Page 116 of Proof of Guilt

His sister was a regular font of information, but Theo couldn’t fault her for that. Nathan was her nephew, and with Ivy keeping that a secret, it meant she’d kept Nathan a secret from all of them.

“We do look alike,” Theo agreed, and he turned to Ivy to see if she had anything to add to that.

“Are you mad that I didn’t tell you?” she asked Nathan.

While he shook his head, he bit off a chunk of the bar. “I knew Dad wasn’t my real dad. Lacey told me, remember?”

“I remember.” Ivy’s jaw was suddenly a little tight.

Theo waited for Nathan to ask more—such as why Theo hadn’t seen him in all this time—but he continued to eat his breakfast as if this were an ordinary day.

“Are those bad men going to find us?” Nathan finally said.

Theo wished they’d stayed on the subject of fatherhood, but he hadn’t expected Nathan just to forget the attack. “No. That’s why we’re in this house. If we have to stay here long, I’ll have one of your uncles bring out some cereal for you.”

“Thanks.” He finished off the last bite of the granola bar and looked up at Theo. “Will you and my mom be together? You know, like some moms and dads?”

Theo was certain he had the same deer-in-the-headlights look as Ivy, but Ivy didn’t seem to have trouble finding her voice. “No. But you will get to see Theo if that’s what you want.”

“Sure.” Nathan stood and cleaned up after himself. “Can I go play a game on the computer now?”

Ivy nodded, and she seemed to release the breath she’d been holding when Nathan took off. However, he quickly stopped and whirled back around. “I think Aunt Jodi’s a little sad. Because this was supposed to be the day she got married to Uncle Gabriel.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Theo assured him. That was apparently all the answer he needed, because Nathan hurried to the bedroom.

Theo waited to see if Ivy would start to cry again, but she blew out another long breath and sat next to him. “I thought Nathan would take it harder than that.”

Theo made a sound of agreement. And since she’d brought it up—and wasn’t crying—he pushed the conversation a little. “When this is over, I want to see a whole lot more of Nathan. I want to get to know him.”

She stared at him. “But what about your job? You’re rarely around.”

“True, but that could change. I’ve been a joe for a long time, and the DEA would probably like to see me behind a desk for a while.”

“You’d want to do that?” She made it sound as if he’d be jumping off a cliff.

Nothing so drastic, but it would be a total lifestyle change for him. One that Theo hadn’t thought he’d ever want to make. Then again, he’d never thought he would have a son, either.

“I’m not walking away from Nathan,” he warned her. “He’ll get to know me as his father, the way he should have from the start.”

He hadn’t meant for that to sound so harsh, but it was hard to rein in the emotions when it came to the boy. Ivy held all the emotional cards here. She had the history and connection with their son. He was going to have to build it from the ground up.

“Gabriel, Jodi and Jameson will want to spend time with him, too,” Theo went on. “After all, Nathan is their only nephew.” And he waited for her to dismiss that or accept it.

One way or another, Ivy was going to have to accept it.

He didn’t have to wait long. She gave another of those weary sighs. “I didn’t plan to keep Nathan from my brothers or Jodi. Or from you. It all got mixed up into one giant mental mess. The murders. Our breakup. Jodi nearly dying. Gabriel and Jameson weren’t in a good place mentally, and they had their hands full with the investigation. When I suspected I might be pregnant, I decided to leave.” She paused. “They honestly didn’t know about Nathan. I made sure they didn’t know.”

Because Gabriel and Jameson would have gone after her and tried to bring her home. He got that.

“And you didn’t stay around, either,” she reminded him.

No, he hadn’t. “I had to get away, too.” He’d had his own mental mess to deal with. “I kept thinking I should have been there to protect Jodi. I shouldn’t have let that monster nearly knife her to death. That got mixed up with me being a suspect. Then my father’s arrest.”

Ivy stayed quiet a moment. “Do you think Travis is innocent?”

He couldn’t give her a simple answer. Because there wasn’t one. “I thought he was. Then Jodi and the rest of you started getting those threatening letters and emails. I’m a lawman, so I had to look at it from the angle that maybe the real killer was doing this so he could taunt you.”

“Or it could be August trying to create doubt for his brother,” she quickly pointed out.

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