Ted knew Patricia was avoiding him. She had been for the last week or so. She no longer joined the group at dinner. She didn’t answer his calls. And she’d made it perfectly clear that he would never know if Donna, Livy, and Emily were his family.
Which was unacceptable. He didn’t want to upset anyone’s life, but he had to know. Had to.
But if he could never talk to Patricia, he didn’t know how that was going to happen. He didn’t want to be the person to tell Donna. Patricia should. But she’d made it abundantly clear that the secret would never come out. Even if he felt in his soul that Emily was a Cabot. It was so clear to him. How did other people not see it?
He’d started going to Parker’s every day with one excuse or another. Eating at the cafe and watching as Livy served the customers. Stopping by the shop and letting Donna help him find whatever item he thought was reasonable that he might be shopping for. He’d even had ice cream at the counter with Emily one day after school, and he could hardly stop staring at her and her curly red hair and flashing green eyes. The Cabot green eyes. She was truly a mirror image of Cassandra at that age. Especially when she pulled her hair up.
He looked around his suite in frustration and decided to go for a walk. He laughed, wondering if he’d end up at Parker’s yet again. He hadn’t been since his extension cord expedition yesterday.
He went downstairs and out the open doorway to the wide deck that stretched across the back of the main building. The deck was empty except for one lone figure sitting on a chair at the end of the deck.
Patricia.
Perfect timing.
He strode down the wooden planks and stood in front of her. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
She looked up at him. “There’s really nothing we have to say.” She jumped out of her chair and started walking away from him.
“We have to talk. I want to know. I deserve to know.” He hurried to keep pace with her and gently caught her arm.
She whirled around near the doorway and squared off with him. “No. No one can ever know. I’ve told you that. There is nothing to discuss.”
He stood with his back to the doorway and blocked her way inside. “No, we do have to talk.”
“Sh. Lower your voice. And I’ve got nothing to say.” Her eyes flashed in defiance.
“But Donna might be my daughter.” His temper rose along with the volume of his voice.
Suddenly the color drained from Patricia’s face, and she gasped, staring over his shoulder. He turned around to see what had caught her attention.
Donna stood there, her eyes wide and an incredulous look etched on her face. Like a child who’d just been told Santa Claus wasn’t real and her world as she knew it had exploded.
Donna reached to grab hold of the doorframe and stared at her mother and then at Ted. What had she just heard?
“Mother?” She couldn’t possibly have heard what she was certain she had heard.
“Donna, what are you doing here?” Her mother stood there, her back straight and ignoring her question.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping. Evelyn and I were just coming to see if you wanted to come over for brunch on Sunday. We haven’t seen you in a while. Evelyn stopped off to chat with the concierge. Eugene. Nice man. I’m sure she’ll be along in a minute.” Why was she rambling about details? “Anyway, I came out here, and I heard…” She turned to Ted. “I heard you say that I might be your daughter? I did hear that correctly, didn’t I?”
Ted nodded, and her mother threw him a murderous glare.
“But how?”
Her mother shook her head at Ted, commanding his silence without a word.
She rushed on. “I mean, I know how it could happen. The mechanics. But… Mother?”
“Sh, Donna. Lower your voice.”
“That’s what you want to say to me now? Lower my voice?”
“We don’t want people to hear you.” Patricia frowned and glanced around.
“You don’t want people to hear me?” Her voice got louder. “Hear me? Do you hear me? Are you going to answer my question?”
She sensed more than saw someone come up to her side and felt her sister’s arm encircle her waist.
“What’s going on?” Evelyn asked.
She glanced at Evelyn. “Ted here just asked Mother if I was his daughter.”
Evelyn gasped. “What?”
“Right. But Mother hasn’t given me an answer.”
“Maybe we should go somewhere quieter where we can be alone,” Ted said, staring at her as if memorizing every detail about her.
That was okay because she was staring back at him looking for any common features. Did she have his chin?
“No, we can talk here. Now,” Donna insisted. “I want to know the truth.”
“Ted is confused. That’s all.” Her mother shook her head, but a hint of fear clouded her eyes.
“Why would he think that I’m his daughter?”
Ted looked at her mother. “I’m sorry, Patricia.” He cleared his throat and turned back to her. “I saw… I saw Emily at the dance. She looked just like Cassandra did at that age. The red hair. There’s even something about her smile. And her green eyes.”
Donna stared at Ted. Her sister was staring at him, too. Those green eyes of his. So like Emily’s.
“It’s a Cabot thing. I have them. Cassandra has them. My grandfather had them.”
“But…” She looked from Ted—and his green eyes—back to her mother.
Her mother looked away.
“Tell me. Did you sleep with Ted? It would have to have been when you were married to Father.”
Her mother looked back at her but didn’t answer.
“You did, didn’t you? I mean, I know that Father cheated on you. It was so obvious once I was old enough to know what was going on. But I never thought that you…” Not that she really was judging her mother here. Her father had treated her horribly and had affair after affair. She never understood why her mother stayed with him.
But this thing with Ted. That surprised her.
And she deserved to know the truth.
“Mother, please answer me.”
Patricia drew herself up to her full height and in all the haughtiness that she was known for, she looked at Donna. “I really don’t know who your father is. Which one. Nelson or Ted. I just… never knew.”
“But—”
“And there is no reason to know now. No reason for needless gossip. Nelson considered you his daughter. Never questioned it. So there is no reason to find out the truth after all this time.”
“Oh, yes there is, Mother. There is. Because if Ted is my father… I want to know.” She turned to Ted. “Don’t you?”
“I do. I really want to know.” He reached out and took her hand. “Looking at Emily, I’m already ninety-five percent certain.”
She stood there clinging to his hand while the whole world she knew spun out of control around her.
“Evie?” She looked over at her sister, hoping for support, for… something.
“It’s going to be okay, Donna. It won’t change who you are.” Evie’s eyes shone with the sisterly support she so desperately needed.
Only… maybe her half-sister? Her world began spinning yet again.
She looked back at Ted—the man who might be her father. “So we’ll get tested to find out?”
“Yes. As soon as possible.” He squeezed her hand.
And suddenly, she wanted it to be true. Wanted this kind, wonderful man as her father. The test would tell her the truth.
But she needed to go clear her head. Needed… She wasn’t sure what she needed other than to get away from her mother.
“I… I think I’m going to go for a walk. I need some time alone.”
“I’ll go with you,” Evie said.
“No, I really want to be alone. Will you give Ted my phone number? And Ted, on Monday I’ll meet you at the clinic in town and we’ll have tests run?”
“I’d appreciate that. Yes. I’ll meet you.”
She gave one last long look at her mother and turned and headed down to the harbor walk. Thoughts swirled around in her mind and tears began to roll down her cheeks. She might not even be who she always thought she was. It was so much to take in.
Her mother was always about proper. Make sure there was no scandal. No gossip. Yet she’d had an affair. Donna simply could not reconcile the mother she knew with a woman who would have an affair.
About twenty minutes into her walk, Barry jogged up to her. “Hey.” He opened his arms, and she walked into his embrace. “Evelyn called me and told me what happened. It’s going to be okay.” He stroked her hair, holding her close.
“Everything I thought I knew is just… gone.”
“I’m not gone. You know I love you. I always will love you. Whether Nelson or Ted is your father. It doesn’t matter to me.” He kissed her forehead. “I know it matters to you, though. You want to know the truth.”
She pressed her cheek against his chest, drinking in his strength, letting his embrace slowly stop the whirling world around her. Monday. She and Ted would get their tests run on Monday. Then they’d just have to wait for the results.