Page 145 of Enthrall
She narrowed her stare. “No.”
“Cameron?”
“It pertains to you.”
“Me?”
“Which pill would you take, Mia?”
My gaze drifted to the beige folder. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Red’s my favorite color,” she said. “I also tend to face my dragons.”
“Red,” I said. “I’d take the red one.”
Her voice was steady and sure. “We do a background search on all of our staff. It’s quite routine. It’s the only way to ensure we hire responsible and honest staff.”
A wave of guilt washed over me...butyou haven’t done anything wrong.
“We conduct a thorough search,” she said. “We hire a private detective to round out the vast body of information we gather.” She lay the folder on the desk and rested her perfectly manicured fingernails on it. “Your background search turned up something interesting. Richard and Cameron both decided it was best not to confront you with it just yet.”
A wave of dizziness came over me with the thought of what they’d found.
“I thought you’d want to know. We did of course go round and around trying to make the best decision about how and when to tell you. In the end we agreed to disagree.”
I took a sip of coffee to moisten my mouth.
“I can’t keep this from you anymore,” she said gravely. “Just can’t. Cameron will be pissed but he won’t fire me.” She tapped the folder. “I’ll be in my office. Come see me when you’ve read this. We knew you’d need proof when the time came.”
When the time came.
Scarlet left me alone with the folder. I slid my mug to the side, careful not to spill any. My mind raced with what might be inside. Richard, Cameron, and in fact everyone here had been keeping a secret from me.
With an unsteady hand, I reached for the folder.
HIS FACE STARED BACK in the photo.
An older version of the man I’d once known as my father. My dad who was meant to have died when I was fourteen, yet these photos proved otherwise. His familiar strong jaw, that thick waft of hair now salt and pepper, and those intense brown eyes. The ones that had stared me down so many times as a child when I’d played in the sand pit too long or made a noise when his favorite show was on.
Standing with my back pressed up against the lift gate, I eventually found my breath again and took those few short steps back to my desk and sat down. Hands trembling, I searched the file for evidence my mom might be alive too. All I found was her death certificate.
In one of the photos my father was wearing a sunhat, and from the look of it he was working on a ranch. A vineyard, apparently, from the detective’s notes. Roscoe-Harvey Winery and Vineyards, in a placed called Yountville in the Napa Valley. My father lived merely a few hours away.
The paperwork clarified how the private investigator had tracked him down. First following up on a lead that someone had been cashing in my father’s social security checks. Perhaps they thought it had been me. The investigator had followed the trail, soon locating the man who’d evaded my life for over seven years.
In the same photo, a fortyish woman picked grapes alongside him. They were hugging. There was also a close-up of their wedding rings. My father had remarried.
Panic stuck in my throat and forced a sob out of me.
Lorraine had known about this all along. That’s why she’d sold his stuff and not kept anything. That’s why she’d not grieved. I needed to know why she’d not told me. Bile rose, bringing the stale taste of coffee.
My dad was alive.
And he had never once reached out to me. Surely he’d known the pain he’d caused me, the suffering of trying to make it without him? Surely he knew how much I loved and needed him? My mind raced on with all the reasons Richard had kept this from me. His own broken relationship with his father influenced his decision, no doubt.
Grabbing the file I ran for the lift, ignoring Scarlet’s invitation to sob on her shoulder. I couldn’t be weak and ineffective. I needed to see my Dad.
Now.
