The governor looked reluctantly impressed she’d done what the police couldn’t. But they didn’t know Adam had attacked any of them. They didn’t know if they were looking for one person or more.
“Your son did that. He sat there, day after day, watching the women around him, looking for someone who looked like me. He picked those four surrogate women. And then he came for me.”
Mrs. Harris violently shook her head side to side. “I can’t listen to this. It’s just so—”
“True,” Brooke snapped. “Tragic. Unforgiveable. Horrendous. Unspeakable.” She tilted her head and studied Mrs. Harris. “I think the note he left you after his suicide attempt spelled it all out very clearly. Everything he’d done and why. He confessed to everything. Didn’t he?”
She got no response to her guess. But how else would they have known what Adam did and that they needed to hide him away as quickly as they did?
“What happened to the letter, Governor?” She raised a brow.
He stared at her shrewdly, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and remained silent.
A politician knew how to spin things and when to say nothing at all.
Brooke couldn’t confirm the existence of the suicide note, but it was a good bet Adam left one behind before he tried to kill himself. Guilt moved him to do something drastic. She bet that same guilt made him leave a confession.
“He is depressed,” Mrs. Harris said, trying to defend her only child.
“Depression didn’t make him a rapist or murderer,” Brooke shot back. She refused to accept any excuses for what Adam Harris had done to her and those other women “He’s mentally unstable and should remain locked up for the rest of his life.”
“He’s getting the help he needs.” Governor Harris took a step toward Brooke.
That wasn’t a confirmation Adam would remain locked up.
Cody stepped forward, ready to pounce if the governor even thought about coming closer.
Brooke vibrated with anger and the fear and grief that was never far from her mind. “As far as the doctors know, he’s being treated for depression. Right? You’re not getting him the help he actually needs. So when the doctors say he’s stable and can go home, what then?”
The governor didn’t respond. Mrs. Harris’s gaze dropped to the floor.
Governor Harris gave her his diplomatic answer. “Brooke, it’s obvious our son was suffering, and he lashed out at you and those other girls.”
That was as close as he’d come to calling his son a murderer and a rapist.
As a parent, you never wanted to think of your child in that way, but you couldn’t hide from the truth either.
The governor touched his chin again. “Mr. Wagner has remained in touch with me, the police, and campus security and is keeping track of the investigation. Have you instructed him to reveal my son’s name as your attacker?”
She tilted her head and stared right at him. “You mean the murderer of my baby.”
“Our son is sick,” Mrs. Harris pleaded, not wanting to truly believe her son capable of all he’d done as she made excuses for him. “You can’t blame us for what happened. You can’t make us pay for his mistakes. This will ruin us.”
Brooke looked down at the woman sobbing on the couch, trying to salvage a life that had never really included her son. Brooke could muster enough compassion for the woman’s grief at discovering her son was the worst sort of person and not the boy she thought him to be. Almost.
“Your son is sick. That doesn’t exonerate him from what he’s done.”
Governor Harris’s frame went rigid. “But if you’ll just listen to reason. I’m the governor of the state. People depend on me. I’m up for reelection next year. This will ruin my career. Every good thing I’ve ever done to serve the people of this state won’t matter. I’ll only be remembered as the father of the man who attacked five women and killed an unborn baby.”
“Yes.” She nodded and wrapped her arms around her middle. “A baby who never got to take a breath, or see the light of day.”
“He knows what he did was wrong. He’s sorry he did it,” Mrs. Harris wailed. “He’s distraught and anxious to make things right. He’s sorry.”
“I don’t care if he’s sorry!” she raged. “I don’t care if he was the kindest boy there ever was. I don’t care what changed him, or the reasons why he decided I was the woman of his dreams, and he had to have me at all costs. None of that mattered when he held a knife to my face.” She traced the scar on her cheek. “It didn’t matter when he dragged me into the bushes and trees and attacked me because I had the audacity to love someone else.”
Governor Harris held his hands out to her, palms up, pleading, “Brooke, we understand your anger and your sadness over the loss of your daughter. It’s understandable, expected, and perfectly reasonable. I see your anger is directed at the person who did this to you. It wasn’t our intention to come here and cause an open wound to bleed even more.” He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out to her. “This is for you.”
Brooke eyed the check as if he were holding out a rattlesnake. She actually took a step back before she caught herself. “Do you actually believe you can buy my silence?”
