I nod. “Good. I’m glad you’ve had support from—”
“You’re not here to talk about my health, I presume?”
I swallow. “No, I’m not.”
“Well then.” He sweeps his hand out in front of him. “Get on with it.”
I look at Carter, who nods his support.
“Cyrus is in jail.”
I’ve shocked him. His wiry eyebrows rise. “You don’t say?”
“He shot a man. Attempted murder, Daddy. Do you still think I should have stayed with him?”
A long sigh exits his nose. “There are two sides to every story.”
I laugh incredulously. “Are you serious? My ex-husband is in jail on attempted murder. He tried to kill the man coming after him for his gambling debts.”
“Perhaps it was self-defense then.”
“It wasn’t. We had a private investigator look into it. He’s going to prison for a long time.”
“What does any of this have to do with me?” He eyes Carter strangely. “Oh, I see. You’ve come here to ask me for her hand in marriage, haven’t you?”
“No, sir,” Carter says. He reaches over and puts a hand on my knee. “While I fully intend on marrying your daughter, with all due respect, considering your history, I don’t feel the need to ask permission.”
My father scoffs, staring Carter down. “How proud your parents must be,” he says sarcastically.
“My parents are deceased, sir.”
Dad turns back to me. “What’s the reason for this visit? Surely you could have called to let me know of Cyrus’s fate.”
Before I answer, I retrieve a five-by-seven picture from my purse and slide it across his desk. “I thought you might want to see a recent photo of your granddaughter.”
He regards it for a long moment. He’s seen her several times before, but two years is a long time for a fast-growing child. “She looks nothing like you.”
“She got most of her looks from her father. That’s one of the things I came to talk to you about. Daddy, I’ve done things I’m not proud of. But it’s hard to regret those things when they resulted in Amelia.”
He looks at the clock again. “Kenna, spit it out.”
“You wouldn’t pay for college.” I hold up a hand when he tries to speak. “I don’t fault you for that. I know we didn’t have a lot of money. But I had no idea how expensive it was going to be. My debt racked up fast. And I did what I had to do to pay my expenses.”
He touches the cross on the end of the chain around his neck. “Jesus in heaven, Kenna. Did you sell your body?”
“No.” I close my eyes. “But I’m afraid you’re going to see it that way.”
He looks disgusted as I tell him about the escort gig. About falling for a client. About getting pregnant, the non-disclosure agreement, and the fifty-thousand dollars. About marrying a man not for love, but who I thought was going to take care of Amelia and me. And about not even realizing I didn’t love him until I met Carter and knew what love really was.
He rubs his small cross so hard I fear it’ll snap in two. I swear he’s also mumbling a prayer. Just when I’m sure he’s about to kick us out, I say, “There’s more.”
“How could you possibly disparage this family any more than you have?”
“I won the lottery, Daddy.”
He blinks over and over, head shaking. “The devil’s money.”
“It’s not the devil’s money. I’m not a gambler like Cyrus. I had an extra two dollars after buying groceries and got it on a whim. It was the one-and-only time I’d ever bought a ticket. The win was a fluke. Actually, you might even say it’s a miracle.”
