Their New-Found Family

Tris drained his bottle and put it in the receptacle. Alain followed suit. “Not exactly. She thought I was phoning because you’d broken your promise to her.”

Alain’s head reared. His eyes looked suspiciously bright. “I wouldn’t have.”

He tousled his nephew’s hair. “I know that. What I don’t understand is why the directrice of the school didn’t tell me you’d phoned her wanting the same information?”

A resigned sigh escaped Alain’s lips. “Guy got it for me from the school receptionist.”

His nephew was not only determined, but resourceful. “So…now my assistant is in on this, too.”

“Yes, but he swore he would never say anything.”

“He kept his promise.” When Tris had phoned Guy for an update on business, his assistant had been mum on the subject of Alain.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No. I think I’m very lucky to have a nephew who would go to the lengths you did to help me remember my past.”

Alain’s relief was visible. “Ms. Marsden asked me to leave it alone.”

“Do you know why?”

“She said something kind of weird.”

“What was that?”

“I shouldn’t wake up a dog if it’s sleeping.” He cocked his head. “What did she mean?”

“Can’t you guess?”

His eyes squinted up at him. “Because it might make it mad for being bothered?”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“But you’re not mad.”

If only Alain knew… So many destructive emotions were bombarding Tris, he couldn’t put a name to them.

“Let’s just say that now I’ve talked to her, I’m anxious to meet her and clear up some questions I’ve had.” He put a hand on Alain’s shoulder. “Come on. The grandparents will be wondering what’s keeping us.”

“Wait—”

“What is it?”

“You were right about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You know how Rachel promised there’d never be anyone else for her but you?”

“I remember.”

“Well, she broke it just like you said she would.”

“You mean she’s married.”

“I guess she already told you. She has a daughter, too.” He kept on chatting. “Her name’s Natalie. She’s the one who answered the phone when I called.”

Tris felt the impact of his nephew’s words like the grenade that had exploded a little too near him during one of the mock raids.

Mon Dieu.

Ever since Alain had read him the note, he’d been plagued by a sense of unease where his relationship with Rachel Marsden had been concerned. Since speaking with Madame Soulis, he’d entertained certain suspicions.

After talking to Rachel, he was in no doubt.

He’d made her pregnant.

Why else had she been so desperate to keep things hushed up.

Was Natalie his flesh and blood?

Rachel could have had several children by now. If his child were alive, the eldest would be Tris’s son or daughter.

Then again, she might have given up their baby for adoption, or miscarried…or heaven forbid, ended her pregnancy. Whatever the answer, he could scarcely comprehend it.

“Uncle Tris? Are you all right?”

“Of course,” he lied. “I’m just anxious to leave for the States so I can meet Rachel Marsden and get filled in on my past.”

“I wish I could go with you.”

He grimaced. “I wish it were possible, but this is something I have to do alone.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re going to find out what happened. Maybe then your headaches will go away.”

Tris repressed a groan and hugged his nephew.

“I swear I’ll be back in time to take you camping tomorrow afternoon. For the time being, I’ll tell your grandparents some unexpected business has come up I have to deal with.”

“Okay.”

Before they went out to his parents’ car, he phoned his pilot in Geneva and told him to get the jet ready for takeoff.

CHAPTER THREE

BY THE time Natalie and Kendra came running out the doors of the ice rink to the car, Rachel was an emotional disaster.

“Hi, Mom!”

“Hi, Mrs. Marsden!”

Both girls put their bags in the trunk, then got in the back seat.

“How was practice?” Rachel asked as she drove out of the parking lot.

To her relief they regaled her with enough information that they were still talking about it when she pulled in Pearsolls’ driveway a few minutes later to let Kendra out.

Once she’d retrieved her bag and had run in the house, Rachel started up the car again. To her chagrin, her precocious daughter eyed her with concern. “What’s wrong, Mom? You’re so quiet. Is Nana sick or something?”

“No. This isn’t about your grandmother.” There was no easy way to broach the subject. Once they reached the street and merged with the traffic Rachel said, “Your father called me this morning after you left for Kendra’s house.”

