Free Fast Track by Julie Garwood Page B

come home.”
    “What did she say in her farewell letter? Did she give a reason why she was leaving him?” Sophie asked.
    “And Cordie,” Regan reminded her. “She left her baby, too.”
    Cordie reached under the table for her purse and set it on her lap as she fished out a folded piece of paper. “I made a copy of her letter because I knew you both would want to read it.”
    “What about your father’s letters?” Regan asked.
    Cordie shook her head. “I don’t want you to read them.”
    Sophie understood. “You think it might color our opinion of your dad?”
    “I don’t want you to feel sorry for him. I want you to remember him as a strong, loving father. Natalie was his weakness. Too late he realized he’d thrown his life away waiting for her.”
    “Where did he send these letters?” Regan asked.
    “The address on the envelopes was a post office box here in Chicago. He must have thought they would be sent on to her. Maybe that’s what she told him.”
    Sophie read the letter first, and by the time she’d finished, her cheeks were bright pink. She was irate on Cordie’s behalf. “She’s going to pretend the marriage never happened and start over? Who does that?”
    “Apparently Natalie Kane does,” Cordie said.
    Regan finished reading the letter and handed it to Cordie, but before she could put it back in her purse, Regan grabbed it again and reread it.
    “I can’t believe ‘You can have her.’ Shame on her. What kind of a mother . . .” She was sputtering and couldn’t finish her thought.
    “I’m glad she didn’t stay around to raise you, Cordie. After reading this letter I have to say that Natalie Kane is a cold, unfeeling bitch.”
    Regan agreed. “If she was going through some kind of mental issue, she had years to get her head straight and come back to her family.”
    “No, she didn’t have mental issues. She just didn’t like being poor or being married to a mechanic. Remember what she wrote? If her family knew, they’d disown her.”
    They continued to discuss the letter and Natalie’s motives all through dinner, though Cordie didn’t eat much because the topic made her stomach queasy.
    “How does a mother walk away from her baby?” she asked.
    “I wonder how she would feel if she knew your father left millions of dollars. From a humble mechanic to the owner of thousands of auto shops,” Sophie said.
    “Money wasn’t important to my father, but getting Natalie back was all that mattered. That’s why he became so driven.”
    “Even though he was worth a huge fortune, he lived like an ordinary man,” Regan said.
    “On his deathbed he warned me not to follow in his footsteps. I guess he finally realized all the years he wasted pining away for her.” She sighed then and said, “He taught me a lesson. I don’t want to chase a dream anymore.”
    “What do you mean?” Sophie asked.
    “I’m not wasting another minute on any man.”
    Sophie frowned. “When have you wasted a minute on a man? Men chase you, Cordie. It’s not the other way around.”
    “I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided I’m going to find her.” Cordie made the announcement and waited for a reaction.
    “Why?” Regan asked. “What do you hope to gain?”
    “I want to know how her life turned out. Did she find what she was looking for? Did the end justify the means?”
    “She broke your father’s heart,” Sophie said. “I hope she’s miserable. And poor,” she added with a nod. “I really hope she’s poor.”
    “When you find her, will you walk up to her and introduce yourself?” Regan asked.
    Cordie pushed her chair back and stood. “No, I don’t want to meet her. I just want to see her with her family. I have no desire to interact with her.”
    “Then hire an investigator to find her and get the information you want,” Sophie suggested.
    “No, I have to go,” she said, and before Sophie could continue to argue, she asked, “Whose turn is it to pay?”
    “Mine,” Regan