A Daughter's Trust

Reaching out with his good arm, Rick pulled the woman who’d borne him into his home.

CHAPTER TWENTY

SUE WASN’T DOING SO WELL. As a matter of fact, she’d been crying on and off for three days. Crying, but only when her charges were asleep. When they didn’t need her. She’d called Belle but so far her cousin had had no luck connecting with Adam and Joe. Joe didn’t return her calls. Adam left a message that he’d called but nothing else.

She spent the days alone with her charges. But not once, during all those long hours since Rick had left, had she felt pressured by the babies’ needs. Or needed to escape their demand on her time and emotions.

No, she’d just loved them more. Because she knew she could send them back if she had to.

Rick just didn’t get it. And she couldn’t blame him. Some days, she didn’t get it, either. He was right about one thing. She loved deeply. She’d loved every single one of her babies. Could still name them all, in order. She just had an all-in blockage. Emotionally, she needed to be independent. Distant.

Just like Joe was.

Probably because of Robert.

They must have some chemical abnormality in their emotion genes.

But, hey, it was Saturday and the sun was shining, and Jake’s bruises were gone. She still had Carrie.

Deciding that a trip to the ocean was in order, Sue changed her T-shirt for a sweatshirt, and bundled up the infants. She was just loading the car when her cell phone rang.

Her mother.

She almost ignored the call. Mom would leave a message. She could call her back after some fresh ocean air cleaned her spirits.

But, really, what would it take out of her to answer now? This was her mother, for God’s sake.

“Hello?”

“Sue? Oh, thank God.” Her mother’s anxiety reached her all the way from Florida.

“What’s up?” Sue put up the blockades. Walled herself off.

“It’s Adam, honey. He’s had a stroke.” Sue dropped to the front seat—her heart pounding as her mother named the hospital where they’d taken her newfound brother. “Daddy and I are on our way, but I was hoping you could get a sitter and go on over, sweetie. In case he doesn’t…”

“And to keep us filled in until we get there.” Luke took up for his wife.

Adam? He was awfully young to have a stroke. They hadn’t even had a chance to get to know him. Surely he would be okay. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to give them family and then snatch it away so quickly. The thoughts chased themselves across Sue’s mind.

“I’ll call Barb,” she said, looking down the driveway. And then added, “Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll get there. And I’ll phone as soon as I see him. Or a doctor. Or know more. I’ll call you as soon as I’m at the hospital.”

She hung up, thankful that she’d already been on her way out, with the babies safely in their car seats.

It was only after she’d dropped Carrie and Jake at Barb’s that the full ramification of her mother’s news hit her. Adam Fraser wasn’t just her mother’s brother.

He was Joe’s father.

“RICKY, I DIDN’T JUST come here because of the stuff with Carrie.” They were in his kitchen, drinking iced tea. His mother had been asking him questions about his job. About friends she remembered he’d had that he hadn’t even known she knew. He’d been trying to talk about his niece, about the current issues between him and his mother. Trying to find a solution that would satisfy her, but that he could live with. Such as she’d give him custody, but be able to visit whenever she wanted.

She seemed so genuine. Healthier than he’d ever seen her.

But he’d believed in her so many times before. For so many different reasons.

“I know about Hannah.”

His first instinct was to wipe his daughter’s name off her lips. And then he looked her in the eye. And had to swallow before he could speak.

“Sonia told you.” It was all he could say. As if it mattered how Nancy had found out she’d had a granddaughter she’d never met. One who could have known her sober.