Betrayal of Trust (14 page)

Raven smiled down at Jamie. “How’s soccer coming along, Jamie?”

“Undefeated.”

“Great. You getting any play time?”

Matthew’s lips twitched as Jamie bristled. The little girl shook loose from him and folded her arms across her chest. She lifted her chin and blew an enormous bubble with her gum, then sucked it in with a loud pop. “MVP for the last three games.”

Raven’s brow rose with the appropriate amazement. “Wow. That calls for a celebration. How about a soda?” She reached into an ice-filled aluminum tub and grabbed a can.

Never one to hold a grudge, Jamie reached for the offering. “Thanks.”

“Raven, honey,” a booming voice called across the kitchen. “Keri says will you bring that other tub of coleslaw?”

“I’m right on it, Dad.”

“It’ll be nice to see your dad again.”

“Yeah. He always liked you.” Raven hefted a large tub from the stainless-steel industrial refrigerator.

Matthew took the slaw from her. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on had dampened her mood at the mere mention of introducing him to Mac.

“Hey, you don’t have to introduce us. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“Don’t be silly. Dad’s anxious to meet ‘the one that got away.’”

“I didn’t get away. I was just put on the shelf and forgotten for a while.” He looked deeply into her eyes, will
ing her to give him a glimpse of the emotions lying below the surface.

A soft smile touched her lips and she placed a warm palm on his cheek. “Not forgotten, Matt. Not even for a second.”

So help him, if he wasn’t carrying twenty pounds of cabbage, carrots and mayo, he’d whisk her away to the first minister they could find and make this thing legal right now.

“Today, Raven!”

“Coming, Dad.” She dropped her tone. “Sheesh, he’s a veritable Job isn’t he?”

A chuckle rumbled in his chest. “A study in patience.”

She rolled her eyes. “Follow me, Muscles.”

Matt turned to Jamie. “Come on and let’s see what Miss Keri has for you to do.”

Raven tossed the girl a mock warning glance. “My sister’s a real slave driver. You sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

Jamie nodded. “I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and do some good in this world.”

Tenderness washed over Matthew. The philosophies that had made his father a great politician had obviously made a bigger impression on his daughter than Matt ever knew.

The surprise in Raven’s eyes was understandable. She’d never heard Senator James Strong just before he embarked on a new community service project. But Jamie had. And Matthew had over and over as a kid. Public service was part of his heritage. Something his heart couldn’t deny. He stared out at the crowd gathering around. Careworn faces of men and women who could have been thirty or sixty for all he could tell. For most, poverty and hard living had taken their toll, rob
bing these people of youth and vitality. Undernourished children eyed the food hungrily and parents whose hopelessness weighed down slumped shoulders averted their eyes rather than make contact and risk rejection.

These were his people. The ones he wanted to help, was destined to help. Justin and Keri had embraced the hands-on everyday calling of ministry. Following the Great Commission. Feeding the body and soul. But Matthew knew he could help on a legislative level.

His daughter would be part of it. And unless he missed his guess, she’d be serving in her own capacity somehow.

He watched her literally roll up her sleeves and get to work. Pride swelled his chest as she smiled at a shy, blond boy who held out his plate for a hot dog.

“Good, you made it out here with that coleslaw.” A massive hand clapped him on his shoulder. “Nice to see you again Matthew.”

“Matthew Strong. Nice to see you again as well, Mr. Mahoney.”

“Call me Mac. Take that tub out and put the new one in. Then go back and wash the old one. Don’t forget to use the bleach-water rinse. Health code. We’ll catch up later.”

“Yes, sir.” Matthew grinned and prepared himself to take orders for the rest of the day. He could certainly see where Raven got her bossiness.

He took the tub and turned toward the swinging kitchen doors. As he swung about, his eyes did a scan of the room. He stopped dead in his tracks. His heart did a double take and his palms began to sweat.

Cameras. Directed at Jamie. Smiling faces of news-people who knew an adorable, sweet girl when they saw one. One of the women squatted down and asked
her a question with the tape rolling. Matthew set the empty tub on the closest table and beelined for his daughter, his heart slamming against his chest. He reached her just in time to hear Jamie say, “My dad’s Matthew Strong. He was almost going to be senator like my gramps. But he decided not to.”

“Jamie.” He glared at the reporter. “Stop the cameras. You can’t tape my daughter without my permission.”

