Chapter 6
Adam's anger shifted.
“Disappeared how?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t tell me any of this.”
“You were out of town.”
“You have a phone.”
Sophia broke.
“I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
She looked at Beatrice.
Adam followed her gaze.
Beatrice’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Adam saw it.
“What does Mom have to do with this?”
Sophia’s silence answered first.
Beatrice walked toward the door.
Adam blocked her.
“No.”
She glared at him.
“Move.”
“No. Not anymore.”
He looked at Sophia.
“Tell me everything.”
Sophia held Noah close.
“Emma called me four nights ago.”
She swallowed.
“She said she needed help. She wouldn’t say much over the phone. She kept asking whether anyone from your family had contacted me.”
Adam frowned.
“My family?”
Sophia nodded.
“She asked about your father.”
Adam’s expression went still.
His father, Richard Langford, had died six years earlier.
At least that was what Adam had been told.
A sudden heart attack.
Private funeral.
Closed casket.
Beatrice had handled everything.
“Why would Emma ask about Dad?”
Sophia’s eyes filled with fear.
“She said Noah’s father used the name Richard Langford.”
Adam almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it seemed impossible.
“My father would be sixty-eight.”
“I know.”
“He’s dead.”
Sophia whispered.
“I know what you were told.”
Beatrice moved suddenly.
She reached for Sophia.
Adam stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Beatrice’s face had gone white.
Adam looked at her.
“Mom?”
She said nothing.
“Is Dad dead?”
Beatrice stared at the floor.
“Answer me.”
Still nothing.
Adam’s heart began pounding.
“Is my father dead?”
Beatrice finally whispered.
May you like
“He should be.”
Adam took a step back.
