Hunting Death

Chapter 2

Both her mother and Rick, on the other hand, appeared quite fair. Her mother had dark blonde almost brown hair, and Rick's had been, before turning gray, a shade of platinum. Rick would have been considered average in height, while people tended to call her mother short, and they both had light eyes. Rick's were hazel and her mother's baby blue.

She also apparently got her love of all things canine from him, of course, she hadn't known up until a few hours ago that her father rescued and sheltered dogs, but it made sense with her mother being allergic to dogs, and Rick not really into animals.

When she finally got around to asking her mother about her father, she suspected she hadn't given her the full story, but out of respect for Rick, she let it go.

Yes, her mother had been willing to give her all of her father's last known contact details if she'd wanted them, but in truth, she'd gone this long without knowing him, and since he hadn't made any attempts to see her, she figured it best if she left it alone. For surely he would have reached out to her if he had really wanted to be a part of her life.

Of course, now that she had this will in front of her, she began to look back on the things her mother told her and wondered how much of the story she'd left out.

According to her mother, at the time, they hadn't been in touch for years. Tammy told Madison she'd met her father on a flight to Vegas, he, being handsome, and charming, and she, with a layover.

So, they'd gone out to dinner, and well, one thing led to another.

She said she'd reached out to him several times after finding out about the pregnancy, but without getting a response. She feared his family might have had something to do with it. She described her father as a very polished gentleman, and he'd told her during their time together about his family being quite conservative. In her mind, his family had probably convinced him that she'd lied and only wanted him for his money.

She told Madison that after her first birthday, she met Rick, and they fell in love, and he loved Madison as well, more than willing to call her his own. They'd even made it official by having Rick legally adopt her at the age of four.

When questioned about that, Tammy said Robert had been only too willing to sign away his parental rights. And she finished the story by saying she'd written to Robert after Madison turned sixteen, to inform him that she planned on telling Madison everything after her eighteenth birthday, that it would be up to Madison to decide for herself if she wanted to reach out to him.

At that point, knowing that he hadn't wanted her, that he hadn't tried to get in touch with her, and that it would probably break Rick's heart if she wanted to get to know this man, this stranger, Madison decided to bury the knowledge about her biological father.

And she had. Until now.

"How, how did it happen?" Tammy inquired, her voice a bit shaky. "When did it happen?"

"His lawyer told me he had a stroke, about two weeks ago."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Tammy eyeing the will, and Madison eyeing her.

Madison finally spoke up, voicing something that had been eating away at her the whole way to her parent's house. "After reading his will, this doesn't sound like a man that didn't want his daughter."

Tammy's eyes shot to her daughter's face, tears started tracking down her cheeks. Her lower lip trembled.

"You've been keeping something from me, haven't you?"

She nodded, the tears falling with more gusto.

Madison's heart sank. "Well," she whispered, "Now's a great time to get it off your chest."