One Last Chance_A Small-Town Romance

by Nancy Stopper

  Rachel’s heart wrenched. How could he? The one person in this world she’d hoped had told the truth had lied to her. Could this get any worse?

  “Rachel, honey, are you all right? You’re white as a sheet.” Sawyer’s tinny voice barely reached her ears as the ringing grew. He cupped her numb cheeks and spun her toward him. “Rachel, it’ll be okay. Whatever it is, I’m here.”

  He handed her a glass of water and she sipped a few drops. Thank God he’d stayed. She couldn’t get through this without him. She sipped again, as much to calm her racing heart as anything else. “I’m okay now.”

  “What does the paper say?” The soothing tone of Sawyer’s voice spread through her body, filling every bit of emptiness. His warm hand stroked her arm, relaxing the hairs that stood on end.

  She couldn’t blame him for being confused. She’d been confused for a long time, ever since she’d stumbled across the deception. “It’s my birth certificate.”

  He quirked his mouth. “I still don’t understand. This is what you grabbed at the trailer, right?”

  Before she could respond, Dad cleared his throat. “Her original birth certificate… with her biological father’s name on it.”

  Sawyer’s hand squeezed Rachel’s. Sweat beaded on his upper lip and he stared at her for a good minute. If there was some way for her to spare Sawyer this, she would. She hated that his idyllic image of her parents was about to be shattered. But she was going to be selfish for herself, and she couldn’t do this without him by her side.

  “You mean my real father,” she spat out.

  Dad squared his shoulders. “When have I ever not been a father to you? I am your real father by every definition of the word.”

  Dad didn’t understand and never would. Sure, if she asked for help, he’d pitch in. But did he invite her to do things with him? No. The only time they’d spent together was when she’d barged in one of the never-ending games he played with her brothers. Like that counted as a true father-daughter relationship. “But you aren’t my father.”

  “Biologically, no. But in every way that counts, I am. I was there the day you were born. I held you in my arms and promised to love you every day of your life. You are my child as much as the boys.”

  “Mother? Do you have anything to say?”

  When Dad shifted in his chair and slipped his arm around Mom’s trembling shoulder, blood surged through Rachel’s veins. How could he support a liar… love a cheater? How could he act like nothing had changed? Everything had changed for Rachel the day she’d stumbled across the truth. And ever since then, she’d been struggling to hang on, unable to grab anything to support her shaken faith, until Shane had shown her his wretched false love and affection.

  “I’m so sorry, Rachel.” Mom wrung her hands but still wouldn’t lift her head.

  “Sorry for what, Mother? For lying to me my entire life… or that I found out?” What had Rachel expected? Denial? Mom had been lying for more than twenty-two years. And she had the gall to apologize now? The time for I’m sorry was long past.

  Sawyer’s muscular arm wrapped around Rachel. The heat from his firm body seeped into her, warming her where her heart had chilled at the words her father spoke. Now if only she could borrow a bit of that powerful confidence from him. Every day away from Shane, her strength had grown, but as for today? The fortitude she’d mustered teetered on the edge.

  Forget it. She was out of here. “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

  Dad raised his hand. “No, now that this is out in the open, let’s talk about it. Once and for all.”

  Sawyer whispered in Rachel’s ear. “You’re doing great.”

  Dad was right. They’d talk about the ugly truth, get everything out in the open, and she would never have to think about Mom’s deception again.

  Who was Rachel kidding? Her life hadn’t been the same since she found the paper. One conversation wouldn’t change that.

  “I’m sorry for everything, honey. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. I’m sorry it happened in the first place.” Tears rolled down Mom’s cheeks as her sorry excuse for an apology fell from her lips.

  More tears. Enough with the tears. Rachel wanted answers, not sobbing excuses. Hell, she’d shed enough tears for both of them the past weeks. If her mother thought that crying would soften Rachel’s resolve, Mom was poorly mistaken.

  “What happened? Tell me everything, Mother.”

  “Do you really need the details?”

