by Rachel Burns
Sarah was crying on Angelina's shoulder when I came in. I carefully reached for her and moved her to my shoulder. She cried and ate her tiny little hands.
“How was your first day back at work?” Angelina asked with a smile on her face.
“It's really busy today. I had to help out front.” I sat down on the sofa and bared my breast. I guided Sarah's head to my nipple. She latched right on and drank like she hadn't been fed in years.
“The poor thing almost starved,” Angelina teased me. A crying baby wasn't something that didn't bother her. If she knew that the baby wasn't really suffering, then she didn't mind the noise.
She told me that she was the oldest of five. Her mother and father had worked full-time. She felt that a home needed a baby to be complete.
I laid Sarah down for her nap after I fed her. I got to shower in that time. Then I had the day off.
Angelina spent her afternoons in the bakery, selling the wonderful things that we made.
I watched TV until Tony Junior came in. I warmed up his lunch, and then he changed the channel. He only had a few hours off before he had to go back. In that time, we watched a program about History. When that was over, he changed channels, and we watched a show about restoration.
“If for whatever reason I can't work at the bakery anymore, I want a job fixing things,” he told me.
I nodded at him. He worked hard, almost constantly. A family owned business meant that they had to be very diligent. They had their noses to the grindstone.
Tony Senior had once hurt his back, and he worked anyway. I had heard him tell Angelina that he had to work because everyone was counting on him.
This life was the opposite of what I had experienced with Daddy. It was also the opposite of what I experienced with my father. He never would have taken a couple of painkillers so he could work to feed me.
I was getting the idea that poor people were nicer than rich people.
When Tony's shows were over, he picked up the paper and went to the bathroom for half an hour. That always made me laugh. We treated each other like brother and sister.
I loved having Tony and Carol in my life. I had always wanted siblings.
I was finished with the dishes when he came back out.
“How did the day go for little Sarah?” he asked like he hadn't just been gone for half an hour.
“She slept mostly, and then she got hungry.”
“We'll see to it that you are back on time tomorrow.” He liked to sound like the big boss when his father wasn't in the room. I figured that it was good practice. One day this would all be his.
His parents were hoping that we would hit it off. I could tell, but I didn't have feelings like that for him.
He didn't either. I knew he preferred blonds. He watched them closely when they came in. He liked women with meat on their bones, as he put it. I wasn't his type.
“You did really well today. It was nice to have you back.”
“Thanks.” He went back down to work.
Tony Senior came back up. I had his plateful of food warmed and ready.
He thanked me and talked about the courses he wanted to send me to. “They have night classes only a few blocks away. When Sarah is older, you can take the classes. Tony isn't that good at decorating, but he is better at baking than I am. You two match. One has a strength in one area and the other in the other.”
“Tony is a lot better at decorating than I am.”
“Yes, but he has been practicing his whole life. You're a natural.”
I had to smile, but I guessed down deep he knew that it would never be.
But he hoped. That could only mean that they really liked me.
He went back to work, and like clockwork Sarah woke up. We had the apartment to ourselves. I held her in my arms and sang to her, song after song.
I told her about my job. I thought working in a bakery was the best job in the world.
I had successfully worked through my first day back. I felt useful to the family.
Chapter 15 – Discovered
Brian tore his eyes away from the window and looked up as his secretary came in. He didn't want to look at her or be here. Everything had become so meaningless.
Outside, the first snow of the year was falling, but it didn't matter because he couldn't call Amelia to his side, so they could watch it falling together.
The words no evidence of foul play kept going through his head. Jake felt that it was time to hire professionals to look for her, men who would bring her home kicking and screaming if they found her.
Brian thought that he had those kinds of men looking for her the whole time.
“Good morning, Mr. …” Brian's secretary entered the room. “Your lawyer sent the contract back. Only minor adjustments need to be made.” Mrs. Morrison set the papers down on his desk.
He hadn't been himself at all lately. Mrs. Morrison had been debating back and forth is she should ask him about it.
She had seen Amelia this morning at the place across from her apartment where she picked up her take along coffee.
Amelia had looked tired, too. She must be friends with the family that owned the bakery because she was behind the counter talking to them.
“Sir, is everything all right?”
“I'm fine. You don't have to worry,” Brian assured her.
“It's just that Amelia looked a little overly tired this morning, too.”
Brian's head shot up. “You saw Amelia, this morning?”
“Yes, she seemed to be visiting friends.”
“Where was that?” He tried to make it sound like this information wasn't the most important piece of information that he would ever receive.
“At Tony's Italian Bakery across from my apartment. I get my coffee there every morning.”
“Those friends,” he pretended to know exactly what she meant. “They are really nice. I'll just look over this, so we can close the deal.” He picked up the file that she had placed on his desk and opened it.
The second she was out of the room, Brian pulled out his cell. “I have a sighting, Tony's Italian Bakery. Here in New York.”
