Liz felt Bingham’s eyes on her as she dismounted and walked over to him at the fence. His smile grew broader and broader as she approached. Everyone had warned her he was dangerous, but the man she saw had the beginnings of tears in his eyes as he took in the sight of his long-lost daughter.
Maybe it would be okay. Maybe all the craziness Dorian had seen was just a fluke from the torment of being so close but unable to make contact. Maybe he had repented for hurting her mother and stood before her now a changed man.
“You got my message,” Liz said with a welcoming smile, reminding herself that this man had been a victim in the lies, too. He’d dealt with the hurt for years, and that hurt had turned to anger. She could understand that, and now that they were reunited, she wanted to help him heal. “Thank you for coming.”
“Yes, I was so excited to hear from you, even though this one—” He jerked a thumb toward Dorian. “Did everything possible to keep us apart.”
Dorian put a protective arm around Liz so that the two of them now faced Bingham side by side. “I had to make sure it was what she wanted,” he explained, a distinct note of caution rising in his voice.
“And this is what you want?” Bingham asked her, his eyes quivering with tears once again. “To be my daughter again?”
“I’d like to try.” Liz reached out to stroke his arm in what she hoped would be a reassuring gesture.
Bingham jerked away, then catching what he’d done, pulled her into an awkward hug. “I want that, too,” he mumbled into her hair.
Dorian pulled Liz back to him the moment her hug with Bingham ended. “It will take some time for you to form a relationship,” he said. “But I’m happy you’ve been able to reunite.”
“Not much thanks to you,” Bingham said, then began to chuckle.
Liz and Dorian exchanged awkward glances and waited for the other man to say more.
“And what’s some time when I’ve been waiting more than twenty-eight years for this day? We’re together again, Janie, and now we can make sure that man pays for what he did to our family.” He regarded Liz with a beseeching gaze, and she saw the first flames of anger light within him.
She took a step back, hoping she could make him understand. “No, we don’t need to do that. I want to focus on our relationship, not on punishing Ben. I know what he did was wrong, but he gave me a good life and I forgive him.”
He shook his head and frowned.
Liz hated to disappoint him, but she couldn’t stop loving the man who had devoted his entire existence to protecting her—just as she couldn’t help but love a man who had spent his whole life trying to reconnect with her.
“It’s not for you to forgive him,” he responded. “You said he gave you a good life. That’s great. I’m happy to hear it, but he destroyed mine. Kidnapping is a serious crime. He needs to be punished.”
“Please don’t,” Liz whispered. The last thing she wanted was to feel as if she had to make a choice between the two men who both wanted to be her father. “It will hurt me.”
Bingham shook his head vigorously, refusing to accept her words or her plea. “But it will be swift. I can assure you of that. I’ve been compiling the evidence for years, and now that Dorian has delivered the DNA results linking the two of us, the law will be very harsh on Ben Benjamin. Just as he deserves.”
“What about the statute of limitations?” Dorian asked. “Surely twenty-eight years is too long.”
“Not here,” Bingham corrected, taking on an academic tone. “South Carolina doesn’t have a statute of limitations. Kidnapping, transporting a minor across state lines, identity theft, and I’m sure a whole slew of other crimes are just waiting for Ben Benjamin now. My entire life has been devoted to the law, and I can’t turn my back on it now. Justice needs to be served before we can move on, Janie. Try to understand that.”
“Justice, or revenge?” Dorian asked with a look of derision splashed across his handsome face.
“They’re one and the same,” Bingham answered, then pressed his mouth in a thin, taut line.
“They are not,” Liz said, feeling less and less like this man even knew what it meant to love. “I’ve had a great life. I’m happy, healthy, and have always been taken care of. Ben never hurt me, and he did what he thought was right. We’re reunited now, and I want to know you, to love you.”
“Try to understand,” Dorian coaxed. “She’s already had her life stolen from her once. Do you really want that to happen again?”
“What about my life?” Bingham demanded. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Of course it does. I want to know you. To be a family,” Liz said. “But I will not turn Ben in.”
Bingham’s voice rose. His composed demeanor crumbled away to reveal the broken man inside. “I can’t believe this. You really are just like your mother, Janie. Choosing Ben over me. I gave her everything—everything! I could give you everything, too. But you’re willing to throw that all away for a man who tore my family apart.”
“I know it doesn’t make sense on the surface, but it makes sense here.” Liz touched her chest, but Bingham refused to let it go. He didn’t seem to notice the hurt that had taken over her whole body, because something else had taken hold of his—something that scared Liz.
