Griffin Colton’s job had its highs, lows and harrowing moments. Although his business premises were based in downtown Grand Rapids, his reputation as one of Michigan’s best adoption attorneys meant he was in demand across the state. As a result, he spent too many days like the one that had just ended, during which he had been traveling from one courtroom to another.
He loved what he did and wouldn’t trade the feeling that came from knowing he’d helped a child find a place with the right family. Even so, by the time he returned to his office for a late-afternoon meeting, his already-low energy levels had drained even further. The leader of the local adoption fundraising organization was passionate in her commitment to securing financial help for families. Griffin agreed to provide leaflets to his clients and direct them to further support if necessary. Although the exchange was productive, it was late when his visitor left, and all Griffin wanted to do was drive the short distance to his Heritage Hill home, order takeout and eat it while watching an old movie.
He was closing down his laptop when his receptionist, Martha Dunne, appeared in the doorway.
“Dr. Abigail Matthews is here to see you.” Her expression was apologetic. “I explained that I could make an appointment for another time, but she said it was urgent.”
Instinct told Griffin it wasn’t a good idea to talk to Abigail. She was the daughter of the man his family were investigating. Colton Investigations was the private firm run by his elder brother, Riley. Griffin and their four sisters—two sets of fraternal twins—took cases only involving a search for justice. The more they investigated banker Wes Matthews and his pyramid scheme involving selling RevitaYou pills the more criminal activity they uncovered. Could Abigail be on a fact-finding mission to discover how much they knew about her dad?
But on the one occasion Griffin had met Abigail Matthews, he’d been touched by her obvious devotion to her nine-month-old foster daughter. Children had always been his weakness, particularly those who were fostered or adopted. Having been in the foster system himself, he could never resist stepping in when there was a child involved.
If Abigail had come to see him because of her baby, it didn’t matter who her father was, or what he had done. He would help her.
Without revealing any CI secrets...
“Show her in.” He glanced at the clock. “Then go home, Martha. I can lock up here.”
When the receptionist returned, she was accompanied by accompanied by Abigail, whose tall, slender frame was dressed in jeans, sneakers and a cotton shirt. Martha indicated for Abigail to step inside, then left. Although his visitor’s expression was distracted, Griffin was struck again by her beauty. Her brown hair was streaked blond and hung in waves past her shoulders. With her huge brown eyes, bronze skin, high cheekbones and full lips, she was breathtaking.
Baby Maya was in the stroller and a heavy bag was slung over one of Abigail’s shoulders. The look in Abigail’s eyes as she focused on Griffin was painful in its intensity.
“Thank you for seeing me...” As she started to hold out her hand, the bag slipped from her shoulder. Diapers, baby wipes, bottles of formula and bags of snacks spilled out across the office floor.
“Oh.” Abigail kicked on the stroller’s brake and knelt on the rug. Her cheeks flamed as she picked up items and stuffed them back into her bag. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, it’s not a problem,” Griffin assured her.
As he squatted close to the stroller to retrieve a bottle of hand sanitizer, Maya leaned forward to get a closer look at him. With her chubby cheeks, brown eyes, and mass of dark curls, the baby was adorable. She gave Griffin a grin followed by a friendly kick to the shoulder. When he pretended to stagger back in pain, she giggled and did it again.
“You might find yourself doing that all day,” Abigail said. “Once she finds a game she likes, she wants to play it over and over.”
Despite her underlying distress, there was a warm look in her eyes when she looked at Maya that intrigued Griffin. Abigail proclaimed she had no knowledge of her father’s crimes. She had even come to Colton Investigations just a few days ago and told him and his siblings about a horrifying discovery that she’d made. Her research had uncovered that there was a compound of ricin in RevitaYou that could be deadly, depending on the person taking it. She believed it was only a matter of time before there were deaths as a result of her father’s con.
Yet Griffin’s doubts about her lingered. Was it possible that Wes could have funded the development of RevitaYou without the knowledge of his research scientist daughter? Surely she was the first person he would have gone to for advice and support? He couldn’t help wondering if this innocent act was an attempt to distance herself from consequences, now that the criminal activity was being uncovered.
Between being kicked by the baby and gathering up stray items that had fallen from the bag, he didn’t have any time to pursue that thought. A final glance showed him that most of Abigail’s belongings had been restored to her. A flash of pink under his desk caught his eye and he crawled in that direction. As he reached for the knitted teddy bear, his fingers closed over Abigail’s and they lightly bumped foreheads.
