Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Mor met my gaze again. “Aren’t you curious about her?”
“I did a little digging when I was your age,” I admitted, because I hadn’t told anyone about it. Not even Lewis. “I found out what her parents did for a living. Her parents died not long after Francine died. She didn’t have any siblings. There was very little information, to be honest. The rest I got from Dad when I was a kid. That Francine died of an aneurysm in her sleep. That they were university sweethearts. That they were in love. I guess that’s all I need to know.”
I felt sad about it. For her. That she’d missed so much. That I didn’t get a chance to know this person who made up half of my DNA. To know if there were reasons I was the way I was or if it was all nature or all Adair. I felt horrified for Dad and how it must have been to wake up to find her gone. I knew that must have scarred him forever.
But I also knew that Francine wasn’t the love of his life. Not that Dad had ever said so. He’d loved her, yes. He’d grieved her.
I knew firsthand that Dad was madly, desperately in love with Regan. I’d watched it happen as a child when she came into our lives as our aunt Robyn’s sister and then as our nanny.
For years, I’d secretly longed to find someone who would look at me the way my dad looked at Mum.
I grew up in a house with so much love, and I guess that’s all I needed to know.
“That’s it?” Mor asked. Her voice shook a bit.
Suspicion flickered through me. “Mor … do you know something?”
“I… I overheard something. And I thought maybe Lewis would have told you. Maybe he did and you don’t want to mention it to me.” Her expression was hopeful.
My stomach, however, was in knots. “Lewis hasn’t told me anything about our birth mother.”
Mor looked like she wanted the floor to open and swallow her. “I … I think this is something you should know, but I don’t want you to hate me for telling you.”
I grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I could never hate you.”
She nodded, biting her lip. After a few very long seconds, she spoke again. “I overheard Mum and Dad talking last year. Dad was telling Mum that he had a chat with Lewis about your birth mum. That he’d told Lewis the truth about Francine.”
Blood whooshed in my ears. “What truth?”
“That … that … well … there was some man who hurt you when you were a kid. Tried to take you.”
Sean McClintock.
Even though I was young when it happened, it had been so traumatizing I’d never forget it. Or his name. The same year Mum’s ex-friend tied us up in the annex, another man tried to kidnap me from school. Sean McClintock. Whenever I think back on that year, I’m amazed at my resilience as a child. Because that shit was fucked up.
And the man who’d come for me … Dad told me I looked like Sean’s daughter who’d died and he was a grieving widow and father who’d mistaken me for his lost child.
I’d tried to feel sympathy, but I’d watched him beat and punch at my mum while she protected me with her body, so it was difficult to feel anything but anger toward him.
“What about him?”
“He … he had an affair with your birth mum. They were teachers together.” Mor’s face paled as I reared in shock. “He tried to take you after his wife and kid died because he thought you were actually his.”
A crushing sensation on my chest made me gasp for breath. I wasn’t an Adair? I wasn’t Dad’s?
“You aren’t his!” Mor reached for me. “Eilidh, I heard Dad tell Lewis he got a DNA test. You’re Dad’s.”
Relief tore through me so rapidly, the emotional roller coaster so swift and volatile, I burst into tears.
“Oh, Eils, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No,” I sobbed. “Y-you sh-should h-have.” But that wasn’t true. The person who should have told me was my father. Or fucking Lewis! They’d kept this from me. My birth mother cheated on my dad with the man who attempted to kidnap me as a wee girl!
Through my tears, I saw Mor crying. I reached for her, pulling her into my arms. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“I’m s-sorry.” She hiccupped.
Soothing a hand over her back, I pressed a kiss to her temple, my tears miraculously settling at the sight of my sister’s. “Don’t be. Don’t be, sweetie. I’m okay. Please don’t cry.”
“I’m going to get in so much trouble for telling you. For eavesdropping.”
“No, you won’t. I’m not going to tell anyone.” Resentment flickered through me. Toward my dad. My brother. I didn’t understand why Dad would tell Lewis and not me. Lewis wasn’t the one Sean had come after. Or the one Dad had to get a DNA test for. Why would they hide this? “It’s our secret,” I promised her. “I won’t say a thing.”