Ethan's Daughter Read online

  Leah’s confidence wavered. She had no idea what it was like to be a writer. She lived in constant chaos and noise, whereas she could hear nothing but Ethan breathing down the line. Suddenly the mania of a kids’ party felt a stretch too far. “Do you know something? I had an idea to invite you and Daisy to join me at a kids’ party at the caravan park tonight, but I really don’t think it would be your idea of—”

  “We’d love to.”

  “Really?” She grinned. “You never cease to surprise me.”

  “One day at a time. Isn’t that what we agreed? A party Daisy will undoubtedly enjoy is today. Tomorrow, who knows?”

  “Great. It starts around seven. Shall I meet you there?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Okay, then. See you later.”

  “It’s a date. Now, I really must get back to some more paper-clip flicking. These rituals can lead to Pulitzers, you know.”

  Leah smiled. “Idiot. See you later.”

  She ended the call on his soft chuckle and tapped her phone on her bottom lip. Maybe the man wasn’t such an enigma after all. Little by little, he seemed to be letting down his defenses and becoming the kind, funny, sensitive person she’d suspected him to be the moment she’d first looked into his eyes. Whatever Ethan’s relationship had been with his ex-wife, and the profound effect her leaving had made on him, Leah sensed his need to be happy...for Daisy to be happy. She hoped the satisfied thump of her heart and the current breadth of her smile meant that Ethan might one day want her to join him on his journey.

  Standing, she put her phone back in her purse, before shoving it into her locker. Surely she could help Ethan and Daisy at the same time as helping herself? They might need healing in their lives, yet here she was, still seeking the courage to turn the microscope on her own failings.

  Sooner or later, she had to let someone else take the lead, show her there was more to life than caring and shouldering other people’s worries. She wasn’t a fool and she wasn’t stupid. Maybe, all this time, she’d secretly wanted a new family. She had so many friends and was as close as a sister to some of them.

  But there was also a real possibility that, in time, Ethan would heal. The trouble was, what if her feelings for him grew and then he turned around and found he was okay without her?

  Ethan wouldn’t be the first man she’d been attracted to who’d suffered some emotional turmoil. As much as that attraction signified the glaring basis of an unhealthy relationship, time and again, she couldn’t resist helping them find their own self-worth.

  But she liked Ethan so much more than she had the others. His daughter, too...

  Sighing, Leah pulled open the staff room door. She was running full throttle ahead again, just as she did with every other aspect of her life. She needed to focus on her own needs, as well as Ethan’s and Daisy’s, before she was left with more than a dented ego.

  As she emerged into the main arena of the ER, chatter and shouting assaulted her ears and the familiar smell of antiseptic filled her nostrils. She breathed deeply. So what if the hospital was her happy place right now? Maybe, in time, she’d find another place—other people—to fill her. Maybe even two particular people who had been waiting for her all along.

  * * *

  “DO YOU THINK Leah will like my dress, Daddy?”

  Ethan grabbed the house keys from a shelf in the kitchen. “Of course she will. Look at you.” His smile felt strained. Daisy had never looked more like her mother. “You’re a picture.”

  “I hope Leah wears her red dress again. She looked pretty when we went to her house for dinner.”

  “She sure did.”

  As he stared at his daughter, images of a younger Anna emerged in Ethan’s mind and he took a slow breath. The older Daisy got, the more it seemed she would end up taking after her mother, in looks as well as her need to be among other people. Each day, he fought the instinct to suppress Daisy’s emerging personality, but deep inside he knew his daughter would be happier as an extrovert like her mother rather than a recluse like him.

  When he’d met Anna she’d been full of fire and light, excitement and courage. Slowly, those attributes had faded and become bitterness. Time and again, he’d tried to cheer her, had asked her what he could do or say to bring some happiness back into her eyes. Anna had spit her venom at him, none too gently dumping her problems and state of mind at his feet. He was weak, useless, a mistake...

