Carly Phillips - Sealed with a Kiss

He burst out laughing. “And Jessie?”

“I think this is hardest on her.” Molly sighed, her heart breaking for the teenager despite their rocky relationship. “She’d normally turn to Seth,” she said of Jessie’s best friend and their next-door neighbor.

Seth’s father was Paul Markham, the man the general had been accused of murdering. Frank and Paul had been army buddies. They’d been honorably discharged and eventually they’d become partners in a real-estate-development business. The families had been close; Seth, his father and his mother, Sonya, living next door.

“But Seth is dealing with his father’s death and I know Jessie feels alone, not that she’d admit it. Or come to me for anything,” Molly said.

“This shouldn’t be happening to any of us.” Her father maintained his ever-present control, but his body tensed in frustration.

Molly instinctively reached a hand to his and the guard behind them, who she’d been trying to ignore, cleared his throat as a reminder. She shot her father a regret-filled glance and snatched her hand back.

“We’ll figure this out,” she promised. She just didn’t know how. She wasn’t about to mention Hunter to him and get his hopes up when the likelihood of the lawyer helping them were less than slim. “Are you sleeping?” she asked instead, leaning closer to study his bloodshot eyes and the tension lines in his forehead.

He nodded. “I’m trained to sleep anywhere. I’m fine, ” he said again.

She believed him and yet she didn’t. He had to be worried sick about his fate.

“I just miss you all. Even the damn mouthy bird. I don’t want you making yourself crazy trying to fix this, or Robin losing focus at school. As for Jessie…” His voice trailed off. Nothing more needed to be said.

Molly swallowed hard. “I just wish I’d specialized in criminal law so I could do more.” She hated feeling useless, and her stomach had been in permanent knots since his arrest.

“You know, when you first showed up here, I couldn’t have been more shocked if I’d given birth myself and then forgotten all about it. When your mother got pregnant, I was a kid with a plan, making the army my career like my father had. She said she wanted to give the baby up for adoption. I thought it was for the best and signed the papers. I believed she’d do what she said and you’d have a happy life.” He frowned as he always did when her mother’s lies came up between them.

“Let’s not rehash this. It does nothing except upset us both.” Neither of them enjoyed discussing the times they’d missed out on as father and daughter.

“Humor me, would you? I’ve had nothing but time to think over the last few days.” He grinned, but he had that determined look in his eye she’d seen more than once in her grandmother’s-usually when she was in commander mode.

“Go on,” she said, indulging him.

“I’m not saying I never thought about the fact that I fathered a baby, but I knew I was too young to do anything about it. The army was going to be my family and I had nothing to give anyone, including your mother. Though you should know I did offer to marry her.”

Molly couldn’t help but smile at his inbred chivalry. They’d discussed so much about the past, but each time something new and interesting came to light. “Let me guess. She said no.”

He nodded. “Didn’t want to trap me, she said.”

“More like she didn’t want to trap herself,” Molly muttered in disgust.

As they’d figured out by putting the pieces together, Molly’s pregnant mother had taken off for California, met the wealthy man Molly had believed to be her father and passed the pregnancy and baby off as his. For Molly’s mother, Francie, it had been the first in a series of money-dictated marriages. Whether the pregnancy had been a mistake or part of a grander plan nobody knew for sure, but one thing was certain. Francie would never have hitched herself to a husband with only an army salary to his name.

Until Francie returned from Europe and was willing to have a conversation that consisted of more than “I have to go, I have a spa treatment in five minutes,” they’d never know all the missing details.

“The day I realized you were my daughter and the day I found out you’d become an attorney, I was as proud as I could be. But the best part was when I realized just how much we had in common. You chose real estate law and I chose the real estate business. I didn’t have to raise you for you to be just like me. Finding that out gave me comfort and told me we’d get over the past and make it through the awkward beginning because we were family, and you were my daughter.”

Molly hadn’t realized her eyes were filled with tears until one fell and she wiped it with the back of her sleeve. He loved her. He wanted her. Emotional tears of joy, now those she could handle. She wished she’d had the general raising her, but she’d settle for being grateful he was in her life now.

“Even Jessie will come around in time,” her father said.

“Now I know you’re delusional.” Molly grinned.

“She’ll grow up eventually. I just hope I’m around to see it and not locked away in a damn cell.”

Molly’s stomach cramped in pain. “We’ll get you out of this mess,” she promised.

“It’s not your problem.”

“I’m not going to let you go through this alone.”

Her father rolled his head, stretching his tense muscles. “I should’ve seen what Paul was doing to the business,” he said, talking more to himself than to Molly. “I knew he could be an angry son of a bitch back in the service and I knew he was having personal problems lately. His behavior was more and more erratic and I shouldn’t have continued to trust him on the financial end. Now the damn police think I have motive to have killed him.”

Molly leaned forward. This was the first she’d heard of Paul having problems and it gave her hope that maybe more had gone on in that office than anyone knew. “What kind of personal problems?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

Molly frowned. “I hate that stubborn independent streak of yours.”

“At least now you know where yours comes from, young lady.”

She shook her head in frustration.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you…” Her father trailed off, his tone suddenly uncertain, one thing the general never was.

“What is it?”

“Whether or not I end up in jail when this is over-”

“You won’t! ”

“Well, either way, I’d like you to consider coming into business with me. It’s not the greatest offer seeing as there’s nothing left at the moment. Paul drained us completely and Sonya needs a piece of the profits so she can live comfortably and raise Seth. But there is the existing real estate, mortgaged though it is. And I need a lawyer to try to undo some of the mess Paul created. You said, yourself, you’re licensed here. Then there’ll be the fixing of our reputation and the buying of new property,” he said, explaining to Molly what she already knew.

Her father bought and sold land and buildings, sometimes holding on to the property until the market brought a better price, sometimes turning it over quickly for a nice hefty profit. But the fast-moving nature of the business had enabled his partner to shift money around and hide his embezzling. Still, he envisioned a future for his business and for the first time she imagined being a part of it.

Since her move here, she’d filled her time with volunteer work with senior citizens, which had led to small jobs doing real estate closings and trust and estate work. She loved helping the older people and though they couldn’t pay much, their gratitude was worth everything. Rent hadn’t been an issue because she lived with her father, but she knew soon she’d have to move out and find a more permanent job.