Page 72 of Single Mom's Undoing
“Your father?—”
“My father will get what’s coming to him. Of that, I can assure you,” I state firmly, raising my chin. “I’ve already reached out to a couple of friends, former Marines who are now with the FBI. Once I’ve got Clara’s account on tape, they’ll get an exhumation order from a judge and issue a new autopsy for Stephan’s body.”
“They’ll be able to tell the difference between injuries sustained from a blow to the head and injuries consistent with a car crashing off the bridge, right?”
“That’s what I’m hoping. In the meantime, I’m pulling a few other strings behind the scene. But I promise you, Jodie, he may be my father, but what he did is unforgivable. It cannot go unpunished.”
“Good. Stephan deserves justice.”
“You’re damn right. He was like a brother to me,” I say, a knot tightening in the back of my throat. “He may have made his share of mistakes, but he didn’t deserve to die like that.”
“What about Emmanuel?” Jodie asks. “Couldn’t you get him to testify against Bill, too? I mean, he was there that night.”
I offer a slight shrug. “We haven’t been able to find him in a long time. I’ve got a team of analysts already on his case, expanding the search for both a missing person and a body at this point. We don’t know what happened to him, but something tells me the rot in the Lockwood family runs deeper than I originally thought.”
“And Margot?”
“Clueless, at this point. I’m keeping this on the down-low until I figure out who knows what. The last thing I need is Margot running her bitter, drunken mouth to our father. If he flees the country before the Feds get to him, we’re screwed.”
Jodie nods slowly. “Oh, poor Clara. Living with this secret for so long. No wonder she was afraid to come back, afraid to stick around, why she vanished the way she did?—”
“Where is she?” I cut Jodie off again. “I answered your question and then some. Now, you need to answer mine. I have to find her, Jodie. I have to make sure she and my son are safe. Something happened yesterday that made her run. If she didn’t tell you, she will tell me once I find her.”
“I’ll tell you where she is, Carter. And I hope she’ll forgive me. But given the circumstances, given the urgency and the danger that she’s clearly in, I think I’ll have to break more than one promise I made to her.”
“What do you mean?”
While her gaze darts around the room, I measure each breath that I take, trying to keep myself composed. It’s been a challenge, controlling my rage over the past day or so. Clara’s absence has left me somewhat unhinged, prone to letting my dark side take over—and that never ends well for anyone.
“Clara is in Baker City. She said she’s having Matty admitted tomorrow, and that the surgery is set toward the end of the week. The doctors are confident Matty’s heart valve surgery will go well and that he’ll make a full recovery. I don’t know which hospital, but I’m sure you can narrow that down. There’s something else, though.”
“What?”
“She’s pregnant, Carter. And if your father had anything to do with the way she left us…”
My heart stops.
For a long minute, I find myself unable to breathe, think, or speak. I can’t move; I’m paralyzed in my seat as the words sink in, as the future I had imagined for us grows bigger and brighter, yet farther away from my grasp.
“She’s pregnant?” I slowly repeat Jodie’s words.
She nods. “Don’t be angry at her, Carter. She’s dealing with so much just trying to save Matty’s life. She’s overwhelmed.”
And she’s on her own again.
I can’t let her go through another second of this alone.
22
CLARA
Matty is unusually fussy today.
He’s been like this from the moment he woke up this morning. Even strawberry Pop- Tarts won’t appease him, and I’m doing everything I can to avoid another episode before we get to the hospital.
“Come on, honey,” I goad him as I pack his go bag. “Just finish your juice, at least. It’s grape, your favorite.”
“I don’t wanna! Where’s Daddy?” he cries out.
