Georgina leaned close. “My aunt Michelle really likes you and if she didn’t then you would’ve known it immediately. Once Sutton divorced his first wife and he was once again an eligible bachelor, she would complain constantly about women asking her to hook up their daughters, nieces, cousins and even granddaughters with him. My aunt believed they all were after his money.”
“I don’t want or need Sutton’s money,” Zoey countered. There was a slight edge in her retort. She didn’t have a seven-or six-figure bank balance. Her annual income allowed her to be lower middle class, and if she was able to pay her property taxes, put food on the table, buy the essentials and save a little for the proverbial rainy day, she wasn’t looking for man to take care of her. Sutton hadn’t mentioned her signing a prenup agreement, and she assumed he did not think of her as someone willing to marry him because of money.
What they did discuss was their living arrangements. Once married he would move into her house and continue to pay the rent on Sharon Williams’s house to fulfill the terms in the lease agreement. He had also suggested she not wait two years to begin her college education. If he was able to secure a permanent teaching position at the high school, his hours would coincide with Harper’s.
“Good for you. My aunt admires you.”
“Why?”
“Because she sees some of herself in you. Aunt Michelle raised Sutton as a single mother after his father sweet-talked her out of the money she’d received from my grandfather’s death benefit and then took off when she told him she was pregnant. She worked, sacrificed for herself to give Sutton what he needed, while refusing to accept any financial support from my parents. You’ve done the same with your brothers.”
“Don’t forget I did have financial support when the town got together to fundraise to make repairs and pay the taxes on my home and set up scholarship funds for Kyle and Harper.”
“I don’t know if he told you, but the year before he signed his multimillion-dollar contract when he heard about you losing your parents, he wired a large sum of money to the pastor of the church for your brothers’ scholarship fund.” Georgina’s eyes widened as her jaw dropped when Zoey stared, unblinking. “You didn’t know?”
“No, Georgi. Sutton never told me. I was aware of a generous anonymous donation but was never told who the donor was.”
Georgina grabbed her arm. “Please don’t tell him that I let the cat out of the bag, or he’ll bring holy hell down on me, and I don’t want to get on the wrong side of Sutton once he loses his temper.”
“I promise not to say anything.”
“I want you to be the first to know other than our parents that Langston and I are planning to marry on Valentine’s Day.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not. We’ve had our misunderstandings, ups and downs and lately a slight detour, but we managed to work through our problems because we truly love each other. I want you to remember that when you and Sutton don’t agree on something.”
“What are you two whispering about?”
Georgina winked at Zoey. “Nothing, Mom.”
Zoey wanted to tell Sutton’s aunt it wasn’t nothing. Georgina had revealed things about Sutton she doubted he would’ve ever divulged to her, and she hadn’t lied to his cousin. She would keep his secret.
* * *
“I think I need a nap,” Harper announced as Sutton maneuvered the Jeep into the driveway to his house.
“I believe we’ll all need naps after eating much too much food,” Zoey said in agreement. A slight frown furrowed her forehead when she caught a glimpse of a strange vehicle parked behind her minivan.
“Were you expecting company?” Sutton asked as he shut off the engine.
“No.” Zoey got out before Sutton could come around to help her down. Once she got closer to her home, she noticed the late-model SUV had Alaskan plates. It was apparent someone had mistaken her house for someone else’s. She wasn’t familiar with anyone from that state.
She mounted the porch steps at the same time a woman rose slowly from the rocker. Porch lamps illuminated her dark brown unlined complexion and salt-and-pepper ponytail.
The woman was tall, but not as tall as Zoey, and slender. They stared at each other, not moving for a full minute. However, there was something about her that was vaguely familiar.
“I know you don’t recognize me, Zoey.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know it because I gave it to you when you were born.”
Zoey felt her legs go weak and she doubted whether she would’ve been able to remain standing if Sutton hadn’t come up behind her. Now she knew who she was when she recalled seeing the photograph in the yearbook. But she looked nothing like the image of youthful girl smiling for the camera. Lines bracketed her mouth, and there was a network of lines around her eyes. “You are my mother?” The query was low, hoarse, as if she’d just run a long, grueling race and had attempted to catch her breath.
A smile parted her lips. “Yes. I’m your mother. I’m no longer Donna Allen but Donna Parker.”
Rage and resentment coursed through Zoey, making it impossible for her to formulate her thoughts. “Get off my property and never come back.”
“Baby, don’t,” Sutton crooned in her ear. “Please hear her out.”
She rounded on him. “It’s been twenty-six years since she abandoned me, and now she shows up as if it’s only been twenty seconds. No, Sutton. I don’t want to listen to anything she has to say.” She brushed past Donna and didn’t see Harper staring at the woman who’d introduced herself as his sister’s mother and unlocked the front door.
“I’ll be at the B and B until the end of January,” Donna said quietly, preempting Zoey from opening the door. “After that I’m driving down to Florida. I bought a one-bedroom Miami condo with views of the ocean.”