She clutched the soft toy to her chest. “It’s her favorite.”
And there it was. That look in the depths of her eyes was what drew him to this job. That need to help his clients and their kids... But it felt like something more this time. It was a little sharper. A touch deeper. He was drawn to Abigail in spite of his reservations about her family.
Griffin got to his feet and held out a hand to help her up. As he did, he was conscious of a damp, sticky feeling in the region of his right knee. He glanced down.
“Mashed banana?”
Abigail bit her lip as she looked at the stain on his suit pants. “You must have knelt on the bag. I’m—”
He grinned. “Sorry? You don’t need to keep saying that. Most days my clothes tell the story of my appointments. Paint, ice cream, milkshake...” He pointed to different points on his shirt as he spoke. “My dry cleaning bill would bring tears to your eyes.”
For the first time, she managed a slight smile. “I guess it must be one of the hazards of your job.”
“And I guess that leads us neatly to the question of why you’re here?” Griffin went to sit at his desk and indicated one of the chairs on the opposite side.
Before she sat down, Abigail handed the teddy bear to Maya. When she looked back at him, her smile had gone, and her features were tight with tension. “Maya has been in my care since she was born. Her mom died when she was three months old and it was always my intention to adopt her. This morning, I got a call from my foster care caseworker telling me that my paperwork is being stalled due to an investigation into my fitness to be a parent.”
Abigail was struggling to keep her emotions under control. It had taken every ounce of courage she possessed to walk into Griffin Colton’s office. She was going to fight for Maya, and to do that she needed help from the best in the business. His professional reputation was well-known. But the reason she had chosen him went deeper.
Abigail had never been under any illusions about her father. Wes Matthews had the looks and charm of a Hollywood idol combined with the heart and soul of a grifter. But his latest fraud had gone too far. When details started to emerge of the RevitaYou pyramid scheme, she had been genuinely surprised that he had kept it secret from her. She was his daughter, and she was a respected clinical pharmaceutical scientist with a reputation as one of the leading independent researchers in the business. Her role involved the discovery and development of new drugs, alongside the improved use of existing medicines. Who better to help Wes keep this new venture on the right side of the law?
Her old insecurities had kicked in. All her life, she’d known she was a disappointment to her dad, who’d made no secret of the fact that he’d wanted a son. For as long as Abigail could remember, she’d been striving to impress him. Her childhood had been a scoreboard on which she’d never gotten enough points. Academically she’d been gifted, getting straight As in every subject. She had never forgotten the time Wes barely glanced at her report card before asking why she wasn’t playing more sports. The following year she’d won an athlete-of-the-year award in high school. He turned up late to the presentation, then told her all about his friend’s son who was a gifted musician. Now she played piano to concert performance level.
Naturally, she’d believed he hadn’t come to her with his plans for RevitaYou because he’d found someone better to provide the clinical support. The old childhood longing for acceptance, never far from the surface, had bubbled up once more. Underneath the hurt, she’d felt a sense of curiosity. What made this wonder drug so special that she wasn’t good enough to be part of it? Determined to find out, she’d ordered a thirty-day daily supply of capsules for herself. Although it was not FDA approved, RevitaYou was widely available online.
The pretty green bottle containing the daily vitamin supplement promised to make the lucky user look ten years younger within one week. Instead of swallowing the product, Abigail had taken it into her laboratory and broken it down into its component parts. That was when she’d discovered the awful truth...
“Did your caseworker explain why the process has been stalled?” Griffin’s question drew her attention back to the present. Back to the most important part of this whole horrible mess.
Maya. She glanced at her little girl, grounding herself.
I can’t lose her.
One thing Wes had taught her about parenting was that she knew what sort of mom she wanted to be. She’d seen all the mistakes and was determined not to make them with her own little girl. Her love for Maya burned fierce and strong, and she clung to it.
The thought gave her the strength she needed to talk about what she’d discovered. And she reminded herself that Griffin already knew all about her father. There would be no surprises for him in the Matthews family background.
“It has to be about my dad.” Even though they had to be spoken, the words burned her throat. For an instant, she thought she saw a flare of sympathy in the green depths of Griffin’s eyes. But it disappeared within seconds, if it had ever been there at all, and his professional demeanor returned. “About RevitaYou.”
“When you came to the CI office a few days ago, you told us that you were not involved in your father’s con.” Although his voice was nonjudgmental, his gaze probed her face. “You were very determined to make sure that we knew that.”
