Their New-Found Family

He grimaced. “I wish it were possible, but this is something I have to do alone.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re going to find out what happened. Maybe then your headaches will go away.”

Tris repressed a groan and hugged his nephew.

“I swear I’ll be back in time to take you camping tomorrow afternoon. For the time being, I’ll tell your grandparents some unexpected business has come up I have to deal with.”

“Okay.”

Before they went out to his parents’ car, he phoned his pilot in Geneva and told him to get the jet ready for takeoff.

CHAPTER THREE

BY THE time Natalie and Kendra came running out the doors of the ice rink to the car, Rachel was an emotional disaster.

“Hi, Mom!”

“Hi, Mrs. Marsden!”

Both girls put their bags in the trunk, then got in the back seat.

“How was practice?” Rachel asked as she drove out of the parking lot.

To her relief they regaled her with enough information that they were still talking about it when she pulled in Pearsolls’ driveway a few minutes later to let Kendra out.

Once she’d retrieved her bag and had run in the house, Rachel started up the car again. To her chagrin, her precocious daughter eyed her with concern. “What’s wrong, Mom? You’re so quiet. Is Nana sick or something?”

“No. This isn’t about your grandmother.” There was no easy way to broach the subject. Once they reached the street and merged with the traffic Rachel said, “Your father called me this morning after you left for Kendra’s house.”

Natalie stared at her incredulously. “On his own? I mean, Alain didn’t tell him to call?”

“No.” Rachel was still in shock. In fact she’d been in this condition all day, and had gone home from work early. “No one told him to do anything. He made it abundantly clear he was acting independent of his nephew.”

“Oh, Mom—”

“He’ll be in Concord tonight.”

“You’re kidding—” The joy in her daughter’s voice was beyond description. “Does he know about me?”

He knows.

“Not about you specifically, honey. He hung up before we could have a long conversation. But I can tell he suspects we had a child together, and he won’t rest until he discovers the truth for himself.

“That’s why he decided to fly here immediately. I told him to call the house this evening and I’d make arrangements to meet him tomorrow.”

“Why can’t we meet him tonight?”

“For one thing, it may be too late. For another, you and I need a little time to talk about this and what it’s going to mean.”

“What do we have to talk about?”

“I’m sure he’s married and has a family. Finding out he has a daughter will change his life as much as it’ll change yours.”

“Do you think he won’t love me as much as he loves his other kids?”

“Of course he will. But that’s not the point, honey. Meeting you is going to transform his world. And your existence will come as a huge surprise to his wife and children, not to mention his parents and his brother’s family.”

“But he’s my father, too!”

“Of course. The fact that he’s made the decision to see us as soon as possible means he does care. That sounds like the Tris I once knew, and it’s obvious to me he hasn’t changed in that regard even if that portion of his life is a blank. But we have to discuss how this is going to impact all of us.”

“You’re talking about visitation. I mean, if he wants to go on seeing me.”

“Yes.”

“You think he won’t?”

The tremor in her voice made Rachel want to reach over and crush her daughter to her, but she couldn’t do that until they arrived at the house.

“Honey? Right now he doesn’t know positively we had a baby together. That’s why he’s coming. To find out.

“I’m sure a lot of possibilities are going through his head. Before we make any assumptions, we have to wait until you two have met and we’ve talked this through.

“Don’t forget you and your father live on two different continents. The situation isn’t like your friend Molly’s. She can spend every other weekend at her dad’s house because it’s only a mile away from her mother’s.”

Natalie’s chin trembled. “You’re just saying these things because you don’t think he’s going to want a relationship with me, huh.”

Rachel pulled the car up in front of their townhouse and turned off the engine. Eyeing her daughter she said, “I’m your mom and love you more than life itself. I’m trying to be as honest with you as I can.

“The truth is, I don’t know what he’ll think when he finds out he has a child. My greatest concern is to keep you from being hurt, but it isn’t possible to shield you from everything.”

Her daughter’s pained expression was the last thing she saw before Natalie opened the passenger door. She grabbed her things from the back seat and ran inside the house.

After locking the car, Rachel followed, but her heart was so heavy she felt like her body weighed a thousand pounds.

The second she stepped in the living room, the house phone rang. She almost jumped out of her skin before hurrying into the kitchen to get it.

Natalie had beaten her to it. Her brows furrowed before she put her hand over the mouthpiece.

“It’s Steve,” she whispered. “He’s worried because you weren’t at work and haven’t been answering your cell phone. Please call him back on it. I want to keep our phone free in case my father calls.”

Rachel took the phone from her and apologized to Steve for not calling him earlier. She told him something important had come up and she would call him back in a little while on her cell phone.

Not two seconds after Rachel had replaced the receiver, it rang again. She picked up immediately, thinking maybe he’d tried to tell her something vital and she’d cut him off too soon.

“Steve?”

“Afraid not. Bonsoir, Rachel.”