Page 121 of The Secrets She Keeps

He’d heardthe news reports. They were looking for him now. Timothy hadn’t been stupid enough to go to his office. The cops would be waiting for him there. It was over.

Trey…Trey had destroyed everything.

Timothy hadn’t stopped him. He hadn’t.

Now, he would pay the price forever. Everything Timothy had valued, worked toward for twenty years, longer—his entire career ger—was destroyed. Because of Trey. Because Timothy's son couldn't stop hurting people. Timothy had been building something, something to leave his daughters. So they could have better lives when he was gone.

Timothy fell to his knees next to his couch. Just fell…to the hard tile floor of the house he had picked out after his Angela was gone. He had filled her head with dreams of living in Hughes Heights someday after they had discovered her father's money was gone.Timothyhad promised her he'd give her the kind of life she had been used to. What kind of life she had wanted for their girls. Angela’s daughters.

She had always deserved the better kind of life.

But he had failed her, then. She had never seen his house in Hughes Heights. She had never known he had made her dream happen.

But he hadn't had their daughters either.

He had lost them. She wouldn't have wanted him to lose the girls. Or for the girls to lose the rest of Angela's family. He had screwed up. He should have fought harder to rebuild his relationships with his girls, with Bonnie, with Angela’s family.

He should have worked harder to be the man Angela had thought him. To make thingsright.

To take care of the girls. To take care of Bonnie and Heather and the rest of the family Angela had loved so much. But he had lost himself for a little while.Lost his way.

Maybe that was when he had lost Trey too.

Timothy wept. Like he hadn't since the day he had lost his Angela. She had died in his arms. Just looking at him, a goodbye and an "I-love-you-all-so-much" on her lips. With all of them surrounding her. Heather had held Summer so close in her own arms. Bonnie had held Eden and Marcia had held Samia.

Timothy had never gotten that memory out of his head. No matter how much he had tried.

He just hadn't. He had lost his daughters that day too.

Trey had messed everything up.

But Timothy wasn't going to lose Leena.

He stood.

Timothy had things to do.

Leena needed him now.

It was time to be thefathershe deserved.

81

Timothy was waitingon Brianna’s living room couch when she walked in, with Leena following behind her. Leena was chattering excitedly about her little friend Annalise. That had been Dr. Stockton's daughter. He was an older man, around fifty. Quiet and reserved, but he was very good looking. Distinguished and dignified. And extremely successful. Very famous in medical circles, she had heard. He lived in one of the most beautiful, larger homes in Hughes Heights.

Brianna had thought about asking him to dinner before. He would make an excellent husband and was very successful. He was quite a bit older than she was, but that didn’t really matter to her.

Well, except for the fact that she so did not want to be a stepmother, like, ever. She'd had a stepparent. She never wanted tobeone.Dr. Stockton had a bunch of kids and everything.

But a wealthy doctor for a husband would be nice. Maybe someday. One without a bunch of kids.

“Timothy.” She felt nervous with him there. Like she never really had before. Except the night he’d told her he was her father for real and everything. Even though Brianna hadpartially suspected for years. The way her stepfather had talked about Timothy had been a dead giveaway.

“Why don’t you ever call me dad?” He had that irritated, melancholy look on his face again.The one he got when he talked about her childhood and everything. And his mistakes. It always made Brianna sad when he looked like that.

"I don't know. Just never think about it. What are you doing here, anyway?" People were talking about him. Didn’t he realize that yet?

"I'm here to get your sister, of course. It's time we...we're leaving Finley Creek. Relocating." He had an almost frantic look in his eyes now. "It's time."

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