She gave a bitter little laugh. “Are you giving me a chance to retract my statement?”
“Do you need one?”
She shook her head. Hard. “I was not involved in RevitaYou. Not at any stage. The first time I heard about it was when your team started blasting out warnings on social media and I saw the links to my dad. I only knew about it after it was declared potentially toxic.” He didn’t respond, and she sighed. “I don’t know how to convince you that I’m telling the truth.”
Griffin was silent for a moment or two, then his gaze dropped to Maya. The baby was rubbing her teddy bear against one cheek, her eyelids drooping sleepily.
“If I represent you, we would be in a unique situation. One that calls for total honesty.” He looked back at Abigail. “And the truth is that you can’t convince me that you didn’t know about your dad’s scamming people out of their investments in a toxic supplement.” She winced, and he gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sure you’d rather I told you that up front and moved on to what’s important.”
She sucked in a breath. “Which is?”
He nodded at Maya. “Your little girl.”
For the first time, tears filled her eyes. “Can you help me?”
“I can try.” He drew a legal pad and a pen toward him, then pushed a box of tissues toward her. “I need the name of your caseworker and any other details you can give me.”
It hadn’t occurred to her until now, but Griffin Colton was a very good-looking man. He had the sort of tall, muscular build that fit his expensive designer suit to perfection. And his dark blond hair, sculpted cheekbones and chiseled features were more rock idol than lawyer. But it was those eyes that captured her attention. They were dark green, with the shifting colors and moods of an evening forest. As he smiled, they looked like sunlight on new leaves.
“This may sound like a silly question, but do you mind if I order pizza?” he asked. “If you join me, we can eat while we talk.”
“Goodness.” An hour later, Abigail looked down at the empty pizza box in surprise. “I didn’t even know I was hungry.”
Griffin smiled and pointed toward the stroller. “And that little lady has slept through everything.”
He liked the way Abigail’s face changed when she looked at Maya. It was as if a switch had been flicked and she lit up from within. Had anyone ever looked at him that way? He’d entered the foster system at the age of seven when his mother died. He knew his mom had loved him, and his foster parents, Graham and Kathleen Colton, had cared deeply for him. But that look? He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen it until now.
“Ah. She likes her sleep.” Abigail smoothed down the blanket she’d used to cover the baby’s legs. “But she’ll wake up hungry.”
“It’s not relevant to the case, but why did you foster her?”
She was quiet for so long he wasn’t sure she was going to answer. When she finally turned away from Maya to look at him, the sadness in her eyes hit him like a punch to his gut. “Maya is my best friend’s daughter.”
“I’m sorry. This is clearly painful for you—”
She shook her head. “I live with her loss all the time. Talking about it doesn’t make it harder. Veronica Pérez and I met in high school. We had a lot in common.” A slight smile twisted her lips. “Her parents were from Cuba, and my mother was Cuban, too. Her father worked away a lot. My mom had left my dad by that time and, although I lived with him... Well, I didn’t see a lot of him. Veronica and I became each other’s family. Our friendship stayed just as strong throughout our adult lives.”
As she was talking, her hands twisted in her lap and her eyes focused on a point outside the window. “Sixteen months ago, Veronica came to see me and gave me some devastating news. She had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.” Abigail turned to look at Maya. “But there was another bombshell. She was also pregnant.”
“Her partner...?”
“She didn’t have one. Maya was conceived during a drunken one-night stand. When Veronica contacted the father to tell him about the pregnancy, he offered to pay half the cost of an abortion but flatly refused to have anything else to do with the baby. She told him about the cancer, and he said his position hadn’t changed.”
“Even if he could have been made to accept his parental responsibilities, he doesn’t sound like the right person to care for a child.” Griffin’s expression was grim.
“That’s what I said.” Abigail nodded her agreement. “And Veronica was an only child with no other family. Her parents had died in a car crash years before. There was no one else.”
“Didn’t her doctors advise a termination?”
“She wouldn’t consider it,” Abigail said. “The only treatment available to her was palliative, and she was determined to refuse anything that would affect her baby’s chances of survival.”
“Even so, you made a life-changing decision when you took her child.” The words couldn’t adequately express how much his opinion of her had changed. She was Wes Matthews’s daughter. As far as the RevitaYou investigation went, that meant he should regard her as the enemy. But Griffin knew how it felt to be ripped out of a home as a child. He knew the damage it had caused to his developing identity. Even though he’d found a loving home with the Coltons, his ability to form bonds had been damaged beyond repair.