“Actually, we can, Mr. Strong.” She sized him up with frank perusal. “And what I’ve seen in the last fifteen minutes blows me away. That girl of yours exudes confidence, compassion, genuine caring without a lick of superiority. I’m amazed. Our viewers are going to love her. You should be proud of her.”

“Listen.” Matthew’s voice went hoarse with fear. “You can’t put my daughter’s face on the air.”

“Why, did you kidnap her? Afraid her real parents might find her?”

Indignation filled his chest until he realized the reporter was grinning. “Kidding.”

But this wasn’t a laughing matter as far as he was concerned.

“Look, we won’t use her name and we won’t show the two of you together so no one will make the connection. Feel better?”

“No.”

“Hey, I’d like to help you out, but when my editor sees this footage, there’s no way he’s going to pass on it. Unless something better comes along.”

“I thought you were here to talk about Anaya.”

The woman nodded. “We are. And we’ll be getting more footage today and will conduct an interview with the people who run this place, but throwing a huge block-party barbecue for the homeless is exactly what
we’d like to show to go with it. It gives these people even more credibility. America loves human-interest stories.”

“Find another human besides my daughter for America to be interested in.” He whipped around, ready to grab Jamie and head for home. He wanted to help, but not at the risk that Ray might see her and try to get his fifteen minutes of fame to push his allegation that Matthew’s family had somehow coerced him into signing away his rights to Jamie.

“Would you look at that?” the reporter’s voice was filled with quiet awe as she looked over his shoulders.

Jamie sat on a bench, next to a young girl who must have been close to the same age. She had slipped off one tennis shoe, and handed it to the other child. Then she went to work unlacing the other shoe. The joy in her eyes as she took the battered, filthy shoes the other child wore and slipped them onto her socked feet brought tears to Matt’s eyes. Sniffles surrounded him and he glanced at the news crew. There was not one dry eye among them.

“Did you get that?” the reporter asked a cameraman, who adjusted his camera so he could fish a handkerchief from his pocket. “Got it.”

Mac Mahoney clapped him on the shoulder once more. “That’s some girl you got there.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I heard what you said to those reporters. I don’t know what trouble you’ve got brewing that would make you pull out of the race—I was going to vote for you, by the way—but anyone in the public eye has to trust God with their kids.” He pointed at Raven, who wiped her brow with the back of her hand and said something to a recipient as she dished baked beans onto his plate. Whatever she said brought a smile to the old man’s
face. “That one,” Mac said. “She’s the one I have to leave with God or I’d go crazy.”

“I know how you feel.” And he didn’t mean father to father. “Raven drives me crazy sometimes too.”

Mac chuckled. “She’ll come around. God promised my children would have an inheritance in Him. All of my children. So I try not to be too pushy and just to let God work out the details behind the scenes.”

“It must be difficult not to worry all the time.”

Mac shook his head. “Faith in God—that’s the easy part. Now, keeping my mouth shut when I want to preach at her…that’s not so easy. But back to your daughter. I can see you’d like to take her and go home away from these reporters. But you can’t lock her away somewhere to keep her from pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. You’ll have to trust God with her. From the looks of it,” he nodded toward Jamie as she laughed and talked with the child with whom she’d exchanged shoes, “she’s obviously already listening to Him. So maybe you should too.”

“What do you mean?”

“What might have happened if your daughter hadn’t shown up today?”

“You mean other than her not being on camera?”

“That little girl would have never gotten her new shoes.”

“Hundred-and-fifty-dollar shoes.”

“That you can afford to replace, no sweat. That is more than most of these people make in a week.”

“You’re right, of course.” Matthew willed his heart to stop racing, fingers of fear to stop clutching his gut in a nauseating squeeze. “We’ll stay and finish the work.”

“Atta boy.” Mac grinned. “If we’re lucky there might be a few hot dogs left at the end of the day.”

“Mac, honey, there you are.” A red-headed senior citizen took possession of Mac’s arm. “You aren’t overdoing it, are you?”

He smiled at the woman and kissed her forehead, eliciting a look of utter adoration. “I’m not overdoing it. Just watched Matt’s daughter give away her shoes to another little girl.”

“How precious.” The woman’s face glowed. She extended veiny French-manicured hands. “I’m Ruth. Mac’s fiancée.”

“Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. When’s the happy day?”

Ruth leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial tone. “Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve decided to throw a real shindig at the cabin. We’ll announce it during this visit and we’re getting married at the family cabin during our fall get-together. Isn’t that a good idea? The family all planned to be there anyway.”

“I won’t be.” Raven’s voice, rife with anger, shot forward as she approached the three of them. “Dad, this is idiotic. That woman isn’t right for you.”

