The Seal's Secret Child. Elisabeth Rees

clenched. “But he’s not a stranger, Mom. He’s my dad.” Archie pointed to the email still clutched between Josie’s fingers. “He wrote back to me and he was nice. He says he remembers you. I told him you were scared because of the bad man, and he says he can come help us.” He pulled himself up to his full height, like a proud soldier. “I know he was in a special army. He can make you safe.”

      Josie listened to her son with a mixture of terror, bewilderment and disbelief. Was this Edward Harding truly the man she had loved and lost? Could this be the man who had vanished from her life overnight because he couldn’t accept his disability? Or was someone cruelly playing a trick on her beautiful little boy, exploiting his desperate desire to meet his father?

      “Sweetheart,” she said, kneeling to the floor and clasping Archie by the shoulders. “When did you get in touch with this man?”

      “Yesterday.”

      “And did you tell him where we live?”

      Archie nodded solemnly. “He’s coming to see us.”

      Josie’s heart skipped. “When?”

      When Archie refused to speak, Josie pushed a little harder. “This is really important, Archie,” she said. “I need to know when he’s coming here to Sedgwick.”

      But before her son could answer, a loud crash sounded through the room. A brick came through the window and hit the wall, smashing a mirror and then bouncing onto the carpet. Around the brick was a white piece of paper secured with a rubber band. Josie reacted instantly, yanking Archie to the ground, away from the glass, before covering his small body with her own. She could see bold black words written on the paper: DROP THE CASE OR PAY THE PRICE. In the next moment, the police officer who had been stationed out front came bounding into the room.

      “Go to the back of the house,” he ordered. “And stay away from the windows. Let me deal with this.”

      Josie scrambled to her feet and lifted her son into her arms. He curled his legs around her waist and she carried him into the kitchen, almost colliding with her dad, Tim, in the hallway.

      “What’s going on?” Tim asked, his eyes wide and fearful. “What happened?”

      “Somebody threw a brick through Archie’s window,” she replied, holding her hand over her son’s head, not wanting to imagine how close he came to serious injury. The person who wanted to terrorize her had no intention of stopping. “Oh, Dad, why does this have to happen to us?”

      Her father steered her into the kitchen and pulled down the blinds, shielding them from view to anybody outside.

      “The police will do their job, Josie. Don’t worry.” Yet her father was utterly failing to hide the anxiety in his voice. “It’s just somebody trying to scare you. That’s all.”

      Josie hugged Archie even tighter. She felt his breath quicken on her neck.

      “It’s okay, Granddad,” Archie said, keeping a tight hold on his mother. “My dad is coming to help us today. He promised.”

      Tim’s eyebrows shot up high, and he looked sharply at Josie. “What did he just say?”

      Josie squeezed her eyes tightly shut. If what her son said was true, then she would shortly be seeing a man who had vanished from her life seven years ago, someone who had no idea she was ever pregnant with his child. After losing his leg, Edward had broken off their engagement via letter and disappeared, severing contact with his friends and family. She had understood why he had done it, but she had never forgiven him. After searching fruitlessly to find him and inform him of the birth of his son, she had eventually given up.

      Her stomach was a swirl of dread. How on earth was she going to face the difficult task of allowing him into her life again? She had turned her back on the past and forged a future without him.

      “Dad,” she said shakily, “you’d better sit down. I have something to tell you.”

      * * *

      Blade Harding entered the small town of Sedgwick with a knot the size and weight of a sledgehammer somewhere in his gut. He had been on the road for the last twenty-four hours, driving from his home in North Carolina, only stopping to nap in the truck before setting off again. As each mile clocked on the dash, his heartbeat turned up a notch.

      Since losing the lower portion of his left leg to a shrapnel wound seven years ago, Blade had battled a range of destructive and negative feelings before finally reaching acceptance. Now he was fully integrated back into society, running a successful business and enjoying life again. He was also training for the Invictus Games, where he would compete against other wounded, injured or disabled veterans. He was proud of himself once more, something he never thought would happen. He had even embraced his new life by introducing himself to new people as Blade instead of Edward. It was a nickname that his buddies had given him due to the prosthetic blade he used for running, and it had stuck.

      He glanced at the GPS screen on his dash, checking that he was correctly headed for the Kansas address his son had given him. Knowing he was close by triggered an emotion so intense that he had to pull to the side of the road and compose himself. Could he really have a son? When he had first read the childlike email purporting to be from a six-year-old boy, he had dismissed it as the prank of somebody who worked in the auto body shop he owned. The first line of the email was too unbelievable to be true: My name is Archie and I think yoo ar my dad. But after reading more of the poorly spelled words, he found himself astonished and stunned to learn that the boy’s mother was Josie Bishop. Only a very small, select group of people knew about Josie. And none of those people would prank him like that.

      He had gone over and over events in his mind. Had Josie been pregnant when he’d left for Afghanistan? It was possible. He hadn’t been a Christian at the time, and neither was she. They hadn’t fully considered the consequences of their actions. But why wouldn’t she have told him?

      He started out on the road again. He was now just one block away. The knot in his belly tightened. Archie had told him that Josie was in danger and needed help. Somebody was threatening to hurt her. Would she accept help from him? Would she see him? Was the child even his? The questions flying through his head were relentless. But the one thing he most hoped was waiting for him in Kansas was respect and understanding. Since he had become disabled, so many people treated Blade differently, as if he were a weaker man. He was desperate for Josie not to feel this way about him. He wanted her to see him as a complete man.

      He pulled into a wide, tree-lined street, instantly spotting a house with a police car outside. The house was single-story, large and well kept, with white shuttered windows and a silver SUV parked in the driveway. His heart lurched to see a police presence and a window boarded up with wood. Given that Archie had already talked of the danger his mother was facing, he knew this must be Josie’s home. He rolled the truck to a stop along the curb. But he had no time to steady his nerves, because a police officer walked over to the truck and requested that he roll down the window.

      “Can I ask what your business here is?” the officer asked.

      “I’m visiting,” he replied. “Is everything okay?” He looked at the boarded window. “Has anyone in the house been hurt?”

      “We’ve had some trouble here this evening, but all the occupants are just fine. However, all visitors must be approved by the home owner before exiting their vehicles. Can I take your name, please?”

      “It’s okay, Officer.” A female voice cut through the air, loud and clear with the soft lilt of a Kansas native. He knew instantly that it was Josie. “I’ve been expecting him.”

      The officer tipped his hat and stepped aside, allowing Blade to catch sight of Josie for the first time in seven years. She had barely changed, and his breath caught in his throat. Her hair was as red as he remembered, cascading over her shoulders in waves of lava. The intense color was the perfect frame for her china-white skin and striking green eyes. She stood with her arms crossed, wearing a black pencil skirt and a white tailored blouse, looking every inch the beautiful, professional woman.