Natalie stared at her incredulously. “On his own? I mean, Alain didn’t tell him to call?”

“No.” Rachel was still in shock. In fact she’d been in this condition all day, and had gone home from work early. “No one told him to do anything. He made it abundantly clear he was acting independent of his nephew.”

“Oh, Mom—”

“He’ll be in Concord tonight.”

“You’re kidding—” The joy in her daughter’s voice was beyond description. “Does he know about me?”

He knows.

“Not about you specifically, honey. He hung up before we could have a long conversation. But I can tell he suspects we had a child together, and he won’t rest until he discovers the truth for himself.

“That’s why he decided to fly here immediately. I told him to call the house this evening and I’d make arrangements to meet him tomorrow.”

“Why can’t we meet him tonight?”

“For one thing, it may be too late. For another, you and I need a little time to talk about this and what it’s going to mean.”

“What do we have to talk about?”

“I’m sure he’s married and has a family. Finding out he has a daughter will change his life as much as it’ll change yours.”

“Do you think he won’t love me as much as he loves his other kids?”

“Of course he will. But that’s not the point, honey. Meeting you is going to transform his world. And your existence will come as a huge surprise to his wife and children, not to mention his parents and his brother’s family.”

“But he’s my father, too!”

“Of course. The fact that he’s made the decision to see us as soon as possible means he does care. That sounds like the Tris I once knew, and it’s obvious to me he hasn’t changed in that regard even if that portion of his life is a blank. But we have to discuss how this is going to impact all of us.”

“You’re talking about visitation. I mean, if he wants to go on seeing me.”

“Yes.”

“You think he won’t?”

The tremor in her voice made Rachel want to reach over and crush her daughter to her, but she couldn’t do that until they arrived at the house.

“Honey? Right now he doesn’t know positively we had a baby together. That’s why he’s coming. To find out.

“I’m sure a lot of possibilities are going through his head. Before we make any assumptions, we have to wait until you two have met and we’ve talked this through.

“Don’t forget you and your father live on two different continents. The situation isn’t like your friend Molly’s. She can spend every other weekend at her dad’s house because it’s only a mile away from her mother’s.”

Natalie’s chin trembled. “You’re just saying these things because you don’t think he’s going to want a relationship with me, huh.”

Rachel pulled the car up in front of their townhouse and turned off the engine. Eyeing her daughter she said, “I’m your mom and love you more than life itself. I’m trying to be as honest with you as I can.

“The truth is, I don’t know what he’ll think when he finds out he has a child. My greatest concern is to keep you from being hurt, but it isn’t possible to shield you from everything.”

Her daughter’s pained expression was the last thing she saw before Natalie opened the passenger door. She grabbed her things from the back seat and ran inside the house.

After locking the car, Rachel followed, but her heart was so heavy she felt like her body weighed a thousand pounds.

The second she stepped in the living room, the house phone rang. She almost jumped out of her skin before hurrying into the kitchen to get it.

Natalie had beaten her to it. Her brows furrowed before she put her hand over the mouthpiece.

“It’s Steve,” she whispered. “He’s worried because you weren’t at work and haven’t been answering your cell phone. Please call him back on it. I want to keep our phone free in case my father calls.”

Rachel took the phone from her and apologized to Steve for not calling him earlier. She told him something important had come up and she would call him back in a little while on her cell phone.

Not two seconds after Rachel had replaced the receiver, it rang again. She picked up immediately, thinking maybe he’d tried to tell her something vital and she’d cut him off too soon.

“Steve?”

“Afraid not. Bonsoir, Rachel.”

Her breath caught. “Tris—I—I wasn’t expecting you to phone for another couple of hours at least.”

Natalie was right there and knew her father was on the other end of the phone. Rachel could tell her daughter was so excited and nervous at the same time, she was practically dancing on the spot.

“I’m parked across the street. I take it that was my daughter Natalie I saw run in your house just now. She’d be the right age. From a distance she has the look of my mother.”

A moan escaped Rachel’s throat. Evidently he’d had a conversation with his nephew since phoning her. “Yes.”

