Ryan shook his head. “They would have found him in time. Family members always get questioned. The fact that he claimed to be married to her and wasn’t would have only made the authorities more suspicious. Natalie’s witnessing the act only speeded up the process.”
Blake nodded. “I’m glad she turned him in. That’s a terrible thing for a father to say.” Tears filled his throat, and he paused, searching for words. “There’s a sickness in him, I think. He has to be sick.” But sickness implied that no one was to blame. That wasn’t what he meant to say.
Blake held up his hand as if to add something, but he didn’t know what was left to say. He had fathered three sons. Emmett was missing, Christopher was dead, and Jason might as well be dead.
“You can’t change what has happened, Blake,” Ryan was saying softly. “Don’t even try to make sense of it. It’s impossible. You’ll drive yourself crazy.”
“I know. I have to learn to live with this.”
“You have to learn that you’re not to blame for Jason being in prison for murder,” Patrick said. “Don’t go down that road. As Ryan said, this isn’t your doing.”
“Christopher was a good man,” Blake said, barely able to even mouth the words. “I can’t forgive Jason.”
“You don’t have to,” Ryan said tersely. “Not unless you want to.”
Blake shook his head. “I can’t, but I have to see him. I have to try to understand. I have to learn to deal with all of this somehow.”
In his heart, Blake knew that he had to learn to deal with his own part in what had happened. Despite what Patrick and Ryan had said, Blake knew that he was not blameless in all of this. Not by a long shot.
Jason had been a problem child, and Blake had let it pass. He had ignored Darcy’s pleas to keep his children away from their grandfather, Farley. Farley had been half-crazy and jealous of the Fortune family, telling his grandson, Jason, about how Kingston Fortune had been fathered by a Jamison and how some of Kingston’s money and power should have belonged to the Jamisons. Never mind that Kingston’s father hadn’t even known he’d had a son, or that Kingston had been raised by the Fortune family. Farley ranted and raved to Jason, and Jason, already a troubled young man who idolized his grandfather, had listened to his grandfather’s demented ravings of injustice for years.
Deep down inside, Blake knew that he was to blame. He should have paid more attention to Jason, loved his son enough to try harder to save him from himself. If he had done that, maybe Jason’s idolization of Farley wouldn’t have happened. Farley had been a dangerous man.
Now Blake couldn’t help wondering just how dangerous and depraved Jason really was, and what he would do now that he was trapped.
“I have to try to do something,” Blake said.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
