39. Safe And Comfortable

39

SAFE AND COMFORTABLE

“ T hanks for meeting this late,” Sloane said to Zander two weeks later.

“Never a problem,” Zander said. “Did you have a good Thanksgiving?”

“I did,” she said.

Normally she spent Thanksgiving alone.

Not this year. This was the first year she’d had a big holiday celebration. She was happy to be able to give it to Shiloh too.

She and Shiloh had been invited to Dane’s parents’ house. They ate early and the kids went to their mother’s later that afternoon.

Holidays were normally split, she found out.

She knew about the fight that Dane had with Mel two weeks ago. She didn’t think he had it in him to say what he had and was thrilled that he did.

That he wasn’t this pushover he always said he was.

“That’s good,” Zander said. “I’ve got information for you. Sorry it’s taken so long, but it’s hard when it’s in another state and tracking people down. Not everyone gets back to you via email or calls.”

“I know,” she said. “I didn’t expect you to find anything but knew I had to try.”

“I did find things out,” he said. “Enough.”

“You found out who Shiloh’s father is?” she asked. She wasn’t sure why her heart was racing, but there was this fear that Shiloh could be taken from her now.

They were just getting into a routine and her sister felt safe and comfortable.

Wanted.

They’d both been tested for Lyme disease and came back negative.

Shiloh was getting the care she needed and thriving. They were both opening up to the counselor and life seemed on track.

There was no way she was letting the little girl go without a fight.

“Sorry I’m late,” Dane said, opening the door. “I got held up at the hospital.”

Dane was on call this week, but he wanted to be here for this. She was glad that he came in just now.

Shiloh was upstairs sleeping, which was why this meeting was planned as late as it was and she was glad Zander was so accommodating once again.

“You haven’t missed much,” Zander said. “I was just telling Sloane that I have information for her. I’ll email the whole report to you and everything I found but will give you a summary now and answer any questions. You can ask more after you read everything too.”

“What did you find?” he asked.

“First, the locket that you had. That was from an old coworker. Actually, your mother’s boss. She’s the one I was waiting on and I had to travel to meet with some people too.”

Which meant a bigger bill, but she couldn’t think of it that way. “So it was a woman?” she asked. “Who gave her the locket.”

“Yes. Her name is Barbara Hendrix. She felt bad for your mother. It was after Sabrina left home. Your mother was upset and Barbara had seen the pictures your mother had of you and Sabrina in your mother’s locker. She took them out, made copies and had the locket made and gave it to her as a Christmas gift.”

“That’s nice,” she said.

“Your mother worked there for a few years and then moved to Tennessee. They didn’t keep in touch, but Barbara was able to give me the name of the person who hired your mother at her next job and the contact information.”

“They didn’t have that with social services?” she asked.

“No. Your mother was only employed for a few months and didn’t report it. There were no records of her paying taxes at that time either. My guess is she was employed under the table.”

“She did a lot of work like that,” she said. “I didn’t think of it though.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference if you had,” Zander said. “It’s not like you had names to give me. But one name led to another and I found that there was talk of Nadine dating a coworker.”

“Did you get his name?” Dane asked.

“I did. William Smith. Went by Billy,” he said.

“That’s a common name,” she said. “No way you can find him.”

“I found him,” Zander said. “In a cemetery.”

“So you can’t confirm it with him,” she said. It just was back to square one for her, but at least if Billy was Shiloh’s father, there wasn’t anyone that could come after her for custody.

“Actually,” Zander said. “I believe Billy was Shiloh’s father. I tracked a few more people down. It was a cleaning company. Most worked under the table but were still in the area. Two said Billy and Nadine had a thing going. When he found out she was pregnant, he’d broken things off. He had two kids already that he wasn’t supporting.”

“Guess my mother had great taste in men,” she said drily. “Do you know how he died?”

“A bar fight. He was drunk and was stabbed, but didn’t make it by the time they got to the hospital. I’m not sure any of this is what you wanted to know or hoped to find out,” Zander said.

“It kind of is. I guess in a way I can breathe a sigh of relief that no one out there is coming for Shiloh. I can submit this to the courts too and maybe it will speed things up.”

“I can give Trent a copy,” he said. “His office is right across from mine.”

“I hadn’t realized that,” she said. She hadn’t been to Trent or Zander’s office. Only talked to them by phone but did know they were in the same building.

A Fierce-owned one. With the Kennedys, Olsons and McCarthys.

She’d met most of them at Willow Kennedy’s party a few weeks ago.

“It’s easy to run it over or email it,” Zander said. “Your choice.”

