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"You don’t need to say anything, baby. The look on your face says it all." Lucas brings his lips to mine.

He continues to kiss me for a long moment before pulling back and whispering into my mouth, "Welcome home, baby!"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Why won’t you talk to me?" Lindy asks.

"I’m mad, '
cause Dad won’t let me go fishing with him," Lucas answers.

She shakes her head. "But I didn’t do nothing."

"I know, but I don’t like to talk when I’m mad."

LUCAS

It’s almost closing time when Tara walks into the shop. She goes straight to Daniel and starts to talk in a low voice. A minute or two later, they come over to me.

"She has something to tell you, Luke."

I look at Tara, but she is still talking to Daniel. "I could lose my job if he tells anyone."

"He ain’t going to tell anyone other than Lindy, and you know it. The man deserves to know the truth."

I look at Daniel. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

He nods his head towards Tara. "She found out something today that you need to know."

"What?" I ask Tara.

"If anyone ever found out about this, I would lose my job. Hell, I’d probably lose my nursing license," she says to me.

"I’m not going to say shit to anyone. Just tell me what the fuck is going on."

"All right. I’ll tell you, but it’s just going to piss you off. I had to go through all of the old patient files today. My supervisor wanted any files that haven’t been active in the last two years put in storage. I happened to come across Kelsey’s. I know that I shouldn’t have, but I looked in it." She whispers the last bit.

I shrug my shoulders. "What’s that got to do with me?"

Tara looks to Daniel, and he nods. She looks back to me and continues. "Kelsey didn’t have a miscarriage."

"How do you know? She could have gone to another hospital."

Tara shakes her head. "No, she was never pregnant in the first place. Kelsey has Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome."

"What the fuck is that?"

"It is a condition where a woman is born without a uterus, so it is not possible that she could have ever been pregnant," Tara says, nervously.

"She fucking lied to me," I yell.

Tara continues to talk, but I’m not fucking listening. I walk past them to the door and get on my bike, crank the engine and drive off.

LINDY

When I agreed to take a leave of absence, I figured that I would be spending my days at the shop with Lucas. But he is worried that the gas fumes may hurt the baby, so I end up spending every day at Chris and Abbie’s. It’s not so bad. I love Abbie, and I get a kick out of Tara’s little brother and sister fighting all the time. Thank God that I am not having twins.

Lucas drops me off around eight every morning and usually picks me up around six. It’s past seven now, and he’s still not here. I am just about to pull out my phone to call him, when I hear his motorcycle coming down the road. A few minutes later, he is walking through the door.

I am about to fuss on him for being late and not calling, but I stop myself as soon as I see him. I have no idea what happened, but Lucas is pissed. It’s written all over his face. "What’s wrong?"

He just shakes his head. "Not right now. We’ll talk about it at home."

I grab my purse and say goodbye to Abbie and Chris, then follow him to his motorcycle. He doesn’t say anything as we get on the bike, so I keep quiet too. Fifteen minutes later, we walk through our front door.

I start to ask him what is going on, but he walks right past me, straight to the bathroom and shuts the door. A few minutes later, I hear the shower start. I know he is upset, but there is no reason for him not to talk to me. I haven’t done anything. The more I think about the way he is acting, the more pissed off I get. I walk into the kitchen and start making chicken and dumplings. I am just putting the chicken on to boil, when he walks into the room.

"I’m sorry that I was late," he says as he walks to the fridge and pulls out a beer.

I walk over to the cabinet and pull down the flour. "Are you also sorry that you have been a complete ass ever since you picked me up?"

"I wasn’t being an ass. I just didn’t feel like talking." He runs his fingers through his still wet hair.

I turn towards him. "Do you feel like talking now?"

A smile spreads across his face and he lets out a little chuckle. "That depends. If I talk
, are you going to get over your attitude and not finish the chicken and dumplings?"

I blow out a frustrated breath. "Lucas, this is not funny."

His smile fades, and he sets his beer down. Walking over to me, he sweeps me into his arms. "No, it’s not, baby. I’m sorry for being late and for being a dick."

I wrap my arms around his waist. "Tell me what happened to make you so upset."

He takes a deep breath and then tells me about what Kelsey did. By the time he is done, I am as upset as he is. I can’t believe someone would do something like that. It is beyond cruel to let someone think that their baby has died. I know that he wasn’t even sure the baby was his, but I also know that it broke his heart just the same.

"I’m sorry, Lucas." I s
ay, while squeezing him tight.

He kisses my head and whispers into my hair. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I did this all to myself. I’ve known that Kelsey has been a bitch her whole life. I should have stayed away from her, but I didn’t and I got burned."

I shake my head in denial. "No one could have guessed that she would lie about being pregnant or that she would cause all the problems she has. This is Kelsey’s fault. No one else’s."

He shrugs. "I don’t know. Maybe not. I know one thing though. I am done with her shit. No more pussy-footing around. From now on, if she even tries to talk to either of us, we call Dad and press charges for harassment. Her shit is going to stop, one way or the other."

I reach up and place my lips on his and whisper into his mouth. "Okay, baby."

LUCAS

Lindy invited Tara and Daniel over for dinner tonight. I think she wanted to quiz Tara about Kelsey, but I told her not to even bring that shit up. Tara feels guilty enough about looking in Kelsey’s file and telling me all that shit. She doesn’t need Lindy questioning her about it.

The girls are in the kitchen cooking and Daniel and I are on the sofa watching The Crimson Tide and the Vols play. The Tide has just scored a touchdown when my phone rings.

