Love's Protector: A Maverick's Shield Novel (29 page)

When they pulled up to Pierce’s campaign office, Amour was surprised that she didn’t feel the least bit nervous or anxious. That may have been because she was well over all of this. She prayed that there would be no other mysteries to unfold because she didn’t think that she could handle any more surprises. When they walked in, Jax immediately walked up to Cheryl, spoke to her for a few minutes and then walked back to them.

“Okay guys.” Jax said. “Cheryl just told me that Harrington is gonna be here any minute now so we’ll just sit tight until he gets here.”

Jason put his hand on her face and stroked her cheek. “Do you want to do this alone Amour?”

“I probably should but I want all of to stay here though.”

“Of course honey.”

After about an hour, a barricade of cars pulled up to the building. Soon after, a black limousine followed.

“That must be him.” Jax said as he looked out of the window.

Amour finally started to feel nervous but at least this time she wasn’t sick to her stomach. Now that the cat was out of the bag and she knew he didn’t murder her mother, there was really no reason to be intimidated by this man at all.  She looked up to see him standing in the doorway wearing a perfectly tailored suit and expensive leather dress shoes. There his was in all his glory. Pierce Harrington, her father. Well, not really. Maybe biologically but definitely not physically or emotionally. What on earth was she possibly going to say to him?

He walked fully inside, paused and then gave everyone in the room a big smile followed by a wave. He seemed to be a little nervous but she guessed he had every reason to be; all of his dirty had just been exposed to whole state of California. Amour just shook her head in disbelief of all of this.

Pierce held his hand up and looked around the room. “Hello all. I’m sure you all are already aware of the fact that I’m stepping down as your senator.” The workers in the room all made sob sounds. “I know, I know. I’m very disappointed myself but this is a result of my own actions. I just want to let you all know just how truly sorry I am and that I appreciate each and every one of you for all that you’ve done for me regarding my campaign and all the other aspects of my life as well. There will be another candidate who will take my place effective immediately. He is a fine man and I hope that you will put forth just as much effort into getting him elected as you’ve done for me. 

Pierce shook a few of the workers hands and snapped a few photos before heading to his private office in the back of the room.

Alex came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Now is your chance.”

“What about his security? How do I get passed them?”

“I’m sure you won’t have a problem,” Mack said.

“I guess you’re right.” She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Here goes.”

She headed towards the back of the room to his office where two huge bodyguards waited at the entrance. When she approached them, they looked at her with very serious expressions which scared the crap out of her.

“Yes?” one of them asked.

“I’m here to talk to Senator Harrington.”

“Is he expecting you?”

“No, but I’m sure he’ll talk to me.”

“And you are?” the guard asked after crossing his large arms over his chest.

“I’m his daughter.”

The guard frowned. “I’ve seen his daughter plenty of times and you’re not her.”

She looked him straight in the eye. “Believe me, I’m his daughter.”

The guard frowned for a second before the realization of who she was hit him. He raised his hand. “One second.” the guard said before knocking on the door. A few seconds passed. “Someone’s here to see you sir.” After a couple of more seconds, the guard then said, “It’s your daughter sir…okay sir.” he turned back to Amour. “Okay, you can go in now.”

He opened the door and gestured towards the entrance. Once inside, she stood in the doorway but said nothing. Pierce was facing the opposite way digging in a large file cabinet.

Once he’d heard the guard shut the door, he spoke. “I’ll be right with you sweetheart.” He had obviously assumed she was Caroline because he never turned to look at her. Amour just decided to keep quiet and use the element of surprise to grab his attention. “Why didn’t you stay in the car honey? I won’t be long.” Amour still didn’t respond. After about five seconds, he shut the drawer of the file cabinet and then turned to face her. When he saw her, he froze and his eyes widened but he remained silent.

“Hello Pierce,” she said softly.

He hesitated. “Amour…”

She glanced away and walked over to one of the large picture windows that cornered the office. “Surprised?”

He threw the folders he’d gotten out of the file cabinet on his desk. “Very.” When she turned to face him again, he looked at her with a somber expression. “My god you look so much like her.”

“That’s what they tell me. Sorry for just popping up on you like this…well actually, no I’m not.” Instead of responding, he just stared at her and she frowned. “Are you just gonna gawk at me with stupid look on your face or are you going to give me the explanation that I deserve?” She put her hand up. “And there’s no need to bore me with all the crap about you and my mother’s affair because I’ve already heard it so you can just cut to the chase.” She gave him a snarling look. “
Daddy
.” When Amour let out a breath and raked her hair out of her face, Pierce frowned. “What?”

“That bracelet.”

“What about it?”

“It’s beautiful. Where did you get it?”

He knew exactly where she’d gotten it. “It was my mother’s but I’m sure you already knew that. The cops gave it to me when they found it in her house. Now don’t change the subject, I said I wanted an explanation!”

He looked down at his desk. “I know I owe you so much, Amour. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Why don’t you start by telling me why the hell you allowed another man to raise your child?”

He looked back up at her. “It’s not as simple as that.”

“Why not?”

“You have to understand what my position was.”

She scowled. “Your position?” She shook her head. “Your position should’ve been making sure you took care of your responsibilities instead of leaving them up to another man to do so! Your position should’ve been, being
my
father!”

“I wanted to make you a part of my like Amour, I really did. God knows I tried.”

Anger boiled inside of her. “Apparently you didn’t try hard enough. It would’ve been nice to know I had a sister and anybody else for that matter. Did you even care that I would be cut off from my family? Were you embarrassed by me?”

