out to dinner, and that he flew down and saw her several times after that. This was when she was also seeing James Graham.”
I was speechless. I’m not sure if I even had a complete thought in my head.
“John said that their relationship ended a few months later but they did keep in touch. When she graduated, she asked him for a job. He turned her down, claiming that it was a conflict of interest. She, um… Well, she played him for quite a while, he says. He claims she told him that Maggie was his daughter.”
“What!?”
“After she got the job she recanted and said that Maggie wasn’t his, and after a pretty rocky business start between the two of them, Rachel ended up proving her worth and John says that he was actually glad that he hired her. They put their differences behind them and just focused on business.”
“So my sister got a job through blackmail? What exactly was the deal? She wouldn’t force him to acknowledge the kid if he gave her a job?”
“Pretty much. He admitted that he didn’t want another kid, but he gave a pretty good starting salary to keep it quiet. He did insist on a paternity test, but by then Rachel was already bagging all kinds of business for the company, so when she came clean about Maggie’s paternity, he was more relieved than angry with her. He said he was mad, but she was already going through a lot of problems with the Graham family and he didn’t want to affect her job performance by making things worse.”
“What kind of problems? I didn’t know of any problems.”
“This is just coming from John Miller, okay? I’ll verify it when I get a chance. But according to John, Rachel was being threatened with visitation rights from the Graham family. She said they were giving her all kinds of problems about seeing Maggie.”
“After James died in prison?”
“Yes. But John always wondered if she was just trying to gain his sympathy—it is part of the reason why he gave her the job at Miller and Harris—so he looked into it. He talked to Blake Graham, James’ father, and he said that Rachel told them that James wasn’t even the father of Maggie.”
“What?”
“Blake said that James found out about the baby when he and Rachel were in the middle of a domestic dispute. She blurted out that she was pregnant with his child so he wouldn’t hurt her anymore. This is what the Grahams say that she told them. But after Maggie was born, and James went to jail for the last time, Rachel told him that he wasn’t even the father.”
“What?” I barely whispered.
“That’s why the Grahams weren’t that set on being a part of Maggie’s life. James told them he wasn’t Maggie’s father. That’s why they backed off and just let Rachel raise her on her own. They didn’t know what the truth was or not, but they really didn’t want to deal with Rachel. Taryn, this is all new to me, so I’m still trying to put the pieces together. The reason I wanted you to know is because we’ve believed all along that somebody at Miller and Harris was in a relationship with Rachel. Recently.”
“Recently? How recent?”
“She was seeing somebody from that company up until the time she died. We already questioned everyone there, and we couldn’t get anything solid, but I’m almost positive that she was.”
“And you think it was John Miller?” I asked hesitantly.
“I’m not sure yet. I did at first—he just seemed a little…suspicious. And trust me, I looked into him so thoroughly that I think I know him better than I know myself. And I know all of his women well. The only thing I missed was the relationship with your sister six years ago, and now that he’s admitted to that, I wonder what else he’s lied about.”
“Oh my gosh,” I mumbled. I sat down on a chair and dropped my face into my hand.
“Taryn, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I mean about… Well, you know…”
“That I’m dating his son? The son of the guy that might have something to do with my sister’s death?”
She sighed. “I wouldn’t go that far just yet, but I will get to the bottom of this. I promise you I will. For now…” She didn’t seem to want to finish the sentence for some reason, and I understood why when she said, “For now I’d like to run a paternity test against John Miller. I need to rule out that he might be Maggie’s father.”
Just hearing her say that blew me away. If John Miller was Maggie’s biological father, that meant Jared was…her half-brother. I just couldn’t even comprehend it. And thinking about the two of them—they had a lot of similarities. They didn’t look anything alike—Maggie looked just like her mom—but there were other characteristics that I began to wonder about.
“Taryn? Will you be able to com
e back to Washington tomorrow?”
“Yes, yes I can. I’ll…I’ll be there tomorrow.”
“Text me your flight information and I’ll pick you up, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And Taryn, about Jared… I don’t know much about him personally but…just be careful, okay? Until we can figure this out? His background is clean but…you just never know.”
