Page 134 of Fierce-Dane

Shiloh was getting the care she needed and thriving. They were both opening up to the counselor and life seemed on track.

There was no way she was letting the little girl go without a fight.

“Sorry I’m late,” Dane said, opening the door. “I got held up at the hospital.”

Dane was on call this week, but he wanted to be here for this. She was glad that he came in just now.

Shiloh was upstairs sleeping, which was why this meeting was planned as late as it was and she was glad Zander was so accommodating once again.

“You haven’t missed much,” Zander said. “I was just telling Sloane that I have information for her. I’ll email the whole report to you and everything I found but will give you a summary now and answer any questions. You can ask more after you read everything too.”

“What did you find?” he asked.

“First, the locket that you had. That was from an old coworker. Actually, your mother’s boss. She’s the one I waswaiting on and I had to travel to meet with some people too.”

Which meant a bigger bill, but she couldn’t think of it that way. “So it was a woman?” she asked. “Who gave her the locket.”

“Yes. Her name is Barbara Hendrix. She felt bad for your mother. It was after Sabrina left home. Your mother was upset and Barbara had seen the pictures your mother had of you and Sabrina in your mother’s locker. She took them out, made copies and had the locket made and gave it to her as a Christmas gift.”

“That’s nice,” she said.

“Your mother worked there for a few years and then moved to Tennessee. They didn’t keep in touch, but Barbara was able to give me the name of the person who hired your mother at her next job and the contact information.”

“They didn’t have that with social services?” she asked.

“No. Your mother was only employed for a few months and didn’t report it. There were no records of her paying taxes at that time either. My guess is she was employed under the table.”

“She did a lot of work like that,” she said. “I didn’t think of it though.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference if you had,” Zander said. “It’s not like you had names to give me. But one name led to another and I found that there was talk of Nadine dating a coworker.”

“Did you get his name?” Dane asked.

“I did. William Smith. Went by Billy,” he said.

“That’s a common name,” she said. “No way you can find him.”

“I found him,” Zander said. “In a cemetery.”

“So you can’t confirm it with him,” she said. It just wasback to square one for her, but at least if Billy was Shiloh’s father, there wasn’t anyone that could come after her for custody.

“Actually,” Zander said. “I believe Billy was Shiloh’s father. I tracked a few more people down. It was a cleaning company. Most worked under the table but were still in the area. Two said Billy and Nadine had a thing going. When he found out she was pregnant, he’d broken things off. He had two kids already that he wasn’t supporting.”

“Guess my mother had great taste in men,” she said drily. “Do you know how he died?”

“A bar fight. He was drunk and was stabbed, but didn’t make it by the time they got to the hospital. I’m not sure any of this is what you wanted to know or hoped to find out,” Zander said.

“It kind of is. I guess in a way I can breathe a sigh of relief that no one out there is coming for Shiloh. I can submit this to the courts too and maybe it will speed things up.”

“I can give Trent a copy,” he said. “His office is right across from mine.”

“I hadn’t realized that,” she said. She hadn’t been to Trent or Zander’s office. Only talked to them by phone but did know they were in the same building.

A Fierce-owned one. With the Kennedys, Olsons and McCarthys.

She’d met most of them at Willow Kennedy’s party a few weeks ago.

“It’s easy to run it over or email it,” Zander said. “Your choice.”