“I'll get right on it. This could be another false alarm,” Jake warned him.
“My secretary told me she saw her there this morning. Amelia was behind the counter.”
Brian waited on pins and needles for his cell to ring. His nervousness was helping him get a lot of work done. He would be taking the next few days off, if it were really her.
The call came.
“Hello Jake. What can you tell me?”
“It's her. My men showed several customers her picture. They said that she is a distant niece of the family. Are you sitting Brian?”
“Yes. Why?”
“The story she was telling people was that her husband was in the Army, and that he is in Afghanistan. She needed to tell people that she was married because of the baby. You're a father, Brian. You have a daughter named Sarah.”
Brian went to work getting things ready. Jake told him that Amelia was in the apartment with her daughter.
Brian still couldn't believe that he was a father. It was clear that Amelia had run away. But the reason wasn't clear. Why would a woman leave a mansion with servants waiting on her to go work in a bakery with strangers? It didn't make sense.
Jake's men were posted outside the bakery, and they went in and out. Tomorrow they would make a move and get her to come out. They couldn't afford to make a scene.
Brian was going to go in and let her see him. When she took off again, they would nab her and his daughter.
Jake figured that she would use the back door. His men would grab her then.
Brian didn't like the idea of strangers touching his daughter, too much could go wrong.
A second later, his cell was in his hand. “Martin, I need you to drop everything and come here. I found Amelia. She is in New York with my daughter.”
***
I was so tired. Sarah had kept me awake a
ll night. Now that it was time for me to work she slept. I was dead on my feet.
My first day back had turned into a nightmare evening. At four thirty, the alarm went off. I reached over and turned it off. I hated having to do it, but I needed to wake Sarah so she was fed, freshly diapered and dressed before my shift started at five thirty.
Sarah lazily drank at my breast. Of course, she would. She had no sense of time.
I was envious of that feeling, wishing that it were a feeling that I could have too.
I came out of my room and laid Sarah in Angelina's arms.
She went on about what a good baby Sarah was. I kissed her little head before I left her.
I went down to the bakery. I worked in the kitchen making bread. I threw the right ingredients in the machine that mixed and kneaded the bread. When it was finished, I took it out and made loaves.
Tony teased me because I needed both hands to make a loaf. He could make two at a time, one in each hand.
I was too tired to give him a good come back.
“Some guy was out there asking about you?”
I felt my jaw drop. “Really, what did he look like?”
“Chill, it's okay. You know him. It was Paul from down the street. He wanted to know what your status is.”
“Oh, – what did you tell him?”
“I hedged. I didn't know what you would want me to say. I didn't want to ruin anything for you.”
“With Paul? He is kind of – too old for me.” I smiled at him. That little scare was enough to really wake me up. My heart was still pumping overtime. Slowly, it was calming down.
“Beggars can't be choosers. It will be really difficult finding a man who will want you and the baby.”
“Problem solved. I don't want a man. I'm fine alone, just my Sarah and me. What more could I want? Plus, technically, I'm still married. It just isn't in the stars for me to find someone new. I'm happy the way I am. That's the secret to life.” I smiled at him nicely.
“Fine, I'll break it gently to Paul.” He wiped his hands clean on a towel that he had tucked into his apron before he went out to the customer area.
I peeked to see what he would say. Paul was really sitting at the counter, drinking a cup of coffee and eating a donut. Tony slapped him on the back and sat down next to him.
“I just talked to her. She isn't really up for a new guy just now.” I rolled my eyes as he said that. “The last guy she was with messed her up pretty bad. Give her time. Maybe she will come around.” He glanced in my direction and smiled at me.
I mouth the word jerk and went back to work.
Tony came back in a while later. I was packing up a birthday cake order. It was for a little girl's birthday so I packed it in a pink box.
I cleaned up then. The baking was done for the day. I just needed to get everything spic and span, and then I could go back up to Sarah. My breasts were already getting heavy. She would be waking up soon. I was getting tired again. Perfect timing, I thought. I was tired, and my precious little Sarah would be wide-awake and want to spend time with me.
I loved her so much. She was the only thing I wanted.
I didn't want to go out with Paul or any other man for that matter. They would expect me to be thankful. I never wanted anything to do with men again. They just hurt you and took what they wanted. My freedom was more important to me. Better said; Sarah's freedom.
“Amelia, bring Mrs. Savelo's order out.” Tony Senior called out to me.
I grabbed the pink box and brought it out to her. She was already standing by the cash register. I opened it up, like we were supposed to do and showed her.
She smiled approvingly at me.
I did a quick scan of the room, to see if Paul was still there before I went back in. A head turned away from me as I was looking around. It looked like Daddy's head. At first, I was rooted on the spot. He peeked back to see if I was still there. It was really him.
I darted into the kitchen hoping that he hadn't really seen me.