  He closed his eyes. Whatever the future held for Daisy, he had no right to curb her traits in any way. Intellectually, he was all too aware of that. It was his heart that took its merry time catching up with the logic.

  If she grew to be an independent, happy young woman, hadn’t he done his job well in raising her?

  He jangled his keys trying to focus on the good time he hoped they’d have tonight. “Right, we’d better get going if we don’t want to miss all the fun.”

  He checked his jacket pockets for his wallet and phone before taking Daisy’s hand and leading her from the house. It was about a fifteen-minute walk to the Good Time Holiday Park, and the September evening was bright and warm.

  As they walked past his car toward the end of the driveway, an envelope beneath his windshield wiper caught his eye. His body tensed, every fiber on high alert. He tightened his hand on Daisy’s and darted his gaze around them, as though the deliverer of the envelope might be lying in wait behind the trees adjacent to his driveway entrance.

  “What’s that, Daddy?”

  Daisy pointed toward the envelope and Ethan forced a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t know. I expect it’s someone advertising something. Let’s go see.”

  He walked toward the car. Even before he removed the envelope from the windshield, he recognized the identical typed address label that had been on the front of the delivery containing Daisy’s photographs and certificates. His heart thumped as he let go of his daughter’s hand and freed the envelope.

  Aware of her shrewdly watching him, Ethan fought to keep his expression impassive. Slowly, he opened the envelope and pulled out an inch or two of the photograph inside. His heart beat faster.

  Anna’s beautiful face was swollen. One blackened eye was closed, and her lip was split, with a line of blood disappearing over her chin. Her thick, dark hair was matted at one side of her brow with what he assumed to be dried blood.

  “What is it, Daddy?”

  He flinched, having momentarily forgotten Daisy was beside him. He shoved the picture back into the envelope. “Just a flyer, sweetheart.”

  “What’s a flyer?”

  “Someone wanting me to buy something. Just like I said. Come on—let’s get going.” He shoved the envelope into the inside pocket of his jacket, relieved when Daisy started her usual humming as she skipped alongside him.

  His mind raced and his blood boiled.

  What the hell was he supposed to do now? Every part of him wanted to go back into the house and call Anna, but how could he drag Daisy back inside when she hadn’t stopped talking about the party in the two hours since he’d mentioned it to her?

  He would get to the caravan park and ask Leah to watch Daisy for a while so he could find a private spot to call his ex-wife. The latest photograph was another warning, and further evidence that Anna’s situation had gotten worse. Yet here he was, walking the streets with Daisy.

  The envelope had been hand-delivered by some faceless somebody who either lived in or had passed through the Cove.

  As they neared the entrance to the caravan park, Ethan’s nervousness escalated. A huge painted sign saying The Good Time Holiday Park Annual Kids Party and Fund-Raiser was suspended between two iron posts.

  What if the deliverer of the envelope was here? At a kids’ party...

  People milled around everywhere, their smiles wide, their laughter loud and their drinks amply
filled as countless kids screamed back and forth with colored balloons or flags. He tightened his hand on Daisy’s. He hadn’t been to one of these fund-raisers since they’d arrived in the Cove, choosing instead to make anonymous donations. How was he supposed to enjoy tonight when he knew Anna had been beaten up?

  “Daisy, shall we—”

  “Look, Daddy, balloons. Can I have one? Please...”

  He looked into his daughter’s excited, beautiful eyes and a little of his reluctance dissolved. Another look at the breadth of her smile and he was beaten. He blew out a breath. “Sure. Come on. We’ll see if we can find Leah while we head for the balloons.”

  She tugged on his hand, pulling him into the chaos. He tried and failed not to notice the curious glances and openmouthed stares directed at him as they walked farther into the park. He tended to forget his fame. Being in a place as small and down-to-earth as Templeton meant, generally, people didn’t take any notice of his work or his success. Or if they did, they hid it well.

