Pride was swelling in her heart and in her voice. She was just getting started. “My mother is a cellist. My father a retired pilot. I have two nephews and two nieces who are my life.” Why she needed to be in Ruth’s kitchen to understand the perfect life she had, she wasn’t sure.
Ruth turned toward her. “You sound happy.”
“I was. I mean I am.” Hope reached for her purse next to her chair. “I should go.”
“Hope, I’m glad Mandy gave you to your family. She couldn’t have given you a life like you had. It makes me happy to know my granddaughters were taken care of. Your father is an amazing man.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for stopping by and meeting me. I feel like I might have closure now.”
Hope watched Ruth’s face soften. She needed to walk out of the house and keep walking. She needed to say goodbye to Ruth Marlow and leave it at that.
But she didn’t. “Would you like to meet Carissa and her children? Your great-grandchildren.”
Ruth’s lips tightened as she warded off tears Hope could see already welling in her eyes.
“I’m sure you don’t need me in your life. Your sister has been long removed from Mandy’s neglect.”
“You’re not Mandy’s neglect. You obviously were a victim of her neglect too. I am your granddaughter. You should have had the pleasure of having your family back. I’m offering that to you. If you want it, that is.”
Ruth brushed her tears away from her cheeks. “It’s been a very long time since I had any family. I would love to get to know you and your sister.”
Hope smiled as part of that hole she’d needed to mend began to heal. Mandy had hurt too many people, and now they could heal each other.
Having not walked away from Ruth Marlow, Hope drove to the hospital, realizing she had to meet Donald Buchanan. She’d come that far, and she had to follow through.
Her knees shook as she stepped off the floor to the ICU. She waited by the desk for someone to guide her to the right area.
A nurse with a sweet smile and a blonde ponytail that swung when she walked spotted her first.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Donald Buchanan.”
The nurse tightened her lips. “Only family. I’m sorry.”
Hope nodded and sucked in a deep breath. “I’m his daughter.” The words were out, but they felt foul.
“Oh.” The nurse’s eyes widened and she smiled. “I met your brothers last week. Handsome.”
A lump formed in her throat. Hope swallowed it and managed a smile. Brothers. That was a lot to take in.
“He’s right back here if you want to follow me.” Hope fell in next to the nurse. “His wife hasn’t been in to see him all week. Your brothers said she’s a nasty thing. I understand that. I have a stepmother too.” Then as though she’d said something wrong, the nurse snapped her head toward Hope with horror in her eyes. “Oh, dear! His wife isn’t your mother, is she?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness. I have a tendency to talk too much.” She pushed back a curtain. “Here you go. He’s in and out of consciousness. So he might not be too responsive.”
“Thank you,” Hope said, trying to keep her voice even so the woman wouldn’t know this was the first time she’d laid eyes on the man.
“You holler if you need anything.”
“I will.”
The nurse slid out of the small room and Hope stood at the door and stared. He was old. Old and very frail. His hair was snow white and his skin pale, almost transparent. Monitors to his side kept his stats and a tube of oxygen in his nose gave him breath.
This was not her father, and upon looking at him, she felt that surge through her like a spike of electricity. She needed to turn away, call David, and apologize for making the journey.
“Mandy.” The sound was weak and airy, but she realized it came from the frail man in the bed. “Mandy.”
Hope’s lips trembled, and her heart rate kicked up when she noticed the man was staring up at her. She willed her feet to move her closer, and his shaking hand reached for her.
“Mandy, you came back.” He even managed a smile and it broke Hope’s heart. She took his outreached hand in her own.
“My name is Hope.”
“Hope.” A tear slid from his eye and a sliver of a smile crossed his dry, cracked lips. “Our daughter.”
That shook Hope down to her core. He knew who she was.
“You know me?”
He gave the very slightest nod.
“I thought you didn’t know who I was.” Now the tears threatened her eyes. “I thought she hid me from you.”
“She did,” he said weakly. “That man found you for me.”
“That man? You had someone find me?”
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, Hope was sure she saw clarity in them. It was almost as if her holding his hand was giving him strength.
“I only found out about you.” He was quiet a moment as he drew in an extra breath, then continued. “I couldn’t let my wife find out.”
“Why?” She wiped at the tears that now fell freely.
“I gave Mandy what was hers.” He paused again. “She deserved what her father had left her.”
“The stocks?”
He only nodded.
“She didn’t tell you she had your child?”
He shook his head and there was a sadness that filled his drawn face. “I was married. But I was in love with Mandy.”
In all her life, she’d never heard someone speak as fondly of Mandy as Donald Buchanan did.
“So you found me?” Hope sniffed back tears, trying to compose herself.
Donald nodded weakly again. “Jacobs.”
Hope’s mouth dropped open and her racing heart plunged into her stomach. “You sent Trevor Jacobs to find me?”
He nodded.
“You paid him to find me for you?”
