AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe not, but that baby didn’t come out of nowhere.”
I fisted the napkin. “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know?”
“Where is her father, and why isn’t he here taking up arms alongside you to fight for your daughter?”
I narrowed my gaze. “That’s still not what you want to know.”
Maybe in part he did, but it was thewhothat he was really curious about.
There was a rigidness to his posture I didn’t recognize. Had cool and calm Kane Zegas become uptight over the years?
“If you aren’t going to answer my questions, then perhaps this arrangement isn’t going to work.”
Stop provoking him, JoJo. You need him.
The thought soured my stomach. Being at his mercy wasnota position I relished.
“He’s irrelevant.”
“Will he be a problem?”
I don’t know.
But I couldn’t say that or it would only lead to more questions.
“I don’t think so,” I finally settled on.
He leaned forward. “If you want to win this case, we can’t have any surprises.”
“Understood.”
He took a far too large swallow of his drink. Had my sister driven him to this? Or work?
“How’s the whale-saving business? Or have you moved on to dolphins? Icebergs? Blades of grass?”
“We’ve just rescued three hundred fifty-two Bolivian children. Their parents were murdered by a neighboring militia.” I closed my eyes, fighting off the horror we’d discovered the minute we were on the ground. “They were starving and many of them were all alone. Some were wandering around naked in the streets. Others were still in their homes next to their parents.” I choked out the last part. So much death and bloodshed and loss of innocence.
But the children were resilient. We’d gotten them the medical care they needed. And we’d find them homes.
“That must have been horrific.”
I blinked at him. There were no snide comments or an expression that what I did was a joke. He seemed sincere.
“I-I can’t even describe it.”
“What will you do with all those children?”
Was this the same man I’d been having a conversation with only minutes before? I wasn’t sure, but I was fairly confident he didn’t really want to know the truth. Many of those kids were so shell-shocked that they couldn’t even cry. It had broken my heart. They’d been fed, given clean clothes, and the plan included building something similar to the once-dying abandoned town of Bulembu in Eswatini. That would take time and enormous resources, but we’d do it.
“We’ll care for them until we can place them in good homes.”
“That’s a lot of homes.”
One corner of my mouth lifted. “It is. But we will give them the lives they deserve.”
He traced the rim of his glass. “You must have learned to become a better fundraiser.”
“Someone once motivated me to work on my skills.” I wanted to slap my hand over my mouth. He didn’t need to know he’d influenced me.
