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“Because you’re strolling down memory lane, Wendy. Don’t worry. It won’t go any further than me. I’m interested in everything you can tell me about the Steels, but trust me, the fact that Bradford Steel took your virginity will not go into the report to my boss.”
She wiped one eye and sniffed. “I appreciate that. Anyway, we went off to different colleges, and Brad ended up married to Daphne. I’m not sure he loved her. She was smart and gorgeous but really troubled. She’d fly off the handle for no reason sometimes, or so it seemed, according to Brad. But she got pregnant with the oldest, Jonah. Brad was nothing if not gentlemanly, so he married her.”
“Are you saying the Steels were never in love?”
“My guess is that they weren’t. Or at least Brad wasn’t. When I started work for NNN, he found me after I did my first piece as a field reporter. He saw me in the news, and he got in touch with me.”
I had a feeling where this was headed. “Go on,” I said.
“Can I consider this off the record?” she asked.
I nodded. “Sure.”
“It didn’t take us long to pick up where things had left off.” She smiled, shaking her head. “Brad was so handsome, big and strong like his sons are. I had missed him. I’d had a string of boyfriends, but
none of them ever measured up to Brad, so I never married. Now and then when I met him again, even though he was married… Well, I’m not proud of it. But then again, I do treasure those memories.” She laughed a bit. “I really don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I’m not sure I ever told anyone, and here I am, telling my innermost secrets to an attorney who is investigating my onetime lover’s family.”
“Sometimes it’s nice to be able to talk to someone, even a stranger.”
She nodded. “I could never tell my mother this. She’d think I was some kind of Jezebel. She’d probably want to brand me with a scarlet letter.”
“So when was it,” I asked, “that you and Mr. Steel rekindled your affair?”
“About thirty years ago. All the boys had been born. Little Ryan was only a toddler. Brad gave me the old ‘my wife doesn’t understand me’ routine, and I fell for it because I was so crazy about him.”
I nodded. “Was he sleeping with his wife at that point?”
“He said he wasn’t, and I believed him. Until she got pregnant again with the daughter. He claimed it had meant nothing, of course. That she was going crazy, and he did it to calm her down. I didn’t believe that then, and I don’t believe it now. But he had a hold on me, Jade. I couldn’t let him go. So when he wanted to continue seeing me, I obliged.”
Wow. I got it. Truly got it. Talon had a hold on me that I wasn’t sure would ever go away.
“So you saw him while Daphne was pregnant with Marjorie?”
Wendy nodded. “Like I said, not proud of it. But if you could only understand how he affected me. Those Steel men…”
I understood better than she knew, but I couldn’t tell her that, at least not yet. “I’m honestly not here to judge you, Wendy. I just want information.”
“If Brad were still alive, I wouldn’t be telling you all this.”
“Understood. But since he isn’t, I’m glad you feel you can talk to me.”
“It does feel good to get it out.”
“But none of this explains why certain things are going on that I can’t quite put together. For example, why Jonah and Talon would want to keep Talon’s heroics a secret. And why didn’t he get the Medal of Honor? It’s crazy that this wasn’t a big deal.”
Wendy quirked her lips. “He was nominated for the medal.”
I widened my eyes. “And?”
“And they squashed it before anyone ever found it. Didn’t want it.”
“Who squashed it? And why?”
“The Medal makes you a celebrity, and Talon didn’t want that. He wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”
I didn’t bother asking why. I knew I’d get the same response, that she didn’t know why, even though we both knew she did. I cleared my throat. “Moving on, there are a few documents I can’t make heads or tails of.”
“What documents are those?”
