“No. She got a promotion a couple of weeks later and was transferred out of state. I didn’t know I had a daughter until Jessica showed up at my door a couple of years back.”
“After my mom finally told me the truth about who my father was, I paid to have a DNA test done so there wouldn’t be any doubts.” She glanced at her father. “For either of us.”
“Do you live here with your father, Jessica?” Grant grumbled.
“No. I have an apartment. I come by to check on him a few times a week.”
Brynnon’s expression softened. “So, you never knew Jordan?”
“No.” Jessica shook her head. “I wish I had, though. To hear Dad talk, my brother was amazing.”
Genuine sadness filled Brynnon’s heart. “I’m sorry.”
Wright huffed out a breath. “If you were truly sorry, you’d be doing everything you could to find the truth, just like I’ve been doing for the past six years.” He pressed his lips together tightly before shaking his head in disgust. “The military claimed that what happened was nothing more than a tragic accident. The case was closed, and everybody went on about their business, but not me. I knew something wasn’t right, so I started looking into it more.”
“What did you find?” Derek asked the disgruntled man.
Continuing on with his round-about answer, Wright scoffed. “At first? Not much. I knew someone like me wasn’t going to get very far on my own, so after about a year, I hired a private investigator. He’s former military. I call him once a week to see if he’s found anything new. For the last five years, he’s been researching what happened with no luck. But a few days ago, the guy calledme. Said he’d found something interesting. That he was almost certain he’d found the proof I’d been looking for all along.”
“What kind of proof?”
“Something about paperwork not matching up. He wouldn’t give me any details over the phone.”
“What’s his name?” Derek asked.
“Oh, no.” Wright smirked. “I’m not telling you that.”
“Why not?” Grant challenged.
“Why should I? You’ll probably just go try and strong-arm him the way you are me.”
“No one’s trying to strong-arm you, Mr. Wright,” Brynnon tried to assure him. “We all want the same thing here.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
Brynnon looked him square in the eye. “To get to the truth.”
“Dad, you need to calm down,” Jessica put an arm on her father’s shoulder. “Remember the doctors’ warnings about your heart.”
Chest heaving, Wright kept his eyes locked on Brynnon’s but kept quiet. A few seconds passed before Grant broke the silence.
“Did your investigator send you what he found?”
Wright shook his head, his gaze sliding to Grant. “He was supposed to come by yesterday morning, but he never did.”
“Yet, you still showed up at the hospital to confront Miss Cantrell.”
The man’s hard eyes became narrowed slits. “It’s not like I could just waltz into her father’s office.” He looked back at her. “I read about the party for the kids in the paper. I thought...” He paused. “I thought maybe you would actually listen.”
“You pretended to be a reporter to get close to her,” Derek responded. “Doesn’t instill a lot of trust when you start the whole thing off by lying about who you were.”
His eyes shot to Grant’s. “I’m on borrowed time, son. And when my time comes, I want to go to the good Lord knowing my son got the justice he deserved.”
With a gentle voice, Brynnon told him, “I’m listening, now.” She glanced at the other two men then back to Wright. “We all are.”
The ball was in his court now. She’d tried to get him to understand they were only trying to help. If he didn’t want to believe her, there was nothing more she could do about it.
A single nod was the only response he gave, but it was enough.
