Chapter Sixty-Eight Her

Chapter Sixty-Eight Her

Present Day

“Cooper Dougherty was your father.” Elias didn’t say anything else after he delivered that stunner follow-up. Neither of us

did for a solid two minutes.

I temporarily blacked out or maybe I hoped I did. The buzzing in my head drowned out any attempt at rational thinking. Answering

Elias with the full, ugly truth was out of the question. An honest response would lead to a life explosion bigger than anything

I’d experienced so far. That left me with the option of blathering on and hoping Mr. Lawyer would move to a new topic.

Keep the words neutral. That was the key. “Why would you think that?”

“All the worries you had about your DNA being analyzed by the police.”

“There are potentially other reasons for that concern. Maybe I have a criminal record or need to hide my identity for some

other reason.” Most people in town assumed that, so why not lean into it?

He smiled. “Are either of those things true?”

“No.”

“Exactly.” Elias sat down on one of the kitchen barstools. “The investigator I hired provided some interesting information about your family.”

Oh, shit. “The one you promised was investigating August and not me. That investigator?”

“That was his task at the start, yes. When you told me your mom was a problem and couldn’t be trusted, I had my guy look into

her.” Elias wrapped his fingers around the coffee mug but didn’t pick it up. “Her past was much easier to uncover than yours.”

I leaned back against the sink because I needed something to hold me up. “She lives her life wide open.”

This was one secret I never wanted to spill. The secret Mom dumped on me after I’d already gotten tangled up with Richmond. The lie that tainted everything. The one lie I would never forgive. It sounded

like Elias was about to ram up against it.

“Your mom grew up in Annapolis. She left school because she was pregnant with you. The public story was that she went to live

with a relative in New York, but she never actually went to an aunt in New York.”

“She doesn’t have an aunt.” That seemed safe to admit.

“The investigator didn’t find anything to connect your mom with Zach. Zach had a girlfriend. People who knew him back then

talked about her.”

“It was a long time ago. Memories fade.” That sounded somewhat logical. I hoped.

“For all of this to explode decades later, to go after Richmond, specifically, suggests a very personal and very targeted revenge. Your DNA worries made me wonder about how deep your connection to the Dougherty family went. That led me to ask the investigator to check into your mom’s relationships back then. She told at least one friend about sleeping with a boy from a wealthy family at the country club where she worked. Zach’s family weren’t members.” Elias stopped to take a sip of coffee. “Richmond had Kathryn. Cooper was the quiet one. Easier to manipulate. He was your mom’s way out of the life she didn’t want.”

I never made the connection before my mom spewed the family secret in the middle of my favorite diner. Never dreamed she could

set me up for that sort of violation. What rational person would?

“I’m your lawyer but I’d also like to think we’re friends. Reluctant at first and completely mismatched but still friends.

You can tell me the truth. It stays between us.”

Cooper Dougherty was my dad . The right words rolled around in my head and still didn’t fit.

Friends were a luxury I avoided. Moving around, sidestepping emotions, keeping my past locked up, and not trusting anyone

made genuine relationships impossible. I’d convinced myself I didn’t want or need people. Complete bullshit. Making connections

keeps you human. I’d been a hollowed-out husk for too long.

But if Elias and I were friends I needed to protect him while I protected myself. “If I married my uncle the marriage would

be void. That means the money, the house, everything, would be up for grabs. The kids should get it all, but Portia is a minor

and Kathryn is determined. And she’s about to need a lot of money for expensive attorneys who aren’t you.”

“Well done.” He actually looked proud. “Did you go to law school and not tell me?”

“It took a two-second internet search to figure out who wasn’t allowed to get married in this state. Uncle-niece is specifically mentioned as forbidden, as it should be.” The idea couldn’t pass any ick test. “I also have common sense.”

Mom’s paternity bombshell after—conveniently for her not before—I got married caused me to look up a lot of things, including

how to break from your toxic mother forever . That remained a work in progress.

“When we first started this journey you talked about how you couldn’t know the location of my bat because you might have a

legal or ethical obligation to disclose it... or something like that.”

“Close enough,” Elias said. “That was also a hypothetical conversation.”

We seemed to excel at those. “Consider the question of my paternity equal to the question about the location of my bat.”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds then nodded. “You’re right. The marriage would be null and void.”

“Hypothetically speaking, I didn’t know when I married Richmond. I thought Zach was my dad, and that’s why she wanted revenge.

Mom sprang the family tree horror on me after. When it was too late.”

It was important that Elias know this was all her idea and I got trapped in her mess. Mom lied for decades to stoke my bloodlust, spinning me round and round in the fatherhood

sweepstakes before she landed on the answer that branded me a murderer’s daughter.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get violent when she told you the truth,” Elias said.

“I came close.” Picking the diner to deliver the news boxed me in. She didn’t allow room for an outburst or throwing things

or yelling. She maneuvered me into a benign outward reaction.

The private one included throwing up in the diner bathroom and crying in the stall until my mother came to fetch me. Later, we sat in my car while she pummeled me with excuses about how what she did wasn’t a big deal.

The idea of marrying my uncle was so repulsive, so unthinkable and out of bounds, that I would have risked her divulging my

part in her husband’s death all those years ago to the police if she’d told me the truth before the wedding.

The initial horror gave way to a heavy numbness. She broke me that day. Finally and fully. She’d never been the usual mom

but that day she became a monster. And I was the child of monsters.

“In this scenario, your mom was dating Cooper and that’s how she got the evidence, including the map and the recording about

the murders. Through him. When and how are questions, as is how deeply she was involved in the plot to kill the Doughertys.

We’re not going to examine those questions because doing so could raise the issue of her culpability, shine a spotlight on

you, and potentially put your inheritance at risk.”

I didn’t need a fancy degree or weeks of research to come up with an answer. I blamed her. I always would.

“And if Kathryn and your mom knew each other back then it would explain why Kathryn came to this house to kill your mom.”

Would it, though? That part remained murky. “So, how can we keep the police from testing for my DNA and unraveling all of

this?”

“Nick.”

“He’s never the right answer.”

“The DNA on the bat was corrupted, as you know. So, you’re clear there. My understanding is there’s no other usable DNA on the items collected.”

Luck rarely worked in my favor. Being saved by it now felt like a stretch. “How is that possible?”

“I’m repeating what Nick told me.” Elias finished his drink and eyed the coffeemaker as if he intended to make another cup

and stay for a while. “The blood evidence collected at the murder scene belonged to Richmond only.”

The whole thing had an air of cover-up about it. Elias wasn’t the type and the detective seemed like a straight shooter. Too

obsessed with me being the bad guy but not someone who would make up or hide evidence. That would mean my superior cleaning

skills destroyed all the DNA on the bat and in the house, and that wasn’t believable either.

Nothing else came to me except for one thing. “I don’t want to owe Detective Sessions a favor.”

“Take that up with him.” Elias started to make another coffee. “That leaves the issue of Portia and Wyatt. What now? Do you

leave and cut them off or do you stay and have a relationship with them?”

Yes. No. Who the hell knew? The possibilities swirled around in my head. I hadn’t landed on the clear winner yet. When it

came to interacting with them—my newfound cousins, a fact that still left me reeling—the lines between too much time and not

enough blurred. They’d remain hazy until all the criminal cases against Kathryn were resolved. Until then... “We’ll work

it out eventually.”

“Hypothetically, you’re related.”

Weird but true. “No matter how hard I try to conquer it, I have a weakness for family.”