That was why Abigail’s generous heart touched him so much. She had given Maya everything. A home, a mom, the love every baby so desperately needed. She had given the little girl an identity.
“I didn’t have to think about it. Veronica would have done the same for me.” She gave a soft laugh. “But you’re right. For someone who hadn’t given children a thought before this, suddenly becoming a mom has been life changing.” She pointed to the bulging bag that had been the cause of her earlier embarrassment. “Just getting out of the door is like mounting a polar expedition.”
“What happened to Veronica?” He wasn’t sure how tactful it was to ask for details about the brave woman who had carried her baby knowing she wouldn’t live to see her grow up.
“She died when Maya was three months old.” Abigail hitched in a breath. “Although she was very ill during that time, the three of us got to spend some quality time together. After her death, Maya went through the foster system.”
Griffin tapped his pen on the desk. “Presumably, if the adoption has been proceeding, the father has given his permission?”
“Yes. That was agreed while Veronica was still alive.” She frowned. “There haven’t been any problems. Until now.”
“Okay.” He was surprised by how much he wanted to make this right. The families were important, of course, but usually his motivation was the child’s well-being. This time, his focus was equally divided between Abigail and Maya. He checked the time on his cell phone. “It’s late and I may not get an answer but let me see if I can contact your caseworker.”
Griffin knew most of the caseworkers in the city and he had a vague recollection of John Jones as a young, earnest man who worked hard for the children in his care.
Although he didn’t say it to Abigail, because it sounded boastful, he also knew that his own reputation went before him. If the name Griffin Colton came up on a cell phone display—there wasn’t a caseworker alive who would ignore it.
Sure enough, John Jones answered almost immediately. Griffin put him on speakerphone so Abigail could hear the conversation. “Mr. Colton? Hi, what can I do for you, sir?”
“I’m representing Dr. Abigail Matthews. She tells me that the adoption proceedings for her foster daughter, Maya, have been put on hold. I’d like some more details about that decision, please.”
He was aware of Abigail’s dark gaze fixed on his face as he waited for a reply. In the stroller, Maya murmured quietly in her sleep and waved a chubby hand, as though signifying her own impatience to learn more.
“Um. This is maybe something we should discuss face-to-face.” Jones sounded uneasy.
“If the issue is the situation with Dr. Matthews’s father, we can talk openly about it.”
“No, the RevitaYou situation is not the problem,” Jones said. “The reason her paperwork has been put on hold is that I’ve received information that Dr. Matthews is being investigated as part of her clinical trials to halt the effects of memory loss.”
From the way she half rose from her chair, it was clear that this information was news to Abigail. Griffin raised a hand, signaling that he would deal with it. To his relief, although she looked pale and tense, she remained silent.
“Do you have any details about the investigation? And who made the allegation?” he asked.
“I don’t have any information about who made the allegations. All I know is that the suggestion is that the doctor has been using an illegal enhancement compound—” There was the sound of Jones turning pages as though he was consulting notes. “A designer, non-FDA-approved drug called Anthrosyne. It appears that, instead of merely halting memory loss, Dr. Matthews has been attempting to boost some of her participants memories in order to gain recognition for her work.”
“Can you expand on that?”
“Well, uh... the allegation is that, if Dr. Matthews successfully boosted the memories of her subjects, she would gain considerable attention among her peers. But, of course, she would have been playing with people’s lives for her own gain.”
Abigail gasped and shook her head but when she tried to speak no sound emerged. Worried for her well-being, Griffin quickly ended his call with the caseworker and went to crouch in front of her.
“Are you okay?”
“It isn’t true.” She clutched his hand. “There must be some mistake. I’m working on a research project called Mem10, which aims to halt memory loss in Alzheimer’s subjects. I’ve never even heard of Anthrosyne until just now.”
“We’ll find out what’s going on.” If this was an act, it was the best he’d ever seen. “But right now, you have something more important that needs your attention.”
As he finished speaking, Maya, who had been starting to stir, sat up straight. Hurling her teddy bear to the floor, she gave them an accusing glare and, opening her mouth wide, let out a wail.
Blowing her nose on one of the tissues she still had clutched in her hand, Abigail nodded. “You’re right. She comes first. She always will.”
Copyright © 2020 by Harlequin Books S.A.