“If you want to give it to him, that’s fine. I’ll let him know it’s coming. So I guess there isn’t much more I can do. We just assume Billy was the father based on some people’s words?”

“We could track down his kids and ask for a DNA sample. Their mothers would have to consent. That would make it more conclusive.”

“I don’t know that it matters,” she said. “Shiloh has me. It’s not like I think there is anyone else that could come get her.”

“No,” Zander said. “Billy’s parents are nowhere to be found. I heard the father is in jail somewhere and I can find that out if you want. His mother took off when he was a kid. I didn’t know how much digging you wanted me to do.”

“That’s enough,” she said. She guessed she just wanted to make sure that no rich family member was going to come knocking on her door demanding Shiloh.

Maybe it was one of those fantasies she’d had as a child.

She didn’t know her grandparents. Her mother’s parents.

Their names were never spoken and it had to be bad enough that her mother left home as a teen.

There was no reason to think anything of the man who fathered her. Nothing was going to happen there. He didn’t even pay attention to her or any of the other kids in the cult.

“What about what I asked you to do?” Dane said. “Anything there?”

She frowned. “What did you ask Zander to do?”

Zander was grinning when she asked that question and then turned back to Dane. “I can answer you here or privately. Your choice.”

“Here,” he said. “I asked Zander to look into the man that raped your mother. I’m not going to say father. He’s not that. He’s not even a sperm donor.”

“Why would you do that?” she asked. She stood up and her voice rose and then she lowered it. No reason to wake up her sister.

“Because I wanted to know if there was a chance anyone would come after you since you said your mother stole money.”

She didn’t buy that and she’d have it out with Dane when Zander left.

“He’s still where he’s been,” Zander said. “Doing the same as he’s done for years.”

“Raping more young girls,” she said. “Can’t he be arrested?”

“No,” Zander said. “He’s on protected land and no one can get to him. I was able to talk to someone that left the cult. A man. He was actually kicked out. His father was a leader.”

“At least he’s no relation to me,” she said. “They tried to never do that. If another leader was going to take a woman, it was not one that had any relation to Simon. You can say his name.”

She didn’t care anymore. It’s not like she woke up having nightmares thinking of it.

She got over that years ago.

They couldn’t hurt her.

“No,” Zander said. “Silas was his name. No relationship to you that I could see. He was kicked out for wanting a relationship with another member that wasn’t approved. At least per him.”

“Lots of control going on there. Once Simon was done with a woman, he decided if someone else could have her and the answer was usually no.”

She supposed she got lucky that her mother never wanted another man and most stayed away since her mother was sick all the time .

“As I said,” Zander said, “he’s doing the same as he always did. There was no talk of stolen money. I asked if those things happened when people left. He was willing to be chatty after a few beers. Didn’t even know why I was asking.”

She’d bet that was why Zander was as good as he was. He could blend in when he wanted to get the information.

“I don’t need to know anything more,” she said. “He’s not a part of my life and never will be. I might have you try to find my sister at some point, but for now, she should live her life and I can live mine.”

“You know where I am if you need anything else,” Zander said, then left.

She turned to Dane and said, “Explain yourself.”

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“You know what it means. You had no right to have my past looked into. That is no different than Mel trying to get you to find your parents.”

“It’s not even close,” he said, his jaw dropping.

“Oh, yes it is,” she said. “Don’t try to say otherwise. You know I didn’t want to know anything and you went behind my back. You’ve said more than once your ex did that to you and how much you hated it. Yet you did the one thing you couldn’t stand being done to you.”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” he said firmly.

“Yeah, well, I’m not in the mood for you to try to talk me into you being right like you do with your kids. You should leave.”

She could see he wanted to argue, but in the end he turned and left.

She wouldn’t cry. She wasn’t even sure if she could, as she was just too damn angry.

For someone who felt she was finally getting some control back in her life, that was a bucket full of cold water in the face as a wakeup call.

She shut everything off in the house and walked up the stairs to see Shiloh standing in the doorway with her head down sniffling.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, running toward her.

“Is Dane not coming back? You were mad and told him to leave.”

Shit. “What did you hear?”

“Just you talking to Dane and you were upset and then you told him to leave. Is he gone for good?”

“Sometimes people fight,” she said. “It’s nothing more than that. You can go back to bed. Do you want me to read you a story?”

Shiloh nodded her head. “I want one with a family and a happy ending.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Me too.”

When she was in bed later, she sobbed harder than she ever had in her life and wondered if this was what Dane meant when he said she’d get hit with grief over her mother at some point.

Only it didn’t have to do with her mother. It had to do with the man she loved.