Free When Romance Prevails (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 3) by Cynthia Dane

election for that matter. Ronnie was content to check her son over before fleeing to an isolated corner, where nobody bothered her and she could be left in peace. Hunter wished he could say something to her, but he didn’t know what.
    Turned out there was no point saying anything at all. Not when someone called the team to the front window to point out a commotion happening on the street.
    News crews pulled up behind parked cars, their cameramen and reporters filing out as if they were jumping out of a plane over a warzone. A black car that did not belong to Joshua Payne swerved around the corner of the street and dumped someone off. It was Raymond Mitchell’s campaign manager.
    He had Holly with him.
    “Ah, the news is here to celebrate with us.” Terrence didn’t hear the murmurs about the manager or the little girl. “Let ‘em in! We have plenty to talk about!”
    The news people were behind the little girl and older, obviously intoxicated man. What in the world is going on? Hunter pushed his way to the front of the gathering in the foyer and kept a close eye on his father as lights and mics filled the Hall manor.
    “Welcome to my home! Although not for much longer, right buddy?” Terrence lightly punched Mitchell’s manager in the shoulder. The man glared at him and pushed the girl in front of him. Paul appeared from the back of the room, his feet squeaking on the hallway tile as both he and Terrence gaped at Holly’s presence.
    “Go on, honey!” Mitchell’s manager barked, sweat pouring from his brow as Holly jerked where she stood. “Tell them what you told me. Don’t be shy!”
    Silence filled the foyer. Cameras clicked and flashed as every reporter attempted to capture this moment in its strange infamy. Paul broke the silence by whispering into Terrence’s ear and taking Holly by the hand. “Where is your mother?” he asked with a hollowed out voice. “You shouldn’t be wandering in places you don’t belong, little girl.”
    “Don’t belong?” Holly shook his hand off her. “I belong here! I belong here just as much as that man does!” She pointed to Hunter, and suddenly the camera flashes were in his face. “Why does he get to live here and I don’t?”
    Murmuring increased as Ronnie stood beside her son. “Because he’s the representative’s son,” someone said. Paul tried to take her again, but she grunted and dashed into Terrence’s arms.
    “I’m yours too!” she cried, and a disturbing silence pervaded the foyer as Terrence rocked where he stood. “Please, Papa! Please let me live with you!”
    The first sound to break the silence was Ronnie’s champagne glass hitting the foyer floor.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8

     
    When Raymond’s campaign manager returned late that night, the aftermath of his actions over at the Hall manor was already broadcast to infinity on the news channels.
    Kerri could only sit aghast on the couch as the reporters dug into their meat and tore it apart without a care for whom they did it to. It both fascinated and disgusted her as she watched the world’s attention turn from her father to the deeds of some other man running for governor.
    Everyone wanted to talk to the girl named Holly, who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Terrence Hall. Twelve. Well-behaved. A model student at the local middle school – the prestigious middle school that Kerri went to when she was the same age. No one gets in there for free. Holly’s mother, when she appeared an hour later, did not look the type of “rich single mother.” When pressed about her daughter’s accusations, she could only say, “No comment.”
    So the frenzy began.
    The Hall house was sealed shut once the last of the reporters and the opposing party were run out. Even Holly was cast out, left to sob at the cameras that, “I only wanted him to be a bigger part of my life.” Brenda sat next to her daughter on the couch and drank her share of whiskey. “This is a mess even for