by Debbie Mason
“I fully understood the consequences of my actions and was willing to take the risk to protect you, Olivia. So in my book, that means you owe me.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any cash on me. Will a check do?”
He wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or serious. Either way, he wasn’t impressed. “That’s the thing about you rich girls—you think you can buy your way out of anything.”
“If only that were true,” she said quietly, and he realized she was probably referring to her husband and son.
He didn’t want to think about that now or he’d be tempted to give her a pass. Instead, he planned to use this to his advantage. So he pretended he didn’t hear her. “Well not this time, Princess. I—”
“Princess?” She gave him an irritated look. “You obviously have a problem with people, or more precisely, women, who have money. I don’t know what she did to you…Honestly, I don’t care. But I’m not her. You don’t have a clue about who I am. If you did, you’d know I have never, not once in my life, acted like a princess.”
Since Amber had done a number on him, she hit a little too close to the mark. “Defensive much? It’s just a nickname. Who said it had anything to do with the size of your investment portfolio or how you live? You’re the one who jumped to that conclusion.” He glanced at her. She looked out the window, moving the ice pack back to her red and puffy cheek. “Okay, Sweet Cheeks, here’s the deal.”
She slowly turned her head, a flicker of amusement crossing what he could see of her face. It was replaced with more than a flicker of annoyance when he continued. “You go into treatment. Ideally, I’d like to see you in inpatient care for six weeks, but I’ll settle for you seeing an addiction therapist three times a week.”
“You’ll settle…You want…” Her jaw was clamped so tight that he didn’t know how she managed to squeeze out the words. “You are the most maddening man I’ve ever met. How many times do I have to tell you I’m not addicted to prescription drugs? I do not have a problem. I take that back. I have problems, several of them, one of which is you.”
“Denial. Classic. That’s you, Sweet Cheeks. The classic picture of an addict in denial,” he said as he drove past the open wrought-iron gates and under the stone arch leading into the Gallagher estate. “And you’re apparently suffering from blackouts too because, not more than two hours ago, you were about to buy a bag of opioids from a dealer on the dock.” He waited for a reaction, prepared to catch a flying ice pack if she completely lost control. Though he got the impression that she rarely lost her temper, especially to that degree. So he probably shouldn’t have been surprised when she went completely silent and stared straight ahead. But this felt different, off.
He turned into the parking space at the far end of the lot that faced the side of the manor. He assumed the spot was Olivia’s because he’d seen her car parked there before. Unlike its owner, the Lexus wasn’t the type of vehicle that faded into the background.
He turned off the engine, shifting in the seat to face her. At some point, she’d lowered the ice pack to her lap. Her face, other than her cheek, was completely devoid of color. He winced. “I’m sorry, Olivia. I went too far. In my defense, I’m worried about you.” She didn’t move. It was like the other day at the lighthouse. He wondered if the CT scan had missed something.
He gently cupped her cheek and turned her to face him. Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, a whimper coming from deep in her throat.
Afraid she was going into shock, he drew her into his arms and rubbed her back. “I need you to talk to me, Olivia, okay? Tell me what’s going on. Tell me what you’re feeling.”
“She’s here. He brought her here,” she whispered against his neck.
“Who’s here? Who brought who here?” He looked around. There was an older couple walking down the path to the parking lot, a guy with binoculars coming up from the beach, and a stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair and a goatee unloading luggage from a silver Audi with a little dark-haired girl standing at his side.
“Stanley brought her. Stanley brought Nathan’s daughter here.” She pulled away, looking trapped and panicked. “I can’t do it. Nathan named me her guardian, but I can’t do it. It’s not fair that he would ask me to take in the child he had with another woman while he was married to me. It’s not.”
Between the way her voice was breaking and how the words were running into each other, Finn was sure he’d misunderstood. There’s no way she could have said what he thought she did. He put his hands on her shoulders. “Liv, you have to calm down and talk to me. Maybe I can help if I understand what’s going on, okay?”
