An Imperfect Process (30 page)

He nodded, then shook hands with Loren. After a brief exchange of small talk, Callie and Loren left to join friends for dinner, so Val was free to meet Malcolm. "What excellent manners. This is a dog in a million." She knelt to scratch his neck. He moaned softly. "In fact, I'm willing to bet there isn't another dog like this anywhere."

Rob grinned. "That's a bet I won't take, but he's a good- natured fellow. I'll take some pictures of him and drop them off with Joe Cady. His sister, Lucy, is a nice lady. She says she wouldn't have dumped Malcolm, but she was happy for me to adopt him. Tonight she's going to round up another sister and visit Joe."

"I'm glad he'll have company. What a wonderful day this has been." Val stretched out her arms and spun in a circle, wanting to soar. "Everything is going so well it's almost scary, Rob. My new office is off to a great start, we're making progress on saving Daniel, tomorrow Lyssie and I are going to have our first get-together"—she spun breathlessly into Rob's arms—"and there's you. How lucky can I get?"

In his eyes, she could see the same exhilaration she was feeling. He gave her an exaggerated leer. "If you like, you could get really lucky right now."

One passion led to another, and the emotions of the day flared into pure lust. She cradled his face in her hands and kissed him again, murmuring, "My mother claimed to have installed a spy camera in the hanging. Shall we see if we can shock her?"

"I doubt your mother is easily shocked." Laughing, Rob dropped onto the carpet and pulled Val down beside him. "But we can try."

She slid her hands under his polo shirt, stroking his chest while she rubbed her face against his throat in an attempt to absorb his essence into her. A distant part of her wondered if such good luck couldn't last. But that was mere superstition. She had wanted to change her life and she had.

Nothin' but good times ahead...

Chapter 21

Sprawling on the sofa in her most comfortable sweats, Kendra glanced up in surprise when a key grated in her front door. Four people had keys to her house, and she wasn't expecting any of them.

The door swung open, and her son entered. "Jason!" She dropped her magazine and flew across the living room to engulf her son in a hug. "I didn't think you'd be home until the weekend. It's been way too long since you've had leave." She stepped back, her hands on his shoulders. "You look so gorgeous I can hardly believe we're related."

That wasn't just motherly love, either. Six-foot-plus like his daddy, broad-shouldered and with an athlete's fitness, her boy would be a hunk anywhere. In his air force cadet's uniform, he was to die for. Lovingly she touched his uniform insignia. "I've been waiting to see this. The star for academic excellence, the wreath for military leadership, a thunderbolt for being an outstanding athlete. You rock, boy. We better get you into civilian clothes before girls start beating the door down."

Unsmiling, he set down his duffle bag. "I asked if I could start my vacation a couple of days early because of family reasons and was lucky enough to hitch a ride to Andrews Air Force Base."

"Family reasons?" Kendra began to feel tense. It wasn't like her laughing son to look grim. "Is something wrong? Has some old girlfriend claimed you knocked her up?"

He took her arm and led her from the hall back to the living room. He was unnervingly adult. The words "an officer and a gentleman" flashed through her mind. "You're making me nervous, Jay."

"You might want to sit down."

Reminding herself that he was obviously hale and hearty so the worst hadn't happened, she did as he suggested and sat on the sofa again, though this time she wasn't relaxed. He stood with his hands locked behind his back, a hammering pulse in his throat proof that he was less calm than he looked. "Okay, Jay, level with me. What's wrong?"

He caught her gaze, seething anger and hurt in his eyes. "Why did I have to find out who my real father is from a classmate?"

She gasped, feeling her blood drain away. "What are you saying?"

"It's a small world. One of my classmates, Cass Murphy, is from Baltimore, so of course we know each other. She stopped by my room last night and said that her Uncle Cal had defended my father, Daniel Monroe, when he was tried for murder. Because she's a nice girl, she offered her condolences on the fact that he's going to be executed in a few weeks."

So after Val talked to the public defender, Murphy must have e-mailed his niece about the coincidence. This was the result.

As Kendra tried to decide what to say, Jason said sharply, "Don't even think about lying to me! I did a web search on the case, so I know the details, I know what Monroe looks like. At the time he was convicted of murder, he looked just like me." The skin tightened across his cheekbones. "How could you let me grow up not knowing that... that my real father is a murderer?"

Kendra dropped her head into her hands, temples throbbing. When in doubt, tell the truth. Looking up, she said, "I didn't tell you because Daniel didn't want you to know. He thought that even though he's innocent, it would be too hard for you to grow up with the knowledge that your father was a convicted murderer. He and I have argued about it. I could sort of see his point when you were younger, but the older you got, the more it bothered me that you didn't know the truth."

"Did Philip Brooks know he wasn't my real father, or did you lie to him, too?"

"Of course he knew! You were almost four when Phil and I married. And don't you dare say Phil wasn't your real father. He adopted you and raised you and loved you. You were his pride and joy, and you know it."

"So if Phil was my real father, what does that make Daniel Monroe? A sperm donor? What a great set of genes I've inherited." His face twisted. "Naturally he's innocent. Isn't every man on death row?"

Kendra bit back a surge of anger. He might look full-grown, but he was only nineteen. "You have every right to be upset, but don't push it. You have two fathers, both of them fine men. Daniel was a little wild as a kid but he had straightened himself out. We were planning our wedding when he was arrested. You asked, now you sit down and listen to the answer."

