Which made her think of another villain they needed to defeat. Leo’s father.
“Leo?” she asked, and he immediately glanced at her in concern, sensing the change in her tone. “Your father? Has he contacted you since he blackmailed my father? Has he asked for more payments?”
Leo only hesitated for an instant. “Yes. He mostly just sends letters, but he showed up in Iowa at the hotel lobby. That’s why I was acting so strangely when you found me.”
Mattie understood the trust Leo had just placed in her. Only that knowledge prevented her ire toward Clive from consuming her. She needed to stay calm, rational, for Leo’s sake. This wasn’t a problem to charge at. She reached over and brushed her hand over his cheek.
“I have an idea of how to stop him, if you want to hear it.” Mattie had suspected that Leo’s poor excuse for a father hadn’t stopped at one attempt to gather money.
Leo’s eyes fluttered shut, and he shifted to kiss her hand gently. “I can’t see any way thatwon’tdrag your family and Alfred into the press. I can’t make you all go through that.”
“It’s time we celebrated my brother. It would do us all good to talk about him. We write the article about what happened the day of his death. We tell the tale and frame it how it should be rightfully presented. Pa, my brothers, you, and I will all approve what it says. Once it is published, your father will have no hold over any of us.” The more Mattie had considered this plan last night, the more she had realized it would free all of them.
“I wouldn’t want to ask you and your family to do that.” Leo’s eyes fluttered open, and she could see the worry still there.
“Youarepart of the family. It will be healing for all of us to tell Alfred’s story. And you better believe that Alfred would demand we do it!”
A soft, affectionate smile, full of fond memory, stretched across Leo’s face. “Alfred would, right after he’d punched my old man in the kisser and told him to blouse.”
“We’ll tell his story and your story.”
“Together.” Leo reached for her other hand and squeezed it.
Together.Solid yet fierce. Thoughtful but daring. Cautious, though bold.
The perfect combination.
Chapter Nineteen
This is an account of two heroes. One intrepid, one quiet. One who died, one who lived. One who came from a famous family of aviators, the other who grew up in a foundling home and in the streets of New York City.
Many reporters have asked for the story of my past and the details of my days as an ace during the Great War. But it is not my tale alone. It is the story of the McAdams family, who taught me first to soar, and it is the legacy of my best friend, Alfred McAdams. I did not write this article on my own but had the assistance of Alfred’s twin sister, Mattie McAdams, and the rest of their family. It is in memory of Alfred—an indomitable spirit whose sense of adventure and love of flying lives on through us, the survivors.
Alfred was the one who first wanted to join the Lafayette Escadrille...
—Leo Ward (coauthored by the family of Alfred McAdams),Aviators’ Gazette
Clive adjusted the collar on his ratty overcoat with a self-important air as Vera’s driver escorted him into Leo’s hospital room. His steps faltered when he caught sight of Mattie. Clearly, the bastard had thought he’d be meeting his son alone. Instantly, Clive smoothed his lips into a charming smile.
For a moment, Leo wondered if that was what his own “press face” looked like, but then he realized it didn’t matter. His features werehisalone and had nothing to do with this man before him, no matter how much they resembled each other.
“Didn’t expect to get picked up in a fancy car, son. You’ve come up in the world.”
No thanks to you.Leo didn’t say the words, nor did Mattie, although he knew she was thinking them too. They hadn’t set up this meeting to argue with the reprobate but to banish him. And Mattie was letting Leo handle the dismissal, just as he silently supported her during her battles.
“I wanted to make it clear that you are never to contact me or any of the McAdams family—myfamily—ever again.” The words brought Leo a sense of freedom he’d never had. Despite not really knowing his parents, he’d felt tied down by them and their choices—as if their decision to abandon him had created him. But it hadn’t. It never had. They had no part in the true making of him.
Clive’s veneer of charm dropped away to reveal the snarl underneath. “Do you want your precious sweetheart to know the truth about that day?”
Leo glanced over to Mattie. Their eyes met, and he could see her admiration for him.
“She already knows,” Leo said, not even bothering to turn back to his old man.
“That I do,” Mattie added cheerfully, also looking not at Clive but at Leo.
“Who’s going to think you’re a war hero after the whole story is known how you saved your own hide instead of your best friend’s?”Clive’s words were clearly calculated for maximum damage, but they didn’t even graze Leo’s heart. He would always carry Alfred’s death with him, but he was done with giving this shadow of a human the ability to twist his own memories and grief.
Leo reached over to the periodical that lay beside his hospital bed and held it out toward Clive. “I’ve told my story, and it seems both Alfred and I are judged to be the heroes. We were different types of fighters, but we both did our duty toward each other and for the Allies. It was never your story. It was ours. And I’ve told it the way the McAdamses and I wanted it said.”
