Page 118 of Finding Fate

“She’s mine?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since she was born with jet-black hair. Then I had it confirmed. When her eyes changed it was obvious. They look exactly like yours, Gabrielle’s, and your father’s. She’s fifteen and her hair is still black. It’s never lightened.”

“You’ve kept my kid from me?”

“Haven’t you kept mine from me?”

“I did not. I told you that you weren’t taking her from me. I never said you couldn’t be in the picture. You made that choice on your own.”

“I was ashamed of what I’d done. I didn’t want to have to explain to her that her sister had a different father. Once I knew, I didn’t think she’d want me to come back. There’s no denying it. Her sister looks more like you than she does.”

“How would you know what Gabrielle looks like? You haven’t seen her in sixteen years?” I bite into the phone. “You left her without a mother.”

“And her sister hasn’t had a father. Did you call to belittle me or was there actually a reason?”

“I called to tell you she’s getting married. I’ve tried to be the mother and father for her, but this once I’m out of my league. I can’t fill that role the way a girl’s mother can. This once, I’m putting what I think is best aside and giving you the opportunity to put her first, because while you’re letting our current fifteen-year-old talk shitty to you, which you know I wouldn’t put up with, your oldest daughter was giving birth at that age without her mom to help her through it. One needs a mother, the other needs a father. What do you suppose we do about that?”

She sniffles. “We’re grandparents?”

“I’m a grandparent. You have to earn that title. He’s six, and up until recently he’s been with my parents since he was born.”

“Jesus, Adonis. Why would you wait sixteen years to call?”

I turn and walk back to my desk, stopping at the corner. I grab the picture frame turned away from me and look at it. It was Gabrielle and me when I took her to Switzerland. We used to take trips often. It was my way to make up for the fact that she didn’t have a mother when I also had a busy work schedule. A time when she had all my attention. She’d rattle on for hours over her excitement, and even though by the end I couldn’t recall everything she’d said, it made me happy to do things with her. She used to tell me she hated her mother for leaving us. I’d always correct her for it. And to think that one of my kids possibly feels that way about me when I wasn’t at fault for a shattered marriage makes me sick.

I miss that smile on her face. I finally saw it when I gave Madden back to her. And again when I gave her my blessing to marry Maddox. “Maybe the same reason you would move to Brookhaven and not contact your daughter. Or pick up the phone any time over the past fifteen goddamn years to tell me I have another one.”

“I was transferred here by my company when Ana was ten. I’ve thought about it. Ana asks about her a lot. But after all this time I didn’t know if it would benefit her or hurt her for me to come back into her life. You have one and I have the other. I just want what’s best for them.”

I hate myself for wanting to know. “Are you seeing anyone?”

“Why would I be seeing someone if I won’t sign the divorce papers? I lost the appeal for that when it cost me my family. You’re the last man I’ve been with like that.”

I glance down at Gabrielle in the photo again and smile. She went against me at every turn to love who she wanted to. Fought me any way she could, and in the end, she gave me an ultimatum. Let her be herself with the man she loves or get out of her life altogether. I would have never thought I’d learn a thing or two about love from my twenty-one-year-old daughter. “I still love you too.”

She cries into the phone. “You do?”

“Yeah, Mary Elizabeth, I do.

“What now then?”

“You come home and be my wife and we become the parents we should have always been to our daughters. The ones that aren’t bitter over a failed marriage. And you never step out on me again, just like I never stepped out on you. My offer is only good once. I’m tired of having a broken family.”

“I want to come home,” she says without any hesitation.

“Then send me the address and start packing. I’m coming to get you.”

I disconnect the call and pocket my phone, hurrying to grab my jacket and keys. The only thing that makes me nervous—Gabrielle’s reaction. She’s had sixteen years to funnel hatred into someone that didn’t come back for her when she was raised to never turn your back on family, and she’s going to come back from Lake Tahoe to discover she has a fifteen-year-old sister. I know my daughter. She easily forgives those she loves who are there for her, despite what’s done to her, but those that have wronged her without reason get nothing but a cold stare into the dark Thanos eyes that no one forgets. I guess we’ll see. She’s the one that taught me we love who we love and it’s going to find a way to work if it’s meant to be.