The Unknown Daughter. Anna DeStefano
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Medical equipment surrounded his bed, beeping and whirring, creating a symphony of life support.
She’d thought hatred was all she’d feel when she saw Oliver Wilmington again. Yet what consumed her now was sadness and regret. He’d lost his wife to cancer when he was far too young. They’d both lost her mother. They’d been all the family either of them had left, yet the only way he’d been able to deal with her had been to control every aspect of her life. And she’d needed so much more.
“It’s not just your illness that’s brought you home after all these years, is it?” he asked. His eyes narrowed. “If you wanted to find your father, why not hire a detective?”
“Hiring a detective is my next step,” she explained. “But someone wandering around Oakwood asking a lot of questions might have made you suspicious. I came for the diary myself, hoping I could get in and out without you ever knowing I was here. I hadn’t planned on being even a blip on this insufferable town’s radar.”
“Oakwood is your home, Carrinne. This town and the people you’ve cut out of your life, they’re a part of you.”
“This place was never a home for me.” She gripped the bedrail. “You made sure of that. I’m back because I have no other choice. The question is, can you put someone else’s needs before your own for just once in your life? Tell me what you know about my mother’s last diary. Tell me who you think my father might be.”
With a look of grudging respect, Oliver pushed himself higher on the pillows. “It seems we’re at an impasse. We both want something very badly, something we can’t get without the other one’s help. I want to meet my great-grandchild, and you want to meet your father.”
“Do you know who my father is?”
“No.” He looked away. “I never could get your mother to tell me, and once she was gone… It just didn’t seem to matter.”
“It mattered to me. It always mattered to me. And you wouldn’t lift a finger to help me look for him. You forbade me from even trying, and now it may be too late. Mother’s diary is probably the only shot I’ve got.”
“Yes, Angelica’s diary.” He cleared his throat. “Brimsley mentioned that’s what you were looking for at the house. I told you when you were a child—I don’t know anything about her diary. She was sixteen years old when you were born. That seems a little old to be keeping a diary, I don’t care what your nanny said. What makes you so sure you can find it now, or that your father is even mentioned in it?”
“I’m not sure. But if there’s even the slightest chance it exists, I have to look.”
“I’d like to help.” A shocking warmth laced his statement. Compassion wasn’t the right word for the expression on his face, but there was something close to yearning there. Something she’d never seen before. Then his gaze hardened. “Provided…”
“Provided what?”
“I want to see my great-grandchild.”
She dropped her hands from the rail and stepped away to make sure she wasn’t close enough to wring his neck. “You don’t know how to do anything but control people, do you? You make them bend until they break, and you don’t even bat an eye. Not as long as you get what you want.”
“One man’s manipulation is another man’s just cause,” Oliver said in a pained whisper. Then he cleared his throat again. “I’m not asking you for anything that dire. Your child is a Wilmington. As your grandfather, I have a right to know him.”
Of course he’d assume his grandchild was a boy. The male heir to the great Wilmington legacy, no doubt. What did it say that a man of his power and influence hadn’t cared enough to bother finding out the gender of his only great-grandchild?
“This is the child you wanted destroyed,” she reminded him.
“That was a mistake.” A grimace of shame flashed across his face. “I’ve always regretted how I overreacted. After losing your mother the way I did, I was afraid something might happen to you, too…”
“If that’s your way of reminding me that it’s my fault my mother’s dead, don’t bother. You made it perfectly clear when I was a child how much you blamed me.”
“That’s not true. I never blamed—”
“Save it.” She held up her hand. “It doesn’t matter now.”
After a moment, he nodded. “You’re right. That’s all in the past. I made my share of mistakes, but haven’t I paid enough of a price? The child’s almost grown, and I’ve never seen him. Would it be so terrible, granting me this one request?”
It would be a disaster.
Maggie couldn’t come to Oakwood, not as long as Eric was here. Maggie thought her father was dead. Carrinne had charmed her with stories about how much he’d cared for them both, how he would have loved watching his daughter grow up. Maggie kept Carrinne’s only picture of Eric with her everywhere she went. She was the perfect female reflection of her father.
Carrinne had never dreamed they might one day meet.
“So, what will it be?” Oliver smiled. He was clearly enjoying his status as the only person Carrinne could turn to in town. “I’ll make sure you have unlimited use of the house, that you have anything you need as you search for your father. Whatever I can do. All I ask is this one small thing in return.”
“I’ll consider bringing her back—”
“Her? It’s a girl?”
“I’ll consider bringing her back.” She studied the parking deck below his window, making him wait. “But only after I find my father. Totally contingent on your cooperation while I’m here, as well as your silence.”
“My silence?” Her grandfather’s confusion lasted less than a second. “Ah. You mean about why you ran away.”
“Tell me you haven’t told anyone.”
“Why would I? It was a family matter.”
“You mean I was an embarrassment, and you were thankful no one had to know.”
“I mean I won’t have more of our family problems become fodder for small-town gossip. No one knows you were pregnant.”
“Good.” She took her first deep breath since seeing Eric last night. “I want to keep it that way.”
“I assume you’re worried about our illustrious Sheriff Rivers. It would prove inconvenient for him to find out about his child after all these years, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You made it my business. Everyone in Oakwood knew you were going with that young man. Skipping class together, sneaking out all hours of the night. To this day, I’ll never understand why you felt it necessary to pick the one person in town I thought was least suitable for you.”
“Not everything is about you.” She reached for her purse and slung the strap over her shoulder. “Do I have your word or not?”
“I get to see my great-granddaughter?”
“Help me with what I need, and I’ll find a way to make it happen.” Just how she’d make it happen while keeping Eric and Maggie apart, she had no idea. But that was a worry that could wait. There were so many others in line before it.
“Then you have my full support. Whatever I can do to help. Although, I don’t know anything more about your mother’s diaries than you do.” There was that look of almost longing again, the hint that there was something more he wanted to say. Then he gave a wry chuckle. “I’d offer you my liver, but I don’t suppose a wasted old body like mine would be much use to you.”
“No.” She swallowed the but thank you that almost slipped out. “The donor needs to be healthy, and