Page 99 of Sing with Me

“I don’t blame you.”

“Is there a place we can talk?”

“Not in there.” Diehl shook his head.

“In-laws, huh?”

Diehl sighed. “We can go to the conference room downstairs in the security department.”

“I just came from there. Ran up and down the stairs. Got my exercise quota for the day.” Jeong panted. “And they call this a cottage?”

“Yeah, one of those things. The primary designer of most of the houses on the island called his creations cottages,” Diehl said as he led the way to the stairs. “If you’d like to take the elevator, we could.”

“No. It’s fine.”

As they went down the stairs, Diehl asked how the investigation was going. “I would ask if you made any progress, but you’re still here and not out there looking for my daughter.”

“Your daughter?” Jeong noted. “Zeta Bishop insisted you’re not the father.”

“My name is on the birth certificate. I was married to Elisa’s mother when she was born. By law, I am the father. Also, I’ve raised Elisa and Ethan as my own. I’ve been there more times than Isobel had when she was alive. I’ve also put aside college funds for them.”

“Wish everyone had a father like that.”

“Elisa’s mother never said a word to me in her entire life. I don’t know if she even knew.” Diehl drew a deep breath. What if Isobel hadn’t cared who her children’s father was? Perhaps her main concern had been to stay with the man who could provide for her and the children.

That would be me.

“We arrived an hour and a half ago,” Jeong said, jarring Diehl out of his thoughts.

“I found out Elisa was missing only half an hour ago.” Diehl determined he had to be strong for Elisa. No matter what had happened to her since the abduction, she needed her dad more than ever now. He had to do his best to protect her. And that included keeping full rein over his emotions and faculties.

That meant he couldn’t be intoxicated. Not like Thursday and Friday.

It’s my fault. I dropped the ball.

If he hadn’t been having his own pity party at the beach house, he could have been at Brooks Cottage instead, spending time with his two children, keeping them safe.

Had Elisa overheard the adults talking about her biological father? Had Ethan?

Diehl wouldn’t put it past the Bishops to be loud about it.

After the first revelation on Wednesday, the Bishops had adjourned to the guest cottage. Diehl decided to stay overnight in his old bedroom in his mother’s house so that he could be with Elisa and Ethan. More than feeling sorry for them, he felt that he was the only person they had. He felt that the Bishops were after their own interests.

Late into the night, when he should have been sleeping, Diehl had doubts about his ability to be a father. Never mind that he had been one for the last twelve years.

He kept telling himself that he was a bad father, until he couldn’t sleep. Shortly after midnight, he wandered around the house, berating himself for not finding out about Isobel’s infidelities or believing they had been true. Before he knew it, he was sitting in Dad’s cellar, inspecting vintages.

A few hours later, he drove home in the middle of the night and crashed in the beach house after scrawling a note for Skye and taping it to his front door. He couldn’t remember the rest of it.

He hadn’t emerged from his beach house until this morning when Skye drove him to Brooks Cottage.

“Lead the way,” Jeong said at the bottom of the stairs.

Diehl nodded to Malik who came to greet him. “Is the conference room available?”

“It is now,” the chief of security said. He led them down the hallway to the room about a third of the size of the meeting rooms that Diehl was used to back home in Atlanta.

“Malik, Jeong is asking me some questions. Why don’t you stay?” Diehl asked.

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