The Only Child. Carolyn McSparren

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      “Consider it, then,” Molly said. “What if you find Tiffany is sober, Dulcy is living happily with a new stepfather in a middle-class ranch house in Moundhill and going to Brownies every Thursday? Do you call the police, break up the family? Send Tiffany to jail? Drag Dulcy kicking and screaming back to Memphis to live with a man she likely doesn’t remember?”

      “Dulcy belongs with me. I will be a good father to her.”

      “Logan, you’re her grandfather. It’s not the same thing. You’ve been a father. The job descriptions are different.”

      “No, I haven’t been a father.”

      “But Zoe and Jeremy…

      “They’re my biological children, all right, but I was never a father to them. I was gone for months at a time. Sydney had all the problems of being a single mother and none of the benefits. Well, almost all the problems. We had plenty of money—overseas jobs pay very well and there are no expenses to speak of. We decided the money was worth the long absences.” He threw down his napkin. “By the time I realized how wrong we were, Zoe hated my guts and Jeremy was a practicing alcoholic at sixteen.”

      “Zoe loves you.”

      He snorted. “She blames me for Jeremy’s drinking, his delinquency, his marriage, his death and for Dulcy’s death, as well. I used to think she married Rick just to spite me because he was a plumber without a college education.”

      “If she did, she lucked out. Rick is a saint.”

      He grimaced. “I must admit he’s been there for her.”

      Molly could fill in the unspoken corollary. Rick was there when Logan hadn’t been. Maybe that was the key to Logan’s coolness toward his son-in-law. Rick made it all look so easy, while Logan struggled to rebuild his damaged relationship with Zoe.

      Still, understanding Logan’s pain didn’t mean she had to agree with him. “So all this is not about Dulcy, it’s about you,” she snapped. “You want to prove to Zoe and to yourself that you can be a father. Of all the selfish, idiotic…” She pushed her chair back. “I’m not hungry. I’ll catch a cab.”

      He caught up with her at the foot of the museum steps and grabbed her arm. “Wait, dammit! Listen to me. You’re wrong. It’s not about me. Tiffany’s life will be hell until she comes home to face what she did. No way can it be good for Dulcy. When we find Tiffany, I’ll help her any way I can, but I will take custody of Dulcy and raise her with love. Molly, you’ve got to help me. I don’t have anyone else. Please.”

      “What do you want me to do?”

      “Fly to Moundhill with me.”

      “I don’t think…”

      “Listen to me, please.” He kept his hand on her arm and walked her to the BMW He held the door and she got in against her better judgment. He climbed in the other side and faced her without turning on the engine. “You’ve worked with abused children, you know the system.”

      “So?”

      “What’s going to happen if I find Tiffany and Dulcy in Moundhill? Let’s assume that instead of a decent life, they’re living in squalor. Whatever money Tiffany took from her trust fund must have run out long ago and there was no way she could get more. Maybe she paid it all to Youngman. She may be slinging hash or clerking at the grocery store—or worse. She wasn’t only into alcohol, Molly, she was into cocaine. Even Zoe doesn’t know that.”

      “Oh, dear.” That changed things. Molly knew from the seminars she’d sat in on for her volunteer work what addiction to cocaine could do to women. They didn’t hesitate to sell their bodies and their children’s bodies when their need for the drug became too much to handle.

      “Even Jeremy’s death didn’t stop her drinking or doing drugs,” Logan continued.

      “Why did she take Dulcy along? It would have been easier for her to disappear alone.”

      “Maybe she loves Dulcy the way a child loves a favorite toy. Maybe she took Dulcy to punish us, Zoe and Sydney and me.” He ran his hand down his face. “I don’t know anymore. Not after today.”

      “I still don’t see how I can help. If you find Dulcy, surely they’ll give her to you.”

      “Say I waltz in to the local police station with my order of custody executed before Sydney died. They’ll pick up Tiffany for extradition. Youngman was right. Tiffany may well tell them I’m a pedophile and after the child’s money. In today’s climate, they may believe her. Dulcy could wind up in foster care.”

      “But I’m not a lawyer or a psychologist. I make dolls, period. And I’ve known you less than twenty-four hours during which you have acted about as stable as plutonium.”

      “Touché. You, however, have ‘mother’ written across your forehead in letters the size of a marquee.”

      “Oh, thank you so much. Just what every woman wants to hear.”

      “Even though I’ve known you such a short time, I would trust you with my life, and what’s more, with my granddaughter’s life. Besides, you can identify her. I haven’t seen her since before she was two. You’ve got to come with me. And without letting anyone know where you’re going or why.”

       CHAPTER FIVE

      “IT’S BEEN NEARLY eight hours since I left you. I need you to tell me you’ll go with me to Kansas so that I can make reservations.” Logan was breathing hard. He cradled the phone against his shoulder and ran the towel over his sweating face and chest.

      “I only said I’d think it over,” Molly said over the line. “I didn’t agree to anything.”

      “Look, let me come out to your house right now. We can talk about it all night if that’s what it takes to persuade you.”

      “No.” She sat down on her bed. “I’m practically ready for bed.”

      “So much the better.” He chuckled.

      She tried to chuckle back, but to her ears, it sounded as if she’d just choked on a peach pit.

      “All right, how about I take you to breakfast?” he offered. “I’ve already got a call in to my travel agent. It’s not that easy to get to Moundhill by plane. We’ll have to fly into Wichita and rent a car.”

      “Logan, talk sense. I have animals to feed, a halfdozen commissions that I’m behind on, Quentin Dillahunt’s evil little head hardening in my refrigerator, and I am terrified of airplanes. Isn’t there somebody else you can take?”

      “Nobody else has laid eyes on Dulcy. Sleep on it, please. I’ll see you at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.” He sighed. “Please come with me. In just two days you have become more important to me than you can possibly imagine. I need you. Don’t desert me now.”

      Molly sat on her СКАЧАТЬ