A Dad At Last

“Shopping,” Megan replied brightly. She held Chase in the air, and the baby gurgled, shoving his fist into his mouth. The drool that followed told Megan another tooth was coming in soon. “I think in honor of his being officially recognized as a Maitland, he needs to get additions to his wardrobe befitting his station in life.” Laughing, she inclined her head toward Lacy. “Humor me, I feel like lavishing money and attention on him—and his mother.”

Lacy wasn’t about to accept charity, not even from someone as nice as Megan. “Oh, no, that’s not necessary. You’ve already bought so much for Chase, I—”

Megan wasn’t about to put up with excuses. “The only thing that’s necessary,” Megan told her, cutting Lacy off, “is for you to pack away your pride and say yes. Pride’s all well and good in its place, but it’s a poor substitute for having things. Take it from a woman who knows.” She saw the skeptical look on Lacy’s face. “There was a time that church mice thought of me as being poorer than they were.”

Lacy couldn’t believe that Megan had experienced anything less than living in the lap of luxury. “You?”

“Me.” A tinge of pride entered Megan’s voice. “When I married William Maitland, his family thought he’d taken leave of his senses and that I would drag him down.” Her smile was sunny, almost transforming her into the young woman who had caught William’s eye and heart. “I turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him and his stodgy family.” Megan winked at both of them. “Or so he liked to tell me. Now come along, no more excuses or dragging your feet.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“There, that’s what I like to hear. Complete compliance.” She glanced over her shoulder at Connor just before she and Lacy left the room with Chase. “You could stand to learn a thing or two from this girl, Connor.”

He already had, he thought, watching them leave. And that was just the problem.

CHAPTER THREE

“WELL, WELL, WELL, aren’t you the little princess?”

Straightening her shoulders, Janelle tossed her hair over her shoulder, its deep chestnut color a sharp contrast to the drab prison-gray dress she was wearing.

Her lips curled in an expression that was half smirk, half sneer as she regarded the visitor the guard had ushered her in to see. If she’d been expecting Connor, she gave no indication of her disappointment. Instead, brassy insolence defined every inch of her countenance.

She dropped into the chair that faced Lacy’s across the visitor’s table, determined to remain in control over the other woman the way she had all along. “I was wondering if you’d get around to coming to see me.”

Alone in the small five-by-nine room with Janelle, Lacy knew there was a policeman right outside the door. All she had to do was call and the man would instantly be in the room, ready to stop anything that was happening. Janelle couldn’t hurt her anymore. Couldn’t steal her baby away the way she had twice already.

But logic didn’t really help quell the uneasiness shimmering through her.

With effort, Lacy drew her courage to her. Cutting the shopping trip short, she had left Chase in Megan’s care with a fabricated excuse, borrowed a car from her and driven to the police precinct where she knew Janelle was being kept until her arraignment. She was determined to get some answers from the woman. Otherwise, the questions would continue to haunt her, creeping in late at night, wrapped up in nightmares.

“Why?” The single word echoed between them. Janelle looked disinterested. Lacy raised her voice. “Why did you do all this?”

Janelle laughed shortly, pretending to regard her nails. The polish had chipped off them, leaving dull spots here and there. “If you can’t figure that out, you’re simpler than I thought.”

Janelle’s contemptuous tone ate at her, but then, she hadn’t come here expecting civility.

“For the money, I know that. I know all about your husband posing as Connor. I can even understand, when it looked as if it was all going to go up in flames, why you stole Chase.” Lacy leaned across the table, her eyes intent on Janelle. “But why did you try to steal him from me in the first place? I was no threat to you.”

Janelle’s lips twisted, deepening the sneer. She ached to rake what was left of her nails across the pale, delicate face, scarring it. “A lot you know. You were a threat from the very first second you decided to make a play for Connor.”

Lacy stood her ground. “I didn’t make a play, that just happened.”

“Yeah, right.” Cynicism dripped from every syllable. Innocence and love in their purest sense had never existed in Janelle’s world. They were myths, fairy tales she’d never witnessed firsthand. “I figured the kid would make a good prop—and I was right. The second she saw him, the old lady melted all over the little bastard—and I use the word correctly,” she added with a malicious laugh, seeing Lacy’s inadvertent wince.

An icy hand passed over her heart. Lacy shivered. She’d never realized how truly evil Janelle was until this moment. “And you were willing to kill me to get him?”

The shrug was careless, dismissive. Lacy was less than dirt to her. “Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. You’d given birth to the brat, you’d served your purpose.” Janelle’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the younger woman. “That made you expendable.”

Anger flooded Lacy. This woman had held her baby captive. Who was to say what she would have done to him if she’d suddenly thought of him as expendable? “And what gives you the right to play with people’s lives like that?”

