Alice made a sound in her throat and everyone stared at her. Then she asked, "Why didn't you tell my brother?"
The humidity outside the air-conditioned walls would push Vicki toward the ground and take over. Her body felt hot. She swallowed her retort that he'd slept with another woman the day he left. Alice would defend her brother. Vicki's cheeks felt wet from tears that refused to stop. "I wanted to tell Colt, but he had gone to basic over the summer, then officer school in the fall. When the time came closer to my due date, I was ready to tell him. I told Dad my plan to go to DC before Colt shipped out. Dad threatened to take our family fortune away from me if I tried. It was to be my daughter's inheritance." The whine in her voice shouldn't exist. She had no one to blame. "I wish I had told Colt. A few months after giving birth, I ran away."
"You didn't know Dad went that far." John leaned closer to pat her knee. "You told me in confidence at the will reading how you lost your baby. The second I saw the little girl with Colt, I saw you, Vicki. She even has the Morgan birthmark on the bottom of her foot."
"You saw that?" Vicki's eyes watered fully now, but she saw through her soaked eyelashes. "I'm so grateful. Ever since that day, I've never been whole."
"Neither of you better think, for one second, my brother would steal Vicki's baby from her. That's insane," Alice added fast, and crossed her arms. "Colt is one of the best men I know, and I'm not saying that because he's my brother. He's moral and fair and awesome."
Vicki blushed. She shook her head, then wrung the edge of her blouse. Her heart still raced. "No. Dad would have, not Colt. The House of Morgan must always stand, or something like that. I was so stupid."
Vicki's spine was rigid, and she squirmed in her seat.
Alice sighed. "I don't understand. If you think that, why would you have not told my brother he was going to be a father? Just because you're the heirs of a fortune doesn't mean your family controls you."
"Our father controlled everything." John turned to her and placed his hand on her knee. "You say that because your parents love you, unconditionally. We never had that."
Alice shook her head, but said nothing else.
Vicki held her head in her hands and stared at the ground. Her stomach flipped like she was still the teenager whose father thought her the worst daughter. She'd not get sick. "I was eighteen and knocked up by a man with ties to government agencies that might threaten my father's business empire."
"We own a farm, though Dad had been in the service and my brother joined the Marines," Alice said. "Was your father selling to both sides of any war?"
"Probably, but the ties you have, it was enough."
"Look, you're my best friend, but Colt's my brother. I'm trying to understand. Let me put the dots together. Your brother Peter is still dating the horrible Jennifer, though he's been kind to all of us lately. John came to town on a mission to destroy your father, which is how we fell in love, and I know you faked your death, Vicki. I can believe all of this, but my mind is still trying to grasp what you said about Colt. He'd have protected you just as he watched out for Clara. Why didn't you go to him?"
"I couldn't. I stupidly wanted to be a good daughter, and then it was too late."
Alice smacked her lips, but said nothing.
"Colt was the perfect guy that I was forbidden to date." Vicki rubbed the back of her neck and hoped the heat vanished. "He was off limits because he was a Collins, but my heart told me he was so different than everyone else."
John added, "Alice thought I was a spoiled, rich brat, and until recently hated my guts."
"I didn't hate you. I just didn't like you." Alice smiled, and Vicki watched the engaged couple tighten their handholding. "Then you stole my heart."
Part of Vicki's heart soared. Love was supposed to be happy, like with these two. Her life was complicated.
She gave a closed-lip smile, then Vicki told them, "I found out as I packed my bags for college of my pregnancy, and Colt shipped out the next day for basic. He had his life planned to leave Miami for a while and never come back. I had my life planned with music that helped keep my sanity in my father's world. We were going our separate ways. So I thought my life changed with a baby. Then my dad promised to support me, and he's all I ever knew."
Alice narrowed her eyes. "Colt's had Clara since the day she was born. I didn't know you were the mother. He never said anything to me, and I never guessed you'd have had sex with him."
"The girl has my hair," Vicki argued fast, though she regretted the words.
"Lots of women are blondes. I didn't know you even liked Colt." Alice stood and twirled like she would go to the kitchen. Then she stopped and gazed at Vicki. "You're going to have to talk to him, but he had that look of a bear out to protect his baby just now."
"Where does he live?" Vicki asked. She had to pull herself together. She had to talk to Colt and make him understand. "I've not seen him since we came home from that summer trip to Europe."
Alice stood, walked over, and opened the refrigerator, and refused to stare at Vicki. Vicki gazed at her friend as she pulled out vegetables to chop. Alice found a large knife and went to the counter to dice. Finally Vicki followed and stood next to her. Alice wiped her face dry, shook her head, and finished. "He's staying at our family's ranch now, and our parents live in Palm Beach, near the beach, as a sort of retirement."
To see Clara, she'd face Colt. "So he's alone with Clara?"
Alice chopped the celery. "Until his new fiancée, Belle, gets out of the service and joins him here. She's never been to Florida, but the wedding is in two months. They planned to move north to the bigger ranch and tend to the planting up there, but now I don't know. I can call my dad, but I'd guess Colt's seen enough war. He wants to stick to his farm and not come off it."
Vicki closed her eyes and, despite having to face down Colt, fought back a fit of hysterical laughter. Her baby had lived. She'd been a fool, but she had a second chance. Motherhood meant she was necessary. She had risked her neck, but now giddiness rose in her. For the first time, it was enough. "I'll head there, then. My daughter will need her mother."
CHAPTER TWO
Colt rubbed his temples and closed his daughter's bedroom door. His heartbeat stayed fast and unsure. Tonight had been bad. He reopened the door to check on her one more time. His daughter was stubborn. Clara had cried herself to sleep because he'd not admitted Victoria Morgan was her mother. Now she slept like an angel, but a cold fury rose in his brain.
Vicki had acted surprised, but that was impossible. Women didn't forget that they bore a child. She'd left town.