  Well yeah. Rachel couldn’t just stuff the piece of paper away, like Mom and Dad had done, and forget it ever existed. Everything had changed. “What do you think?”

  Her mother sighed and looked to Dad.

  So much of Rachel’s childhood now made sense. The whispers when she hovered outside the room and listened. The interrupted conversations whenever she appeared. They’d had no intention of ever telling her… and she’d still be in the dark if she hadn’t gone digging.

  Mom wrung her hands and stared at the tablecloth. Couldn’t she even bother to give Rachel the courtesy of looking her in the eye? “I had a hard time after Joey’s birth. We didn’t have a lot of money and your father worked very long hours. I got lonely.”

  “That’s classic, Mother. You had three kids. You hardly had time to be lonely.”

  “I know you don’t understand now, but you will someday. My heart was missing something. Your dad and I fought a lot and I needed someone to listen to me.”

  Dad grimaced. “And then we separated.”

  What? Rachel’s parents had separated? They had the perfect marriage, well, except for Mom’s obvious cheating. They’d never given any clue their relationship was anything but perfect. Shoot, half the town pointed to the Bennetts as the ideal family. Boy, they’d sure fooled everyone.

  “And you had an affair.” Admit it, Mother, so we can find out way past this.

  “It wasn’t really an affair. But I did get involved with someone else while we were separated. I was so ashamed that I told your father as soon as it was over.”

  Rachel turned to Dad. “And you took her back?”

  Dad covered Mom’s shaking hands. This was all her fault and he still supported her? The one thing about Shane, he never cheated on Rachel.

  “I loved your mother. None of us are perfect… you included.” Dad had always had a kind word or a gentle rebuke when necessary, for everyone. He rarely raised his voice. He was more forgiving than Rachel was. That was probably why he’d forgiven Mom.

  “Then I found out I was pregnant.”

  So she wasn’t pregnant when they got back together. Maybe there was a chance. Tears welled in Rachel’s eyes. “So I could have been Daddy’s, right?”

  What she wouldn’t give for Dad to be her true father. Her hand slid to her neck, and she stroked the locket tucked beneath her shirt—the last thing she’d grabbed before she escaped the trailer. Inside the cheap metal trinket were Mom and Dad’s smiling faces. After finding her birth certificate, she’d stared at the picture of Dad for a long time. People always said she looked like him. This was her last glimmer of hope that everything had been one big mistake.

  “I’m sorry, honey.” Sympathy and pain filled Dad’s eyes. “I wish, with every fiber of my being. I really do. But your mother and I hadn’t, um… We hadn’t been together for a while.”

  Tears rolled down Rachel’s cheeks and she dropped her head to her hands. How could they do this to her? She couldn’t breathe. For a long time, she’d convinced herself the birth certificate she’d found was a mistake, a misprint, and that was why she had the other copy. But those few words from her mother stabbed her in the heart, the knife-like pain spreading through her body.

  Sawyer’s palm smoothed circles on her back. What went through his mind now? At least he hadn’t left.

  What did this mean for the family, now that the truth was confirmed? For her… her half-brothers. This secret had taken them away from her, too. She wasn’t just Dad’s stepdaughter, but she was Lucas
, Joey, and Michael’s half-sister. Would they love her the same? She didn’t love them any less because of it. Oh, God, what if they already knew and had been keeping this from her as well?

  “What about…”

  “No one else knows. Not even your brothers. What they are told is completely up to you.” Dad’s voice firmed. “You’re our child. End of story.”

  “Then why the two birth certificates?”

  “Your mother thought your biological father should have his name on the birth certificate, despite the fact we were back together.”

  The interloper, the cheater, the wife-stealer. Her real father. “So what happened to him?”

  “I don’t know, honey.” Finally, Mom looked Rachel in the eye. “About a year after you were born, I tracked him down. Your father and I had worked everything out, and your father wanted to adopt you.”

  God, this got worse by the minute. How much more of this did Rachel have to endure?

  “I asked him and he agreed to sign away his parental rights.”

