Chapter Eight #3
“The truth?” he asked, stalling to give himself time to collect his thoughts for a conversation that would undoubtedly prove difficult. Those secrets had been a heavy weight on the shoulders of a man who prided himself on honesty and honor.
“About my biological parents.” Her eyes were clear, her tone steely. “No more delaying. Tell me now, or I’m never going to talk to you again.”
There was no missing the vehemence in her voice. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest in a protective hug as she bit down on her lip. Ryder could feel fear and anger radiate from her in waves.
She’d asked in the past, but never pushed. They’d done a kind of dance with the subject, her pressing, then backing away as if she was afraid of the truth.
And there was reason to be wary, the same reason he’d held back telling her until she was old enough to handle the truth. But she was eighteen now, no denying that.
He took her hands in his and thought back to the first time he’d held her and she’d wrapped him around her little finger. He loved all of his children equally, but he’d always felt more protective of his little girl. He wished he could spare her the heartache the truth about her mother might bring.
“Before I start, I want you to know how much I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dad.” She squeezed his hands. “Now quit stalling.” Brows lowering, she fixed him with a stare he recognized. His stare. The one he used to signal he meant business.
“Your biological grandfather was a man named Sam. Eighteen years ago, he showed up on my doorstep out of the blue one night. Sam’s daughter was barely twenty and she’d just given birth to a sickly—” his voice hitched “—but so very beautiful baby girl.”
“And my father?”
Here was where things started getting tougher.
“He abandoned your mother.” He paused for a moment to let that part soak in before continuing.
“Your mother was in no position to be a mother. Sam talked her into letting him find a good home for the baby. He said his daughter vowed she loved her baby but knew she couldn’t care for a child.
He provided documents from both your biological mother and father that signed away their rights to you. ”
She deflated, tears streaming down her face, her body shaking from the impact of the news.
This was a story he wished he never had to burden her with, but he knew she had the right to know.
It didn’t make the telling any easier, though.
He’d give anything to take away the pain snaking its way onto Maya’s face. To stop the quiver in her lips.
And his gut knotted since there was still a second shoe to drop once his daughter found out her mother was someone she knew.
“Maya, honey, I’m sorry.” He wanted to gather her into a hug and promise everything would be all right, the way he’d done when she was growing up.
When she’d trusted him to fight those battles for her.
“Sam was drunk three-quarters of the time and had gambled away anything left of the family money.”
“But why did he choose you?” The sentence came out in a rasp. A voice of a much younger Maya cracking through as a sob racked her.
It broke him.
“Harrington York—Sterling Perry’s father-in-law—willed me a small parcel of land. Land that Sam swore York had promised to him one day. But the land went to me and that was the start of my oil business.”
Ryder hated to paint her biological grandfather in a bad light, but Maya wanted to know the truth and he wouldn’t lie to her any longer.
“Sam harbored a grudge against the Perrys and me because of that. He told me that I owed him for what happened and this was my chance to repay him by making sure the baby was raised by a wealthy family in a closed private adoption.”
As much as Ryder had hated the way the man had gone about things, he couldn’t let Havery walk out the door with that infant. The man couldn’t be trusted. Ryder hadn’t cared about anything else but making sure the baby had a good home.
That she felt loved. Damn it, that still was the only thing that mattered to him in all of this.
He took a deep breath and finished the story. “Sam swore that his daughter—Tatiana Havery—didn’t want to know where you went.”
“Tatiana Havery?” Maya’s face crumpled as the name sank in, as she realized that her birth mother was someone who moved in their world and their lives.
Her shoulders shook harder, sobs racking her. Ryder opened his arms and—thank God—she flew into his hug without hesitation to cry it out. A lump lodged in his throat, too, and neither of them said a word until her tears slowed.
Then she eased back, swiping her wrists under her eyes. “Thank you for telling me, Dad. I’m going to need some time to digest all of this.”
Feeling helpless to right this for his child, Ryder watched her rush away, her red hair rippling behind her, hair she’d inherited from her mother. Sighing hard, Ryder sagged back in the chair. He hoped he hadn’t lost Maya forever for not telling her the truth sooner.
This whole situation had spun out of control so damn quickly. He rubbed a hand over his suit jacket lapel, still damp from his daughter’s tears.
He didn’t like or trust Tatiana one bit.
But she was also Angela’s best friend. And he’d been keeping Maya’s parentage a secret from her, too, even when they were engaged, since Tatiana herself was unaware that Maya was hers.
If Ryder wanted to have a real chance at a future with Angela, he couldn’t hold back about that any longer.
He just prayed it wouldn’t be the end of them.
Time was definitely running out for him to tell Angela that eighteen years ago he’d adopted Tatiana’s child. And he had to pray Angela and his daughter would understand.
Because he loved them both too much to lose either of them.