Trials and Tiaras (Untouchable #7) - Heather Long Page 0,44
you arranged a paternity test.”
“I paid the right people. If that baby was Junior’s, we’d have had to wrestle her away from Maddy or pay her off. But she wasn’t, and that closed that chapter or so we thought. We gave her enough money to get by and then cut off contact.”
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. “What about her parents? Did she really cut all ties with them too?”
“Apparently, as far as your nana and I knew, they never heard from Maddy again, and to be honest, I hadn’t heard her name in fifteen years or more when you messaged me about her.”
“Do you know who Frankie’s father is?” Because right now, I was trying to figure out whether I would have rather they had been able to take her from Maddy, at least she would have been raised with love and caring. At the same time, I’d have had a sister and not a lover, and I couldn’t see her in that role. I couldn’t let go of what we had.
“There were a couple of possibilities, but I’m afraid I didn’t investigate them all that far. Sordid business really, and to be fair, it could have caused problems for the men involved. If she wasn’t pursuing it with them or with Junior, then I let it go as well. I’ll be honest, with everything I’d known about her, it didn’t seem her character to walk away from all that wealth, yet she did. Your nana said that being a mother can change a girl.”
Not from what I’d seen, but maybe it had and then it went wrong.
“I have to wonder if Junior coming back into her orbit sent them both back down that path again.” He’d finished his fish and some of his vegetables, but like me, he’d picked at the food. This wasn’t the most comfortable of talks. “Is your girl all right?”
I cut him a small smile. “She’s a survivor. Edward seems to really believe she is his. Maddy has him completely snowed, and he was thrilled to think of her as being his.”
Grandpa’s expression tightened, and I waved off the fierce tirade I could almost see in the storm of his eyes.
“Frankie already ripped him a new one about being a dick, and I don’t really care that he wants her like he never wanted me. She represents what he thought he had with Maddy, like evidence they would have worked out. I think he really wants it to be true, wants to believe her lie. I’m just not entirely sure why she’s lying to him.”
“When the girl graduates, Maddy will get some of the monies in a trust set aside by her own grandmother. It’s a tidy sum. Not extensive wealth. I know Gene changed the terms of the other trusts, put them in Frankie’s name. I did call them about that after I met her.”
And that was the other thing. “So they really do know about her? And they’ve done fuck all where she was concerned?”
“Sprout, I know you’re angry and I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t be, but again, it was a different time, and I think Gene and Patience hoped that Maddy was growing up. Particularly when she never came back, never acquiesced to their demands. That kind of stubbornness, it requires a certain amount of strength.”
Right. I didn’t expect to be handing out any medals anytime soon. “But Frankie has met her grandmother once.”
“Yes, Patience approached Maddy a few years ago, seeking to heal the rift if possible. Gene had a heart attack, it was during the week we were supposed to all go to Italy. I sent you and your nana ahead, and I stayed back to help Patience a bit before I joined you.”
That seemed so long ago.
“As for the details of what happened, I know very little. Patience and Maddy had another disagreement, and that was that.”
And that was that.
Fuck these people.
I rubbed a hand over my mouth. “This is like some really bad PBS melodrama. Or Afterschool Special thing.”
“How do you even know about Afterschool Specials?” Grandpa gave me an amused look, and I shrugged.
“Frankie has eclectic tastes.” And researched everything.
“Sprout, all of this, it’s a lot, but you know it’s not on you kids, right?”
On that we would have to disagree. “Frankie’s been paying for their choices for a long time. And they seem intent on making her continue to pay for them.”