Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

“What about you?” Mary asked, seeming more comfortable now that she’d gotten that off her chest and consumed two beers.

“Me?” Lucy curled up on the couch again. “There was someone. I thought we were perfect for each other. But in the end, I was more serious than he was.” She shook her head. “You know what I think is wrong with men? They don’t know what they want. They want you one day, especially if there is another guy in the picture, but ultimately how can you trust them when the next minute they’re waffling again? Aren’t you afraid that could happen if Dillon is out of the picture?”

Mary shook her head. “I’d rather find out now than later. Trust. That is what it comes down to. Chase broke my trust when he left, when he didn’t answer my letter right away or even bother to call.” She seemed to hesitate. “There was this woman he was seeing.”

Her ears perked up. “He told you about her?”

“He had to after I told him that she’d called me. Apparently, she’d read my letter to him. She called to tell me to leave him alone because they were engaged.”

“Were they?”

“No, he says that she’s delusional.”

“Wow, it does sound like she was emotionally involved in a big way. He must have cared about her a little for her to react that way.”

Mary shrugged. “I know he feels guilty. He certainly didn’t want her to die. He admitted that he slept with her one night. But that now just the sound of her name is like fingernails on a blackboard for me. Fiona.” She dragged out the pronunciation of the name.

Lucy laughed. “He even told you her name? Men. Sometimes they aren’t very smart. Now you’ll always wonder about her and if there is more to the story.”

Chapter 12

Mary couldn’t remember the last time she’d drunk three beers. But as she’d taken the stairs to her third-floor apartment, she’d been smiling. She’d enjoyed the girl-time with Lucy. It made her realize how cut off she’d been from her friends.

A lot of them had moved away after college, and not come back except for a week at Christmas or in the summer. They’d married, had children or careers that they had to get back to. Even though they often promised to stay in touch, they hadn’t. Life went on. People changed.

Mary also knew that some of them thought staying in a place where they’d grown up had a stigma attached to it as if, like Chase, they thought the grass was greener away from Big Sky, away from Montana. They went to cities where there were more opportunities. They had wanted more. Just like Chase.

They had wanted something Mary had never yearned for. Everything she needed was right here, she told herself as she drove out to the ranch. She’d wandered past the state line enough during her college days that she knew there was nothing better out there than what she had right here.

So why hadn’t she been able to understand Chase’s need to leave? Why had she taken it so personally? He’d wanted her to go with him, she reminded herself. But she’d had no need to search for more, not realizing that losing Chase would make her question everything she held dear.

Mary found her mother in the kitchen alone. The moment Dana saw her she said, “What’s wrong?”

She and her mother had always been close. While her male siblings had left Montana, she’d been the one to stay. Probably since she’d been the one most like her mother and grandmother.

“Nothing really,” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee and dropped into a chair at the large kitchen table. Sunshine streamed in the open window along with the scent of pine and the river. “Can’t I just come by to see my mother?”

Dana cocked an eyebrow at her.

She sighed and said, “It’s everything. Chase’s mother left him this shoebox with diary pages from what appears to be the time she became pregnant with him.”

“About his father? That’s why you called me and asked me if I knew. Isn’t his name in the diary pages?”

She shook her head. “Muriel didn’t mention his name, just his initials, J.M. Does that ring any bells?”

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t know Muriel well. I’d see her at the grocery store. She came out to the ranch a couple of times. We went horseback riding. Then I heard that she’d left town. Fifteen years later, she contacted me, thanked me for my kindness back when she lived in Big Sky and asked for our help with Chase.”

Mary nodded. “Well, we know why she left. It appears her lover might have been married or otherwise unavailable.”

“That would explain a lot,” Dana said. “How is Chase taking all of this?”

Mary shook her head. “Not well. He’s determined to find him. But with only the man’s initials...”

“That’s not much help I wouldn’t think.”

“I’m afraid what he’ll do when he finds him,” Mary said. “He has such animosity toward him.”

“It’s understandable. If the man knew Muriel was pregnant and didn’t step up, I can see how that has hurt Chase. But is that what happened?”

“That’s just it. We don’t know. Either she didn’t include the diary pages at the end or she never wrote down what happened. The last page we found she was going to meet him at their special place and was very nervous about telling him the news. But that she believed their love could conquer anything.”

Dana shook her head. “So Chase is assuming she told him and he turned her away.”

Mary nodded. “It’s the obvious assumption given that his mother refused to tell him anything about his father.”

Dana got up to refill her cup. When she returned to the table, she asked, “How was your date with Dillon last night?”

Mary looked away. “I’m not going out with him again.”

“Did something happen?” Dana sounded alarmed, and Mary knew if