He spoke quickly now, wringing his hands as if he needed to keep them busy to avoid lashing out. A bright red car caught Liz's eye as it pulled into the lot while Bingham ranted with no end in sight.
“I searched for you for years. Do you know that? I never knew that your mother had been whoring around on me, never knew the baby that died wasn’t mine. Never got to hold it. The hospital said they’d disposed of the body, but they’d released it to—to that man. How do you think that felt, losing two children at once? I was a good man, I didn’t deserve any of that. He stole my life and family because it suited him, and you’re on his side!”
Liz tried so hard to be calm, to understand how the years of not knowing had twisted this man’s heart. “I’m on nobody’s side but my own. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’m not some child you can boss around or tell what to think. This is hard on me, too.”
She glanced over Bingham’s shoulder and saw two figures emerge from the red car. Even at this distance, she knew who they were—and she was so glad to see them now.
“Hard on you?” Bingham laughed bitterly. “You didn’t even know until last week. You’re not the one who had to live with this for nearly thirty years. You’re not the one who was betrayed in every possible way. Your mother was married to me—to me! She had no right sleeping with Ben, no right to leave me, no right to take you from me. You are mine, just like she was. And—surprise, surprise—you are just like her.”
A familiar voice rose from across the meadow. “You’re right. She is just like her mother,” her father, Ben, said. “She’s beautiful, kind, strong, and too good for the likes of you.”
Vanessa walked at his side, their hands linked. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She’d simply fallen in love with a man and now turned up to comfort him in his darkest hour.
“You! How dare you show up here?” Bingham yelled, his face turning red. “It wasn’t enough to steal her the first time, now you want to ruin our reunion?”
“I knew you’d make it,” Dorian said. “Just in time.”
Liz looked to Dorian, who simply nodded and pulled her into his arms.
“We all make mistakes,” Ben explained, letting go of Vanessa’s hand and approaching Bingham slowly. “Yours was throwing your wife aside. I didn’t steal her. I simply picked up the broken pieces. You broke those pieces by hitting her, pushing her, hurting her.”
“You know nothing,” Bingham growled, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. “She brainwashed you, and now you’ve brainwashed my Janie. Well, I have the proof of what you did, and we’re turning you in.”
“I did not agree to that. I’m not some pawn in your revenge scheme,” Liz hissed. “I will be your daughter, if that’s what you want, but I will not be a part of whatever this is between you.”
“I don’t need you to agree. I’m turning him in.”
“And if you do, I will never talk to you again,” she promised. “We can never be a family.”
“Listen,” Ben said. “I know you want me to be punished, but I’ve already done that to myself. For years. I want to apologize to you and offer my help any way you need it. No sin is worth punishing yourself over for the rest of your life. It’s not too late to forgive yourself, to forgive me, to let the past go and make a better future.”
Bingham laughed again as if the man before him were ridiculous, some kind of joke. “You sound like a self-help book. The only help I need from you is to see you behind bars. And I did nothing wrong. Everybody loses their temper sometimes. So what if I hit her for acting out of line? She hit me, too.”
Vanessa shook with rage. “That’s not the same and you know it.”
“He stole my child. How do you people not understand this?”
“Like you tried to take my daughter to get back at Ben?” Vanessa took a few steps toward Bingham, but Dorian pulled her back.
“I didn’t hurt her,” Bingham said.
“And he didn’t hurt Liz,” Dorian yelled.
“Her name is Janie!”
“I’m sorry,” Ben said again. “I didn’t realize how much this would hurt you. Barb said you barely ever spent any time with Janie, that she was a nuisance to you. I wanted her so badly. I’d made a promise to the woman we loved.”
“Don’t put us in the same sentence. We are nothing alike.”
“Please don’t fight over me,” Liz said, reaching out to place a hand on Bingham’s arm, to show him that she could find a way to love them both. “I just want—”
A sharp pain shot through Liz’s face. It took a moment to realize she’d been slapped by Bingham—the same way her mother had been many times over the years. She’d never known. She’d never known.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice shaking. “I didn’t mean to hit you. I was aiming for him, but you got in the way.”
Ben took her in his arms and stared Bingham down. “You shouldn’t be hitting anyone. That’s the point. This all needs to stop now.”
“It won’t be over until you’re rotting behind bars.” Bingham shot one more poisonous look toward Ben, then charged back toward the parking lot.