by Helen Lacey
“All set,” she said and smiled fractionally.
He came farther into the room and held out her tote and a jacket. “When I left here earlier I stopped by the museum and collected these for you.”
“That was very thoughtful.”
He shrugged. “Shirley said she has the place covered for the rest of the day.”
Kayla bit back a grin imagining Shirley getting all flustered dealing with Liam, who she once said was as handsome as the devil and probably just as unpredictable. “Thanks. I’ll call her later.” She noticed how tense his jaw was. “Everything okay?”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
He grasped her elbow and her skin instantly tingled from his touch. But she didn’t pull away. She looked up, meeting his gaze. But there was a hardness to his expression that hadn’t been there an hour ago. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “Let’s go and see your parents.”
Once she was released and said a final goodbye to Lucy, they walked out toward the hospital parking area. It was a warm afternoon, typical of a spring day, and Kayla relished the feel of the sunshine on her face. The drive to her parents’ home was done in silence. She knew something was bugging him. When he had something on his mind Liam always turned quiet and brooding. They pulled up outside the big, double-story home, with its perfectly manicured gardens and white picket fence, and he killed the engine.
“Just so you know,” he said quietly. “If your father can’t keep his temper in check then I am getting you out of here. Don’t ask me to stand by and allow him to insult you...because I won’t.”
She swallowed hard. “That was out of character for him,” she said, remembering the things her father had said at the hospital. “He’s usually very respectful of other people and—”
“I don’t care about other people,” he said, cutting her off. “I care that he doesn’t insult you. And stop making excuses for his bad behavior. That’s something of a habit of yours.”
Kayla grabbed the door handle. “Are we going to have an argument right now? Because if so, I don’t think I’m up for it.”
He got out of the car and came around the passenger side as she was getting out. “No, we’re not going to argue. We’re on the same side,” he said and closed the door. “Remember?”
By the time they walked up the path and reached the porch, Kayla was so wound up she could have turned on her heels and fled. But the door opened before they’d pressed a foot on the bottom step and her mother opened the front screen.
“Should you be out of the hospital?” she asked, her face looking older than Kayla had ever seen before.
“I’m fine, Mom,” Kayla assured her. “I’ve eaten and feel perfectly normal. But we really need to talk some more.” She shifted a little closer to Liam. “All of us.”
Her mother nodded, almost as though she’d been expecting them. “Your father is upstairs resting,” she said as they walked through the door and entered the hall. “I’ll go and get him.”
As her mother disappeared upstairs, Kayla walked through the hallway and into the front living area. The room was big, filled with polished furniture, two leather chaise lounges and a huge fireplace. There were dozens of photographs on the mantel, most of them of her as a child and teenager. Some were taken with her astride her pony, Tickles. And another taken on the day she’d gotten her license and her folks had bought her a car, complete with a pink bow on the hood. Above the fireplace was a family portrait from the day of her college graduation. Her parents stood by her side in the picture, clearly beaming with pride. To an outsider, it would probably look like two people who overloved, overprotected and overindulged their only child.
She turned and saw that Liam was still standing in the doorway, arms at his sides, watching her with a small smile that warmed her through to the roots of her hair. In dark trousers, an immaculate white shirt and maroon tie, he was too handsome for words. Kayla met his gaze and was consumed by a wave of feelings so intense she grabbed the mantel for support. He walked toward her slowly and met her by the fireplace.
“You okay?” he asked, concern in his tone.
Kayla nodded. “Just try not to antagonize my dad, okay?”
“I think my very presence will do that.”
“You’re right.” Her father’s voice cut through their conversation and she turned her gaze toward the doorway. Her parents stood together, a unified front. “And since this is the first time an O’Sullivan has been in my home for thirty years, I trust you’ll both respect that this is difficult for my wife and I. Speaking of respect,” her father went on to say, sounding more like a robot than the man she’d adored all her life. “Kayla, your mother pointed out that I was rude to you earlier...so, for that, I apologize.”
Kayla noticed the way her mother’s hand rested on her dad’s shoulder. They were a tight unit. Utterly devoted and loyal to one another, her parents had a strong and enviable marriage, something she one day hoped to emulate.
“It’s okay, Dad,” she said and tried to muster a smile as they walked into the room. “I know it must have been a shock.”
“Shock?” he echoed. “Yes, it certainly was.” His gaze flicked toward Liam. “Is. So, does your family know?”
“No,” Liam replied stiffly. “Kayla wanted to tell you both first.”
Her father’s mouth twisted. “I can’t imagine your old man being any more pleased about this than I am.”
“Probably not,” Liam replied. “But, it’s done.”
“Nothing that can’t be undone.”
Kayla felt Liam turn rigid beside her and her hand immediately came out to rest on his arm. She felt the muscles bunch tightly beneath her palm and gripped him harder. “Dad, we didn’t come here to discuss our relationship.”
Her father’s eyes widened. “Then why are you here? If it’s for my approval, that’s not going to happen.”