I nodded, unaware she couldn’t see my response.
“I just don’t know where we’re at with this investigation,” she continued. “It seems like every time I learn something new, there are a whole slew of new questions that need to be answered right along with it. This is just… It might take some time, but I will get you the answers you deserve, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I barely mumbled.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
I hung up the phone and just sat there for a minute. I didn’t know what to think about the new information, but I began to worry about my situation with Jared. What in the world was this going to do to our relationship?
I told myself to be reasonable. Just because his dad and my sister… Jeez, I didn’t want to think about it. But just because John Miller sported the lifestyle, it didn’t mean that his son was anything like him. I couldn’t hold Jared responsible for his dad’s choices. That wouldn’t be fair. But it made me uncomfortable not knowing who was responsible for my sister’s death, and right now John was front and center of the investigation. And Maggie… Oh, my. I didn’t have a clue where all of that was going to lead.
There was a light knock on the door and it scared me. Jared opened it and stuck his head inside. He looked me over for a few seconds and I knew I wasn’t good at hiding my emotions. He turned around and said, “Give me a minute,” to someone behind him, and then he entered the room and shut the door. “Taryn? What’s going on?”
I stood and shook my head. “Nothing that we need to talk about right now. I’ll fill you in after the show, okay?”
He didn’t say anything at first, but I could tell he was a little unsettled and he said, “Can you just tell me what the police found out?”
I eyed him suspiciously and automatically asked, “Why do you need to know?”
I knew it was totally accusatory, and he looked surprised. “Uh, because I love you and I want to make sure everything is okay. Taryn, what is going on?” He stepped closer to me and softly placed his hand against the side of my face. He lightly touched my skin with his thumb and said, “You’re really worrying me. What did the police say? Did they find something?”
I wanted to blurt out that Maggie could be his sister, but I knew that would be a stupid thing to do. He had a show to get through, and I at least had the sense (and the consideration) to hold off.
“She just said that Rachel was in a relationship with someone at Berkeley—not a professor, but a guest speaker at a lecture. She’s looking into it further.”
I deliberately studied his reaction—I guess I was waiting for some kind of sign that he knew what I was talking about—but he looked confused.
“That’s all she called about? That they still didn’t know anything?”
I shrugged. “She just wanted to know if it rang a bell.”
He didn’t say anything at first. Then he sighed and said, “Taryn, maybe we should hire someone private to do the investigation, like I suggested before. Maybe we’d get more answers that way. You know, someone that can dedicate their full attention to the case without other cases to distract them at the same time.”
“I think Detective Bronson is doing a great job,” I replied defensively. “She cares about the case and she cares about Maggie.”
“I know she does, but what if someone else could care just as much? What if the case was solved that much faster?”
I understood his point, but I also knew that he was misreading my frustration. He had no idea what information was just dealt to me.
“Jared, you need to get onstage, okay? We can talk about this later. Oh gosh, where’s Maggie?” I exclaimed, suddenly remembering that she’d been with him.
“She’s with Carrie,” he said as I flung the door open.
Carrie was sitting on the couch with Maggie, looking at some of the photos on her camera. Maggie smiled at me and pointed to the camera. “Look how weird they are,” she giggled.
I was too frazzled to care about what they were looking at, but to humor my niece, I glanced at the picture she thought was funny.
“Yep, guys can be pretty weird,” I said. “Are you ready to go?”
“Jared! Come on, man!” someone hollered from near the stage. “They are gonna tear the walls down out there!”
It just occurred to me that the entire arena was screaming for the band.
“I gotta go, ladies,” Jared smiled.
He kissed me, but I couldn’t exactly put any meaning into my end of it. I still felt a little troubled about the phone call from the police.
“Okay, Mags,” he added, putting his fist out. She bumped hers into his and then they both made the sound of an explosion. He waved at us both and jogged toward the stage entrance to disappear. A few seconds later I heard the crowd erupt even more, and then a loud force of music belted out from the stage.
