Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 41825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 209(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 209(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
When I was finished, I gave the kid strict aftercare instructions, then retreated to my office to do the paperwork. I kept my own medical records for the club and teams, but I also needed to send Kane a summary so he knew how to manage his racer’s next steps with the team.
Once that task was completed, I decided to drop by Jax’s office. After my conversation with Flint, I knew it was time to fill him in so he could factor this new information into his digging.
The door was open, so I just rapped my knuckles once on the jamb before entering.
Jax sat behind his bank of monitors, his eyes locked on a screen filled with scrolling data, a ball cap turned backward on his blond head. He looked up, his glasses glinting in the light of the screens. “I was planning to call you this afternoon.”
I folded my arms, leaning against the wall. “Find something?”
“Several somethings,” he replied. “They don’t add up.”
“I doubt it will make any more sense once I tell you why I asked you to look into Hadley.”
Jax spun slowly away from his monitors to face me, his brows lifting. I could practically see the wheels turning behind his black-rimmed glasses.
“When I gave you Hadley’s description, I left out some details about the scar on her temple.”
“Okay,” he murmured, watching me steadily.
“Was pretty sure there was something wrong about it, but I didn’t have anything but gut instinct to go on. I wasn’t gonna waste your time if it turned out I was completely off base.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed. “But now you’ve got more?”
I quickly filled him in on everything I’d noticed and the suspicions I had, then told him about my conversation with Flint. “She’s definitely been lied to about when the injury happened. If you could even call it that, since it was a removal, not a repair.”
He nodded. “That actually lines up with some things I’ve been seeing.”
My jaw tightened. “Go on.”
Jax spun his chair a few inches, one arm bracing against the desk as he pulled up another set of files. “Her records are clean…too clean. In a ‘someone made damn sure there wasn’t anything there’ way. And it gets weirder the deeper I go.”
He tapped the screen, bringing something up. “Starting with her birth records. There’s some questionable timing on the filing—nothing that screams illegal on the surface, but it’s off just enough to catch my attention. Like it was processed through a couple of extra hands before it landed where it was supposed to. But what I found particularly interesting was that it was backdated.”
A cold weight settled in my gut. “What?”
“When it was created, the date of birth was one month prior. And it wasn’t filed by the hospital. Her parents filed for a birth certificate in person.” Jax kept going, his voice clinical. “Then there’s her early medical history. Or lack of it. From birth to about three years old, there’s barely anything. What’s there is vague. Reads like someone copied the information out of a medical textbook and dropped it into her file.”
My fingers dug slightly against my biceps.
“The ‘injury’ she supposedly had as a toddler, the one she told you caused the scar?” he continued. “It’s not even listed as a surgery. Just a minor laceration. Stitches. No imaging or photos. No follow-up notes worth a damn. Nothing you’d expect if a kid actually hit their head hard enough to need real intervention.”
“That doesn’t happen,” I muttered. “Not in a family like hers.”
“Exactly.” Jax glanced at me. “High-profile parents, money, access to the best care—and that’s the record they’ve got? Doesn’t fit.”
Silence stretched for a beat.
“Flint did suggest that it might have been related to vanity. That her parents were embarrassed by what he’s convinced was a birthmark.” Scratching my chin, I tried to make sense of the puzzle.
“It’s possible,” Jax conceded.
“But if that was the purpose, it still doesn’t explain the smoke screens in her background.”
“I don’t know.” Jax cocked his head to the side and frowned. “What I do know is that no politician is squeaky clean. And I’ve seen evidence that indicates her father has bent some rules to get ahead. But he toes the line carefully and never crosses it, so he avoids legal shit and scandals.” He gestured toward his computer screen. “Like taking money from donors whose finances are dirty. Owing people like that, it’s only a matter of time before he’s in their pocket with no way to get out.”
“As much as I wish there was more pointing at vanity for their reasoning, a dark secret or hidden scandal certainly makes more sense with the evidence in front of us.”
“But Hadley doesn’t strike you as being from the same cloth as her parents?” he asked.
Thinking about the warm, open woman I’d left at my house, I shook my head. “No. To be honest, I’m shocked she isn’t more jaded. She definitely knows how to shut down and wear a mask. She doesn’t show signs of abuse, though. I have a feeling her parents weren’t cruel, more like neglectful. When she had their attention, it was probably centered on managing her. Like you said last night, image is everything to a man like her father. Especially when your platform is family values.”