She cast a covert glance over her shoulder. “Do you think he saw me?”
He thought about what she said and guessed. “The stocky guy getting luggage out of the silver Audi?” She gave him a jerky nod. “No, he’s crouched down talking to the little girl. Is that Stanley?”
“Yes, he’s my late husband’s attorney. He and Nathan were very close. He knew all about his affair. Every sordid detail.” She looked down at her hands and then raised her gaze. “My husband was a bigamist. He married a woman, another doctor, when he was still married to me. They had a daughter together. She’ll be six in November. Her name’s Georgina.”
“My God, I’m sorry, Liv. That’s unbelievable. What an asshole. And you’re saying he named you as his daughter’s guardian?”
“Yes, her mother has been missing for six weeks and is presumed dead. She was working in a village in Kenya. That’s where she and Nathan met. They were with the International Red Cross. Stanley flew to Kenya. And given that he’s here, that means Nathan’s wife didn’t leave a will or have friends or family who would take Georgina. Stan…Stanley said if that turned out to be the case, it’s only right that I…that I should honor Nathan’s request.”
“Yeah? Well Stanley sounds like an asshole too. Doesn’t Nathan have any family who can take the little girl?”
“His parents are older. They were devastated when they lost him and, Stanley tells me, deeply ashamed when they learned he had another wife and child. Stanley says he tried talking to them about Georgina’s situation, but they shut him down. The only interest Nathan’s younger brother showed was asking how much was in it for him. He’s single and in a band. Not the life for a child. Stanley believes that Nathan had his reasons for choosing me.”
“And what do you believe?”
“That any minute now, I’ll wake up. None of it makes sense. I don’t know why or how Nathan could do this to me. It’s like he’s reaching out from the grave to punish me one more time. Like he didn’t do enough to hurt me.”
“So this is why you haven’t been sleeping and the reason for the panic attacks and self-medicating?” At her reluctant nod, he said, “You should have told me. You should have told someone. This isn’t a situation you had to deal with on you own, Liv. You have friends here. People who care about you.”
“I know. But if I didn’t talk about it, I could sometimes convince myself it never happened. I didn’t want to be that woman. I didn’t want my life to have been a lie.”
“Sunday, today for that matter, could have turned out differently. You could have wound up in serious trouble because you didn’t open up to your friends. From now on, I want you to promise that you’ll talk to Soph, Ava, or Lexi if you start feeling like you’re in over your head. Okay?”
“I’m in over my head, Finn. I can’t do this,” she whispered, her eyes swimming in tears.
As he gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze, he got a sense someone was looking at them and glanced over his shoulder. The lawyer must have recognized Liv’s car. He was walking their way with the little girl’s hand in his.
The kid was adorable with a tumble of short, curly dark hair. She wore a Red Sox T-shirt and jeans and a pair of light-up red sneakers. As though she sensed him looking at her, she met his gaze straight on. Her big, bright blue eyes were awash with hurt and fear, but there was a proud jut to her sma
ll, pointed chin. His heart ached both for the little girl and the woman beside him. Neither deserved to be put in the position they were in.
He turned back to Olivia. “In your place, I don’t know what I’d do. You have every right to be angry and hurt. What your husband did to you, the position he’s put you in, is indefensible. But that little girl doesn’t deserve to be punished because her dad was a loser and an asshole. She’s lost both her parents within the space of a year and was taken away from her home by a man she probably doesn’t even know. She needs someone to make her feel safe and loved.”
“I don’t think I can do it.”
“I think you can.” But as he spoke the words aloud, he felt a flicker of doubt, a sense of unease. What if she couldn’t? What if this was the thing that finally broke her?
Chapter Eight
It felt like Olivia was in a made-for-TV movie with the family lawyer preparing to hand off his late client’s child in the shadow of a nineteenth-century castle. A Gothic, haunting soundtrack played in her mind as she forced herself to greet Stanley and look at her husband’s daughter for the first time.
