She swallowed convulsively and nodded. “Of course.” She took another deep breath and clenched her trembling hands together. “The article mentioned the disappearance of your daughter and suddenlyI knew . I couldn’t remember taking her, but I remembered my baby dying and knew that the little girl who I loved more than my own life belonged to someone else.”
“I don’t understand…you would have taken me back. Mom, I know you…”
“Yes. I tried.” She was looking at Amber again, her hazel eyes filled with appeal. “But when I arrived in Boston with you, I had to research George Wentworth. I couldn’t give my baby over to just anyone even if he was your biological father. I was frightened of what would happen to me, but even more terrified of losing you. I was going to plead for mercy…I hoped…” She swallowed a sob. “I hoped that he would let me visit you. But when I researched him, I discovered he was a merciless shark. The article had said something about how even personal tragedy had not slowed him down businesswise. He acted as if he’d never lost a daughter and didn’t notice the one he still had.
“I knew the man described in the articles I read about him and by the employees I managed to talk to would press charges and I would end up in prison. I would have faced that…but learning how he treated the daughter he still had was something else altogether. He ignored her. She was raised by nannies and servants and hardly ever saw him.”
She looked at George as if she couldn’t quite believe he was the man she was describing and then back to her daughter. “You were such a loving little girl and affectionate. You would have shriveled up and died under that kind of care. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give you back. And he never changed. I kept tabs and watched his daughter Eleanor be sent to boarding school when she was barely eight years old.”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears as she met Ellie’s gaze. “It hurt so much to see you treated like that. I loved your sister with all my heart and you by proxy. I couldn’t change your life, but I couldn’t let your father do the same thing to Amber.”
“I understand,” Ellie said. And she did. Someone looking from the outside might not, but she’d lived that emotional wasteland. “I’m glad my sister escaped having a childhood like mine. I’m glad you were there to love her.”
“But she needed me. If you’d given me back, we would have had each other,” Amber said in a low whisper.
“I thought of that and I just couldn’t sacrifice your happiness for hers.” Helen buried her face in her hands and started to sob. “I’m sorry.”
Ellie’s dad moved to sit on the other side of Helen. He pulled her into his arms and just held her as if he alone in that room could understand her mother’s pain and guilt. And perhaps it was true. If everything he’d said over the past week plus was true, he carried a load of guilt for his treatment of Ellie easily as heavy as Helen’s.
“If my biological father was such a horrible man why isn’t he threatening prison and yelling at her?” Amber asked Ellie, her eyes filled with a confusion Ellie understood only too well.
“He almost died a couple of weeks ago and it changed him. I think he really loves me finally and I know he’s going to love you.”
“But, Mom?”
“Nothing is going to happen to your mom. Dad doesn’t want to hurt her and neither do I. I only want to know you. I’d like to know her, too, if she’ll let me. She was a good mom to you. She took care of you and after hearing her story, I’m convinced she didn’t do anything with malice.”
“Are you for real?” Amber asked. “Nobody reacts like that to something like this.”
Sandor laughed, hugging her. “Ellie is a special woman.”
“I’m glad.” The controlled facade cracked for just a second as Amber’s chin wobbled. “I don’t want my mom hurt.”
“She won’t be,” George said with conviction as he continued to hold the crying woman. “She did better by my daughter than I did. I stopped looking for you after only a year. I have no excuse for that. I was a rotten father to your sister, but she loved me in spite of it.”
“There are worse fathers than you were, much worse,” Ellie said.
“Thank you, sweetheart, but when I remember the times your eyes so like your mother’s begged me to show a spark of affection and then I didn’t…I’ll never forgive myself.”