“Amelia!” Tony Senior called out to me.
I was in panic. I had to calm down. It had really been him. I collected myself and went upstairs.
“Are you finished already, Amelia?” Angelina asked.
“Yes,” I grabbed Sarah and wrapped her in a warm blanket. “Thank you for watching her. Thank you for everything. I'm really sorry. I have to go. He's here. I have to go.” I went back downstairs, holding Sarah tightly to me.
“Amelia!” she called after me. But I didn't have time to stop and explain.
There was no decent reason that he should be here, no plausible explanation. He had found me somehow. He had looked and found. This wasn't the type of place he would go to.
He drank his coffee at home or at the office. I had to leave to save Sarah. If I didn't, God only knew what he would do to her.
I peeked out to see if he was still there. He was. I sighed with relief.
That was a little odd. I figured he would at least try to get at me. He seemed to be the type to make a ruckus to find me again, but he wasn't, he just sat there.
Maybe he just wanted a divorce? Maybe his calm was a trick?
I couldn't risk Sarah's health. I slipped out the back door, thinking it was better to be safe than sorry.
I ran right into Martin's arm.
“No, please don't hurt my baby.” I tried to hold her tighter, but he wasn't alone. Someone was behind me, giving me a shot in my arm. I couldn't see who was there.
Martin snatched the baby out of my arms before everything turned black.
Daddy's Sweetheart
Part 5
Discovered
Part 1 - Unbelievable Truths and Plausible Lies
Chapter 1 – Back Home
Brian sat down next to Amelia, as she lay in her bed. She looked so peaceful. He had laid her so down carefully, making sure that he didn’t bump her head or feet against the wall and furniture. He could hardly believe that she was really here, home where she belonged.
Martin had given him a meaningful look before he left, clearly showing Brian that he wouldn’t be quick to forgive her. She had put his brother through hell. He wanted to stay and stand by his brother, showing solidarity, but he had to return home to his wife. She wasn’t doing well. He had problems of his own.
Martin had held the baby on the trip home. Was she his niece? The heir their parents had wanted so badly?
Brian had held onto Amelia on the limousine ride home, fearing that if he let her go, that he would never see her again. He had gone so long without her, thinking that she was dead. He held her tightly and stared at the baby in Martin’s arms.
Brian, too, was asking himself if the baby was a blood relative of his or not.
Had Amelia had an affair and ran, so he would never find out, or was the baby his, and she had run because she didn’t want him to get her?
He would give anything to know what had gone through his wife’s mind.
The baby was clearly Amelia’s child. Amelia must have looked just like that when she was a baby. The resemblance was uncanny, but that ran in her family. Apparently, she was the spitting image of her mother. That was why her father hated her so much. She was a walking reminder of everything he had lost.
Everything that Brian had lost was now returned to him. Perhaps with something more that was his.
He had held the baby once he was certain that Amelia would sleep for hours. Brian had stared at the baby for over an hour already. He didn’t see any of himself in her.
To be on the safe side he had taken blood and DNA. The blood group told him that she was most likely his. She didn’t have Amelia’s group, but she did have his. His own AB was rare, and Amelia had C.
He told himself that he wouldn’t get too attached to the baby until he got the results back from the DNA test. They would be back in a week. He was having the results sent to the house, but he made it look like it was for one of his patients.
The last thing he needed was to see something li
ke this in the tabloids.
That he had managed to keep Amelia’s disappearance out of the papers was something that he had to thank Jake for. He had been a good friend throughout this whole ordeal.
Was it over? Or was it just starting?
He needed to understand why she had run away from him after they had been so close.
The whole time he had told himself that he should be speaking on national TV asking people for help, and showing them her picture. Why hadn’t he done it when his whole being begged him to do it?
The answer to that was simple; his whole being hadn’t wanted him to. There had been doubt in the back of his mind that made him listen to Jake’s advice. His recommendations had saved Brian a lot of heartbreak.
He was suddenly very glad he hadn’t gone to the police. This whole incident was something that he didn’t want to have known, publicly. It was embarrassing. Amelia obviously hated him. That meant that everything had been a lie. She had been playing along the entire time, just using him and toying with his feelings.
Would he ever be able to forgive her?
He wasn’t sure how to react when she woke up. Part of him, a large part, wanted to beat the truth out of her. Another part of him was scared about what she might say, and another part was the little boy in him, wanting to ask his mother if she liked him the way he was, fearing that she would say no. It was so easy to picture himself at Amelia’s feet begging her to love him.
He needed acceptance from her.
And he needed to know if the baby was really, beyond a doubt his. The thought of another man touching his Amelia made him feel ill as well as violent. If she hadn’t been faithful, then she would pay the price.
Brian didn’t want to hurt her. He prayed that this was a misunderstanding.
But how could it be? A wife stayed with her husband. She never takes off, without a word, for over half a year.