The music screeched to a halt in her head, and her knees buckled. It was like looking at a five-year-old version of Cooper, only Georgina’s skin was sun-kissed and glowed with good health. Her little body was sturdy and strong and…Oh, God, she had on one of Cooper’s T-shirts. What was Stanley thinking? Olivia opened her mouth to ask him how he could be so cruel but the words were blocked in her throat by a thick ball of paralyzing rage.
“Just breathe. I’ll help you get through this, I promise,” Finn murmured as he reached her side. He put an arm around her shoulders before extending a hand to Stanley. “Hi. Finn Gallagher. You’ll have to give Liv a minute. She had a run-in with a tennis ball, and it’s taking her a little longer to recover than I expected.”
“Should she see a doctor?” Stanley asked, looking from Finn to Olivia, his brow furrowed.
“She has seen one, me. She’s had a CT scan too.” He angled his head to look at her. “You up for this?”
Less than ten minutes ago, she’d been as furious at Finn as she was at herself and tempted to throw the ice pack at him. Now he was the handsome white knight riding to her rescue. Or at the very least, the man who’d saved her from breaking down in front of a parentless child who had been taken from the only home she’d ever known.
“Yes, I’m good. Thank you.” She hoped he could tell just how grateful she was from her smile because right now she had to say something to the little girl who was the spitting image of the child she adored and the man she’d come to despise.
Finn must have decided she wasn’t quite as good as she claimed to be, because instead of letting her speak, he smiled at the little girl. “Jambo, Georgina.”
Nathan’s daughter’s narrow shoulders dropped from where they’d been attached to her ears, and a look of relief came over her face. “Shikamo.”
“I’m not that old.” Finn laughed at her use of the respectful form of hello in Swahili that was used to address the elderly and then glanced from Stanley to Olivia. “Why don’t I take Georgina down to the beach and show her around while you two talk?”
“I don’t know, Finn. That’s a lot of stress to put on your leg.” She forced a smile for the little girl. “Besides, Georgina and I haven’t had a chance to get to—”
The little girl cut Olivia off with an irritated look that was markedly similar to the one Finn also gave her, and then she raised her small chin. “My name’s George,” she said in a husky voice, and then looked up at Finn. “Nenda ufukwen. Tafadhali.”
“Kidogo tu. I only speak a little Swahili, George. I understand tafadhali, please, so I take it you want to go to the beach?”
“Tafadhali.” She nodded, giving Finn a winsome smile. She was missing her two bottom teeth.
He held out his hand and smiled when the little girl took it and then raised an eyebrow at Olivia as though asking if she was okay. Despite wishing she was the one holding his hand and heading to the beach, she smiled and nodded.
“You didn’t mention you had someone in your life, Livy. I’m happy for you. Fortuitous that he speaks Swahili and Georgina seems to like him. It should help with—”
She drew her gaze from Finn and Nathan’s daughter as they took the path to the beach. “Finn and I aren’t dating, Stanley. He’s my…friend.” She’d been about to say doctor, but thought friend would avoid unwanted questions. And going out of his way like Finn had done made it feel like he might just be one. “Finn’s with DWB. He’s been in the Congo for the past few years.” Which explained his knowledge of Swahili, although French was the primary language spoken there.
“Ah, I see.” Despite his neutral tone of voice, he undoubtedly was surprised by her friendship with Finn because of Olivia’s rather well-documented criticism of doctors who left their families to work abroad. Over the years, Nathan had shared her letters, texts, and e-mails with Stanley. Something else she hadn’t known until everything came out that rainy night last September.
Stanley had used them to defend Nathan. In Stanley’s opinion, they were evidence as to why her husband had strayed. He’d found comfort in the arms of a woman who understood and appreciated him. A woman who shared his passion.
Both men felt Olivia had been unsupportive of Nathan. She’d been too demanding, expecting him to fly home any time Cooper’s blood counts were low or their son was having another experimental treatment or Olivia was scared or just plain lonely.
