Just as Matt had suspected, Camille had threatened to go public with the affair—including news of her pregnancy with Bell’s child. Unwilling to sacrifice his career, Bell had agreed to meet with her on the night she died to decide on a course of action, and they’d argued violently.
What Uncle Frank hadn’t known was that Camille had told her sister, Priscilla, breaking her heart and her spirit. In Priscilla’s eyes, Frank—who had refused to have children—had fathered a love child with her own sister…the sister who had always gotten everything she wanted.
Out of her mind with rage and hurt, Priscilla had gone to Frank’s office seeking a confrontation. Instead, she’d found a notation in her husband’s date book and a sparkling new letter opener, complete with a love note from Camille.
Blinded by anger, she’d surprised the two in the middle of their arguing. Her attack had been meant for her husband, but when he ducked, she’d stabbed her sister instead. Once. In the carotid. A fatal blow.
What followed were years of lies and deception, including the prosecution and conviction of an innocent man and the murder of Lindsey’s father.
Not long before Lindsey’s sixteenth birthday, Doug Tarlington had decided to face the demons of his wife’s art studio. There, he’d discovered the love letter from Frank, recognizing the handwriting instantly. He’d put the pieces together, including the fraudulent conviction of Tony Alessandro.
He’d suspected Camille’s infidelities and had gone searching for her the night she’d vanished, with no luck. Lindsey couldn’t help but wonder how different the outcome might have been had her father found her mother and Uncle Frank before Priscilla had.
When Lindsey’s father confronted Frank Bell with his suspicions about Frank’s role in Camille’s death, Bell had made sure the man never shared those same suspicions with another soul.
After that, everything had been under control until the day Priscilla intercepted a call from Lorraine Mickle. Home early from an appointment with her oncologist, she’d realized Frank’s infidelities had never stopped. She’d devoted her life to a man who cared only for himself—a man who had never paid for being unfaithful.
With the time she had left to live, Priscilla had vowed to take her husband down, and take him down she did.
As she stood at her mother’s graveside, safely wrapped in Matt’s embrace, Lindsey realized that not only was her uncle’s career over, but his life as a free man was over forever, as well.
Aunt Priscilla had succumbed to her cancer not long after the shooting, but not until she’d been fully deposed by the county prosecutor.
Lindsey fingered her mother’s heirloom ring, a perfect fit on her own finger, then tightened her grip on Matt’s waist. She lifted her chin to study his handsome face, and he shot her a reassuring smile then shifted the arm he held close to his chest, still sheathed in a sling.
Her aunt’s shot had miraculously missed everything vital when it had passed through his shoulder. He’d been able to knock the gun from Priscilla’s hand, and Lindsey had used his cell phone to call for the police and an ambulance for both Matt and her uncle.
She’d known in the moment Matt had been shot that she couldn’t bear a life without him, no matter what the risk might be of losing him some day down the road. She’d take whatever time he’d give her, and she’d cherish every second.
“Can you ever forgive me?” Lindsey asked, knowing fear and hope rang blatant in her tone.
The thing was, she didn’t care anymore about hiding her feelings—not from Matt. They’d been through too much together, and she knew without a doubt she loved him—loved him like she’d never love another. Her only fear now was that he’d wake one morning and want nothing to do with her or her ties to the family that had destroyed his own.
He dropped a kiss to her lips, then shook his head. “We don’t get to choose our families, honey. I love you. That’s all that matters.”
A bubble of warmth burst somewhere deep inside her, spreading heat and security through her every muscle and bone.
Jimmy approached and gave Lindsey an awkward hug.
“You promise to keep in touch?” she asked.
The older man nodded. “Can’t thank you two enough.”
Together, Matt and Lindsey had tracked Jimmy’s lost love to a retirement community in Arizona. Matt had arranged permission for Jimmy to leave the state, and the reunion was scheduled for the following day.
As Jimmy walked away, Matt and Lindsey stood together a little longer, waiting until the last of the mourners had paid their respects and left. Lindsey crossed to her mother’s coppery casket and pressed a kiss to her fingertips, then pressed them to the cool, smooth steel.
The truth had been set free, and her mother’s remains had been laid to rest. As part of his plea agreement, her uncle had led investigators to the deserted stretch along the river where he and Aunt Priscilla had tossed her mother’s body away like a rag doll, burying it deep beneath the sandy soil.
Lindsey blew out a long, slow breath, overwhelmed once again by her feelings of loss and disbelief. But as she turned back toward Matt and reached for his outstretched hand, she knew without a doubt, that at long last, the healing for both of them had finally begun.