Page 54 of Hers to Hold
“Why shouldn’t we give her a chance?” Kat asked. She sat down beside Drew—across from Wes—with her own espresso. “She seemed genuinely sorry and I think she can redeem herself.”
Kat and Kady looked too much alike. It was getting difficult for Wes to hold onto his anger and pride while looking at his best friend’s wife. He wasn’t the vindictive sort. It was up to Kady to reveal her secret to her sisters, but the more his heart quaked at her betrayal, the more temptation eased into the fissures of the tender muscle.
“You have any other reason not to trust her?” Kat asked quietly.
“She’s your sister,” Wes blurted. Kat’s lower lip fell slowly open and Wes knew what he’d heard in his head had come out of his mouth. He put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Kat. I wasn’t going to…”
The last lingering bit of hope for a reconciliation died as the confession rolled off his tongue. He blamed it on his frustration over the lies and the blackmail and his crushed heart. Ultimately, he couldn’t lie to his friends when asked. Her secretwasthe other reason he found it hard to trust Kady.
“What are you talking about?” Drew asked in a rough tone.
Wes met his gaze and sighed. “The whole reason she’s here in Springfield is to find the family of the man who abandoned her and her mother. Being assigned to investigate your campaign is kind of fortuitous. She could learn about her sisters while doing her job.” Wes stole a glance at Kat, who stared blankly into her cup. Wes swallowed through her tight throat. “I shouldn’t have said anything. She hurt me and… I shouldn’t have said it.”
“No…it’s okay,” Kat said softly. “You’re trying to protect us.”
“I can’t say that I was.”This isn’t like me.Drew was right: he was heartbroken. He’d fallen in love with the pretend baker’s assistant and he had no one to blame but himself.Doc warned me.He’d started something he wasn’t ready for, and now he was suffering the consequences.
Wouldn’t anybody?He would talk to his therapist about it.
Kat raised tear-filled eyes. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Did she have dinner with you, Kori, and your mother the other evening?” Drew asked. “She didn’t…mention anything?”
Kat shook her head. “Only that she never knew her father.” Kat grimaced. “And now we know why. Poor girl…she must think he didn’t love her.”
“You’re defending her actions?” Wesley asked incredulously.
“No, but I get why she did it. She’s a reporter, isn’t she? Trying to uncover the truth about her father.” Kat sighed, her frown sagging her lovely features. “To find out your father is a lying, cheating…jerk who never acknowledged you…” A tear slipped from her eye. “That’s got to be hard to overcome.”
They sat in quiet contemplation. Wesley’s stomach knotted with guilt and shame. He had thought of his own pain, never once putting himself into Kady’s shoes. But if he believed her eyes earlier, she was in as much anguish as he.
“Can you not say anything to Kori or your mom, please?” Wes asked. “It wasn’t my place to say anything and I don’t want to take that away from her again.”
Kat nodded. “Sure.” She smiled and rolled her eyes. “I should’ve known it right away. We do look alike.”
Wes stood. “I need to pick up my daughter from school.”
Kat walked him to the door. “Don’t do anything rash,” she said while giving him a hug. “Give my sister…” She grinned, her eyes moistening. “It’s so strange and, yet, wonderful to call Kady that.” Her eyes cleared, her expression one of loyalty. “Please give my sister a chance. She just learned her father resents girls and that she has a whole other family. She might think we’d hate her too and then she would truly be alone in the world.”
Wes planted a brotherly kiss on her cheek. “You are the angelic sister. Do you know that?”
She winked. “Yes, I do.”
He laughed.
If she was angelic, did that mean Kady was the devil?
Chapter 22
“What the heck is this?”
Kady burst into her boss’s office turning around her iPad so he could see the article on the front page of their website. “‘Drew Callaghan’s Campaign Finance Fraud Woes’?”
Her boss shared a look with another man in the room that Kady recognized as a senior management official. Yates was in a meeting, but she didn’t care. “You preempted my piece. This wasmystory. Did you steal my notes?” she hissed the question.
Yates chortled. “Stealyour notes? You’re required to submit them weekly for my review!”
“This story is obviously slanted. You imply Drew Callaghan is conducting fraud!” she cried.
