A Man Like Morgan Kane by Beverly Barton Read Free Book Online Page A

scream at her mother again,Bethanysaid calmly, "I'm sorry, Mother. You're right.
    I'll call later and check on you."
    "Are you going over to Claudia's?"
    "Yes. I'm going to get my daughter and take her home."
    "Perhaps—"
    "Goodbye, Mother."
    Bethanyended the conversation abruptly, knowing that there was no point in discussing the situation with her airheaded mother. Eileen might be beautiful and rich and charming, but she had little sense of reality.
    She looked at life through rose-colored glasses. Always had. Probably always would. Even Jimmy's murder hadn't changed that aspect of her mother's personality.Bethanythanked God every day that she had inherited a modicum of common sense from her father.
    She had no memory of her father, who had died in a plane crash when she was six months old. Anne Marie had no memory of Amery, who had died in a car crash when she was three. Over the years, when Anne Marie had questioned her about Amery, she had answered her questions as succinctly as possible.
    She had never referred to him as "your father," only as Amery.
    Once Anne Marie had asked, "Did you love my father?"
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    And she had told her yes, that she had loved her father. And she had.Bethanyhad loved Morgan Kane with every fiber of her being. He had been as important to her as the air she breathed.
    She supposed she should have objected when Claudia began telling Anne Marie her Morgan stories.
    But somehow it had seemed right, giving Anne Marie a white knight hero to admire when there was no wayBethanycould have given her child an idealized account of Amery as a father.
    Now only two people on earth, besides her, knew that Amery Wyndham hadn't been Anne Marie's biological father. Eileen and Claudia. Henderson, Morgan's father, had known. And of course, Amery.
    Her husband, who had promised to cherish her, care for her and protect her. Her husband, who had married her to gain favorwith his aunt anduncle. To ensure himself a partnership in his uncle's law firm.
    And to become the father of Claudia andHenderson's sole heir—their granddaughter Anne Marie.
    But in the end, Amery had grown to hateBethanyand resent Morgan's child. The night she'd asked Amery for a divorce, he'd left the house drunk and angry. His car had skidded off a treacherous stretch of highway alongAltamont Roadand crashed into a tree, killing him instantly. Eaten alive with guilt, she had mourned Amery's death, and sworn that after two ill-fated relationships, she'd never love nor marry again.
    She had been both mother and father to Anne Marie for the past twelve years, dedicating herself to the child she loved more than life itself. But what if she was convicted of Jimmy's murder and sent to prison?
    There would be no one to take care of Anne Marie. No one to stand by her, to love her, to protect her.
    She had thought that Anne Marie and Morgan would never meet. But at this very moment they probably were eating lunch together at Claudia's. What did Anne Marie think of him, Nana's son, whom she already considered a white knight? And what did Morgan think of her, the girl he thought was Amery's daughter? Would he notice her striking resemblance to himself? Or would he pass it off as simply an inheritance from the Morgan side of the family? Would he look into their daughter's blue-gray eyes, identical to his own, and know on some instinctive level that Anne Marie was his?
    She had never thought the day would come when she would consider the possibility of telling Morgan about the child he had fathered. But if she were convicted of murder and sent away from Anne Marie…

    * * *
    Bethanyasked Ida Mae not to announce her, and the Kanes' housekeeper smiled sadly and nodded agreement. Did the old woman know or only suspect the truth?
    Following the winding brick pathway,Bethanysoon found herself in sight of the gazebo. Slowing her gait as she drew nearer, she stared straight ahead and saw the