Page 56 of Not Our Daughter

“Not that she ever told me about.”

“You mentioned this happened way before the night your sister died,” Lisa said. “Do you remember a more specific timeframe?”

Hailey kind of laughed. “Funny. I remember the exact day. Sort of. It was the day Texas beat Texas Tech fifty-six to zero. I remember because my boyfriend at the time was a huge Red Raider fan. He hadfamily out in Lubbock. And he was so pissed off that night after the game. I couldn’t even be around him. That’s how I ended up at the bar alone with my sister.” Hailey sighed, shook her head. “I can’t believe this is all true about Candace.”

“I’m sorry,” Lisa said. “I’m sure this is like ripping the Band-Aid off all over again.”

“No, it’s okay. I just ... I’m just so shocked to be standing here looking at Marcy, almost all grown up. I know that day in court was horrible for you guys. But my sister really did want to be a good mother. She worked hard to pull herself together. She was excited about the future. She told me she had a plan to finally get us out of poverty. That we weren’t going to have to fight and claw our way through life anymore. She said she was going to take care of us.”

“What kind of plan?” Cole asked, eyes narrowed.

Hailey shrugged. “I think it had something to do with the tech world, because she told me one of her old high school nerd friends was helping her. I figured she might be doing some kind of nudie website or something to make money. We knew a girl from high school who was making a fortune doing that kind of thing.”

Cole wondered if it could be something else entirely. “Do you still keep in touch with this high school nerd friend who was helping her?”

“Here and there. He’s a tattoo artist at a place called BlindSide on Sixth Street.”

Forty-Two

After thanking Hailey McGee, Cole promised they’d be in touch as soon as they could. And then they quickly drove away from the Hula Hut, parked in the back of a grocery store parking lot nearby, and sat there together trying to figure out what to do next. While Cole searched up brand logos for the biggest ranches in Texas on his phone, Lisa and Jade began scouring old football schedules, looking for the exact date the Longhorns had shut out the Red Raiders many years ago. Cole started with a top-ten list for ranches. From there, it was easy for him to find a match. The brand was for Longshore Ranch, the third biggest in Texas, at more than half a million acres. The symbol was a convolutedLtwisted with anR. It was difficult to decipher upon casual glance. But it was clearly the same as the tattoo on the guy’s hand.

Cole could feel his adrenaline start to race.

They were getting a little closer to the truth.

He continued to read up on the massive ranch. It had belonged to the powerful Nelson family for more than a hundred years. Based on his research, the family was unimaginably wealthy and had been influential political players for decades. At seventy-nine years old, Edward Nelson was the current patriarch, having taken over from his father nearly forty years ago. It was easy to find photos of past presidents standing with him while visiting the ranch throughout the years. The patriarch hadthree sons. The oldest helped run the family empire. The second was a prominent surgeon in Houston. The youngest had become a lawyer. And then he had parlayed his legal career into becoming a Texas Supreme Court Justice more than a decade ago. But it was what Cole realized next that shook him and caused him to curse out loud.

Lisa looked up. “What is it?”

“I found where the stocky guy in the photo works. It’s called Longshore Ranch. Third biggest in Texas. A super-wealthy family has owned it for the past century. The youngest son, Peter Nelson, is currently the presidential nominee to become the next United States Supreme Court Justice.”

Lisa’s mouth dropped. Cole didn’t pay much attention to politics or the happenings in DC, but he knew all about the confirmation hearings this past week. It was the biggest news story going on in the country right now. The thought that they could be directly or indirectly connected to it was both shocking and scary as hell. They sat in silence for a moment. It was like a bomb had gone off in the car, and they were all just sitting there trying to recover from the explosion.

Jade finally broke the silence. “What does this mean, Dad?”

Cole swallowed, exhaled. “It means the guy who tried to kill us today and who likely killed your mother thirteen years ago works for the same family whose son is only days away from becoming one of the most powerful people in the United States.”

“This is crazy,” Lisa said, trying to digest the information. “Do you think there is any chance what is happening to us right now could be connected to that?”

“It’s possible. Have you found the date of the football game yet?”

“Yes,” Jade said. She’d commandeered her mom’s phone. “Texas beat Texas Tech fifty-six to nothing at home on Saturday, November 2, fifteen years ago this fall.”

Cole pulled up a career timeline for Peter Nelson. “Judge Nelson was a partner at a law firm in Austin when that game occurred. He would go on to be elected as a Texas Supreme Court Justice the following year.”

“You think he could’ve been the sharp-dressed businessman who Hailey saw in the bar with Candace that night?” Lisa asked.

“It’s possible.”

Cole did quick math in his head. He again let a curse word slip out.

“What, Dad?” Jade asked. “What is it?”

“That night in the bar was almost exactly nine months before you were born.”

Another bomb dropped. They all just stared at each other a moment. It felt like things were escalating by the second right now. They’d discussed with Jade earlier during the car ride from El Paso how her father’s identity had never been part of the legal proceedings when they were fostering to adopt her—Candace had kept it out of play, claiming in court she wasn’t sure who the father was. But was that a lie?

“You think he could be my biological father?” Jade asked.

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