Shock bolted through Matthew at the venomous glare she gave Ruth. “Raven?” He reached for her arm.

“Stay out of this, Matthew. It doesn’t concern you.”

Mac fixed Raven with a stern glare. “Raven, my girl. You’re treading some bad water coming off with that attitude.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can do.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Mac pulled Ruth closer. “I’m sorry that you can’t accept the new love in my life. But we will be getting married in November. Now, I’d love for all of my daughters to be there, but we’re getting married either way…with or without you.”

Raven’s gaze narrowed at the last few words. Her
eyes darted from one to the other. “Well, Dad. Denni and Keri will both be there, so apparently you’ll have all your daughters at your side to celebrate the tragic event.”

The frown on Mac’s face mirrored Matthew’s. “What are you talking about?”

Tears trailed down Raven’s cheeks. “Let’s face it, we both know you’re not my real dad.”

The man’s face blanched. An obvious weakness came over him and his hand stole toward his chest. “How’d you know?”

Ruthie interjected before Raven could answer. “No. You’ve upset him enough. His blood pressure can’t take sudden stress combined with this heat.”

Mac clutched his chest and toppled. Matthew reached him just in time to soften his landing. Raven sprinted to his side.

“Dad!”

“Someone call 911,” Ruth screeched.

Raven’s wail reverberated off the cafeteria walls. “Daddy, I’m sorry. Don’t die.” She looked up at the ceiling. “God, don’t let him die. Don’t let him die!”

“S
top fussing over me,” Mac groused as Ruth brought him a glass of water and fluffed his pillow.

“You heard what the doctor said.” Ruth waved away his protests and fluffed all the more. “Your blood pressure shot up, you need to drink plenty of fluids and rest for a couple of days.”

Raven watched from the doorway of her guest bedroom/office. Guilt plagued her that she’d been the cause of Mac’s collapse. Even though the doctor had assured them that he’d passed out because of not drinking enough fluids and working too hard in the intense July heat, she couldn’t squash the condemning words forming themselves in her mind. Mac could have died because of her selfishness.

She forced a smile and strode into the room. “Ruth’s right, Dad. You need to let us pamper you.”

Ruth stared up at her over Mac’s head. The woman’s pale-blue eyes softened with understanding that a truce had been declared.

“Listen, you two.” Raven gathered a steadying
breath. For Dad’s sake, she could do this…“I’m sorry for my outburst earlier. I’ll come to the wedding.”

Mac took her hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “That’s my girl.”

“Praise the Lord,” Ruth said, a grin splitting her heavily made-up face. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

“Thank you.” Raven cleared her throat, uncomfortable, as always, with this sort of emotional display. “Well, I suppose I ought to…”

“You two need to talk,” Ruth broke in. “I’ll go see what I can rustle up for dinner.”

“Do you think Dad’s up to that sort of conversation?” Raven asked, peering down at Mac’s pale face.

A scowl broke over his expression. “Why don’t you ask me? I’m laying right here.”

“Fine then, I will.” Sickness had done nothing for his surliness. “Do you really think you should have an intense conversation right now? And you know it’s going to be heavy duty, given the topic.”

“I think it’s a conversation that’s way overdue.”

His softened tone bespoke a contrition that went straight to Raven’s heart.

“That settles it, then.” Ruth headed for the door.

“Do you want me to come with you and show you where everything is?”

Ruth sent her a wink, showing way too much blue eye shadow. “Honey, if there’s one thing I know, it’s my way around a kitchen. I’ll find what I need.” She flitted out the door as though she owned the place.

Once they were alone, Mac patted the edge of the bed for Raven to sit. Quick tears rose to her eyes as he gave her a tender smile. “First, I want to say how sorry I am that you had to find out on your own. Your mother and
I always meant to tell you, but we put it off for so long, it just never seemed to matter.”

“I figured it out when Mom died.” Raven could barely speak around the lump in her throat. “I found my original birth certificate in some of her things.”

A faraway look entered Mac’s misty eyes. “We decided to hang onto it in case you ever needed to find your biological father. I wanted you to have proof.”

“I met your mother while she was carrying you and I fell in love with her at first sight. I remember the first time I placed my hand on her rounded belly and felt you move inside her.” His voice thickened, and he swiped at his eyes. “You were my child from that day forward.”

“Then why not just put your name on my birth certificate to begin with?”

Mac released a breath. “We wanted to be honest. It was important that we start our life together in truth.”

