Chapter 34 #2
But he wasn’t finished with her yet. “Did Philbin tell you the real reason behind his grudge against my father? No? You mean he didn’t tell you that long before he met his wife, Tessa, she and my father were madly in love?
He didn’t tell you how young, social-climbing Tessa deserted my father for Hoyt Philbin because he was white, and his political future looked more promising than Crandall’s?
And he didn’t tell you that forty years ago, my father and Tessa saw each other again for the first time in ages, that one thing led to another and they wound up having an affair?
And out of that affair came my half-sister, Melanie, who was born a little too dark-skinned for Hoyt’s liking, so he made Tessa give her up for adoption, telling her that they’d have other children later, when his political career was more established. ”
Aghast, Daniela could only stare up at him, unable to believe the incredible tale he was sharing with her.
Coldly amused by her horrified expression, Caleb gave a soft, mirthless laugh. “This is the kind of dirt you were looking for, isn’t it, Daniela?” he taunted bitterly. “This is what you hoped I would tell you during pillow talk. Oh, but wait, it only gets better.”
Her heart constricted painfully. “Caleb—”
“Let me finish!” His voice softened to a silky, dangerous caress as he added, “After all, it’s the least I can do, since I never gave you the ammunition you came into my life seeking.”
Swallowing hard, Daniela closed her eyes for a moment. It was impossible to reconcile this cold, ruthless version of Caleb with the tender, fiercely passionate lover who’d brought her to shuddering heights of ecstasy every time they made love.
But it was she who’d brought him to this dark moment, tension and lethal fury radiating from his body as he stood a few feet away from her, no doubt wishing he’d never set eyes on her.
“When I was fourteen years old,” Caleb began, his voice low and controlled, “I came home from school one day to find my parents kneeling over the dead body of a nineteen-year-old girl. They told me that the girl had broken into the house wielding a gun, and that she planned to rob and kill them. When I looked down at the body, all I saw were torn jeans, ratty sneakers and wild, dirty hair. I remember thinking that she looked like a homeless person capable of violence, so I believed them. I was so scared and shaken up that it didn’t even occur to me to wonder why the girl looked so much like me.
And then the police arrived, and my father told them what had happened, that he’d accidentally shot the intruder during a struggle for the gun.
The police filed a report and conducted an investigation that eventually cleared my parents of any suspicion of wrongdoing, and after a while the whole thing went away.
Until sixteen years later, when Hoyt Philbin paid me a visit at work bearing an envelope full of court-sealed documents.
That’s how I found out that the girl my father accidentally killed that day was actually my half-sister, Melanie, who’d been bounced around foster care homes all her life until she finally aged out of the system at eighteen.
“Before that day, I never even suspected that I had a sister out there somewhere. Philbin told me that she’d gone to the house to confront my father about abandoning her, just as she’d confronted Tessa the day before.
He claimed that my father killed Melanie to keep her from going to the media, but he was never able to prove it—though he’s never stopped trying.
As you can imagine, I was devastated by this news.
Having to learn about Melanie from my father’s long-time enemy sent me into a fucking rage.
The second he left, I punched a hole in the wall and sliced my hand open.
” He held up his scarred, tattooed hand for emphasis.
“I’d already been thinking about leaving the firm.
As I told you before, I was burned out, physically and emotionally.
Learning about my half-sister, knowing that my father kept the truth from me all those years, hastened my decision to leave. ”
As Daniela gazed at him, tears welled in her eyes, and her heart broke for him.
She mourned the tragic loss of innocence he and his sister had suffered so senselessly.
And she mourned the life of a desperate young woman who’d been cast aside like a ragdoll because of the selfish, reckless actions of the three adults who’d failed her.
“I’m so sorry, Caleb,” Daniela whispered brokenly. “I had no idea.”
“Of course you didn’t,” he snarled, advancing on her.
“Philbin didn’t see fit to tell you and your brothers before you signed on the dotted line.
But that’s the kind of man you’re dealing with, a man so hell-bent on revenge that he’d sacrifice his own wife in the process of exposing my father’s dirty little secret.
He was hoping you’d succeed where he’d failed to pry the ‘truth’ out of me.
He was counting on the fact that somewhere along the way, my father had tearfully confessed his crime to me, admitting that he did, in fact, purposely kill my sister to protect his own reputation.
But what Philbin has always failed to realize is that I’ve never doubted my father’s innocence.
I think he was a conniving, heartless bastard for not telling me about my sister, and he was dead wrong for having an affair with another man’s wife, old flame or not.
But Crandall Thorne is not a cold-blooded murderer, and Hoyt Philbin can damn well go to his grave trying to prove otherwise.
“So here’s my question to you, Daniela Roarke,” Caleb sneered, dropping to a crouch in front of her. Hard, angry fingers bit into her chin, forcing her to meet his viciously contemptuous gaze. “How much money did it take to make you sell your soul to the devil?”
She closed her eyes, awash in shame and regret. “It’s not important, Caleb,” she said tremulously.
“The hell it isn’t!” he growled. “I want to know how little it takes to make a woman like you sink so low.”
Her eyes snapped open. “I’m not a whore, Caleb!” she exploded, wounded by his cruelty. “I didn’t sleep with you because I was trying to pry information out of you. I slept with you because I wanted you! Because I love you!”
His eyes turned to shards of black ice, unthawed by her fervent admission. “That’s just too damn bad, Daniela,” he said, ominously soft. “Because if I never see you again, it’ll be too fucking soon.”
Her heart ripped in half. “You don’t mean that,” she moaned tearfully, begging him to take the words back, even if he really meant them. “Please, Caleb—”
“Stay the fuck out of my life.” He shoved to his feet and stalked to the front door, slamming out of the house with shattering finality.
As her shoulders began to shake with silent sobs, Daniela covered her face with her hands and wept uncontrollably.
When she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, she looked up in startled surprise to find her mother standing there, wearing overalls and her favorite wide-brimmed straw hat.
Daniela gulped in a breath. “I didn’t know you were home, Mom,” she mumbled.
“I was in the backyard working in my garden,” Pamela said quietly. “I heard shouting, so I came inside to see what all the commotion was about. Once I realized what was going on, I stayed in the kitchen.”
“Y—You heard everything?”
“I heard enough.” Pamela’s expression was full of tender sympathy as she sat beside her daughter and gently gathered her into her arms. “Oh, baby. I’m so sorry,” she said soothingly as a fresh wave of heartbroken sobs racked Daniela’s body.
Long after the emotional storm receded, Daniela remained in her mother’s arms, comforted by her rocking motions.
“I made a terrible mistake, Mom,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Sounds like you did,” Pamela murmured in agreement.
“He’s never going to forgive me.”
“You don’t know that for sure. Sounds to me like Caleb really cares for you. He wouldn’t have been so angry if he didn’t.” She ran soothing hands up and down Daniela’s back. “I don’t know all the details, but it’s going to be all right, baby. One way or another, it’s going to be all right.”
Daniela wished she could believe her mother. But as she remembered the cold, lethal fury in Caleb’s eyes, she knew she had to accept reality.
Caleb was never going to forgive her.
In that moment, she wondered if she’d ever be able to forgive herself.