I pulled her back onto my lap, but she shoved against me. I couldn’t allow her to run until she knew the whole truth.
“Stay. I’ll tell you everything I know.” Annie settled against me, soothing my raging nerves. I pulled a folded picture out of my pocket.
“What’s that?” she asked.
I brought the picture into her direct line of sight. She looked down at the picture, back up at me, and back down at the picture. It was a picture of Wes Carter and Evie Prieto taken only one week before Annie was born. Wes and Evie had their forehead pressed against each other’s and Wes was cradling Evie’s swollen stomach.
Annie opened her mouth but nothing came out. She ripped the picture from my hand, her face dropped like her heart was breaking. “That’s my mom.” The instant the words were spoken, her eyes filled with tears. “I’ve never seen a picture of her.” Her voice cracked and was hardly audible.
“She’s beautiful. Just like you.”
I swept Annie’s hair off her shoulder and went to kiss her behind the ear when I remembered she was no longer mine.
Annie’s lip trembled as she asked, “He’s my dad?”
“Yes.”
Annie didn’t budge. She didn’t utter a sound, and I waited for her too as I prayed my heart would start beating again.
My life had never followed the script of a fairy tale, and that had been perfectly fine with me. It was real. It was nitty and gritty, and I was fully aware people like me didn’t get to keep the girl.
But even if I never got to have the happily-ever-after, I wanted Annie to experience it. I loved her enough to let her do that.
“Why didn’t he want me?” She raised her head slightly and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands. “I’d always tried to reason it out in my head. My dad was the guy in the wreck with my mom. He didn’t know about me.” She flicked the picture. “Both of those weren’t true. He could afford to keep me. There is no reason other than he didn’t want me.”
My life had been a lie too, but none of it mattered. All I cared about was easing the pain in Annie. Wes Carter had let her down her whole life, but I would prove I wasn’t him and would never leave her.
“The worst of it all is, if Wes Carter is my father then that makes you my brother.”
I flattened out the picture of Wes and Evie to reveal the folded side. Even through the tears it caught Annie’s attention instantly. It was my mom and Miles Blankenship, the man killed in the accident with her mom. She didn’t know who he was only that he was a carbon copy of me or I was of him. It was all still new to me, and I was as confused and baffled as she was.
“Who’s that?” she asked and stroked a finger over the image on the paper. Miles’s hair was curlier than mine but he still wore it longer, and his jaw wasn’t as squared as mine but other than those two difference it was as if we were looking at a picture of me sans 1990 something.
“Miles Blankenship, or as I learned just an hour ago, my father.”
That throbbing in my chest had not stopped since Wes and Jennifer informed me of that fact in a well-rehearsed and planned speech. All the times my mother yelled I was just like him made sense to me now. She wasn’t talking about Wes Carter but my real DNA-contributor, Miles Blankenship.
Annie wrapped her hand around my jaw, bringing my attention from the picture to her. She smiled a sympathetic smile, then looked down at my trembling fingers that were massaging deep into her thigh. She laid her hand on top of mine and smoothed soothing strokes over the top of it.
“He was in the wreck with my mom. I don’t understand.”
I cared more about Annie than I had about any other person ever. Something about her clicked with me when I was only a child, then finally being able to hold her as an adult had brought about a slew of emotions I was unaware was even possible.
When Wes told me about being Annie’s father he always referred to Evie as My Evie. I understood what he meant because Annie was and would always be My Annie. I only hoped she agreed.
It wasn’t until she looked back at my face that I realized she was feeling what I felt and I felt as lost as she did, and for a moment, it felt good to at least have that.
“I only know the basics. Dad ... Wes is coming over soon to explain it all to us.”
I traced the line of her jaw with the back of my hand for no other reason than I needed to touch her. As my fingers stroked over her skin, chill-bumps appeared on her arms. I smiled for the first time in days, knowing it was my touch that caused that reaction.
“Please, don’t leave. I want you here when he is,” she said.
I sucked in another breath. All she had to do was ask.
“I’m not going anywhere. Plus, I think he wants to talk to both of us.” I wrapped my arms around her and placed my chin on top of her head. “He has something he needs to tell us. He said it is bigger than just who our daddies are. As if anything can be bigger than that.”
She immediately squeezed her eyes shut, remembering that everything that had happened to her was a direct result of the man who raised me. She had to realize I was nothing like him.
I started to speak when the doorbell startled us both.
The world as I’d always known it had exploded with facts and images I wasn’t prepared for. The world wasn’t black and white or even shades of gray anymore but a rainbow of colors.
The doorbell rang again.
“Wes is my father but not yours?” I tasted the words on my lips. It tasted wrong but right too. All the puzzle pieces were finally in place. Except the most important one, where Lucas and I fit together.
Lucas nodded just as the doorbell buzzed through the house for a third time and Wes Carter stepped through the door.