  She’d been able to tell herself that the only reason she hadn’t met her real dad was because Mom had lied to him, too. That wasn’t true, either. “So he didn’t want me?”

  Sawyer’s arm tightened around Rachel’s shoulder. Thank goodness for his quiet strength. If not for him, she would have slid from her chair and hit the floor.

  “Oh, honey, of course he wanted you.” Mom’s voice was soft and calm like always, but Rachel had a hard time believing anything out of her mother’s mouth right now. “But he saw how happy you were. We’d never intended for our time together to be anything but brief. He wanted what was best for you.”

  “You are my daughter—in every way that matters,” her father added.

  “Then why didn’t you treat me like you did the boys?” There, she’d finally revealed her other concern. Her issue wasn’t just about having another father, but Mom and Dad treating Rachel different her entire life.

  “What do you mean by I treated you different?”

  “You never treated me like Lucas, Michael, and Joey. You went to their games, played catch and basketball with them in the yard. Why do you think I tried to join in? I wanted your attention.” Nothing she’d done had gotten Dad’s attention or his time.

  “I didn’t know you felt that way, honey.” Dad ran his hands through his hair, like her brothers did. What quirks had she inherited from her biological father?

  How could Dad not realize she’d felt ignored? How many times had she come crying into the kitchen because the boys were off doing something and excluding her? Mom’s answer had been to force Joey to play with Rachel. Never Dad. If only he’d shown a little bit of interest in something she’d liked.

  She hadn’t planned to bring this up. With her focus on her birth certificate, she hadn’t dared dig into the root of her issues, but now she had every intention of finishing what she’d started. “I did. My entire life.”

  Dad straightened, much like when he’d scolded her as a child. Sitting across from him, Rachel shrank to a little girl again, waiting for one of his lectures. “We didn’t mean to treat you different. No, that’s not right. We did treat you different. Because you were different people. We didn’t treat Michael like we treated Lucas, and the same goes for Joey. All four of you are unique, independent people, and we treated you the way we thought was best for each of you. Maybe we failed. I don’t know.”

  “You were also our only girl, honey,” her mother added. “After so many boys, we were thrilled to have a girl. Your room was painted pink for years and you had lots of frilly, lacy outfits. Maybe we treated you differently, but we didn’t love you any less. If anything, we may have loved you more, because you were our little girl… our baby.”

  Rachel’s voice caught in her throat. She’d been so caught up in Dad not being her father and questioning everything about her life, her judgement about her childhood had been clouded. Her brothers were all different, and her parents did treat them differently. Their curfews growing up were a classic example. Lucas never had a curfew because he didn’t need one—he came home when he was done with his activities. Michael, on the other hand, had a curfew… but he circled the block to make sure he didn’t come home one minute too early. Then there was Joey. Curfews had no meaning for him, and he never wore a watch. When he came home an hour late and said he’d lost track of time, his parents had no choice but to believe him, because that was who he was. Her parents hadn’t treated her brothers the same in that situation, because they each needed something different. Maybe what Mom and Dad said had merit. She just hadn’t thought of it that way.

  “I guess I felt out of place as the youngest and the only girl.”

  “But you were never a girly-girl. Not as far as we could tell. As soon as you could pick out your own clothes, you chose camo pants and boots. You crawled through the woods with Joey and went fishing at the pond. Maybe we didn’t know the right way to parent you. We didn’t treat you like the boys, because you weren’t a boy. But you weren’t a tea-party, dance-class girl, either.”

  Dad had a point. Rebelling had always gotten her parents’ attention, so she hadn’t hesitated to push the boundaries. Not horrible things, just little behaviors that gave her a bit of their focus and time.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I don’t have a good answer. The truth is, I don’t know.” Mom’s eyes were puffy from crying. “You weren’t any less a member of the family than the boys. After a while, we didn’t even think about your biological father. You were our fourth child and we loved you every bit as much as the others. Frankly, on a regular day, it slipped our mind.”

  Her father motioned to the paper. “When did you find out?”

