A lot of what I did was wrong, but I wasn’t letting you live in a run-down neighborhood with a stripper for a mother. Sometimes we have to make choices and I stand by every one I made. I love you, baby, and I know you’ll forgive me because that’s just the way you are. I know you’ve wondered many times about qualities you got from your mother. Your love of animals you got from her. I had to pay to bring a mangy dog and cat from Vegas and she treated them like babies.
I wish I could have told you this when I was alive, but, baby, talking about Angela was not an easy subject for me. I know I manipulated the situation to my benefit and I also got the greatest reward—you. That, Jessie, I will never regret.
Love, with all my heart, Daddy.
Cadde just stared at the words on the paper, unable to do anything but think about how this was going to affect Jessie. He’d never understood the tight security on Jessie after so many years. Now he knew. Roscoe did not want Angela to take Jessie, and if Jessie was older she might choose her mother over Roscoe.
Good God! How did he deal with this? How did he tell Jessie? How could he not? A marriage based on trust wasn’t going anywhere if he kept things from her. And Jessie craved information about her mother.
He reached for his cell and punched in a number. “Chip, I need all the information you can get me on Angela Martinez from Las Vegas, Nevada.” Chip was a computer whiz kid who worked for Shilah. He’d find whatever Cadde needed to know about Jessie’s mother.
Now he waited.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JESSIE OPENED THE BOX and read the instructions. It had been a month since she and Cadde had had sex for the first time. She was fudging…a little. Three weeks and four days was more accurate, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She’d bought a pregnancy test.
Mirry looked up at her. “I have to pee on a stick, Mirry, so you might not want to watch this.”
The dog slowly made her way back to her soft pillow.
Jessie did the test and laid it flat on the bathroom vanity. Staring at the result window, she crossed her fingers and hoped for two pink lines.
“Jessie.” She heard Cadde calling. “Where are you?”
“Upstairs!” she shouted.
“Come down. I need to talk to you.”
What! There was something serious in his deep voice that hadn’t been there this morning. She was torn between hurrying down to see Cadde and waiting the appropriate time for the test results.
“Can it wait a minute?”
“No. It’s important.”
That didn’t sound good. She gave the test one last look and ran downstairs.
She found Cadde in her father’s study, pacing. By the scowl on his handsome face she knew something was wrong. It had to be about Shilah and it had to be the reason he was home so early.
To soothe her jittery nerves, she went into his arms and hugged him. Smiling, she glanced up at him. “What is it?”
He took her lips in a long kiss and she sighed in contentment. How could she love one person so much? She ached when he wasn’t with her.
Suddenly, he stepped back. “I’m getting sidetracked. We have to talk.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Getting sidetracked is much more fun.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Did something go wrong with the Louisiana leases?”
“No, everything is moving forward.”
She stared at his hatless head. “Did you lose your hat again?”
“No. It’s in the truck.”
“Come on, Cadde, you’re scaring me. What is it?”
“Okay.” He held up both hands. “I found something that your father meant for me to find.”
The jittery nerves returned full force. “What?”
“It’s more or less a letter to you.”
Her panic eased a little. “When I was small and he was away for any length of time, he’d write me letters. Is it a letter that got lost in the mail?”
“No. This is serious.” Cadde took her hand and led her around the big desk and gently pushed her into her father’s chair. The putrid scent of cigars lingered—a reminder of her father.
A brown folder tied with a pink string lay in front of her. Cadde touched it. “This is what I found.”
She reached for the string and Cadde caught her hand once again. “Please read what’s inside with an open mind.”
Her stomach clenched. There was no doubt that the contents were going to change her life. A part of her wanted to not open it, the other part had her reaching for the string. She jumped back in the chair as an almost nude woman stared at her.
“Who is that?”
“Your mother,” Cadde replied, and confirmed what she already suspected.