Carly's Gift (11 page)

“Okay, I'll go. But nothing is going to change my mind.”

When Andrea was safely upstairs, Carly turned on David. “Is this your way of getting back at me?”

David was caught off-balance by the attack. With obvious effort, he reigned in his own frustration. “Andrea came to me,” he said.

“And from the looks of it you did nothing to dissuade her.”

“What did you want me to do, throw her out? Remember, thanks to you, she believes I'm her father.”

“You could have told her how impossible it would be for you to take her with you.”

“I tried. Listen, I don't like this any more than you do. Probably less. Now would you stop acting as if I'm the enemy and start working on a way to get us out of this?”

Seeking a physical vent for her frustration, Carly picked a pillow off the couch and threw it across the room. It bounced off the wall and landed at David's feet. “Damn it, you should have called me the minute she got there.”

“She asked me not to.” He stooped to pick up the pillow.

“And you listened?” She knew she was being unfair, but she couldn't stop.

“I did what I thought you would want me to do,” he said.

Carly covered her face with her hands. “God in heaven, what am I going to do?”

“Have you considered telling her the truth?”

She lowered her hands to her sides. “I can't. I wasn't being melodramatic this morning when I told you the truth would destroy her.”

“How can you be so sure? She's stronger than you think she is.”

“No one is that strong.”

David turned the pillow over and over in his hands before he tossed it back on the couch. He let out a sigh of resignation. “Maybe if you told Andrea she could come to England for a visit next summer it would satisfy her. That's months away. She'll forget all about me by then.”

“What if she didn't?”

“Then I'd deal with it.”

“How?”

“Why are you pushing me on this?”

“Because I need to know whether or not I can count on you if she doesn't forget about you.”

His eyes widened in anger. “You know goddamn well you can count on me. I'm the same man I was sixteen years ago. If you'd put some trust in me then, none of this would be happening now.”

“Please, David.”

“What choice do I have, Carly? You've put me in a position—”

“If I could have handled it any other way, I would have.”

He combed his fingers through his hair, then stopped to rub the back of his neck. “Jesus, she really thinks I'm her father. That doesn't leave me a lot of room to maneuver. What kind of father would just pack up and refuse to be a part of his daughter's life when she's begging to come with him?”

“I don't know what to say to you.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “It's been an interesting week. I lost my father and gained a daughter.”

“What will Victoria say when she finds out?”

“Not much.”

“Why not?”

“If Andrea ever does come to England, Victoria will simply find something else to do while she's there. We lead separate lives most of the time anyway.”

“I don't care how busy Victoria keeps herself, teenage girls can be pretty hard to ignore. Andrea loves to—” Carly jerked backward, as if she'd been struck. “Listen to me. I can't believe I'm saying these things to you. It's like I'm getting ready to send her to summer camp.”

“Are you sorry I came back?”

“Oh, David, that's the second stupid question you've asked me today. Of course I'm sorry. How could I not be?”

“I'm not.”

“Because you've gained something.”

“I have to admit, I'd given up on ever becoming a father.”

“I wasn't talking about Andrea.”

The coolness in her voice caught him off guard. “Then what—”

“The peace of mind you said you wanted.”

“Why are you angry?”

“Andrea's mine, David. If she does go to England to see you next summer, it will be for a visit, nothing else. Don't ever forget that.”

“She's not yours alone anymore, Carly,” Ethan said, from the doorway.

Carly started at his voice. “What are you—”

“Andrea came to see me when you sent her upstairs,” he said, cutting her off. “She was crying. I could hardly make out what she was saying when she tried to tell me what was going on down here.” He moved into the room, passing David without looking at him.

David tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Ethan, don't get the wrong—”

“Shut up, David,” Ethan said. “You'll get your chance in a minute. Right now, this is between me and Carly.”

“Where's Andrea?” Carly asked.

“Upstairs waiting for me. I told her I would be back as soon as I'd convinced you to let her go to England to live with David.”

Tears of rage and betrayal filled her eyes. “You
bastard.
”

Ethan answered, “We have no right to keep her from David any longer.”

“No right?” David interjected. “It seems to me anyone who spends fifteen years raising a child has any right they choose.”

“We can't use the time we've had with her as a weapon,” Ethan said. He pointedly ignored David and focused on Carly. “It's every child's birthright to know their real father. Would you deny Andrea?”

Carly tried to see in his eyes whether he was reacting out of pain or responding to logic. She had been counting on him to fight for Andrea, not provide the means for her to leave. She put her hand to her chest. How many times could her heart break? Choking back a sob, she said, “She already knows her real father.”

“We have to let her go. She'll hate us if we don't.”

David put his hand out to grab Ethan's arm but pulled back before he'd made contact. “I'm going to leave you two alone,” he said. “Call me when you've come to your senses.”

Ethan looked at David. “If you let anything happen to her, I'll come after you myself,” he said with a show of concern that didn't quite ring true.

“Damn you, Ethan,” Carly said. “If you think I'm going to sit back and let this happen, you're crazy.”

“If we don't let her go now, the minute she's old enough, she's going to leave anyway.” Ethan crossed the room and put his arm around Carly. “It's only human nature, darling,” he said with a show of compassion. “We always want what we can't have. If we make her wait until she's eighteen to be with David, we'll never get her back. Do you really want to take that chance?”