“Sounds a little idealistic to me.”

He nodded. “We were young, newly married, new Christians. That was during the Jesus movement when everyone was down to basics and radical in their faith. We just wanted to do what we felt was right.”

Raven couldn’t keep the bitter laugh from leaving her lips. “So you put Josiah Thatcher’s name on the birth certificate. How long until you adopted me?”

“A few months. We had to get the money together and go through the process.”

“If you were so insistent on truth above all, why was I halfway through college and still didn’t know? Didn’t you think I would wonder why I looked so different from everyone in the family? I stuck out like a sore thumb.”

“I always thought your looks made you stand apart like a rare and beautiful rose.”

“I never felt like a beautiful rose. I remember once in biology when we were learning about the different hair colors, I learned that two redheads couldn’t have a child with black hair. Later, I learned I had misunderstood, but I believed it at the time. I went to Mom and asked her if I’d been switched at birth and told her why I suspected as much.”

“She never told me.”

“Yeah, well,” Raven said, reliving the memory of the conversation she—at fourteen years old—had had with her mother. “When I told her my theory, she laughed and said she had been dying her hair for so many years she couldn’t remember what her natural color was, but she promised me that she had indeed carried me for nine and a half months, and I was without a doubt her child.”

Mac looked longingly into space and emitted a short laugh. “She was miserable going so far past her due date. I think if you hadn’t come when you did, she’d have threatened the doctor’s life.”

Raven smiled. She’d heard the same story many times. How her mother had driven over rocky roads to try to shake her labor into gear. Had walked miles on end, per the doctor’s suggestion, and finally had tried relaxation techniques, which didn’t work, but made her feel better while she waited the three more days it took for Raven to deign to be born. “Dad, why did the two of you decide not to tell me that I wasn’t yours?”

“You
were
mine.” His eyes glinted determinedly. “In every way that counted.”

“I know.” Raven took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. “You’re my dad. And I love you. But what made you and Mom decide to keep this from me?”

He shrugged and squeezed her hand. “Denni came
along when you were still too young for us to tell you, and then Keri two years later. We just didn’t want to make you feel like you were any less special to me. By the time you were old enough to understand, we just didn’t think about it.”

“And when Mom died? Did you think of it then?”

Pain flashed in his eyes. “That’s why I need to ask your forgiveness. I was just being selfish. I didn’t want anything to come between us. But something did, only I had no idea what was bothering you—that you’d found out the truth—until today.”

“Maybe I should have come to you a long time ago.” Raven mourned the years that she’d wasted being bitter against this wonderful man who had raised her with all the love of a natural father. “And I might not have now, except that…” She gathered a deep breath. “My biological brother has contacted me.”

Mac’s gaze darted to hers, instantly alert. “Really?”

She nodded. “Apparently he did it as a surprise for Josiah.”

Again, pain flashed in his eyes. “I see. And did you meet Josiah before he died?”

“Oh, he’s not dead. What gave you that idea?”

“He’s not? Have you met him?”

“Well, not yet. Sonny wanted to meet me first and verify that I’m really biologically connected.” She couldn’t bring herself to say “Josiah’s daughter.” Not to Mac. There was no way she could bear to hurt him with those words.

“But you have met Sonny?”

Raven nodded. A sense of unease nipped at her gut. “We had dinner the other night.”

“And?”

“We look alike. He gave me a photo of Josiah.”

“Mind if I take a look?”

“Really? Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

Raven walked to the striped chair in the corner where she’d tossed her purse when both she and Ruth had insisted upon helping him into bed. She fished her billfold out and slipped the photo Sonny had given her out of the plastic sheath.

Mac took it, studying it close. “When was the last time you spoke to this Sonny?”

Something about the way he said
this Sonny
alerted her senses. Mac had on his “cop” face. That always meant lots of questions.

“A couple of nights ago. That’s when he gave me the picture.”

“Raven, I don’t know what this guy’s game is, but I saw this picture of Josiah Thatcher in the
Kansas City Star
a few weeks ago. I recognized the name from conversations with your mother years ago, and of course as you pointed out, you’re the spitting image of him.”

A frown creased Raven’s brow. “What was his picture doing in there?”

“Honey, it was next to his obituary.”

A burst of laughter shot from Raven’s lips as though Mac had made that up just to lighten the tension between them.

“I’m serious, Raven. Ask Ruth. She was there. I told her everything that day. If you’ve been investigating your family, why didn’t you already know this, ace?”