Kayla took a steadying breath. “I want to know what you meant at the hospital.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “No, you don’t.”
“I do,” she implored. “You said something about history repeating itself... What does that mean? I get the sense it has something to do with this feud between you and Liam’s father and I just—”
“Feud?” her father said, cutting her off. “It’s not a feud. I hate the man,” he said with so much vehemence that Kayla flinched. She glanced at Liam and saw he was standing rigidly still. “I hate J.D. O’Sullivan’s lies and his deception and every despicable thing he stands for.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Liam shot the words out like rapid gunfire.
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“I’m asking you,” Liam demanded.
The tension in the room suddenly escalated and Kayla’s grip on Liam increased tenfold. She glanced toward her mother and saw helplessness in the older woman’s expression. Something felt very wrong...as though words were about to be said that would change lives forever.
“Ask him,” her father hissed. “Ask J.D. O’Sullivan about the lie he’s lived for the past three decades. Ask him about my sister. Ask him about Kathleen!”
Kayla gasped. Her aunt Kathleen? Her gaze drifted to an old picture on the mantel of a young woman with light blond hair and brown eyes. A woman she’d never met and who was rarely mentioned.
“Dad, what are you talking—”
“Ask him about the eighteen-year-old girl he seduced and then ran out of town,” her father continued his rant, red-faced, clearly pushed to the edge. “And then ask him about the illegitimate son she bore him twenty-nine years ago!”
Chapter Six
Liam felt as though the room had suddenly tilted to some crazy, other-world angle. He tried to make sense of the words coming from Derek Rickard’s mouth. And failed.
Kathleen? His father? An illegitimate son?
There was no sense to be made. None. Rickard was just stirring up trouble. Bad-mouthing his father for reasons of his own. And then rage gathered slowly in his gut, swirling up like a funnel, heating his blood with its intensity. He glanced toward Kayla and saw confusion and then panic in her eyes. He wanted to calm her, to make things right. But he couldn’t muster the strength to do anything other than stare blankly at the man who’d made the terrible accusation.
He found his voice and hated that it sounded raspy and desperate. “What are you talking about?”
Derek’s mouth thinned and he laughed humorlessly. “About my sister. And your father. About the whole tawdry and disgraceful situation.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him yourself,” the other man said. “Ask him how he had an affair with my sister, got her pregnant and then forced her to leave town because he knew the scandal would ruin him.”
Liam’s head throbbed. It couldn’t be true. His father was a lot of things, but the idea he’d betrayed his mother and their family in such a way? It was incomprehensible. Out of the question.
But when he looked at Marion Rickard he saw no lie in her eyes, and in that moment the world shifted, mocking him and everything he believed he was. He thought about his family. He thought about his life. His past. His present. And knew that suddenly it had all changed. Kayla grasped his arm tighter, as though sensing his sudden dive into a place that was filled with despair and disbelief and a kind of mounting helplessness that rocked him to the very core of his soul.
“I have to get out of here,” he said the words low in his throat, only for Kayla to hear them. “I have to talk to my father.”
“I can’t leave them now,” she whispered. “I have to stay.”
Her words were like puncture wounds. She was staying. She was choosing sides.
Resentment replaced his despair and settled in his belly. “Suit yourself,” he said as he pulled away from her grasp and then walked across the room, desperate to keep moving.
When he reached the doorway Marion spoke to him. “I did warn you that you might not like what you find out, Liam.”
Within seconds he was down the hall and out of the house. By the time he reached his vehicle his chest was pounding and he was forced to sit behind the wheel and suck in several long breaths to control his haywire breathing.
Get a grip...
He tried not to think of Kayla as he headed off. Tried not to remember she’d made it clear where she stood. Because it hurt so much he could barely breathe.
He rang his father’s cell, but it went to voice mail. There was nothing unusual about that since his father hated cell phones. Then he called the hotel and was informed his father had turned up looking for him earlier than afternoon, but hadn’t hung around.
It took fifteen minutes to drive to his parents’ home, set on fifty acres of prime grazing land that hadn’t seen a head of cattle for decades. The painted fences, long driveway and manicured lawns led to the sprawling white ranch house that was elegant enough to grace the cover of a magazine. Seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, three living areas, a game room, and indoor pool and spa...it was the perfect home, the grandest in the county. But although he’d been happy enough growing up among the luxury, Liam preferred his quiet house by the river.
He spotted his father’s Range Rover in the driveway and the tightness in his chest increased. It was Thursday—he knew his mother played bridge on Thursdays. Which was just as well, since the conversation he intended having with his father wasn’t one he wanted to share with his mom.
When Liam entered the house he found his father in the kitchen, rifling through the refrigerator. He was a big man, tall and broad-shouldered, and at sixty one, still fit and active. As a boy he’d idolized his dad. His father was a giant. A superhero. Infallible. Indestructible.