  “I was digging through the attic a couple of years ago, looking for some of my high school notes for a college class. It was hidden in a trunk.”

  Her father sighed. “That’s when you started pulling away.”

  Of course. Rachel’s foundation had been shattered and her life started to spiral out of control. Shortly afterward, she met Shane.

  She lowered her gaze. “Yes.”

  “You should have talked to us. We didn’t mean to keep this secret from you. We would have explained everything then.”

  Maybe so, but she’d been young, ready to take on the world, and finding her birth certificate had been an excuse to pull away. “I felt so betrayed. I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

  “I understand. I’m sure you did.” Mom’s words now soothed her racing heart as they hadn’t just a few minutes ago.

  Rachel didn’t have anything else to say. She’d gotten the answers she’d come for. Some good, some not. She didn’t have much left in her tank. Her head swam from all the information thrown at her.

  She squeezed Sawyer’s hand. He hadn’t moved the entire time. This secret affected him, too. He’d spent a lot of time at their house growing up, since his own parents had died. He loved her parents like his own. What did this do to him?

  He lowered his head to hers. Despite everything, a sense of peace filled her heart. Now that everything was out in the open, her family could find a way forward. There was an end to the turmoil that had plagued her since the day she’d found the envelope.

  “Did you have any other questions?” Dad asked. “Whatever you want to know, we’ll tell you.”

  “I appreciate it. I think I’ve heard all I can handle for now.”

  Mom came around the table and hugged Rachel, like the hugs they’d shared when she’d cried over a boy, or a mean girl, or a skinned knee. The hug said that Mom loved her, no matter what. That everything was going to be okay, even if Rachel hadn’t believed it at the time.

  “I know this is a lot to hear, honey. I’m so sorry we kept this secret and that it affected you so deeply. We love you.” After all these years of questioning everything about her family, love took on a new meaning. Dad loved her even though she wasn’t his biological child. Mom fought to keep the family together. Tho
se little things meant more than a piece of paper tucked in a trunk. It wasn’t the words that convinced her, but everything they had done her entire life to show her she was loved. Even if she hadn’t seen it at the time.

  Rachel sniffled and swiped her hand across her nose. “I love you, too, Mom. I’ve just been hurt for so long.”

  When Dad rounded the table, Sawyer scooted out of the way. Her parents sat on either side of her, the three of them together. Her family, no matter what names were on pieces of paper. The two people who had greeted her when she’d burst through the door after school, the ones who had encouraged her to dream big. “If we could take the hurt away from you, we would. Whatever you need, know we are always here for you. No matter what.”

  She leaned into him, like she had done lots of times growing up. He was “Daddy”, after all. Biological or not, he’d been the one she’d come home to every day. “I love you, Daddy.”

  The three of them cried for a few minutes longer. Eventually, Rachel sat straighter and swiped at her tears. “I think I’ve had enough crying for one day.”

  Sawyer eased behind Rachel. The heat from his hands resting on the back of her chair warmed her skin through the cotton of her T-shirt. He leaned close. “Are you ready to go?”

  She tilted her head back. “Yeah.”

  “Please, honey, call us this week and tell us how you’re doing.” Mom wrung her hands, but her eyes were clear as she locked her gaze on Rachel.

  “I will, Mom. I promise. I need a little time to process all this.”

  As Rachel stepped toward the door, Dad spoke to Sawyer. “You’ll look after her, take care of her, Sawyer?”

  “Always.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  SOMETHING PLAYED ON the television. Maybe a drama. Law and Order, Sawyer thought. He’d turned on the show an hour ago but hadn’t looked since then. He scraped his hand over his jaw. Rachel’s father wasn’t her biological father. Her mother had an affair. No wonder Rachel was upset.

  Her face had paled and her entire body trembled. He’d reached for her several times during the discussion. Once or twice he was afraid she was going to pass out, but she held her own and confronted her parents. Meanwhile, he sat by doing nothing, saying nothing. Holding her hand, stroking her back, was all he had to offer.