AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A tear slid down her face, and Finn gently swiped it away with his thumb before kissing her eyes. Hailey let herself feel the disappointment of losing the one link to her past, and the comfort Finn offered. Just like her grandmother, Finn accepted her for exactly who she was, scars and all. And he was alive and wanted her. Why shouldn’t she keep him? Even if she didn’t make partner, maybe he was reason enough to stay in Alexandria.
“Alright, let’s get you back to the hotel. There’s nothing like a hot shower and about a thousand kisses to make you feel a little better.”
She laughed. “That does sound like a nice cure for the blues.”
“I’ve got the remedy,” he said, pulling her to a stand and hugging her on the walk back to the car.
As she buckled her seat belt, she felt oddly better telling Finn more about her past.
“Didn’t you say you had two more stops? Where is the last one?” she asked.
“Nah, I’ll go tomorrow while you rest in the morning.” He started the car, and his hand enveloped hers, soothing her tattered emotions more than she ever realized she needed.
“Let’s just go now, and then we can both relax more.”
He looked at his watch. It was only eleven, and they both knew the hotel check-in wasn’t until one.
“Are you sure?” he asked with a caution she didn’t expect.
“Yes.”
Ten minutes later, they were parked on a street she knew very well, because it was her grandmother’s old street. They parked directly across from the small duplex she’d shared for a few years with her grandmother.
“Is the woman you’re looking for named Cecilia Ray Burke?” she said through the tightness in her throat.
Finn turned toward her with surprise. “How did you know that?”
“She was my maternal grandmother. That was her house with the blue shutters and flower boxes.”
Finn shook his head. “Are you sure? I mean, of course you’re sure. I’m just trying to figure this out. So when you ran away from foster care it was in North Carolina, you came here to stay with your maternal grandmother. And she died when you were in college.”
“Yes, and I was so scared when I first arrived that the foster care system would catch up to me that I didn’t go to school or get my GED until I turned eighteen. Soon after I started college, my grandmother had her first stroke and she had to stay at the senior home, but her house was paid for so I stayed here until she died. Eventually the state seized the property, but by then I was working and finishing up my bachelors at school an hour away. I managed to qualify for low budget student housing and never had a reason to come back here.”
“And your last name is of course your dad’s, not your mom’s maiden name, Burke.”
“Right.”
“Who is looking for her and why?” Hailey asked, afraid to meet his eyes.
Finn cursed. “I can’t say.”
“Finn, you drag me on this wild goose chase and force me down memory lane because someone is paying a very high hourly rate, for you to track down the one relative to ever show me any love. And you won’t tell me who or why they’re looking for her?”
“I want to. I just owe it to the client to decide whether they want to tell you. I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“I can assure you I have no hopes for good news, and if it’s a debt collector, they can forget it. The state took all my gran’s assets.” Tears of frustration filled her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. Her stomach was in knots.
“Technically, you do work for the same firm, but I don’t know if this is all real yet. The private investigator had that nursing home and this address listed for your grandmother, and she wrote the client a letter. But I don’t understand why she never told you.”
“Told me what?” Hailey said, dread was sour in her belly. Who would be looking for her grandmother, and how could it involve her? Unless it had something to do with her mother?
“Do you know something about my mother?”
“Screw it, I care more about you than my job at the firm. It’s possible the man you thought was your father and abandoned you, wasn’t actually your biological dad.” He let out a breath he’d been holding while she processed what he was saying. “Admiral Maddox thinks he’s your father, and he’s been looking for you for years. Ever since your grandmother sent him a letter when you turned eighteen.”
To say she was stunned was an understatement of grand proportions. Hailey knew enough about Maddox to know the man was a successful businessman with a penchant for technology and worth millions. There was no possible way he was her biological father.
“Why did my gran think I was related to Admiral Maddox?” she challenged.