There was a palpable silence. “Does she know who I am?” his voice grated.

“Yes.”

After she heard his sharp intake of breath he said, “Does your husband know I’m her father?”

Rachel trembled. “I-I’m not married yet.”

After a tension-filled pause, “Alain thought you were. So what are you saying? Are you engaged to this Steve? Living with him?”

No. Not even close.

She wheeled away from Natalie’s probing glance. It was uncanny how much he sounded so much like the old, decisive Tris who was a natural born leader and refused to let anything get in the way of what he wanted.

“No.”

“Then you and Natalie are alone right now?”

“Yes, but—”

“I’m coming in.”

He clicked off before she could beg him not to.

Tris was angry.

It was a deep, profound anger. The kind that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to forgive her for her silence all these years.

Frightened in a brand-new way, Rachel put the phone back on the hook.

Natalie pulled on her arm. “When am I going to see him?”

Help.

“Right now. He’s walking up to the front door.”

Just then the doorbell rang.

“Oh my gosh— He knows who I am, huh.”

“Yes.”

“Can I answer it? Please?”

Her daughter’s beautiful dark brown eyes, so much like Tris’s, shone with a luster she’d never seen before.

“Go ahead,” she said through wooden lips.

Ever since Rachel had learned about Alain’s phone call, she’d had the presentiment that their lives would be thrown into chaos, never to be the same again.

With one unexpected turn of events, her carefully orchestrated life with Natalie had been caught up in a whirlwind by forces she’d couldn’t combat or control.

She had no choice but to be carried to another place. Until it blew itself out, no one could predict the amount of destruction it would wreak.

Tracing her daughter’s footsteps, Rachel reached the end of the hall leading into the living room. She hung back as Natalie opened the front door, so she could still witness what was happening.

When she saw the tall, spectacular looking man standing on the threshold, the sight of him reduced her limbs to water.

It was Tris. But over the last twelve years, the good-looking nineteen-year-old heartthrob she’d fallen in love with had changed into the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in her life.

His hair was more black than brown. He wore it shorter than he’d done in his early college days. Natalie had inherited his coloring and height.

He had a straight nose which he’d also bequeathed to their daughter. But where her chin was softly rounded like Rachel’s, he possessed a firm jaw and a cleft in his she’d always loved to touch and kiss.

Unlike the jeans and polo shirts he’d worn on the ship, he was dressed in an expensive looking gray suit. The combination of his silk tie with its various shades of charcoal, silver and gray toned with his white shirt, dazzled Rachel’s eyes.

At a glance his whole demeanor proclaimed him the successful, wealthy hotelier of the prominent Monbrisson family.

As Rachel took in everything from the distance, she watched father and daughter studying each other with the same searching intensity. Since opening the door, Natalie had been speechless. With good reason.

No father in Concord or anywhere else had his powerful physique or striking masculine features. He spoke first.

“I always wanted a daughter. You’re so beautiful, Natalie, I can hardly find the words.” His low voice sounded husky.

“I always wanted my dad,” she answered in a tear-filled voice.

“Then how about a hug.”

Rachel’s eyes blurred as she watched him crush their daughter in his strong arms. He picked her up and rocked her, causing her dark ponytail to swing back and forth. The contrast between his elegance and the T-shirt and shorts she’d worn to hockey practice made the picture even more poignant.

Natalie’s quiet sobs of joy were interspersed by endearments he spoke to her in French, forcing Rachel to look away.

Though she couldn’t help but be thankful Tris was showing Natalie the unqualified acceptance she craved from a father, another part of Rachel’s soul was horrified to realize that she’d kept them apart all these years.

Just the way Tris communed with his daughter as they quietly picked out the similarities in each other, Rachel realized he would never accept her reasons for failing to look him up in Montreux.

Not telling him he was going to be a father after she’d returned home and gone to the doctor was the most terrible mistake she’d ever made in her life.

He would see the last twelve years as wasted time he could never get back or recapture with his daughter. He wouldn’t buy any explanation of Rachel’s.

Tris isn’t going to forgive me.

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