Chapter 12 #2
She withdrew a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him. “You should read this.”
Holding her earnest gaze, Big Mac took it from her with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. What was this about? Turning his attention to the paper, he began to read handwriting that obviously belonged to a woman.
My dear Mallory,
Now that I am gone, I feel it is only fair to share the one piece of information I was too fearful to give you in life.
You have asked me for years about who your father is, and I had good intentions of telling you when the time was right.
Then I got sick, and time became our most precious commodity.
I had other things I wanted to do besides revisit my painful past.
Your father is a good man, at least he was during the short time that I knew him.
He had an opportunity to start a business on Gansett Island, and since I was tied to my home and family here, there was no future for us.
So I let him go to pursue his dream and stayed here to pursue mine.
A short time later, I discovered I was expecting you.
“Oh my God,” Big Mac whispered as the dock beneath his feet seemed to move as his entire existence shifted. “Your mother was Diana Vaughn.”
“Yes.”
“So that makes you…”
“Your daughter, apparently.”
Big Mac couldn’t seem to breathe as he stared at the young woman before him and tried to make sense of what she was saying.
She gently removed the letter from his hand and read the rest to him.
“Your father owns a marina called McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina.
His name is Mac McCarthy, and he will be surprised to know you exist because I never told him I was expecting you.
By the time I learned you were on the way, he and I had ended our relationship, and a short time later, I heard he was engaged to someone else.
“I harbored an irrational fear that he might try to take you away from me if he knew about you, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I wish I had been a stronger person for both your sakes, and I’m sorry for what I’ve denied you both through my silence.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me and perhaps find him now that you are alone in the world.
You should also know I named you Mallory because his real name is Malcolm.
I thought you might someday appreciate that connection, however tentative, to the man who fathered you. I love you with all my heart. Mom.”
Mallory folded the letter and returned it to her pocket. “I’m sorry to shock you this way. I don’t want anything from you. I just wanted to meet you, to fill in the blanks. I’ll go now. It was really nice to finally meet you. This is a beautiful place you’ve got here.”
As she turned to leave, something in him rose up, forcing him to react before she got away. “Wait. Don’t go yet.”
She stopped and turned to him. “Honestly, I meant it when I said I don’t want anything from you. I’m perfectly fine. You have your life, and I have mine. I just wanted to put a face to the name. That’s all.”
“You can’t just walk away after telling me you’re my kid,” he said, stammering over the words. He couldn’t recall ever being quite so rattled by anything.
“Why not?” she asked with an amused little smile that reminded him in some small way of Janey.
He couldn’t begin to fathom how this was going to affect his life, his family or his marriage, but he knew he’d never forgive himself if he let her walk away. “Because that’s not how I roll.”
“Excuse me?”
“If you think a kid of mine is going to be out there in the world for all this time without me knowing about her and then walk out of my life as casually as all that, well, that isn’t going to happen. You may not want anything from me, but I want something from you.”
“And that is?”
“I want to know you. I want you to know me. If what your mother says is true, you have five half siblings. Wouldn’t you like to know them?”
“Are you doubting the truth of what my mother said?”
“I don’t want to, but I’d be a fool to accept the word of someone I haven’t seen in more than…”
“Thirty-eight years,” she said tightly. “I’ll be thirty-nine on Wednesday.”
“I have a lot at stake here.”
“I told you. I want nothing from you.”
“Dad?” Mac asked as he approached them. He took a long measuring look at Mallory. “What’s going on?”
“Give me just a minute, son, will you please?”
“Um, sure.” Hesitantly, Mac turned and walked away.
“That’s your son.”
“My oldest, Mac Junior.”
“How old is he?”
“Thirty-seven.”
“How old are your other kids?”
The question was asked in a cool, relaxed tone, but he could see how hungry she was for information about his family. “Grant is thirty-six, Adam is thirty-four, Evan is thirty-two and my baby, Janey, just turned thirty.”
“Four boys and a girl,” she said softly. “I wondered if I might have siblings.”
“You don’t have any others?”
She shook her head. “My mom never married. I was her only child.”
“As I recall, she had a big family.”