Despite the tip-hammer beating of my heart, I slipped out of Lucas’s lap and greeted Wes — my father — with a smile. Lucas made it known he wanted to maintain a connection with me by the way he eagerly and quickly grabbed my hand.
Wes walked over and sat down on the chair across from the sofa I was sitting on, but he didn’t seem comfortable. He looked around, taking in the house I recently started to call home.
Was my dad trying to learn something about my life?
My dad. I wondered if I would ever call him “Dad”, or did I even want to?
I toed off my sandals then tucked my feet under me and stared down at the picture of my mother. I really did favor her.
Wes slipped off his sunglasses and twisted them in his hands. “Princess,” spilled from his lips as if I was actually special to him. “I see Lucas has told you.”
I traced a finger over the picture of my mother. He didn’t deserve us. “Don’t call me that.” I fervently shook my head. “You didn’t even want me. Don’t act like you care now.”
Unable to speak, he swallowed, rather it was fear, regret, or saliva. I didn’t care, he had turned his back on me.
Lucas let go of my hand but quickly wrapped his arm around me to pull me closer to him. Again, Lucas proved that precious wasn’t some flimsy pet name he made up to give me a false sense of hope, but a name he called me because I truly was precious to him.
While I heaved onto Lucas’s shoulder, Wes started talking. “You’ve been my princess since I first held you in my arms, and I did want you. I wanted and still want you more than life itself. You have been my first thought every morning and the last one every night.”
“What the hell are you talking about? The only thought you’ve had the past twenty years is which whore you’re going to run off to see next,” Lucas said.
“The only woman I ever left your mother and you for is Evie,” Wes replied.
My head darted up as he spoke, and Lucas squeezed my shoulder. He understood me. No one had ever taken the time to understand me but Lucas did. He understood because his world was being ripped apart at the seams too.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lucas spit out between gritted teeth then pulled me even closer to him.
“Annie,” Wes said to me, ignoring Lucas
. Lucas held me skintight—I needed it. I’d never needed anyone since Mimi died but I needed Lucas and not just at that second … always. “I love your mother, and will do anything to keep her safe. I failed her once and will never do that again.”
I nodded. The foreboding tone in Wes’s voice is all I could focus on.
“What do you know about your mom’s wreck?”
Not much.
Miles Blankenship and her were on a mountain in Grundy County picking up horse feed for Wes’s father when the brakes on the truck failed causing the truck to roll off the side of a large embankment. Miles died instantly, but my mom was able to hold on long enough to have me.
“That my mom and Miles,” I said and watched Lucas visibly shake at the sound of Mile’s name. “Died, but luckily, I didn’t.”
Wes leaned forward and twisted his hands around and around each other. He clicked his tongue twice before saying the words that would forever change not only my future but my past too. “Miles did die instantly, but, princess, your mom didn’t die.”
I glided off the couch and fell to my knees but no tears came. My whole life had been one gigantic lie. Lucas dropped down beside me and held me, ignoring his own pain. His world had become unraveled too. “I’m here, precious. I’m not leaving,” he whispered in my ear. Those words gave me the courage to look into the eyes of Wes who was crying.
“I’m sorry, baby. I wanted to be your daddy. I’ve always loved you, but I had to take care of my Evie. She held on for you. She was still conscious when she got to the ER but she knew she was slipping fast. She was begging the doctors to get you out. They told her they needed to get her stable first if not she could die during a C-section. She didn’t care. All that mattered was that you were safe. Evie did die on the table during the C-section. They brought her back with CPR and placed her on life-support.”
Wes stood up and walked across the room with his hands in his pockets. He positioned himself toward the wall and stared at a pencil drawing of an old Ford truck parked beside a beautiful pond bank. “She was talented and beautiful. She didn’t deserve this. You didn’t deserve to have her ripped out of your life.”
Wes turned around to face Lucas and me. His eyes held more misery than I’d ever experienced. It was suffocating.
“For a week, I was torn between taking care of you in the NICU and your mom in the ICU. Evie had no family, the doctors had no one to consult about disconnecting her from life support. I know it was selfish but I was happy about that. She wasn’t my vibrant full-of-life Evie anymore but I could still hold her hand and kiss her forehead. I could still tell her about you and how much I loved her. Her spirit was gone, but she was still living.” Wes slouched back into a chair and raked his fingers through his hair. “Then what was left of my world got shredded. My father cornered me at the hospital first with a DNA test stating I wasn’t your father but Miles was.”
I jumped to my feet. “So you’re not my father?”
Wes shook his head. “It was a lie and I knew it. I was it for Evie. Nothing would ever convince me otherwise. Dad then pulled out the documents giving him the right to oversee Evie’s medical care. He wanted her dead and out of my life. We could never prove it and hell, I tried, but I believe with all my heart he caused the wreck. Jennifer’s dad and mine found out about us and wanted them out of our lives. They jacked-up the brakes and sent them to purchase the horse feed.” Wes glanced over at Lucas. “That's why we have only allowed you around Granny Ann.”