Raven shook her head. “It’s been a while. I just, I don’t know. I slacked off on trying to locate him. Searching article databases and archives takes time. I’ve been working fifteen-hour days to get the anchor job. I dropped the ball on this, I guess.” She frowned as a
thought clung to her mind. “Besides, you have to be mistaken. Sonny is in the middle of working out the details right now for me to meet Josiah. If he were dead, Sonny surely wouldn’t be stringing me along. That would just be sick.”

“There’s one way to find out. Go through the microfiche at the library and find the obituary.”

Raven shoved herself up from the bed. “I can do better than that. I subscribe to the paper online. They archive several months back. I’m sure it will be there if you have the right guy.” She strode across the room to her desk and booted up the computer.

She turned back to Mac while she waited for the sign-on screen. “Does it bother you that I am in contact with my brother?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad bit concerned.” He sat up and stared at the computer screen.

“Dad, lie down. I’ll read off anything I find.”

“Oh, all right. But there’s nothing wrong with me other than a little too much sun.”

“Be that as it may, you need to do what the doctor ordered,” Raven said, distractedly, as she found the Website and punched in her user name and password. “Okay, there are two matches for Josiah Thatcher. One…” Her throat thickened as she pulled up the obituary column. “Survived by one sister, Meredith Graham, and one son, Sonny Thatcher, both of Kansas City, Missouri.” She turned to Mac. “It’s true. He died weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry, honey.”

“I don’t get why Sonny lied to me.”

“You don’t know him very well,” Mac reminded in his practical tone. “There really wasn’t any way of knowing whether he was on the up-and-up or not.”

“True. And there were times…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I’m not always real comfortable around Sonny.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s nothing I can really put my finger on. Just instinct I guess.”

“Think he’s after money?”

Raven skimmed over the next article found under the search. “No. According to this, Josiah owned a couple of pretty swanky stables. He left them to Sonny. I’m a little confused about the aunt, as well. Sonny said I’m his only family now.”

“Sounds like you need to beware of this new brother. He’s not shaping up to be someone you’d want in your life.”

“You got that right.”

She jotted down her aunt’s name.

“What are you doing?” Raven recognized the stern wariness in his tone. The one he used when he was about to forbid her to do something that in all likelihood could put her in harm’s way.

“I’m going to find this Meredith Graham.”

Bending over, she brushed a kiss across his forehead. “Get some rest, Dad. I love you.”

“I love you too, Raven.” He clutched her hand. “Please be careful. You don’t know what sort of character Sonny is. Anyone who would lie about a dead father and an elderly aunt…”

“I know, and I plan to find out exactly what’s he’s up to.”

He closed his eyes and Raven left the room.

Delicious smells assailed her nose as she stepped into the living room. The sound of Ruth’s Southern voice singing old-time country gospel with the radio brought
a completely unexpected rush of affection to Raven’s heart. There was no time to analyze her absence of resentment. But Raven couldn’t deny the lift it gave her to be free from the bitterness she’d lived with for so long.

She called her contact at the K.C.P.D. and thirty minutes later discovered that her aunt lived in a retirement community in one of the more upscale sections of town.

“Okay, this is it.” She grabbed a phone book from the drawer and located the number of the retirement community. A pleasant enough voice answered on the third ring.

Raven cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m looking for a Meredith Thatcher. I believe she lives in one of your assisted living apartments.”

“I’m sorry. We can’t give out information about our residents.”

“I understand completely,” she said, keeping her tone even and friendly. “But could I give you my name and number and you could give it to her for me? Then she could call if she wants to.”

“Now I never said we had a resident here by that name.”

“Okay, fair enough. How about I give you my contact information, anyway? And if she’s there and if she wants to call me, she can.”

The woman hesitated for a moment. “Okay. You can do that.”

Thirty minutes later, Raven hung up the phone after speaking with her aunt. The tearful conversation had taken Raven aback somewhat. Meredith’s brother, Raven’s biological father, had been only a day away from contacting her when he died. She seemed to want to say more, but suddenly clammed up. “I’d rather not speak about it over the phone.”

They made plans for Raven to come for a visit the next evening.

Just before the elderly lady hung up, she had said, “I wouldn’t mention this to Sonny. The boy has never been fond of me. And my guess is he had no intention of telling you or me about the other.”

“I wish he’d given me the option at least.”

“Nevermind regrets, honey,” she’d said. “You’ve found me now, like the good reporter you are. Let’s just keep this between us and you come tomorrow around suppertime. I’ll have my girl prepare us a nice meal.”