Mulberry Park (25 page)

“I can’t believe this,” Amy had said, her voice a couple of octaves higher. “You forgot to pick her up! What kind of a loser dad forgets his own child?”

“I’m sorry, honey. I was busy, and…it just slipped my mind.”

That had been the last straw. Once Amy had picked up their daughter, she’d told him he’d have to attend the dinner party alone. By the time he’d gotten home, she’d packed his bags.

“I hate this house and all it represents,” she’d told him. “So don’t worry about me wanting to keep it in the settlement. I’ll take the condo in Del Mar.”

“You want a divorce because I made a mistake?” he asked.

He’d made a lot of mistakes.

How could a man forget his own daughter?
she’d asked herself time and again.

Clearly, Brandon Masterson had never been cut out to be a father. Some men weren’t.

Maybe some women hadn’t been meant to be mothers, either.

Her thoughts drifted to Barbara Rucker. There could be a hundred reasons why she’d given up her baby girl in September of 1964. Maybe she’d been young and unmarried. Maybe she’d been unable to care for a child, not just unwilling.

Time, Amy supposed, and a little snooping would tell.

She just hoped she wouldn’t regret stirring up the past.