Page 29 of Child In Jeopardy

It didn’t last.

“Are you there?” Pamela demanded. “Did you hear what I said?”

“I heard,” Lana assured her. “Where is Dad now?”

“In his office. He’s so upset,” she added in a mutter, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Some man called him and said he’d been hired to hack into his emails. He tried to blackmail your father.”

BoBo had obviously struck again. The hacker was attempting to get paid three times for his crime.

“Blackmail,” Lana repeated. “What is he going to do about it?”

“I’m not sure,” Pamela was quick to say. “He’s with some of the lawyers and the PIs now.”

But not the cops. Nope. Slater was betting Leonard wouldn’t be reporting this to the police, and he made a mental note to tell Julia that she should warn BoBo that he could be in danger for poking a rattlesnake like Leonard.

“What emails did this man hack?” Lana pressed.

“I have no idea, but they must have been important because your father hit the roof. I’m sure he’ll find the hacker and make him pay.”

Yeah. Slater definitely needed to give Julia a heads-up.

“Mom, I’m calling to let you know that a video has surfaced,” Lana continued. “It proves Buck murdered Stephanie.”

Pamela gasped. “Oh, God. So it’s true. He really did kill her.”

“It’s true,” Lana verified, and then paused. “There’s been a lot of security camera footage collected of Buck, and one of Dad’s PIs was following him. Did you know that?”

“No.” Pamela sounded adamant about that, too. “Why...” But that trailed off. “Because he was worried about Stephanie. Rightfully so.” She cried out a hoarse sob. “I wish the PI would have been able to stop Buck. I wish someone could have, and then Stephanie would still be alive.”

“Yes,” Lana muttered, and it seemed to Slater that she was affected by her mother’s grief.

“Alive,” Pamela repeated a moment later, “and she would have done the right thing.”

Lana pulled back her shoulders. “The right thing?”

“Stephanie would have married Marsh.” Again, Pamela was adamant. “I’m sure of it.”

That caused Lana’s sympathy for her mother to vanish. “I think Stephanie’s priority would have been her son.” She looked as if she wanted to add amaybeto that, and he understood why. After all, Stephanie had had Lana bring the baby to him, so maybe she’d never had any intention of raising the child.

“I think you’re wrong,” Pamela argued. “Stephanie showed no interest in being a mother.”

“That might be, but she had a baby,” Lana argued right back. “Your grandson.”

“That child is not my grandson,” Pamela spat out.

Lana’s eyes went cold and flat. “So you won’t be challenging me for custody of him?”

“Of course not...” She stopped again. “Wait, are you saying you intend to raise that baby?”

“My nephew,” Lana said. “Yes. I love him and I’ll raise him. I think that’s what Stephanie would want me to do.”

“Stephanie would have wanted to put her past behind her and marry Marsh. Marsh is a very forgiving man, practically a saint, but I don’t believe even he would want to raise Stephanie’s mistake. Unless...has Marsh said something to you about that? Is he willing to raise the child with you?”

Lana cursed, and it wasn’t under her breath. It was plenty loud enough for her mother to hear. Pamela scolded her, but Lana talked right over her. “Stephanie did the paperwork to declare Slater as the baby’s father, so if I raise Cameron with anyone, it’ll be him.”

“With that cop?” Pamela said like the profanity Lana had just used. The woman geared up for what would no doubt be a tirade, but Lana ended the call.

“Sorry for bringing you into that,” Lana muttered. “I don’t expect you to be a father to Cameron.”