What the hell?
My mind had trouble processing everything he said. I took several slow breaths and basically went numb.
I didn’t know what possessed me, but I walked over and sat on the arm of the chair Wes was sitting in. My mind screamed no, but my body short-circuited and had a brain of its own around Wes. He took my hand in his, and a slight smile lit up his face. “I love you. So, does my mom, your grandma. She figured out what was going on and it was all her idea how to save you both. Ruth Anne had been her childhood best friend.”
“Mimi and Ann were friends?”
“Best friends, except I never knew it. My father didn’t think Ruth Anne was good enough and didn’t allow mom to talk to her.”
Lucas hovered, shadowing his large body over us. “Shut the hell up, don’t make Granny part of your lies. She wouldn’t have stayed married to a man like that. She wouldn’t have turned her back on a granddaughter.”
Lucas’s face contorted into an unsurmountable amount of pain and confusion as he mumbled “no” over and over again. His blue-eyes flared as he shook his head. He was breaking, and my heart crumbled at the idea.
Wes looked up and bored his eyes into Lucas’s. “Mom would do anything for you and Annie. She stayed to protect first me then you two. Thanks to my father, she has lived in hell but she gladly did it for us. She would do anything to keep us safe and happy. We faked Evie’s death. The doctor in charge of her care was a friend of my parents and always had a soft spot for mom. She never told me what she did to convince him to go along with us, and to be honest, I was too scared to ask, but she did whatever it took. He got Evie placed in a skilled nursing facility, and told my dad she passed.” Wes looked back at me. “Then there was you, my princess. My dad turned the DNA test in and they didn’t allow me to visit you anymore. It was hell knowing my baby was in that little room all alone. Mom introduced me to Ruth Anne and Charles. They were like angels. They couldn’t have children of their own and offered to take care of you. So, I made a deal with my father, I would let you go into foster care and not fight it, if he would just leave you alone and safe. I wanted you safe, and I wanted someone to hug you. I wanted to hug you myself, but it was to the point as long as someone held you I could cope. Again, Mom worked her magic and you were placed in the Williams’s home.”
Lucas rocked back and forth on his heels, I could feel him trying to keep his temper in check. “How did I come into the equation?”
Wes glanced back up at Lucas. “Jenn had been my best friend forever, but we were only ever friends. She loved Miles as much as I loved Evie, and she was devastated. She didn’t know she was expecting you yet. She had walked out of her parents’ house. She was lost and alone.” Wes choked up. “I just wanted the pain to stop. When Jenn discovered she was pregnant, I married her to protect her, and she accepted that Evie and Annie were my heart and would always be.”
“I don’t believe you.” Lucas’s vein was throbbing in his neck; his breathing was coming in sharp burst. “This is all shit. First off, Granny would never lie all these years to cover up a murder. And if Mom loved Miles so much, why did she hate his son?”
“She doesn’t hate you. Just scared of losing you. You’re just Miles. So much so, you make me almost believe in reincarnation. Losing Miles almost destroyed her, and she is scared if she allows herself to love you that something will happen to you, too. And she would lose it all.” Wes picked up our enjoined hands and kissed the top of mine. “Granny would do anything to keep you two safe, include cover up for a murderer.” Wes looked back at me. “Do you want to see her. Your mother, that is?”
Those were the words that finally broke through the last of the numbness, causing a storm of emotions in me.
I jerked away from Wes and leaped to my feet. Lucas gripped me around the waist. I pushed myself off him too. I stared at the far corner of the room and counted my breaths.
A life of lies twisted and tilted everything, it was all upside down and inside out. I doubled over from the pain and clutched my knees. The lie the hurt the worst was from Pawpaw. He let them jerk me away from the only home I’d ever know ... from him, and never thought to tell me the truth. A scream bubbled to the surface when I turned to face both Wes and Lucas — it was a gut-wrenching wail.
Lucas was the first one to me. He placed one of his hands on the back of my head and softly forced my face against his shoulders. This time his arms didn’t calm me. “I know, precious. It hurts,” he whispered.
I did hurt. I hu
rt for myself, Lucas, but most of all my mother. Her life was stolen before it even started, because she fell in love with the wrong person.
“I need to see her.” I broke free from Lucas's embrace and scratched my forehead, unsure of what exactly I did need.
“You don’t need to do anything, precious.”
I did need to see my mother. I needed to be strong and do it on my own, too, without any interference from Lucas. I loved how he cared and protected me, but I wanted to prove to myself I was strong all by myself.
Wes started toward me, and I held up my hand to stop him. “I’ll go with you. Only to see her. But you will never be my father-figure. Got it?”
Wes nodded his head in defeat. I shifted to kiss Lucas on the cheek. “I need to do this alone.”
Lucas grabbed my upper arm but still slightly nodded. “I’ll be waiting on you.”
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