  As he spent most of his time at home, it hardly came as a surprise that he didn’t recognize a lot of the faces staring at him, but it also meant strangers to the town could easily blend with the residents.

  Fairground-type stalls and shooting games lined either side of the main street. The reception building was situated ahead, with a clubhouse and arcade to the right. Painted street signs pointed to the toilet block, caravans and lodges.

  He looked left through an archway to a courtyard beyond, filled to bursting with people of every age. “Looks to me as though the main fun is going on through there. Want to take a look?”

  “Yes. Quick, Daddy.”

  He smiled as Daisy pulled him forward with surprising strength. The smells of cooking burgers and onions drifted on the breeze as they walked through the archway, kids and adults laughing and joking as they gathered around a clown in one direction, jugglers and stilt-walkers in the other. Ethan glanced at Daisy, shame that he hadn’t brought her before gnawing at his conscience. His baby girl had stopped as if frozen, her eyes wide and her mouth open as she took in the colors, lights and laughter all around her.

  “You made it, then.”

  He turned and nearly fell headlong into a pair of big hazel eyes he was beginning to want to see every day, all day, as they danced at him from behind Leah’s black-rimmed glasses.

  “We did.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You look nice, as always.”

  She smiled, her cheeks slightly flushed as she bent down to talk into Daisy’s ear. “Did you want to go see the clown? Or are you going to twist Daddy’s arm for a balloon first?”

  Daisy turned, her smile wide as she looked into Leah’s eyes. “Balloon! Balloon!”

  “Come on, then. Let’s go find them. What’s your favorite color?”

  They brushed past him and Ethan followed, moving his hand to the envelope in his pocket, hoping it had miraculously disappeared and he’d imagined the whole thing. His fingers grazed the edges. No such luck.

  He needed to speak to Anna. Daisy pointed to a balloon in the shape of a sea horse and Leah promptly paid a young girl dressed as Snow White before they returned to Ethan, both smiling from ear to ear.

  He tried to smile, but Leah’s astute and worried gaze lingered on his, crippling his self-control. She snapped her gaze to Daisy. “Why don’t we go and watch the juggler?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Grateful for Leah’s distraction, Ethan walked beside her as they headed toward the jugglers. The moment Daisy was staring at them, obviously enraptured, Leah turned to him. “What’s happened?”

  He glanced at Daisy before lowering his head close to Leah’s. “I had another envelope turn up at my house. Well, slipped under my windshield wiper, to be precise. There was a picture of Anna inside. She’s been beaten up.”

  “What?” Leah’s eyes widened and she glanced at Daisy, tugging his sleeve so they stepped a little way away from her. “You need to call DI Garrett. Let her send someone to check over your place. Whoever left that envelope could still be there.”

  “I will.” He clenched his jaw. “Anna must know she needs to press charges now. Have the Bristol police do their job. DI Garrett made it pretty clear Anna is out of Templeton’s jurisdiction and also that there’s nothing the police in Bristol can do if Anna doesn’t contact them herself. I need to speak to her.”

  “Of course. I’ll take Daisy for something to eat. Do you have your phone?”

  He nodded. “I’ll come find you as soon as I can.”

  “Fine, just go. Oh, God, Ethan. This isn’t good.”

  Her worried gaze flitted over his face before she smiled and leaned down to Daisy. “Anyone ready for a hamburger?”

  Daisy nodded.

  “Let’s go and get one for us and Daddy, shall we?”

  Daisy slipped her hand into Leah’s as easily as she had ever since they’d met, barely glancing at Ethan as they walked away. Leah met his gaze over Daisy’s head before turning and heading for the burger stand.

  Forcing a smile and nod to anyone who smiled or raised a hand to him, Ethan walked through the throng, looking for a quieter spot to make his phone call. People were everywhere. He walked through the park gates and around a corner, where the voices were quieter and the laughter muted.

  He pulled the envelope and his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed Anna’s number. Half expecting it to go straight to voice mail, he was jolted with surprise when she picked up. “Hello?”