Zoey opened and closed the door, shutting out the images of three people who’d just witnessed more than two decades of the pain and anger she’d managed to conceal from everyone until her father married Charmaine. Her mother had walked out of her life when she was too young to remember her face, and now this woman had shown up without warning claiming to be her.
She walked into the living room, flopped down in a chair and closed her eyes. The day had begun with her and Sutton announcing their engagement and now ended with a stranger attempting to insinuate herself into her life. No, she thought, shaking her head. It wasn’t happening, because she could go back or go to wherever she’d come from without her blessing.
“Sis, is that woman really your mother?”
Zoey opened her eyes and stared at Harper. “She may have given birth to me, but she was never my mother. She left our dad when I was still a baby.”
“Why did she leave you and Dad?”
“I don’t know, Harper.”
“Don’t you want to know?”
Zoey waved her hand in dismissal. She wanted to scream at him to leave her alone and stop asking questions to which she had no answers, but did not want to take her frustrations out on her brother. “Please, Harper. I don’t want to talk about it.” She sat, staring into nothingness as the seconds turned into minutes once Harper retreated upstairs. The door opened and Sutton walked in.
“We need to talk,” Sutton announced.
“Not tonight, Sutton.”
“When, Zoey?”
She glared at him. “I don’t know. Maybe never.”
He took long strides, hunkered down and held her hands. “You can’t bury your head in the sand and pretend it’s all going to go away. You heard what she said. She’ll be in Wickham Falls until early next year, then she’s leaving for Florida. We’re going to marry in another four weeks, and it would be nice to have her attend as mother of the bride.”
“Have you lost your freakin’ mind? You want me to play nice to a woman who aba
ndoned her toddler daughter with her ex-husband and then went off to do her own thing? That’s not happening, Sutton.”
“Maybe she has a valid reason for giving up custody?”
“Spare me the melodrama,” she sneered, “because good mothers fight until their last breath to hold on to their children. And you’re a fine one to talk because from what I’ve heard you don’t have a relationship with your father.”
“This is not about my father!”
“Really, Sutton? Didn’t your father show up when he’d heard you were worth millions?”
“That’s different, Zoey.”
“Really?” she repeated facetiously. “Thanks to social media the entire world must know that Zoey Allen is dating Sutton Reed, so when my biological mother who has been out of my life for twenty-six years believes her daughter has finally made the big time she decides it’s a good time to show up to become reacquainted.”
“She may have an entirely different reason for wanting to see you.”
“Stop it, Sutton. I don’t want to talk about my mother,” she said between clenched teeth.
“You’re going to have to deal with it before you have your own children.”
“Have you dealt with your father abandoning your mother, Sutton?”
“Yes and because of that I wanted nothing to do with him.”
“It looks as if we have something in common.”
“No, we don’t, Zoey. The difference is your mother is willing to talk to you about why she left you with your father.”
“When I did ask my father why I didn’t have a mother like other kids, he told me she was in love with another man.”
“And you believed him?”
“Why wouldn’t I, Sutton?”
“Because maybe he didn’t tell you the whole story.”
“Are you saying he was lying?”
“I’m not saying that, Zoey. But you need to hear both sides, because your mother just told me why she left she left her husband and child for another man.”
Zoey felt as if her head had suddenly caught fire. “You went behind my back to talk to her when you know I want nothing to do with her?”
“I didn’t go behind your back, Zoey. You rudely left the woman standing on your porch and—”
“Rude!” she shouted. “You call me rude when she knew where I live and could’ve sent me a letter warning me that she was coming. What happened to your big talk about supporting me, Sutton?”
“I will when you’re right. This time you’re wrong.”
“Maybe I was wrong to agree to marry you.”
Sutton straightened. “Maybe we’re both wrong. I believed I’d fallen in love with someone willing to listen and perhaps compromise because it’s not all about her. But whatever you decide I want you to remember we can go through it together.”
“There is nothing to go through together. I have no intention of listening to anything Donna has to say.”
“I guess this is either good-night or goodbye. The choice is yours.”
Zoey sat, stunned, as she watched Sutton walk out of her house and perhaps out of her life. Why couldn’t he understand where she was coming from? It was very different from his nonexistent relationship with his father. Her mother had married her father and when facing divorce had relinquished total custody rather than agree to joint custody. She could’ve lived with her mother and had scheduled visits with James Allen.
She twisted the ring on her left hand around her finger; her mind was in tumult. Things were coming at her so fast Zoey couldn’t compartmentalize her thoughts to determine her next action.
Wait, the inner voice cautioned her. Wait and see how everything plays out.
* * *
Sutton tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep until exhaustion won out. It had been the same for more than a week since Zoey’s mother had turned up expectedly to shock everyone. It was obvious Zoey was angry and Harper was completely confused.
