Read RISE - Part Three (The RISE Series Book 3) for Free Online Page A

then?" I push my palms against the edge of the table. "You should have gone to the police, dad. They would have arrested her."
    "I couldn't do that." His weathered hands reach towards me, desperately seeking mine. "I cared for her, Tess. I thought I loved her."

Chapter 11
    ––––––––
    S ince my parents divorced I've never heard either of them talk about loving someone else. I didn't expect my mother to seek out a new partner. She'd found her soul mate in the sorrow that she's immersed in since her marriage ended.
    I always expected my father to date. He's an attractive man. He works out, he takes care of his appearance and his charm is undeniable.
    I once asked him why he never pursued any of the women he'd met in the gym or why he wasn't interested in the beautiful brunette he always talked about from his book club.
    The timing isn't right, he'd tell me. She's not really my type, he'd say.
    It seems as though his type was an insurance broker writing fake policies who lured him right into her trap. She managed to do all that while he was married to my mother.
    "Her name was Lydia. Lydia Keeley. She needed help. I helped her."
    His voice is vulnerable in a way I've never heard before. I knew that the passion in my parent's marriage had waned. I assumed it was an inevitable part of life when two people settle into a routine with one another.
    Now, the time my father bailed on our family vacation to North Carolina makes more sense. I don't have to question why he was always the one holding the camera when we stood in front of the fireplace for our annual family holiday photo. My brothers would run to get the tripod, but my father would wave them back to their places next to my sister, my mother and me.
    He'd tell them that the lighting wasn't right with the tripod and he could always find our best angles. My mother's smile in those images wasn't as bright as it had been years before when he'd proudly stood next to her after asking the neighbor to step in to take the photograph for us.
    They were small things that illustrated a major shift in the dynamic of their marriage. None of us noticed what was happening right in front of our eyes.
    "What happened?" I push my hair back over my shoulders. "Where is she?"
    He shakes his head, his shoulder slumping forward with the movement. "She left the office on a Monday afternoon to go meet a client. She never got there. They found her car in a parking lot a week later."
    "When was that?"
    "It was six or seven months after I ended things between us." His voice is low and quiet now. "The police questioned me about it then. They thought I had a hand in it. They were wrong. I may have stopped loving her, but I'd never hurt her."
    ***
    "J ust five more minutes," I plead with the guard. "I came all the way from New York. I had to take time off work and I won't be able to come back until next week."
    The truth in that statement is so muddled with the half-truths that even I can't keep it straight.
    I do have to focus on the event for Gabriel and if I leave now, I may not have the chance to tell my father about Landon and me. In a perfect world I wouldn't have to do it within a five minute time frame and with a guard breathing heavily nearby but this is what I've been given, so I have to make it work.
    The guard points at the clock on the wall before he walks back to his post by the door.
    "I need to tell you something," I spit the words out quickly while I press my hands over my eyes. "I'm sorry I have to do this."
    I feel his hands grab mine. They're gentle and comforting, just as they've always been. "You can tell me anything, Tess. I will always be your father."
    He will. I know that. Nothing can change that fact. If I have to take the train to Boston each week so I can visit him in a prison here, I'll do that.
    "I told you I met someone."
    "Frederick's son." There's no inflection in his tone at all. I can't gauge whether he's angry or not. "You've been seeing the older boy.