  “Anna. It’s me. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  He shook his head. “Really? I’ve had another photograph turn up. This boyfriend of yours beat you up? Seriously?”

  “Oh, God, I didn’t want you to know.”

  “Well, I do, and now there’s no way I can stand by and not do anything.”

  “Ethan, you have to. I never meant for you to get tangled up in my mess. I’m stuck here whether I like it or not.”

  “So it was this Harry character that smacked you around? Do you want me to come down there?”

  “No. That’s the last thing I want, and it wasn’t Harry.”

  “Then who?”

  “I was mugged.”

  “Anna...”

  “I’m telling you the truth. I swear.”

  He closed his eyes and pushed his hand into his hair. “Someone could be giving you a warning and made it look like a mugging.”

  “Possibly, but I don’t know for sure. I never should’ve come to your place and involved you and Daisy. Please, Ethan. Just forget all about me, okay? I don’t want to put you in any more danger than I already have. Harry knows I went to see you and it was him that sent Daisy’s stuff to you. He knows everything I do, Ethan. I’ll find a way to get out of here eventually. I don’t want your help. There’s no guarantee they won’t come after you or Daisy in order to keep me quiet about the drugs. I can’t risk that happening. I just need to convince Harry I won’t say anything. Sooner or later, I’ll find a way out.”

  “Anna—”

  The line went dead.

  Cursing, Ethan redialed, but the call went straight to voice mail. He tried again. Nothing. “Goddamn it.”

  He tapped the phone against his thigh, his adrenaline pumping and his mind racing. He couldn’t sit in the Cove and not do anything. Daisy was in danger regardless of Anna’s claims that everything would be okay. He couldn’t risk anything happening to Daisy or Leah. Shoving his phone and the photograph into his pocket, Ethan strode toward the park gates.

  He needed to get Daisy home and behind locked doors. Right now.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  LEAH TRIED TO ignore her trepidation as she sat on Ethan’s couch, waiting for him to finish reading Daisy a story and kiss her good-night. They’d left the fund-raiser way before it w
as over, with she and Ethan so distracted by the photo of Anna, they hadn’t given Daisy the evening she deserved. It all felt so wrong and frightening. Leah had no idea what Ethan would do next, but the fact that drugs and violence were the essence of a bad situation meant there was no way Leah could stand by any longer and do nothing.

  God forbid, if anything happened to Daisy and the authorities learned how much I already know, surely I’d be held partially culpable by law?

  Something had to be done by the police.

  Despite Daisy’s reluctance to leave and Leah witnessing, firsthand, Ethan’s insistence his daughter vacate somewhere where she was enjoying herself, Leah accepted how afraid for Daisy Ethan must be all the time. Now Leah’s fondness for Daisy had grown so much, her previous parental ideals felt incredibly naive.

  Sometimes, it was necessary to have a child upset, to take them away from something they were enjoying...all in the name of their safety.

  Leah swiped her fingers under her eyes. Of course, it had helped when Ethan had invited her back, too. She and Daisy had inexplicably clicked, in a way Leah suspected was equally joyful to them both. Yet she still held some of herself back, for fear that Ethan’s premonitions might come true and she would be forced to exit their lives as quickly as she’d entered.

  Ethan’s sock-clad footsteps sounded at the living room door before he came in and collapsed on the couch beside her. “She’s asleep.”

  Leah looked into his tired, worried eyes and the pleasure she’d found in getting to know Daisy vanished into concern for her father. She took a breath, deciding it would be better to start a dialogue about his ex-wife rather than the police. She’d already anticipated the vehemence of his reaction when she raised the subject of DI Garrett again. “Why don’t you call Anna? I don’t think you’re going to sleep, leaving things as they are.”

  “She was adamant I leave everything to her. I’m pretty sure she won’t pick up.”

  “It has to be worth a try.”

  He swiped his hand over his face and stood. “You’re right. I’ll grab my phone.”