Page 138 of Call Back

“It’s true. It didn’t last long. Maybe a few months. It was when you and Roy were young. You were probably seven or eight, although they had been skirting around it for years.” He paused, sympathy in his eyes. “I caution you against hearing more, Magnolia. What good will it do?”

“I want to know the truth.”

“Contrary to popular opinion, the truth doesn’t always set you free.”

“No, but sometimes a person needs a hard dose of reality. I’m not a child anymore.”

He studied me for several seconds, then held up his hands in surrender. “What do you want to know?”

He was confusing me. Despite Brady’s news, I’d been so certain Bill was the serial killer, but why would he be treating me so kindly if he intended on killing me? Was it because Gemma was here? Was she his girlfriend? But when I compared his voice to the voice in his office, I was pretty sure it wasn’t him.

Then who had been in his office?

I just needed to focus on getting as many answers as I could—and then get out. “I want to know when and how their affair started.”

“They met at a fundraiser. We were drumming up clients. We were pretty lean back then, and your father was about to have two babies to provide for. Then there was the house he’d overextended his finances to buy, along with a ballooning-interest mortgage. And Rowena . . . she was beautiful and charming. He was tempted, but he didn’t succumb to the temptation until she was part of a business deal that went bad. She understood what he was going through while your mother was simply furious.”

“So he was stressed?” I asked bitterly. “That excuses what he did?”

“No, Magnolia. Of course not. But things were bad at home with your mother, and he felt trapped. He didn’t want to leave you. When you were born, he built his world around you, but it wasn’t enough.” He paused. “Rowena made him feel like a man again.”

I shook my head in disgust. “Don’t you dare make excuses for him.”

“I’m not.” He sighed and leaned forward. “Nothing will excuse what he did, and he knew it. He never wanted you or your mother to know.”

“You said it lasted a few months. Why did he end it?”

He hesitated. “She ended it. She was in a loveless marriage, and she loved your father. She gave him an ultimatum, thinking it would work, but she underestimated how much he loved you and your brother.”

“So that’s why she hates me so much?”

His eyes widened. “You’ve met her?”

“Yes. A few times.”

“I would like to think she doesn’t hold anything against you personally, but she’s capable of petty jealousy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she does.”

“Did my father also have an affair with Shannon Morrissey?”

He grimaced. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

“You told the police he did.”

Bill linked his fingers together. “I regret that now. I succumbed to gossip.” This was contradicting everything Rowena had said. Who was I to believe?

“So if he didn’t run off with Shannon Morrissey, what happened to him?”

“I suspect Geraldo Lopez killed him.”

“But why?”

“I think we’ve all heard the same thing from the police. Your father, Walter, Chris, and Geraldo conspired to embezzle from Steve Morrissey, and your father was about to go to the police. Geraldo stopped him and used it as a warning to the others.”

I looked Bill in the eyes. “But that’s not what happened, is it?”

His demeanor shifted. “Why would you say that?”

Rowena Rogers had nearly destroyed my family and hated me because my father had—at least once—tried to do the right thing. I decided to throw her under the bus. “Rowena thinks Max Goodwin and Neil Fulton were involved with Shannon Morrissey’s death.”

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