He wavered, looking suddenly very tired. Realizing that he'd endured a long, tormented day since Cass Murphy had unwittingly broken the news, Kendra stood and put an arm around his shoulders. "You must be hungry. How does fresh lemonade and sliced ham and potato salad sound?"

"That would be good. I didn't get much sleep last night." His voice sounded very young. "Mama, how could I not know something so basic about myself for so long? My father could have died, and I never would have known."

She guided him to the kitchen, wishing she had obeyed her instincts and overruled Daniel's wishes. "Though Daniel is pessimistic, we may be on the verge of getting his sentence commuted. If not..." She swallowed hard. "For years I've asked myself how I could justify it to you if he was executed before you found out."

"No way could you justify that," he said vehemently.

"I was afraid of that." She shook her head. "Hiding the truth is hard work. Just a couple of days ago I saw Daniel's half brother Luke. He resents that you've been kept away from that side of your family."

"I've got more relatives I don't know about?" Jason's startled expression showed that he hadn't thought of that.

"Quite a few of them around Baltimore, and they're mostly pretty nice. With Phil's family all down in Mississippi, you never had enough cousins. You'll have about ten days leave, won't you? I can throw a Monroe family cook- out for you if you like. One of your Monroe cousins is at the Naval Academy. You'd have a lot in common."

He ran his hand over his militarily short hair. "I don't know about a party. Maybe. I'll think about it later when I know who the hell I am."

They reached the kitchen and Jason took his usual chair while she poured lemonade for both of them, then sliced ham and set out potato salad and pickles for her son. She waited until he'd consumed a sizable amount of food before asking, "Ready for the whole story?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." His gaze was level. "Is he really innocent?"

She met his gaze. "As God is my witness, Daniel was wrongly convicted. I know that for a fact because I was with him when the murder took place, but the prosecutors and jury didn't believe me. We've only just learned that two of the three eyewitnesses lied to protect their drug dealer."

"And the third?"

"Made a mistake. That happens a lot, especially when the light's poor and something awful is happening."

Jason exhaled, some of the tension going out of him. "So my father was convicted because they needed to nail someone, and he was black and the right size and general location."

"That's about the size of it. A lousy, rotten twist of fate that changed all our lives." She went through the familiar story crisply, answering any questions that Jason asked along the way.

When she was done, Jason said, "I want to meet him."

"It's time." She rested her hand on her son's. "Prison isn't easy, Jay. Daniel has had to be tough to survive, but he's a good man who has learned a lot of wisdom the hard way. Give him a chance, and remember that he concealed the truth for your sake. Can you say it wouldn't have made your life more difficult when you were growing up?"

Jason glanced away. "No, I can't. But easy isn't always better."

"You're right," she agreed, "but when you have kids, every instinct is to protect them even if that's not always the best choice. At the beginning, I was so wounded by the trial and his conviction that I wanted to bury the whole awful subject. Thinking about it hurt."

He studied her, his eyes softening. "You couldn't have been much older than I am now. That was a lot of grief for you to carry."

"We do what we have to do." She grimaced as she remembered the sheer weeping terror she had experienced at the time. Daniel's family had helped her out as best they could, and she'd responded by taking Jason away from them. At the time, it had seemed right. "I had you to take care of and a powerful desire not to stay on welfare any longer than necessary because my mama raised me to be independent."

"You were on welfare? You never told me that!" he said, scandalized.

She was wryly amused by his shock. "There isn't much about that time of my life I wanted to talk about, but you have a right to know. The program I was in provided support and child care while I got job training, if that sounds better than
welfare
."

"It's not much better." He grimaced. "Did you and Dad try to have kids?"

"We tried. And failed." It was her turn to look away. She had so much wanted to have a baby with Phil. Preferably a little girl with her daddy's sweet smile. "Do you want to meet Daniel tomorrow? He's at the SuperMax downtown."

"That's too soon. Maybe at the beginning of the week. For now, I just want to be home." Jason sighed and reached for the last pickle. "There were times this past year when all I wanted was to be back in Baltimore in my own bed. Normal life, like when I was in high school, before Dad—Phil—died. But life will never be like that again."

She squeezed his hand. "Afraid not. When we're little, our worlds seem immutable. Then we grow up and life becomes one rotten change after another. But usually there are compensations once we get used to the new order. Mostly you love the air force, don't you?"

After he nodded, she said, "And while you won't see Phil again in this lifetime, you still have a father to get to know. It can't be the same as with Phil, but you can have a relationship that matters." She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "Would you like some strawberry shortcake to top that off?"

His face eased into a smile. "I sure would. I dreamed of that sometimes in Colorado." She was taking the bowl of strawberries from the refrigerator when he asked softly, "Mama—did you love my dad? Phil?"

She set the bowl on the counter and turned to face him. "Daniel was the love of my youth, and I'll never stop caring for him. If he hadn't been the victim of a horrible injustice, we would have married and been happy, I think. But I loved Philip, too. There wasn't a day of our marriage when I didn't give thanks that he was my husband. You know how it was after he died—you and I were both numb for months. Your grades slipped to Bs that semester, and I sleepwalked through my job. I was lucky they didn't fire me. Phil was one of the best things that ever happened to me."