“It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it.” He smiled up at her and she tried to keep her calm, but it was fading fast. She’d never felt so betrayed in all of her life. Her knees wobbled beneath her and her free hand clenched at her side.
She had been sure that the journey to New York was going to prove that Mandy Marlow was a liar, a thief, and a cheat, and then she’d be able to put the woman behind her and move on with her life. She never would have guessed the man she’d given her heart too fit the bill as well.
Hope felt sick.
The curtain opened and the nurse stepped in. “Ma’am, I’m afraid you’ll have to go. Visitors can only stay for a few minutes.”
Hope looked down at her biological father. His eyes were filled with love. Did he see her or Mandy?
“Come back again,” he said softly.
She couldn’t say anything. She bent down, kissed his cold cheek, and left him, unsure whether she’d ever see him again.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The churning in Hope’s stomach only worsened when she heard Trevor’s voice.
“Hope! Hope, where are you?”
Violet’s voice was softer. “She’s packing.”
“She’s what?” He burst through the bedroom door. “There you are.”
There was an enormous grin on his face and he waved a sheaf of papers at her. It was as if he didn’t understand the implications of what she was doing.
“You’re father is a genius. A real genius.”
“Not news to me, pal.” She moved past him and tucked clothes into the suitcase, which lay open on the bed.
“He caught Delores Buchanan.”
Those words stopped her. She turned, and he held up the papers in his hand.
“She’s been arrested and so has her merry band of thieves.” He pulled her to him. “Your father, sister, and Thomas pulled her in, and she fell into their trap. Genius!”
“What are you talking about?” She deliberately took a step away from him.
“They set her up. They knew she’d go after Carissa next.
She knew you’d been to the bank and had the stocks. So Thomas and Carissa set up their house to be hit, and sure enough she had one of her people hit it. He was arrested while in the house and in order to lessen the charges he spilled. Oh, how he spilled.” He laughed. “I think your dad said he sang like a canary.”
“Too many movies.”
“Either way. She went to your shop looking for you like they thought she would, and that’s where they took her down. She’s out of your life and out of the way.”
“Fine.” She turned back to the suitcase and threw in another blouse.
“What are you doing?”
“Leaving1”
“What?” He grabbed her hand as she picked up another shirt. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Why don’t you tell me, you lying snake?”
Trevor stood before her, his eyes wide, his expression hurt.
“Oh, you’re good aren’t you? You play all the parts so well.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and threw in another blouse before turning toward him and dropping her hands in anger. “I met Donald Buchanan today.”
Trevor tipped his head back as if she’d slapped him in the face.
Hope pursed her lips. That was all she needed. “He paid you to find me. So you did. Wormed your way right into my heart and into my bed. What an idiot I am.”
“Hope.” He touched her shoulder, but she shook off his hand.
“You made me think I was hiring you to find him, but all along I was the prize. He sent you to find me.” She stopped and wiped at her eyes. He wasn’t worth the tears. “You lied to me from the minute I met you.”
“It’s not like that, Hope.”
“Liar!” She slammed closed the suitcase and zipped it up. “Did you know I have two brothers? Did you know that?”
“Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Did you talk to the blonde nurse?”
“Ye-e-e-es,” she said.
“Yeah, that would have been me and Bryce. Don’t worry.” He held up his hands. “We are not your brothers. We just needed to gain access to Buchanan.”
Hope shook her head. “You’re in so deep you can’t even tell the truth.”
She pulled the suitcase from the bed and it thudded to the floor. Fighting with the handle, she managed to pull it up and roll the case it to the door, but Trevor was faster.
“Listen, I deserve a moment to have you hear me out.”
“You don’t deserve anything from me.” She tried for the door, but he blocked her.
“Don’t walk out on me. I love you.”
“It doesn’t work anymore, Mr. Jacobs. You can’t lie your way into my heart and expect me to pool at your feet. I might be young and I might have been naive, but I’m not anymore. Get out of my way.”
Trevor moved closer to her with his head hung low. “Stay. Please Stay.”
There was a tapping on the door. “Hope’s taxi is here,” Violet softly said from the other side.
Hope reached for the door, and Trevor gently touched her hand. “He did hire me.”
It was enough truth to make Hope release the door, but she wouldn’t lift her eyes to look into his. She’d give him two minutes, but it wasn’t going to change anything.
Trevor shoved the paper he carried into his back pocket. “I was hired by Donald Buchanan to find Mandy Marlow. I did that. I found her in a cemetery in Kansas City. He was looking for her because he came into the knowledge that he had a daughter. You, Hope.”
She kept her eyes focused on the back of the door, but he continued.
“When you were born, Ruth got a letter from your great-grandmother Katie, telling her that Mandy had died and there was a baby. She thought it was a scam for money so she didn’t think much about it. Recently Delores Buchanan must have found out that Mandy died and she was looking for the payoff money she’d given her to disappear with the baby. Buchanan found out about you, but Delores has always known.”
“So what’s the payoff, Trevor? Do you get a cut? I’m worth what to you?”
