Page 62 of Loving Justice
“Like I said, I needed someone I could trust to answer some questions I had.” Sam slid off the corner of his desk and took a seat across from Justice on the sofa.
“Questions you couldn’t just come to me and ask?” she said quietly.
He shrugged. “No father wants to ask his daughter if she’s sleeping with the enemy.” The weight of the world seemed to land on his shoulders. He suddenly looked frail and tired.
“And hiring someone to follow her and snap photos without her being aware of it is a far better approach?” She lowered her gaze to the floor, and when she looked back up, she had more control over her emotions. “The marriage, everything, was a sham.’
Sam blew out a long breath.
Jinx then said, “No, it wasn’t. I’ll take full blame for everything that I did, but the marriage was purely a decision I made because I wanted to.”
She looked at her husband, wanting to believe him, but trust was in small supply. “All those months you were watching me. Gathering information.” Disgust made the hair on her nape lift. “And Daddy, you have been hiding a lot these days.” She pulled out the medical document from the envelope and laid it on the glass coffee table between them.
“You took that off my computer?” he said in a choked voice.
“No, I didn’t. Kent gave it to me. My guess is Rigs, or shall I say Pok, has been behind a lot of the small mishaps we’ve had, including the poisoning of Freedom’s horses. Although I don’t have proof, my guess is that Kent hired Rigs as a mole to keep an eye on the comings and goings around the ranch.”
Sam lay back in the cushion, his tan fading. “You’ve got to understand. I wanted to tell you and your sisters about the cancer at the right time.”
“The right time would have been when you received the diagnosis. Daddy, you’re meddling in our business at every wind change and playing puppet master, but you don’t see how we, as your family, have the right to be in the loop, too. This is important. This involves all of us.”
He looked at her, his grey eyes bloodshot. “I’m asking for you to let me decide when I tell the others. It won’t be long.”
Tears filled her eyes and she found that she couldn’t be too angry with him. A tiger never changed his stripes. Yet, she could barely look at Jinx knowing what role he played in all this.
“Don’t wait too long, Daddy. They will want to know. For now, I need space.”
When she left the office, Jinx followed her, and once they were down the hall, she stopped to face him. “I didn’t want to say this in front of Daddy, but Lanah is not pregnant by you. I don’t know the details and I’m sure you’ll want to learn them, but I thought you should know.”
Jinx had concern etched in every line of his face. “I gathered as much.”
She folded her arms over her stomach, feeling sick. “I don’t have much else to say.”
“Justice, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I did.”
“And yet you didn’t.” She held his gaze.
“We have a lot to talk about.”
“No, we don’t. As promised, we will stay married for Ilene’s sake. I will not disrupt her life because she is now starting to feel stable here. However, as far as you and I are concerned, we are together in a marriage of convenience only.”
“Justice, you must know that I’ve grown to care for you. I love you. If I hadn’t agreed to follow you, someone else would have.”
“Oh? So you were doing Daddy’s bidding out of the goodness of your heart?”
He rubbed his brows. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“What are you saying exactly? Never mind because what I really want to know is did Daddy convince you to marry me?” She wanted to know, and yet she didn’t. But being in the dark never suited her.
“He did suggest that we get married.”
She snorted. “You betrayed me.”
“I didn’t marry you because Sam asked me to.”
“No? How much did he offer you?” She raised a brow.
“He didn’t offer me anything for marrying you except for Ilene being part of the family.”