Ties That Bind

Chapter 52

MADISON WANTED TO SPEAK WORDS of apology to the Younge family on behalf of the Stiles Police Department, but she was limited to what she could say by Legal. To apologize would be an admission of delinquency and make the department vulnerable to lawsuit.

"Thank you, Detective." Ethan was holding his wife's hand. His daughter Megan stood in front of them and his father was on Ethan's other side. "You gave me my family back." He smiled at Madison.

He proved the resiliency of the human being. He had been through such an ordeal but had come out on the other end stronger.

"If you want to meet him, I can take you to him."

Ethan shook his head. "After what he put me through?" His wife moved her head back to look at him. "After what he put us through? As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a brother."

Madison noticed the mild twitch in his cheek that belied his words. Maybe someday he would be back to see the man who was related to him by blood. "Good day, Mr. Younge."

"That it is." He kissed his wife on her forehead. Megan held her grandfather's hand.

Madison watched them walk away a family reunited, the little girl doing her best to keep up as she swung her grandfather's arm. She'd heard that the father had his faith restored in Ethan and had left the business to him. Maybe there is such a thing as a happy ending.

An opening door caused her to turn, and she came face-to-face with Blake Golden. The sergeant and the chief filtered out behind him, passed her a cursory glance, and kept moving.

The lawyer stopped in front of her.

"So are you going to make yourself more famous by suing the department?"

"Kind of tough to do when you didn't do anything wrong." Golden smiled at her. "You had every reason to believe Ethan Younge did it, and the DNA evidence to back it up."

"Still wondered if you'd use your magical lawyer powers to manipulate the situation." Her words, intended to be sarcastic, came out flirtatious. Terry walked past mumbling about needing to take care of something.

"Magical lawyer powers?" Blake laughed. "Wow, how I'd love to get myself some of those."

She laughed despite her better judgment. "Yeah, well, given your line of work they'd come in quite handy."

An awkward moment of silence passed.

"There is something that does need to be discussed though."

She was ready to defend herself. She had followed everything by the book. The only thing that didn't match up was Ethan's fingerprints. She could feel her earlobes getting warm. "If it's about Layton's harassment charges, you can discuss that with my superiors."

"No." He smiled. "See, the guy can't afford me. My charity's been used up. And the partners were not too happy about it in the first place."

"Your charity?"

"Sometimes I can feel bad for the underdog."

Madison had wondered how Ethan Younge managed to keep Golden after the father wanted nothing to do with him, but it had been a brief passing thought. It also confirmed her suspicion about how Layton afforded him as well. Maybe this particular lawyer wasn't as bad as she first thought. "So the charges are dropped?"

He nodded. "But that wasn't what I was going to say. Have a drink with me."

"You're serious?"

"Yes, Miss Knight, I'm always serious."

Madison laughed.

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