“Absolutely not!”

“Then why all the lies and secrecy?”

He sat down in the large brown chair at his desk and rubbed his temple with his finger tips. “I told you, I couldn’t. I would’ve lost everything if it would have been known that I was not only having an affair, but had a child because of it. Don’t think I didn’t care about you Amour
because did. I loved you; I still do. But when Beatrice found out about you and Carly, she threatened to divorce me and take Caroline away if I didn’t end it with your mother. The divorce alone would’ve been a huge scandal for me. I couldn’t let that happen; I couldn’t stand to lose my job and both of my children as well.”

“Well I guess the best daughter won huh?”

He slowly shook his head. “No sweetheart. It was no competition. If I could go back in time I would’ve chosen a different path especially now that I’m losing my job anyway. I see now that it wasn’t worth losing you over.” He stood, came from behind the desk and walked up to her. “Back then I figured that was the best thing for all of us especially you. I knew Ted would be a good father to you and he would bring you up right. Judging by the kind of woman you turned out to be and all of you accomplishments over the years, I see that my decision has paid off.”

She frowned. “How do you know what I’ve accomplished? You weren’t even there and I was in Nebraska.”

“Oh I know sweetheart. I kept in touch with Ted over the years through email and phone calls. He’d always give me updates on you. I was so proud of you when you won your first racing trophy.”

“You saw it on TV?”

“No, I was there.”

Her frown dissipated.
“Really?”

“Yes. I told you, I know everything about you.”

“I can’t believe he never told me.”

“Don’t be upset Ted. He only did what I asked him to do. He wanted to tell you but I was against it because I saw what my lifestyle was doing to Caroline and it would have been ten times worse for you and I didn’t want you to go through that. I wanted you to have a normal childhood.”

“Did you care about my mom at all?”

“I loved Carly very much.”

“Even though she was sleeping with my father and all those other men?”

“Other men?
I knew about Ted but there were no
other men
. Where did you get that from?”

“Angela Marx told me.”

He breathed in deeply and slowly let it out. “You mother was not a tramp. We were very much in love. True, I had been with a lot of women back then but when I met Carly, I fell hard for her. She was different than any other woman I’ve ever known. She’s actually who I wanted to be with. Beatrice was not my soul mate, we were together for appearances and Angela was just for kicks and nothing more. She’s always been jealous of Carly and in ways she still is. She’ll do anything to make her out to be the worst person in the world.”

“I’m sorry if I’m not okay with any of this. My father loved her as well and suffered a lot of pain because of you and my mom’s relationship.”

He sat on the edge of the desk. “She loved Ted as well, especially towards the end of our relationship.”

“But she was only with him because you broke it off with her.”

“No sweetheart. She genuinely loved him. When you were born, probably around the time she died, she realized that she’d be better off with him than me. Ted was good for her and she knew that. That’s why she decided to take you and move to Nebraska with him so the three of you can be a family. Your mother was very young Amour, and very naive. When she got a little older, she made better decisions.”

“Why did she get a paternity test if she knew I was yours?”

“Because she wanted proof of it.”

“Why?”

“Because at the time, I was being a jackass. She just wanted to make sure I took care of the child that I helped her create.”

“How could you stay with the woman that killed her?”

“I didn’t know any of that until now; I swear. I was told the same thing as everyone else, that she’d had a heart attack.”

“Are you going to divorce her now?”

“I don’t know, but I definitely won’t do anything to help her out of this situation. She needs to pay for what she’s done.”

Before she could respond, there was a knock at the door. “Yes?” Pierce yelled.

“It’s your other daughter sir!” The guard yelled from the other side of the door.

“Let her in!”

The door opened and Caroline walked in. After seeing Amour, she paused in mid stride. “Oh, I didn’t know you had company.”

Pierce walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. “This isn’t exactly company sweetheart…this is your sister Amour.”

Caroline didn’t say anything but Amour noticed that she was balling up her fists very tightly. She extended her hand out to her. “Hello.” She didn’t shake it nor did she speak.

“Caroline, don’t be rude.” Pierce said.

She seemed to have snapped out of whatever mood she was in because she smiled but she still didn’t shake Amour’s hand. “My apologies. I’m not usually happy to see people that accuse my mother of murder.”

“Caroline
don’t…”

“No.” Amour interrupted. “You don’t have to fight my battles for me.” She turned back to Caroline. “Okay first of all, I haven’t accused Beatrice of anything. She confessed to killing my mother and secondly, there was a witness that saw her at my mom’s house that day. So if you wanna blame someone for your mom’s situation, blame them. Better yet, blame
her
; she’s the one who committed the crime!”

Pierce gently grabbed Caroline’s wrists. “Honey, your mother confessed to it.”

“She’s not a criminal!” Caroline exclaimed.

“I’m not saying she is but I can’t excuse what she did either. This is not her fault thought honey, it’s mine. I failed all of you; including Amour and Carly.”

Caroline held the same scarf in her hands she’d held at the courthouse. She was clenching it hard again, this time so hard her hands were shaking. “Why couldn’t you just be faithful to her?”

“Sweetie you know what kind of marriage we have. Our love for you is what kept us together and you know being divorced wasn’t a good image for a senator to have especially back in those times. I know this is hard for you to hear, but I did love Carly very much and I want Amour…my daughter, to be a part of our family. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the sister you’ve always wanted?”