He let out a groan. “Can I sit?” He couldn’t answer her question until he’d told her everything.
Then she’d have to decide what was or wasn’t possible between them. And the story he had to tell her was a long one.
She gestured to a chair by the table and he straddled the wrought iron seat.
She pulled up a chair and warily sat down beside him.
He used the time to steady his emotions since he rarely shared his past. “I grew up in foster care,” he finally said.
Her eyes grew softer. “I didn’t know.”
He stiffened, waiting for the dose of pity women usually offered when they found out. The kind Hunter hated because it meant they felt sorry for him.
Molly tapped her fingers against the table, meeting his gaze. “I wonder if it was better than being carted off to boarding school when the stepfather of the moment was willing to pay the bills.”
He laughed, grateful for her smart-ass reply. He’d sensed she was special. Now he knew for sure.
“So really, how bad was it?” Molly asked.
“Not that bad.” He wasn’t lying. “Especially the last place. You’ve met my friend Ty who works at Night Owl’s?”
She nodded. “You introduced us last time I went with friends for drinks after work.”
“He’s my foster brother. His mother took me in and treated me like family. She did the same with another foster kid in the house. A girl.” Hunter paused a beat, knowing this is where their understanding and bonding would end. “Her name was Lilly Dumont.”
“Marc’s niece?” Molly narrowed her gaze, the connection becoming clearer. “The one who died?”
“The one presumed dead,” Hunter said, correcting her as best he could until he could ease into the truth. He leaned forward to explain. “Most people in town know the story but you didn’t grow up here. And obviously Dumont ’s left out key pieces if he never mentioned my name to you.”
Molly drew back, her shoulders stiff. “I’m sure he had his reasons. But since he’s not here, why don’t you fill me in?” she suggested with barely concealed sarcasm.
Already she was treating him like the enemy.
Hunter gripped the cool steel backing of the chair. His only hope of winning her over was with the truth. “You already know that Dumont ’s brother and sister-in-law died in a car accident.”
Molly nodded. “They left a huge estate and millions of dollars in trust to Lilly and named Marc as her guardian.”
So far their versions agreed, although Hunter assumed that was about to change. “Lilly was a scared girl when she came to live with her uncle. She’d just lost her parents and she wanted him to take care of her, and to love her. She thought he did, but it turned out that he only loved her trust fund.”
He recalled Lilly’s version of events, told late one night when the three friends had hung out on an old tire swing that hung from a tree in the backyard.
He glanced at Molly. Her expression remained skeptical and wary.
He decided to just continue. “His love and kindness had really been a way to manipulate her to gain access to her inheritance. It was the cruelest twist of fate. That’s when Lilly became angry and rebellious…..and Marc became vindictive. When he couldn’t control Lilly with abuse, he had her placed in foster care in order to scare her into submission. It was the fear of going back to her uncle that caused her ‘death’.”
“No.” Molly shook her head.
Hunter could almost see the unwillingness to believe washing over her in waves as she rocked in her seat.
“Marc said Lilly was difficult from the beginning. Unwilling to accept authority or the fact that her parents died. He couldn’t handle her and had no choice but to hand her over to the state.”
Hunter clenched his jaw tight, not surprised at the twisted version of events or the fact that Molly would buy into them. “You said yourself you don’t know Dumont all that well, so you can’t possibly discount what I’m telling you.”
Molly rose from her seat. “I can and I do. Marc said Lilly was wild and uncontrollable. He’d been single and didn’t know anything about kids. He was at his wits’ end when he sent her to foster care. Afterward he felt awful about his decision and wanted to take her back and start over, but she stole his car and—”
“He has no proof,” Hunter said. “No proof that Lilly stole anything. All he knows is that his car ended up in the quarry below the cliffs and no body was ever found.”
Molly stood towering over him. Eyes wide, she was obviously fighting against accepting his story, probably because it would upset the fragile peace she’d begun to find at home. A peace she’d probably dreamed about for a lifetime, he thought, understanding her better than she knew.
“Think like a lawyer, Molly. You’re too smart to take Dumont ’s word at face value,” Hunter said.
She rubbed her hand against her forehead. “I need some time. A few days to look into all this,”
Molly said without meeting his gaze.
He rose slowly from his seat. “You won’t need to look too far. You can just ask the source.”
Molly moved her hand away from her face. “What do you mean?”
Hunter drew a deep breath, fortifying himself for revealing the news. “Lilly’s alive. Any questions you have, you can ask her yourself.”
Instead of looking incredulous, Molly merely shook her head at him. “You’re reaching, Hunter.
You may not like Marc, but conjuring up a story of Lilly Dumont’s resurrection isn’t going to work. I know this has to be about the trust fund. There’s no way you can legally stop Marc from filing to claim the money.”
“You’re right. I can’t. But Lilly can.”
“You’re serious.” Molly lowered herself back into her chair. “She’s alive? ”
He nodded.
“You’ve seen her?”
“With my own eyes. She goes by a different name these days, but she’s alive and well.” He neglected to mention that he’d been in on the setup all along.
“Wow,” Molly said. “Wow.”
He placed his hand on the chair behind her, careful not to touch her, regardless of how much he wanted to. “So you’ll let Dumont know his quest for cash is over?”
She rubbed her hands over her eyes again. “I’ll tell him what you said. That’s all I can do.”