Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

person I ever knew. He couldn’t have cared less about his father’s position, which of course drove his father crazy.
    “Over time, our friendship grew and blossomed into love. His parents never liked me, never welcomed me into their home or their family. That made John sad, but it didn’t keep us apart. He was the love of my life, Detective, and I was the love of his. We knew it at fifteen. Can you imagine?”
    “No, ma’am.” He couldn’t imagine it at twenty-nine. “I can’t.”
    “We were overwhelmed by what we felt for each other and determined to be together forever, no matter what it took.” She glanced down at her lap, her fingers twisting nervously. “I was sixteen when I got pregnant. My parents were devastated, but his were outraged. His father was in the midst of an ugly re-election campaign, and all they cared about was the potential scandal. They offered me a hundred thousand dollars to have an abortion.”
    Freddie kept his expression neutral.
    “I refused to even consider it. I was under the illusion that John and I would find a way to be together, to raise our child together. I had no idea then how far people with power could and would go to get what they wanted. Within a week, my father was transferred to a post office in Illinois.”
    “What did John say about this?”
    “What could he say? He was going into his senior year of high school. His parents still had him under their thumb.”
    “Did he see the baby?”
    She nodded. “He and his parents came out for a day when Thomas was born. The senator pitched a holy fit when I named him Thomas John O’Connor, but they had taken John away from me—away from us—they weren’t going to deny my son his father’s name. I had my limits, too.”
    “What was your relationship with John like after the baby was born?”
    “We talked on the phone as often as we could. We made plans to be together.” Her hands trembled in her lap. “After he graduated from high school, his father got him an internship in Congress for the summer and then they shipped him off to Harvard. It was more than a year before we saw each other again.”
    “He was an adult by then. Why didn’t he stand up to his parents?”
    “They controlled the money, Detective, the money he was using to support his son while he was in college. He did what he was told.”
    “And after college?”
    “His father threatened to disown him if he married me, because if he did, people would find out about ‘the kid’ as Graham called him, and there’d be a scandal.” Her voice had gone flat and lifeless. “As much as John loved me and Thomas, he wouldn’t have been able to live with being disowned by his father.” She leaned forward. “Don’t get me wrong, Detective. I hate Graham O’Connor for what he denied me, what he denied Thomas and mostly what he denied John. But John loved his father, and more, he respected him despite everything he had done to us. John was a good man, the best man I’ve ever known, but he didn’t have it in him to turn his back on his father. He just didn’t. I accepted that a long time ago and learned to be satisfied with what I had.”
    “Which was what exactly?”
    “We had one weekend a month to be a family, and we made the most of it. John was a wonderful father to Thomas. Between visits, he was completely available to him, and they talked most days. My son is devastated by his father’s death.”
    “And no one ever questioned his resemblance to the senator in light of the fact that he had his name?”
    “No,” she said. “Amazingly, we got away with it. The O’Connors managed to thoroughly bury us here in the Midwest. During John’s campaign and the first few months he was in office, we played it cool and didn’t see much of each other. Once the attention faded, we were able to pick things up again. The media never caught so much as a whiff of us.”
    “I’m curious as to why he sent you monthly payments, rather than giving you a lump sum. His parents had money, and he became a wealthy man himself when he sold his company.”
    “He took good care of us, but he liked sending the monthly payments. He said it made him feel connected to Thomas and to me.”
    “I apologize in advance for what I’m about to ask you… But I need to know where the senator slept when he was here.”
    Her eyes flashed with anger and embarrassment. “Where do you think he slept?”
    “Was he involved with other women?” Freddie hated the pain