“Hope, what happened between us is real. Yes, I was sent to find you and get to know you.”
Her head snapped up. He was making it worse than she could have imagined. “Get to know me. Well you certainly did, didn’t you?”
“Stay. Let me keep you safe until I know everything is behind us.”
“Right. Stay with the man who stalked me. Get out of my way, Trevor.”
She pushed past him and opened the door. Violet stood just a few feet away.
“Thank you for letting me stay, Mrs. Jacobs.” She walked past her and out the front door. The driver threw her suitcase into the trunk and she looked back only once to see Violet holding her son by the arm on the front porch.
Hope sank into the seat. She loved him and that hurt most of all. He lied to her and now she had to move on without him.
Trevor hit brick walls when he tried to contact Hope the week after she’d fled. Stupid caller ID. She wouldn’t answer his calls at her shop. When he had Bryce call from his cell phone, she hung up on him as soon as she realized who he was.
There was no luck reaching her through Carissa or Thomas, and he absolutely feared talking to David. Sophia had kind words, though she wouldn’t let him talk to Hope.
Violet set the mail on the counter and rested a large package against the cupboard as she walked in the kitchen. Her high heel shoes clicked on the tile floor.
“I figured I’d find you here,” she said, leaning against the counter and scanning a look over her son. “Have you sat here all day with your cell phone in your hand?”
“I’ve tried six times to get her to talk to me. I left six messages and she refuses to talk to me.” He dropped the phone and rested his elbows on the table. He tangled his fingers into his hair and held his head. “It’s been a week.”
“You were a jerk.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Really, how did you think this was going to end?”
“I didn’t expect to fall in love with her.”
Violet let out a sigh, walked to her son, and ran her hand over his hair, forcing him to drop his hands. “That’s when it always happens.”
She walked back to the package she’d set on the floor. “This came for you today.” She picked it up and looked at it. “It’s from Kansas City. That’s a positive sign, isn’t it?”
“No.” He huffed out a breath as he stood up and took it from her. “Sit down.”
Violet released her hold and sat down at the table.
“This was supposed to be for your birthday.”
“My birthday isn’t for a few weeks.”
“Exactly. We’d planned to bring it with us, but we decided to ship it.”
“We?” Violet raised her eyebrows.
“Hope and I.” He handed her the package and she held it upright on her lap. “I wanted this to be so much more. She should be here.” He waited for her to open it so he could see her expression.
“Oh, Trevor.” Her shoulders dropped, her eyes went soft, and her fingers pressed against her trembling lips.
She was touched, just as he knew she would be.
“You like it?”
“Love it. Love it!” She wiped a tear that rolled down her cheek. “Hope did this?”
“Yes.”
“I’m a good mother, you know. I did my homework and looked into her. Her record is clean.”
He let out a weak laugh. “I know.”
“But she does some very nice work. This, however…” She studied the painting closer. “This is beyond anything she shows on her website.”
“She painted it after I met her. From memory.” He sat down in the chair across the table. “When I walked through her shop the first time, it was there. It was only a drawing, but it was me.”
“She’s captured your very spirit in this painting. The light in your eyes, the subtle pout of your lips. She’s in love with you.” Her eyes shifted to his and calmed him just as his mother could always do.
“She might have been.”
“Still is. That’s why she won’t talk to you. You’re too embedded in her heart.”
“I miss her.”
“Things will come around. If it’s meant to be, it will all work out.”
He nodded, hoping she was right, and really, when wasn’t she? But it hurt. He’d never had pain that squeezed his heart and threatened to choke him like the pain of losing Hope did.
Bryce had managed to put the office back together after the break in. And with them both assuming Trevor wasn’t returning, he’d taken the bigger desk.
Trevor didn’t mind. Bryce’s desk looked out over the busy streets of New York, and it took his mind off the serenity of Kansas City.
He’d followed up on a few cases he’d left unfinished, but Bryce had been fairly efficient while he’d been gone.
He made a few phone calls to find out the status of Delores Buchanan’s arrest and holding. She wouldn’t be bothering Hope or her family ever again.
A smile crept across his lips. David and Thomas had never struck him as the PI type, but they just might come in handy someday. Well, that would be if he were to have cases in Kansas City again.
He tipped back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk. The lunch crowds were making their way into the streets and the hot dog cart on the corner already had a line.
“Hey.” Bryce broke the silence of the office. He stood in the doorway, both hands braced on the jambs. A look of worry curtained his expression.
Trevor dropped his feet and stood. “What’s up? You look spooked.”
Bryce sucked in a breath as he took a step inside the office. He dropped his shoulders, bit his lip, and shifted his eyes back to Trevor. “I thought you should know. Donald Buchanan passed away last night.”
Trevor felt his legs give out and he sat in the chair beneath him. He felt his throat closing up with tears. They weren’t for the man who had passed, but for the girl who had only just met him.
Bryce set a folded piece of paper on the desk. “His service is on Friday.”
Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Page 19
