The server brought their drinks to the table, and Paradise squeezed her lime into her club soda. “It feels so hopeless right now.”
Drew set his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Take heart, Sis. We’re getting more and more information. Who knows where the ripples will take us? I think we’re close to finding out my father’s surname. The floodgates will open once we find that out.”
She ran her finger around the beaded moisture on her glass. “Drew, if your adoptive parents talked to our mom through the years, why didn’t they give you the information? You had to wait to find it through DNA.”
“I’ve always wondered that. The last time I pressed them, we had a big blowup and things were tense for weeks. I decided tofind out on my own. I think they didn’t want me to search for my birth family.”
“Do you think they were worried you’d be in danger?” Paradise asked.
He lifted a brow. “I’m a police detective. I face danger just shaving every morning.”
She chuckled but he wasn’t wrong. For a moment she was tempted to tell him she was worried about him finding his father’s family. What if she lost him just as she’d found him and grown to love him? It felt selfish and probably was, so she took another sip of her drink to swallow down the confession.
The modest mid-seventies home in Foley matched many others on the block. Meticulous landscaping and a plethora of azaleas and rhododendrons. Blake hadn’t called first.
The woman answered the door on the first ring and stared at them for a long moment. “You have to be Paradise Alden,” she said finally. “You look just like Becky.” Her blond hair was a sleek bob, and he guessed her to be in her fifties.
“We’re sorry to drop by with no call, but I have some questions about my mother, and I hoped you wouldn’t mind.”
Greta stepped out of the way. “Come in.”
They followed her deeper into the home’s interior, past the living room and kitchen, to a family room with light streaming through patio doors. The glass looked out on a desk nearly bursting with color from flowers arranged in clay planters. The wood floors were spotless and nothing was out of place.
Greta perched on an armchair in the family room. “How can I help? I still think about your mom. She was a good friend.”
Paradise settled on the sofa between Blake and Drew. “We spoke with Donald Phillips today, and he mentioned you worked with my mother.”
Greta’s blue eyes brightened. “Your mother was a wonderful person, full of life and fun. And her art was gorgeous.” She pointed out a large floor vase filled with dried pampas grass. “She made that for my birthday, and I treasure it.”
“We’re investigating the murders,” Drew interjected. “She was my mother too. Do you know anything about her affair with my father?”
Greta pursed her lips. “So you’re the child born out of wedlock.”
“Do you know when Mom and Drew’s father started seeing each other again?” Paradise asked.
“It was the October before she died.”
Paradise leaned forward. “Do you know how that meeting happened?”
“I saw him,” Greta said. “He came to the university. Maybe he was looking for her, or maybe it was accidental. Your mother never said. I saw them together at the charity function, and wow, he was handsome. He wore a tux like it had been made for him. Becky’s expression when she looked at him was like he was a god. Her eyes were luminous and she didn’t stop smiling. I caught him kissing her in the hallway. When I pressed her about it the next day, I was able to get more details out of her, though she didn’t like that I’d seen them.”
Blake knew this had to be hitting Paradise hard, and he took her hand. She’d always thought her parents had a great marriage, and maybe they did until this Ben person came back. “What did she say?”
“She told me he was her first love, the one she’d never beenable to forget.” Greta stared at Paradise. “She and Granger were having some problems. She wanted another baby, and he didn’t. He said you were the perfect daughter, and he didn’t need any other kids.”
Paradise’s grip tightened on Blake’s. “I asked for a sibling all the time. Did you notice if this Ben wore a wedding ring?”
“First thing I looked for. And yep, he sure did, along with a flashy set of cuff links with aCon them. Becky said he wasn’t happy in his marriage and was going to divorce his wife.”
Blake exchanged a glance with Paradise, and she pulled the plastic bag with the cuff link out of her bag. “Did it look like this?”
Greta stared at it and nodded. “I can’t be sure because it was a long time ago, but it appears very similar. I wondered if his wealth swayed her, at least a little bit. Granger’s company was struggling, and his pay had been cut, which was why she went to work for TGU in the first place. Having a wealthy, powerful man can be very tempting, but Granger was worth ten of a man who had pursued her when she was only seventeen and he was married.”
Drew scowled. “Just like that, she’s going to leave Granger and go with the man who lied to her in the first place? Seems foolhardy to me. Money isn’t everything.”
Greta nodded. “To me too. I pointed out that he’d lied to her once before, so why should she believe him now? Becky didn’t have a good answer for that other than she had always loved him, and she felt guilty that she didn’t tell him about his son. And she hadGranger. She didn’t even appreciate what she had. Granger was such a great guy. Not just handsome, but kind. He never even looked at another woman, and he was the best father I ever saw, always doing things with Paradise. He never went on a tripwithout bringing her something. There aren’t many men like him out there.”
“He was the best,” Paradise said in a choked voice.