David shoved his hand in his pocket and took out his keys. “This is insane. Rational people don't turn their kids over to strangers.”

Ethan sent David a triumphant look he was careful to hide from Carly. “But then you're not a stranger, are you, David? You're Andrea's
real
father.”

David had no words to answer him.

Eight

The next morning
Carly dropped Eric and Shawn off at school and headed for her mother's. She had made several attempts to talk to Andrea that morning, even taking her breakfast up to her on a tray so that they could be alone. As soon as Andrea discovered Carly had not changed her mind about letting her go to England, Carly might as well have been talking to the dog. The rest of their morning together passed in strained silence. Shawn and Eric had made several attempts to smooth the waters while sidestepping any inquiry into why those waters were troubled.

Barbara opened the door before Carly had a chance to ring the bell. “I saw you drive up,” she said, taking her daughter in her arms, crushing her against her pink satin robe. She held her for long seconds before adding, “I hope what you've come here to tell me isn't as bad as the look on your face.”

“It's worse, Mom.”

Barbara put her arm through Carly's and led her inside. “Have you had breakfast?”

“I don't think I could keep anything down,” she said. “Is Wally home?”

“He left about a half hour ago, but I can have him back here in a couple of minutes if you need him.”

Carly sat down on the raised hearth and held her hands out toward the fire. “No, don't,” she said. “He'll find out what's going on soon enough.”

“I don't think I like the sound of that.”

“I'm sorry.” She clasped her hands and shoved them between her knees. “I've tried to think of an easy way to tell you this, but there isn't any.”

“Then just spit it out.”

Still Carly hesitated. It was as if saying the words aloud imbued them with even more power and validity. “Andrea thinks David is her father. She wants to go to England to live with him.”

As if her legs would no longer support her, Barbara dropped into the chair beside the fireplace. “I saw David at Turner's Market yesterday. I had a feeling something was going on, but I had no idea it was anything like—”

“David didn't mention seeing you,” Carly said.

“How in God's name did Andrea find out that Ethan wasn't her father?”

“He had too much to drink the night before last and decided to confront David. Andrea overheard them.” It seemed obscene that something so life altering could take only two short sentences to tell.

“How could we have grown so complacent, so careless?” Barbara said. “We should have made plans to get you and Ethan out of town the minute we heard David was coming back.”

“Hindsight isn't going to help. I have to deal with what I've got.” She stood, took off her jacket, and tossed it in a chair. “This wouldn't have happened last year. Nothing could have convinced Andrea to leave then.” She turned back to the fireplace and stared at the leaping flames. “She's changed. It's as if I don't know her anymore. We used to be so close.”

“Part of growing up is finding out who you are. You can't do that tied to your mother's apron strings.”

“Was I like this?”

Barbara got up and put her arm around Carly's waist. “There were times when I wondered if we would ever speak a civil word to each other again.”

“I don't remember . . .”

“Time has a way of doing that to us. What we were going through was natural and right for you—it was only painful for me.”

“How are Andrea and I ever going to find each other again if we're four thousand miles apart?” She turned into her mother's embrace, holding her close, as if somehow her mother's strength could be absorbed through contact.

“I remember reading somewhere that it's every child's fantasy that they were adopted. It must seem terribly exciting to Andrea to be suddenly presented with a father like David Montgomery.”

“She thinks she's finally discovered the reason she marches to a different drummer. I tried to talk to her this morning, but she won't have anything to do with me. In her mind, I'm the one who betrayed her. Ethan and David are innocent bystanders.”

“She's just found out she isn't who she thought she was,” Barbara said reasonably. “She has to blame someone. Who better than you? Besides, what girl who's been born and raised in a small town like Baxter wouldn't jump at the chance to have a father like David? He's rich and famous and lives in a castle in a magic land across the sea.”

Compulsively, Barbara dug into the pocket of her robe for cigarettes she'd given up smoking two years ago. She reached up to cup her daughter's face and gave her a loving kiss. “It's no wonder you look the way you do.”

Carly sat back down on the hearth. “Ethan thinks we should let her go.”

“Wait a minute,” Barbara said. “There's a piece missing here. I understand Ethan's part in this and I can even understand Andrea thinking it might be fun to have a celebrity father for a while, but how did you get David to agree to the subterfuge?”

“He's doing it as a favor for an old friend.”

“Remember who you're talking to here. What's the real reason?”

Carly tilted her head back to look up at Barbara. “I told him the truth—or at least as much as I could.”

Barbara shoved her hands into her empty pockets. “And he let it go at that? He didn't try to pump you to find out who Andrea's father really is?”

“When I said I wouldn't, that I couldn't, tell him, he let it go.”

“He's still in love with you, isn't he?”

Carly shrank from her mother's gaze. “Why do you say that?”

“Because it's the only sane reason he would even consider laying claim to a child that isn't his.”

There was no hiding from her. “God, I've made such a mess of things,” she said. “I've put David in an impossible position. Everything depends on his going along with being Andrea's father and there isn't a reason in the world why he should.”

Barbara gently stroked Carly's hair. “Stop that. You married Ethan in order to allow David to go on with his life. Even if he thinks you handled it all wrong, he can't fault your motives. If David didn't want to help you now, there's nothing on God's green earth that could make him.”