In her husband’s eyes, she’d been the nagging shrew while he was the unappreciated heroic husband off saving the unfortunates of the world. He didn’t have time for Olivia and Cooper. She was wealthy. Whatever they needed, she could buy. But Nathan was wrong because all the money in the world couldn’t save their son.
And now, after everything Nathan had done, after every humiliating and demoralizing accusation Stanley had made, Olivia was supposed to do as she was told without complaint or question.
“I’m glad you see, Stanley. I wish I did. I wish I understood why a man who hated me and thought I was a horrible mother left me his child.” Stanley’s face blurred as tears filled her eyes, and she poked him in the chest. “How dare you dress her in my son’s T-shirt. That’s beyond cruel, even for you.”
“Livy, I swear to you, I didn’t do it to hurt you. I tried to get her to change, but it’s like her security blanket. When I arrived at the village, she had on a Sox T-shirt and a ball cap. You know how much Nathan loved the Sox. He must have—”
“Passed that on to her like he did his son? Yes, I’m sure he did. Unlike his son, he probably played ball with her. Remember how Cooper would beg for Nathan to play catch with him, Stanley?”
“Livy, don’t, don’t do this. Cooper wasn’t strong enough. Nate was just overprotective. He didn’t want him to get hurt. It killed him to see the kid suffering. You know that. You’ve gotta believe that.”
“If Nathan truly cared about his son’s feelings, he would have stayed home. He would have accepted the offer from Massachusetts General. He knew Cooper didn’t have much time left and still he got on that plane. It makes sense now. We’d been replaced a long time ago. By the little girl he’s left in my care. Tell me, Stanley, does that not strike you as odd?”
“You’re so bitter, Livy. I thought by now…Sorry.” He held up his hand. “That was insensitive. I know what I’m asking of you. What Nathan is asking of you. But she’s a sweet kid, smart and funny, and she’s lost so much. If I could take her, I would. But she needs a mother. She needs you, Livy. And maybe you need her?”
He didn’t understand what he was asking of her, not really. No one did. She crossed her arms and looked away. Was it even fair to Georgina to take her? Would she ever be able to look at the little girl without seeing Nathan and Cooper?
“I think that’s why he named you as her guardian, Livy. I think he’d come to regret what he did to you and Cooper. Maybe he saw her as your second chance. His w
ay of trying to make up for all you’ve lost.”
“You can’t replace one child with another. Cooper’s irreplaceable. And it’s certainly not a burden you place on a child. Georgina is not a pawn or a peace offering or a bribe. I wonder what her mother would have thought. But none of this makes sense unless you’re telling me Nathan developed a latent psychic ability and foretold his own death.”
“No, but he began to talk about his own mortality. After Cooper died, Nathan developed breathing problems. It worried him. Isabella diagnosed it as a panic disorder, but he thought it was his heart.”
“But why me? You out of anyone knows how he felt about me, Stanley.” She gave a brittle laugh. “Better than I did, it seems.”
“He loved you, Livy. No, don’t roll your eyes; you know he did. Everything changed when Cooper got sick. He couldn’t handle it. You saw it yourself. At the hospital. Something like that either brings a couple closer or tears them apart.
“Do you remember when he came home that last time? It was about three months before he died, I think. In June. He stayed for a couple of weeks. He talked a lot about that visit. About you. He had a lot of regrets. He…he was going to leave Isabella and come home to you, Livy. I don’t know, but I’ve always suspected he’d left her and was on his way back that afternoon in September. In some ways I think I blamed you for his death. I didn’t handle it well. The way I broke the news to you wasn’t right. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, especially not that night.”
“No, I didn’t,” she whispered, turning to wipe her eyes. She caught sight of Finn and Georgina coming up from the beach and turned back to Stanley. He had a hankie out, dabbing at his eyes. “I’m going to take Georgina, Stanley. Not because you think I owe it to Nathan to honor his request or because you think she’s my second chance. I’m doing it for Cooper. My son would want me to look after his little sister, so that’s what I’ll do.”