When he entered the room his father stopped what he was doing, looked at him and frowned.
“What happened to you today? I went to the hotel looking for you. You took off from that meeting without so much as a—”
Liam walked toward the dining table, rested both hands on the back of one of the timber chairs and spoke. “I went to be with my wife.”
His father fumbled with the bowl in his hand and closed the fridge. “What?”
“My wife,” he said flatly. “I got married a month ago.”
“Married?” J.D. said the word as though he’d misheard. “You got married? Who the hell to?”
“Kayla Rickard.”
The moment he said her name his father’s expression shifted from disbelief to shock. “Derek Rickard’s daughter? The pretty blonde from the museum?”
Liam stiffened at his father’s disregard. “You know exactly who she is.”
“Sure I do,” J.D. replied and shrugged. “She was at the hospital? That’s why you left the meeting?”
“Correct.”
“Is she okay?”
Liam nodded. “She’s fine.”
“So, you’re married to Derek Rickard’s daughter? Why the hell are you telling me this now and not four weeks ago? Why the secrecy?” His brows rose. “Did you knock her up?”
Anger weaved its way up his spine. Now was not the time to talk about the baby. He didn’t want to share the news. Didn’t want it tainted by the conversation. “We thought we’d wait a while to tell everyone, considering how certain people would react to the news. But you know how the truth is, Dad...eventually it always comes out.”
The pulse in his father’s cheek beat erratically and he realized the other man looked uncharacteristically cornered. “Is there some point you’re trying to make, Liam?”
“Yes,” he replied tightly. “I want you to tell me the truth. I want you to tell me about Kathleen.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Kathleen... Derek Rickard’s sister. Tell me what she is to you?”
Liam watched as his father moved to the counter and set the bowl down. “I don’t want to—”
“Tell me what she is to you!” Liam demanded and slammed a fist on the table.
His father stilled and sucked in a breath. Silence stretched for an age. Like elastic. Creating distance and then drawing them back together. The truth teetered on the edge of the air, until finally, his father spoke quietly. “She’s the mother of my son.”
Liam’s chest tightened inexplicably. His father had another son. A child with another woman. Pain seared through his blood when he thought of his own mother. Of Kieran and Sean and Liz and his nieces. Of his family. Of what it would mean when it was revealed. And then of Marion Rickard’s words: Be careful what you ask for, Liam...you might find you don’t like the answer.
He drew in a long and steady breath. “Does Mom know?”
J.D. shook his head. “No.”
It was betrayal of the worst possible kind. Lies and decades of deception. It was as though everything he’d known was suddenly a facade. “You cheating bastard.”
His father winced. “You don’t understand what I—”
“I understand enough. I understand that you got Derek Rickard’s teenage sister pregnant while you were married to my mother and have lied about it for thirty years.” Bile rose in his throat as he said the words and he swallowed hard.
“I had to,” his father said quietly. “I had a family I had to protect... I had responsibilities and—”
“You had a responsibility to be loyal to your wife,” Liam shot back. “But I guess loyalty and honor aren’t that important to you, are they, Dad?” In that moment he almost hated saying the word. “But secrecy obviously is.”
J.D.’s mouth twisted. “You’re right, I’m a cheating bastard,” he admitted and shrugged. “I had an affair and betrayed my wife. I’m guilty as charged. But it looks lik
e you’ve kept your own secrets, too.”
Liam laughed humorlessly. “Kayla and I kept our relationship under wraps because Derek Rickard hates you and by extension he hates me and everyone named O’Sullivan. I didn’t know why up until half an hour ago. But now I do. Now I understand.”
His father stepped around the counter. “Are you going to tell your mother?”
“No,” Liam said flatly. “You are. And you’re going to tell her today.”
Then he spun on his heels and strode from the room.
He knew his father would follow him. J.D. O’Sullivan wasn’t a man who took kindly to ultimatums. By the time he was out the front door and on the porch his father was a few steps behind him.
“Liam, you don’t realize what you’re saying,” his dad said, breathing hard. “It’s better this way. Better for everyone. Better for you and your brothers. Better for your mother. And better for Kathleen and Jonah and I won’t be—”
“Jonah?” The word left his mouth like poison. “He has a name?”
“Well, of course he has a name. He’s my son and I—”
Liam laughed painfully, cutting off his father. “My God, of course... You still see them.”
J.D. didn’t deny it. “I see Jonah occasionally.”
“And he knows about us? About Mom and your life in Cedar River?”
“He knows.”
Liam’s chest tightened. “And what about Kathleen? Is that what this is? Do you have some kind of two-family thing going on, Dad?” Liam was so wound up, so mad with his father in that moment that he could have hiked up the three steps and punched him in the face. “Oregon,” he said caustically. “That’s where they are, right? Those fishing trips you sometimes take with your old college buddies? Those trips that Kieran and I begged to go on so many times when we were kids, but were told were always off-limits... That’s where you went. To another state to be with your other family?”