Carrie left at the same time with her camera equipment, so I sat down on the couch with Maggie. She looked at me for a few seconds until she finally asked, “Aren’t we gonna watch the show?”
I didn’t know what I wanted to do at that point. Somehow I needed to get to Washington the next day and I seriously considered leaving that second. I could just pack our things from the bus and call a cab, but I knew that would be pretty immature of me. And I knew I didn’t want to do that to Jared. Despite the crazy mess I was in—or could possibly be in—I still loved and respected him. Deep down I knew that he was nothing like his dad. But the news of late had really done a number on me and the possibilities scared me. I didn’t know what kind of obstacles were in store for us. I’d been thinking about his most recent song and had decided to finally express to him how I felt about it, but now I felt like I was shutting down again.
I did take Maggie out to watch the show because she wanted to. I’d always thought it was funny that she was so into watching Jared perform, and I originally decided that she liked to be entertained that way with music. But as we sat there watching the concert from our VIP seats, I started to wonder if Maggie shared Jared’s interests because of different reasons. Biological reasons. She was picking up the piano pretty fast, and she showed an obvious interest in singing. Sometimes she and Jared would sing songs together that I didn’t even know. What if she really was his sister? What was that going to mean?
I hated the “what if” game. I played it with myself way too often.
When the show was over and we were back on the bus, Jared knew something was wrong. He showered and changed, and I heard him tell the guys not to bother him as we left Albuquerque behind.
He led me into the back room and said, “Time to talk to me, Taryn. I barely got through that show because I was worried about you, so please tell me what’s going on.” I worriedly glanced out of the room as he was shutting the door and he said, “Maggie’s fine, okay? If she needs us she’ll say so. Now tell me what the hell is going on. I know that phone call was more than you said it was, so just fill me in, okay?”
I didn’t want to but I began to cry. The tears came out too easily and Jared was alarmed.
He sat down next to me on the bed. “Taryn… What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know,” I finally said.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I just…don’t know what it all means.”
He was silent for a while before he softly said, “Okay, then just tell me what she told you. We’ll go from there.”
I looked at him reluctantly. I just didn’t know how to start.
“Taryn, please. You’re killing me. I’m worried about you. I’m…worried about us. Something
happened. I can feel the difference, the way you are around me. What is it?”
Finally I said, “The guy I mentioned at the seminar?”
He thought for a second. “Uh, the guest speaker at Berkeley?”
“Yes,” I nodded.
“What about him?”
I paused for a few seconds and then said, “It was your dad.”
It was the same moment I had in the dressing room—the sounds on the other side of the door, but complete stillness immediately surrounding me. I looked at Jared and he was giving me a blank stare, and then he stared at the floor with a puzzled look on his face.
“I’m, uh, coming up with a lot of scenarios right now,” he eventually said. “Could you fill me in a little better?”
I took a slow breath and said, “Your dad was giving a lecture at Berkeley six years ago. He and Rachel met up afterwards, and then saw each other for a while after that. Jared, they were in a relationship together.”
He looked at me, kind of like he didn’t believe it or was at least trying to wrap his mind around it. “Six years ago,” he repeated, and I knew he’d finally caught on.
“It’s a long story, but apparently Rachel blackmailed your dad into getting the job at Miller and Harris, even telling him that Maggie was his. Then she said she wasn’t, and then James Graham’s family was told he wasn’t the father and…” I groaned out loud. “I don’t know what to believe, Jared. I mean… My sister really weaved a tangled web. I don’t know where all of this is going to lead…”
“But Maggie’s paternity…”
“I don’t know. The police don’t know. Detective Bronson wanted me to bring Maggie back to Washington. They’re…going to run a paternity test against your dad,” I finished quietly.
“Oh my God,” he whispered. He stood up so quickly I thought he was going to hit his head on the ceiling, but thankfully he was just an inch shy. He leaned against the doorway for a moment, like he was going to be sick at first, but then he cracked the door open just slightly to look at Maggie for a few seconds. I could see that she was playing Go Fish with Jack at the table, and even though Jack glanced up and looked at Jared, Maggie continued to play, and Jared shut the door.
Love Today Page 22