“The right?” Janelle echoed. A savage hatred came into her eyes. “The right?” She reached across the table and grabbed Lacy’s arm, her fingers digging into her flesh. “I’ll tell you what gives me the right. I’m one of them, damn it.” Incensed, she released her hold as if she were tossing Lacy away from her. “And while they go around getting everything they want, money dripping out of their pockets, I’m supposed to do without? The hell I am.”

Lacy stared at her. “One of them? What are you talking about? How can you be one of them?”

Her anger under control, Janelle laughed coldly. She liked having all the answers. Doling them out. It made her feel powerful.

“Surprises you, does it? Well, Connor’s squeaky-clean family has a few skeletons in their closet. My father was the old lady’s brother-in-law. Robert Maitland.” There was no love in her voice as she said her father’s name, just as there had never been any love in her heart for the man who’d given her life, but little else.

Lacy thought she had her there. “Robert Maitland had two children he abandoned, R.J. and Anna.”

Megan had filled her in on the family history during lunch today. Taking Chase with them, they’d dined in one of Austin’s better restaurants, and Megan had made a point of clearing things up for her. Until then, Lacy had thought that R.J. and Anna were Megan’s oldest children. She’d been surprised to discover that they, like Connor, were nephew and niece. Megan and her late husband had adopted the two after their widowed father, Robert, had disappeared one day. The magnitude of Megan’s heart had impressed Lacy.

Just as the meanness within Janelle’s took her breath away.

Janelle’s lips narrowed into two thin lines. “Surprise—he married my mother and then abandoned four more kids before he finally cashed in his chips. You’ll pardon the expression,” she said sarcastically when she saw the confusion on Lacy’s face. “I’m from Vegas. That’s where Robert Maitland met my mother.” For just a fraction of a second, she looked away and her expression softened. If she had ever felt anything at all, it had been for her mother. “My mother was a showgirl. She was really something in her prime.” And then her face clouded over, malevolent again. “But he had no use for her after her looks started to go.”

Janelle’s gaze shifted back to Lacy. “That’s a Maitland for you—takes the best, leaves the rest.” Anger flashed in her eyes. She wanted revenge on all of them. “They owe me. And when I found that letter from Big Daddy Harland to ‘Uncle’ William in my father’s things after he died, I figured it was time the Maitlands paid up.”

Lacy wasn’t following this. What Janelle was saying was so disjointed, part of her thought the other woman was deranged or making things up. “What letter?”

Because it had been such an integral part of her scam for the past year, Janelle had momentarily forgotten it was still a secret.

“You don’t know, do you? You don’t know who you’ve been drooling over. He’s—” And then she realized that she had another weapon in her hand. Something to hold over Lacy’s head. Her eyes glinted as her thoughts scrambled. “No, never mind. Why should you know? Why should I tell you anything? Unless, of course,” she continued loftily, “you can see your way clear to using your influence with that old bitch and getting the charges against me dropped.”

It was a trick, a ploy. There was no so-called secret, no letter. It was just Janelle’s way of trying to manipulate her again. But she wasn’t the same person she’d been a year ago, Lacy thought. She was her own person now.

It was Lacy’s turn to be contemptuous. And to look at Janelle with pity. “I don’t have any influence, and even if I did, I wouldn’t use it. Not to get you off. You’re evil, Janelle.”

If the words were meant to shame Janelle, they fell far short of their mark. Instead, she laughed, amused. “Damn straight I am—and proud of it. What did being a Goody Two-shoes ever get anyone?”

Lacy rose to her feet and crossed to the door. There was no anger, no hatred any longer. There was only abject pity in her eyes as she looked at Janelle. Instead of trying to make something of herself, she’d destroyed lives and created a wretched future for herself, all because she’d been consumed with envy.

“Peace of mind,” Lacy answered quietly. She rapped on the door, then stepped back as it was opened. “I’m ready to go now.”

“Go ahead, go,” Janelle scoffed, waving her away. “But you’ll be back. You’ll come crawling back, begging me to tell you. Wait and see if you don’t,” Janelle called after her before the door closed, sealing her in a world she’d never foreseen for herself.

AS SHE DROVE away from the jail, her mind in turmoil, Lacy’s first thought was to go to Connor with what she’d just discovered.

But he’d been so distant since last night. Would he think she was making it all up for some purpose of her own? Not that she could entirely blame him. After being exposed to the likes of Janelle, Connor probably held everything suspect. He might not believe what she had to tell him, especially since she hadn’t told him about his son.

But that was exactly why he should believe her, she argued silently. The very fact that she hadn’t told him he had a son should prove that she wasn’t out for anything, certainly not her own personal gain.

She needed proof before she went to Connor.

Lacy realized that the light had turned green and there were cars behind her, waiting to go. The one directly behind her beeped. She pressed down on the gas pedal.

What had Janelle meant when she’d implied that Connor wasn’t who he seemed to be? Was there a germ of truth in that, or was Janelle just trying to mess up her mind?