Donna had struggled not to cry as her words fell over themselves as she attempted to explain why she’d walked away from her ex-husband and daughter that fateful day more than twenty-five years ago. It’s not that he’d believed everything Donna told him, but all he wanted was for Zoey to give the woman a chance to explain why she’d left her with her father rather than take her after the divorce. Although he’d pleaded with Zoey to listen to Donna, he did not want to take sides. He loved Zoey too much and was willing to support her but he did not want to begin their marriage with her unresolved issues from her past. She had gone through enough losing her father and stepmother and having to raise her brothers to get mired down in another familial crisis.
Tossing back the sheet, he left the bed and headed for the bathroom. Harper had fulfilled his three-month plea deal, and although Sutton told him he no longer had to get up and go jogging, the teenager said he enjoyed spending the one-on-one time with him. When he left the house, he found Harper standing next to the Jeep. A heavy fog had settled in the valley, leaving visibility close to zero.
“Are we going to jog in the fog?” Harper asked.
“No. Please come in the house. I need to talk to you.”
Harper hesitated. “Do you want to talk about my sister?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad, because you have to do something, Mr. Reed. She doesn’t talk or eat, and whenever she comes home she locks herself in her bedroom.”
“She’s going through a lot, Harper.”
“She’s not the only one going through a lot. Can I stay with you until things get better?”
Sutton dropped an arm over the boy’s shoulders. “That’s not possible. Zoey is your legal guardian and—”
Harper threw off his arm. “What good are you? I thought you would help me.” Turning on his heel, Harper walked back to his house.
Sutton panicked. It was obvious Zoey’s reaction to meeting her mother had thrown her household into turmoil where there were no winners, only losers. Zoey had mentioned Harper’s acting out once his brother left to join the military, and even though his sister was still there, she had withdrawn and left him believing he was alone.
He followed Harper, catching up with him as he was about to open the door. “You’re sixteen, not six, so I want you to give Zoey some slack. Yes, she’s going through a lot, but you’re not helping when you talk about leaving her to live me with. One thing I will not allow is for you to desert her when she needs you most. She’s always been there for you, now it’s time for you to step up and be there for her. What’s it going to be, Harper? Are you in or out?”
Harper lowered his eyes. “I’m in.”
Smiling, Sutton patted his cheek. “Good. Now, where’s Zoey?”
“She’s in her bedroom. She’s probably asleep.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sutton said as he crossed the living room and took the stairs to the second floor two at a time. Long strides ate up the length of the hallway until he stood outside the door to Zoey’s bedroom. He turned the knob and found it locked, so he rapped lightly on the door. “Zoey, please open the door.”
He did not have to wait long before it opened, and his heart turned over when he saw the evidence of the emotional turmoil she’d gone through in a week.
It was obvious she hadn’t been eating because her face was thinner and there were dark circles under her large eyes. Bending, he picked her up, set her on the unmade bed and then lay down next to her. He dropped a kiss on her mussed hair. “I know you’re hurting, but so is Harper. He asked if he could come and live with me.”
Zoey pulled out of his embrace. “No! He can’t!”
Sutton hid a smile. He’d gotten a response from her. “Don’t worry, because that’s not going to happen. I’ll never agree to that because he needs you as much as you need him. And he’s not the only one who needs you, babe. I need and miss you.” He kis
sed her forehead. “You’ve spent the past week wallowing in your own self-pity and you’ve forgotten you’re not the only one affected by Donna’s pronouncement that she’s your mother. You once told me there were three people in our equation—you, me and Harper. Right now, the boy is hurting because you’ve shut him out, and the next time he acts out you won’t be able to blame anyone but yourself. Now, what’s it going to be?”
* * *
Zoey felt chastised. Sutton was right. She had been so ensnared in her own cocoon of anguish that she hadn’t considered how it would affect her übersensitive brother. “You’re right. I’ve been selfish.”
“I didn’t say you were selfish. I accused you of wallowing in self-pity.”
She managed a small smile. “Same difference. I think it’s time I listen to what Donna Parker, or whatever her name is now, has to say.”
Sutton smoothed back her hair. “What about us?”
Zoey stared at his mouth. “What about us?” she repeated.
“Are we going through with our plan to start off the new year as husband and wife, or should I call Viviana Wainwright and tell her to cancel our reception?”
Zoey felt a momentary panic. “I never told you that I wouldn’t marry you.”
“Well, you could’ve fooled me, Miss Allen.”
She scrambled off the bed. “Excuse me. I need to shower and put on some clothes. Then I’m going to the B and B and hopefully put my past to rest and settle more than twenty years of either lies or misunderstandings.”
Chapter Sixteen
Zoey knew Donna was shocked to see her when she saw her standing in the parlor waiting for her. Viviana had called her room and told her she had a visitor. Seeing the woman up close and in daylight made her aware of their resemblance. She’d inherited her complexion, eyes, mouth and hair texture.
“I’m sorry I—”
“Please don’t apologize,” Donna interrupted. “It was wrong of me just to show up unannounced when I should’ve sent you a letter, but I was afraid you wouldn’t believe I was your mother.”
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