I pull it out of my pocket and see my dad’s name flash across the screen. "Hello."

"Outside, now," Dad orders then hangs up.

What the fuck? I jump off of the couch and head to the door. As soon as I get outside, I know my dad is pissed as fuck. His entire body is shaking with rage.

"What’s wrong?"

"That fucking bastard killed Sammy," Dad shouts.

"Lower your damn voice! Melinda is inside," Chris says.

I look between Dad and Chris. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The Mirror Man killed Sammy," Chris explains.

I have only known one Sammy in my entire life, and that is Lindy’s dad. They cannot be talking about him. "Who the hell is Sammy?"

"My fucking partner!" Dad shouts again, then punches the side of my house. He keeps hitting it, until blood drips from his hand. I run to him and grab hold of his arm, trying to keep him from hurting himself. He shrugs me off then turns towards Chris. "That motherfucker killed my partner!"

"Who killed my dad?"

I look towards the door, and Lindy is standing there with tears running down her face. I walk straight to her, and pull her into my arms.

I look towards Dad and Chris and motion for them to come inside. I lead Lindy to the kitchen table and sit down. I pull her into my lap just as Chris and Dad are sitting down across from us. I hear a sniffle, and I look towards the doorway. Daniel is leaning against the frame, holding Tara as she cries.

"Tell me who killed my dad, please," Lindy says, between sobs.

My arms tighten around her, as I look towards Dad. "What the fuck is going on?"

Dad shakes his head at me, gets out of the chair, and walks to the fridge. I turn my head to Chris and raise my brow. "Are you going to tell us what all this is about?"

"We finally got the report from Mobile Regional. The results on the blood we found at Kayla Thompson’s house."

Dad walks back to his chair and slams his beer down on the table. "It’s the same bastard that murdered Sammy."

I feel Lindy’s body start to tremble. I pull her as close as I can, trying to absorb her pain. "How do you know? I thought there was no evidence in Sammy’s case?"

Dad shakes his head. "We lied."

Lindy jerks away from my chest and turns to Dad. "What do you mean, you lied?"

The rage leaves Dad’s eyes, and his voice grows gentle. "Melinda, you know that I love you like you were my own. I did what I had to do. The same thing your father would have done, if he had been in my shoes."

"What did you do?" Lindy asks.

Dad reaches over and takes her hand in his. "I protected my partner’s daughter, and I would do it again."

Lindy starts to say something, but Chris interrupts her. "Everyone on the force agreed to keep the details of Sammy’s murder under wraps. It was what your mother wanted."

"Why?" I ask, wondering what in the hell all this is about. As far as I know, Sammy was killed during a routine traffic stop. No evidence had ever been found, and there were never any suspects.

Dad lets go of Lindy’s hand and grabs his beer. He looks towards Chris. "You tell them. I just can’t."

Chris takes in a deep breath and looks towards Lindy. "Your dad was not killed during a traffic stop. He was on his way home, when he radioed in that
he saw lights down by Old Coy Pond. He said that he was going to check them out. Nothing was heard from him for over an hour, so the dispatcher sent some uniforms to check on him."

Chris looks to Dad. "Are you sure?"

Dad nods. "Yeah, she needs to know."

Chris turns back to Lindy. "When the officers arrived at the scene, they saw your father on the ground. He had been shot three times in the chest. He was already dead."

"I know all that. Well, I didn’t know that he was actually at Old Coy Pond. I thought he was on the highway near there and pulled someone over," Lindy says, tears still falling down her cheeks.

"Your mom didn’t want you to know. She said that your dad taught you to swim at that pond. She didn’t want to ruin the memory for you." Chris takes another deep breath and runs his hands through his hair. "Shit, I don’t know how to tell you this."

Lindy looks towards Dad. "Paul, what is it? What could be worse than my father being murdered in cold blood?"

Dad takes a long drink of his beer and looks at Lindy. "The bastard used your father’s blood to write a message on Sammy’s car hood."

Oh fuck! I can feel Lindy shaking in my arms, and I know that she cannot take much more. I look over to Chris and say, "Just get this done with."

He nods. "'
The sins of the daughter are to be laid upon the father' was what it said."

"What the fuck does that mean?" I ask.

"It’s a turned around version of a line from
The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare," Tara explains, still leaning into Daniel.

"Sins of the daughter?" Lindy whispers. "So my dad was killed, because of me."

"Hell no!" I shout.

Dad stands up and walks to us. He pulls Lindy from my lap and wraps his arms around her. "No, Melinda, you didn’t do anything. That is why we lied to you. We knew you would think that it was your fault. Whoever murdered your dad is fucked in the head. The bastard that did this went through your father’s wallet. He had all kinds of pictures of you in there. We think that’s how the guy knew Sammy had a daughter. He just wrote the stuff on the car to mess with us."

"Are you sure that I didn’t do anything?"

Dad pulls her in closer and kisses the top of her head. "Sweetheart, you were nine years old. You did nothing."

"You said the Mirror Man did it. How do you know?" I ask.

Chris shakes his head. "Sammy got off a shot, before he went down. We think it just clipped the guy, because there wasn’t much blood. There was enough for us to get DNA though. When we got the results back on the blood from the Thompson scene, the DNA was the same as the blood believed to be Sammy’s killer."

Lindy pulls away from Dad and crawls back into my lap. She lays her head on my shoulder and whispers, "The Mirror Man killed my dad."