This Heart of Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

that everyone else insisted she must have, and the scenario created at her trial seemed logical. Lori was the girl he’d started dating right after Phoenix, and Phoenix had acted terribly jealous. “I’m saying she became a little...intense after I broke up with her.”
    He’d often relied on her erratic behavior during that time as a reason to withhold another one of her letters.
    “She
could
have done it.”
    “Yes.”
    The expression on his son’s face made it clear he didn’t like that answer. “But ‘could have’ isn’t proof!”
    “There were witnesses, Jake.”
    “Who saw her behind the wheel! She admits she was driving.”
    “Penny Sawyer was a witness.”
    “The friend she told us about? Penny, the one who might’ve grabbed the wheel?”
    “Penny had no motive.”
    His scowl deepened. “How come I don’t know any Penny Sawyer?”
    “She moved away after the trial.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she’d graduated from high school, so she left for college like almost everyone else.”
    “
You
didn’t leave for college.”
    “I went to UC Davis three days a week because it’s only an hour away, and I had you. I wanted to be able to come home at night and take care of you.
My
situation was different, not hers.”
    Jacob didn’t respond right away, but he didn’t sound any more convinced when he did. “Has she ever returned?”
    “Not to my knowledge.”
    “
That’s
unusual, isn’t it?”
    “Not if her family relocated during those four years, which they did. She had no reason to come back here.”
    “She could’ve lied about what happened.”
    “Or Phoenix is lying. Like I said, she wasn’t in the best frame of mind when Lori was killed.”
    “So her frame of mind clinches the deal? Makes her guilty? Or did my mom go to prison just because she was heartbroken and jealous? She was pregnant at eighteen, with no one to turn to except a weird mother she was embarrassed by—a mother who couldn’t really do anything to help, anyway. From what I’ve seen of
that
grandma, you were the most normal thing Mom ever had in her life.
Of course
she’d try to grab on to you. She probably felt like she was drowning. And you
were
the one who got her pregnant.”
    The fact that she’d been a virgin until he came along still made Riley feel ashamed of breaking up with her the way he had. But he hadn’t known she was pregnant when he told her he didn’t want to see her anymore. He’d only been acting on the advice—the
insistence
—of his parents. They’d been so positive that he was about to ruin his life by getting involved with a girl who wasn’t worthy of him they’d threatened not to pay for college if he didn’t listen.
    “I wasn’t there that day,” Riley reiterated. “I can’t say what happened.”
    “You must believe
something
deep inside.”
    Riley wished his heart told him she was guilty. Then everything would be simple; he could condemn her without reservation. But...damn all the doubts. He’d always wrestled with them, as well as the question of how much involvement he should allow her to have in Jacob’s life. He’d been trying to act in the best interests of his son. His parents agreed with keeping her as far away from Jacob as possible. In the beginning, they were the ones who’d suggested it.
    But had he done the right thing?
    “I don’t know what to believe,” he admitted. “I hope she didn’t serve seventeen years for a crime she didn’t commit.”
    “You’d rather believe she’s a murderer?” Jacob broke in, pushing him to commit himself one way or the other.
    Riley gripped the steering wheel tighter. “No, of course not. There are no for-sure answers in this, that’s all. Trust me, if there were, I would’ve found them. I’ve nearly driven myself crazy with all the wondering and the second-guessing.”
    “You helped put her away.”
    He shot his son a glance that let him know he didn’t appreciate being reminded of that. He’d only spoken the truth