So it was true. Chance knew it but up until the admission he’d held a flicker of hope. Now he could sense the inferno behind that flicker about to explode. “Oh, she’s leaving.” He flared his nostrils to get more air. “She’s taken a job in St. Louis.”
“Good. Then it’s for the best.” His dad picked up the pen as if he was finished talking and started scribbling again.
“Seriously?” Chance whisked the legal pad out from under the pen and tossed it into the chair beside him. “You take a young woman who’s an amazing photographer and the best qualified for the job, who happens to be pregnant with your grandchild and you work against her?” He modulated his volume. “You jerk a job out of her hands by calling in a favor after she risked her life to get it? And then you sit back and say ‘It’s for the best’? Is that really your answer?”
“You’re damn straight it’s my answer.” His dad’s voice raised a few decibels. “It’s my answer when I’m watching my only son talk himself into a mistake he’ll regret the rest of his life.”
Chance slammed his palm down on the pile of papers. “It’s not a ‘mistake.’ It’s a baby. My baby.”
“It’s a baby that will tie you to the wrong woman and that’s a mistake that’ll affect your career. A career I’ve busted my ass to build. A career I’ve spent hundreds of thousands to make possible with your Harvard education and this practice.” Bill Brennan rose to his feet, his eyes only inches from his son’s. “You think money’s not important? You think all this—” he waved his arms around the room “—just happens? You think that judgeship you have your eye on will just happen?”
“I want the judgeship so people like Kyndal will get a fair shake. Right now, they don’t stand a chance because people like you keep them down and they don’t have the power to fight back.” Chance was too angry to mince words. “The truck driver with Hank’s case… Judge Salter crucified him and you sat back and let him, knowing it wasn’t that poor guy’s fault. Salter closed his eyes to justice because of you and your damn connections.”
Hank’s case had never been allowed as a topic of discussion, and this time was no different. “You’re nothing without the right connections. I’ve always tried to tell you, it’s not what you know, but who you know.” His dad’s eyes hardened, but for the first time, Chance could see behind them into the workings of his mind. “Kyndal…she’s not what you want in your life. She’s never had a pot to piss in or one to throw it out of, and she never will.”
Chance broke into a sweat. He pulled the sweater over his head and hurled it at the door. “She has more ambition than both of us put together. How many teenagers do you know who would get themselves out of bed and to school if their parents weren’t home to make them? Kyn did, and was valedictorian. She takes care of herself, takes any job she can just to make ends meet and works her ass off.” The truth in what he was saying hit him like a fist to his gut. He spread his arms, indicating the costly office, the expensive furniture. “You’ve given me everything I’ve ever had and ever needed.” He leaned forward on the desk again, and lowered his voice. “Nobody’s ever given her anything—including a fair shake.”
“People make their own destiny. That girl made hers when she spread her legs for you.”
Chance stood to his full height and thrust a finger toward his dad’s face. “Shut up, damn it!” He’d never yelled at his dad before. This was a new experience for both of them. He watched his dad’s mouth close. “She’s not ‘that girl’ and she’s not ‘the wrong woman.’ She’s the woman I love, and I won’t have you talk about her like she’s some kind of whore. She’s carrying my baby, and I hope to make her my wife. That’s right, Dad! I intend to propose to her as many times as it takes to get her to accept…and that may be a lot considering how we’ve hurt her.”
“Be reasonable. Think about what you’re saying, Hank.”
The name barreled through Chance like a windstorm, sweeping away the last of his self-control. “I’m. Not. Hank!” He roared the words he’d wanted to say for ten years, punctuating them