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“They could have had her out of wedlock and got married later. Plenty of people do it.”
“True, but her mother had always lauded the fact that she’d had a whirlwind romance with Angelina’s father. They met and were married six months later.”
“Harmony’s good at math.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Did she tell her father?” Anne struggled for the proper phrase. “Her…unbiological father?”
“He was the first person she told. She went to him and asked him for the truth. He gave it to her straight.”
“Did he know your name?”
“No. Harmony found out who I was with a bit of investigative prowess. She picked through her mother’s diaries, journals, whatever.”
“Like father, like daughter,” Anne said wryly. “Sounds like she’d make for a good detective.”
Mark shrugged. “She’s sharp. And determined.”
“Maybe Angelina was sleeping with other men, too,” Anne said, her mind flicking back to Penny’s confusing little love triangle. “Have you considered the fact that Harmony might not be yours?”
“She is,” Mark said. “I agreed to a paternity test.”
Anne’s blood went cold. “When?”
“Shortly after she came to me.”
“And you never told me?” Anne’s hands twitched around her beer bottle, then stilled. “I’m your wife, and you never once thought to mention to me that you might have another child?”
“After the twins were born, you went on and on about how we couldn’t possibly have any more children. We couldn’t afford it, we had no more room in our home, we had no time.”
“Right. So you didn’t tell me this because I didn’t want to have another baby?” Anne let out an exasperated sigh. “News flash, Mark. The deed had already been done. Your logic makes no sense.”
“Put yourself in my shoes.”
“Believe me. I’m trying to.”
“As all of this was happening, I was in shock. Complete and utter shock,” Mark said. “Not only did I feel guilty about the timing of our initial relationship, but I felt guilty about Harmony. I’ve had a daughter walking around for eighteen years, and I never knew her. I’d never once thought about her, never attended a graduation or a ball game. Never paid a cent toward her upbringing. Never changed a diaper, kissed her forehead. All those things that we’ve done with Gretchen, Samuel, the twins… I missed out on that with Harmony through no fault of my own.”
“Some fault of your own.”
“Angelina never told me!”
“Never once?” Anne gave a skeptical frown. “She never once hinted that she was carrying your child?”
“I told you, we didn’t speak after the night I told you that I loved you. I honestly didn’t think about her after that weekend. She never tried to contact me.”
“Ah.”
“I know finances have been tight, especially paying for the twins’ daycare, the sports activities, the house repairs—everything hit us at the same time. So I tried to pick up extra shifts at work. I felt obligated to be a part of Harmony’s life when I found out about her.”
“How noble of you.”
Mark’s eyes flashed, but he didn’t take the bait. “The situation is complicated. Harmony’s father—the man who raised her—hated that she didn’t belong to him.”
Anne listened, processing. She was mesmerized to find that while she felt upset and shocked at Mark, she could still feel sympathy for Harmony. Anne pictured her own babies, thought of them being raised by a parent who held no love for them. It made her queasy. It brought back those three days when she’d walked out on her own family. Only she’d been granted the opportunity to walk back in, and she’d never forgotten the gift she’d been given.
“When Angelina died, her husband wanted nothing to do with Harmony. He kicked her out of the house and made it difficult for her to get what was rightly hers from the will.”
