Oh, she had fought that, hard, because with their horrible pasts, their kind of friendship was a lifesaver. Still, she couldn’t stop these feeling. The lust mixed with the love. And Livvy was afraid it was going to lead to a broken heart. Because Ethan might never get over Isabel’s death. He might never be able to love another woman.
Yep, a broken heart was in the cards for her.
Her phone rang, jolting her out of her thoughts, and Livvy became instantly alarmed when she saw that it was someone from the hospital. “Deputy Walsh,” she couldn’t answer fast enough.
“It’s me, Sunny,” the caller said.
“Are you all right?” Livvy asked, putting the call on speaker.
“Uh, no. I mean, yes, I’m safe. The deputy is still guarding my door, and no one has tried to get in.” She muttered something Livvy didn’t catch. “Sorry—I’m rambling. I remembered something that my sister said, and I’m not sure if it’s important, but…” Her words trailed off.
“What did you remember?” Livvy pressed.
“It could have been a joke,” Sunny blurted. “But it didn’t feel like one. Zadie and I were talking about Franklin. Sometimes he can have thatholier than thouattitude. Know what I mean?”
Livvy did know and made a sound of agreement, hoping that Sunny would continue and get to the point.
“Anyway, Zadie said she wouldn’t be surprised if Franklin had fathered some of the babies with the surrogates.”
She certainly hadn’t been expecting that. Judging from his expression, neither had Ethan.
“Sometimes when the husbands are sterile or incapable of fathering a child,” Sunny added, “donor sperm is used. But Zadie must have seen something in the records because she said maybe Franklin skipped the donors and used his own. I don’t know if it’s true,” she quickly added. “And I have no idea if it’s important, but I didn’t want to keep it to myself if it could help. Will it help?” she asked after a short pause.
“Maybe. We’ll definitely look into it,” Livvy assured her. “Do you recall Zadie mentioning if she actually looked at any of the records or talked to anyone else about this?”
“Sorry, no. To be honest, I didn’t understand why Zadie even said something like that. I mean, I know she didn’t care much for Franklin, so it could have been something just off the cuff, with no proof whatsoever to back it up.”
The proof could be in the children who’d been born via surrogates. But Livvy didn’t see how they were going to get that kind of DNA data. Still, it was something they could perhaps try to verify with the surrogates themselves during the interviews.
“Thank you for this, Sunny,” Livvy told her. “Has the doctor told you when you’ll be released from the hospital?”
“Maybe this afternoon, but my blood pressure’s a little high, so they might keep me an extra day. I don’t mind staying here,” she added in a mutter. “I, uh, know I’ve already told you that I don’t want to go back to New Hope. I haven’t changed my mind about that.”
“I understand,” Livvy assured her. “And when you are released, we have a safe place for you to go.”
“Good,” Sunny said, the word tumbling out with a stream of breath. “Thank you, Deputy Walsh.”
Livvy ended the call and looked at Ethan. “Sounds like a motive for murder if Zadie truly did uncover that about Franklin.”
“It does. As Sunny said though, Franklin might not have even fathered those kids. And if he did, he possibly had permission from the clients. But if it was all done hush-hush, then that could indeed be motive.”
Yes, that could trigger some charges, but more than that, this could turn out to be a scandal. Something that spread on the news media and ended up ruining New Hope’s reputation.
Which gave Chloe motive for murder, too.
Even if Chloe had approved of what her brother might have done, she seemed devoted to New Hope, and she might not want anything to put a stain on it.
But murder?
Maybe. That could be particularly true if the woman had already killed someone before. Livvy thought of Ivy. Of what Anthony had said. And if that was the truth, then Chloe was more than capable of ending a life.
Ethan minimized the list from Eden and used the laptop to do an internet search for mentions of both Hank Stover and Franklin. He groaned when there were no hits, and then he widened the search to include New Hope and Chloe.
“Still nothing,” he grumbled.
“Try the names we got from Eden,” Livvy suggested.
“Good idea.” He copied and pasted the names into the search, and this time, they got something.
