THE TAINTED TRUST (Volume 2 of The King Trilogy)

CHAPTER 80

         Monday, August 27.

Kerri entered then closed the door to Dennis's office. She stared at her boss, tears streaming from her reddened eyes.

"What's wrong?" Dennis asked.

"Everything," Kerri whimpered, now sobbing into her hands.

Dennis rushed to hold her. "Sit and talk," he ordered, leading her to his own chair. He sat on the desk and faced her. "Talk to me," he demanded.

After more than an hour of emotionally charged, intense discussion, Kerri had managed to tell Dennis the entire story of her incredible weekend.

Dennis frowned and exhaled. "Damn! I'm absolutely delighted that you've found your father, but the news about Louis is awful."

Kerri rubbed her eyes. "What do you think?"

Dennis exhaled again. "Obviously, there's a hell of a lot more to this story."

"Yup, and I'm going to find out what it is."

"Not a good idea. Don't get involved, Kerri. You could find yourself in a world of trouble."

"I'm already involved. It's impossible for me to become uninvolved. The man I'm living with is planning to kill Phillip and I'm in a position to stop him."

"I think you should do is talk to your father. May be he can give you some guidance." He grinned. "You might even have a few other things to talk about."

Kerri shook her head. "I don't think I can do it."

"You mean you don't think you can talk to your father or you don't think you can tell him who you are?"

"I'm definitely going to talk to him, but I'm just not ready to tell him I'm his daughter."

"That's ridiculous! If it were me, I'd run to him, shout the truth to him and hug him as hard as I could. He's your father, Kerri. Aside from anything else you need to tell him, I think your first priority is your relationship. Both of you have a lot of catching up to do."

Privately, Kerri agreed, but fear of rejection troubled her. Her father had stopped seeing her and writing to her. With passing years she had concluded that he had wanted to forget her, have nothing more to do with her, and get on with his life. Her natural mother admitted to Kerri that her primary motivation for marrying Mike King had been to replace the daughter she had given up for adoption, and that was one of the reasons for the divorce. "I'll think about it," she said.

"You handle it any way you want. I'm sure you'll make the right decision."

The act of sharing her mental burden with Dennis was enormously therapeutic to Kerri. She stood and hugged him. "Thank you, Miles. Thank you for listening. You're always there to catch me when I fall."

"No thanks necessary. You're worth it."

Kerri called Information and was given the telephone number of Reserve Oil in Toronto. Nervous yet excited, she dialed the number and waited, struggling to decide what to say to her father. She asked to speak to Mike King.

"May I ask who's calling?" the receptionist asked.

"My name is Kerri Pyper. I'm with Iacardi & Sons, Commodity Brokers in New York."

"One moment, please."

Kerri's heart pounded. The next person she talked to would be her father.