Chapter 15 #2
“Well, I knew his name was Murphy for most of my life, but my mother only let his last name slip once when I was nine and I wrote it in my diary. I also knew he was married and had other children.” She rushes out an explanation in an attempt to placate Liam.
I think she’s misunderstanding his anger.
“How is that even possible?” Liam demands.
Cami sheepishly looks away as she answers him, “My understanding is that I was the result of a brief affair between my mother and your, uh, our, uh … father.”
“No, that I absolutely understand and believe.” Liam waves his hand in front of his face. “We all know about our father’s history. But how did none of us know about you? Does our father know about you?” Liam presses.
“I can’t believe he had any idea whatsoever.
That’s not the man that raised us, even in his worst moments, he wouldn’t keep you away from us all these years like some terrible secret.
This doesn’t make any sense,” I ramble but I think I’m in shock.
When Liam told me Cami was our half-sister, I assumed she had just recently found out.
But she was out there struggling and knew about us?
“No, Mama wouldn’t have allowed that either, even considering … well, the delicate situation.” Liam grimaces.
Cami shrugs slightly. “I don’t have all the answers.
I only know what my mother told me before …
before she…” Her eyes moisten as she shakes her head, as though the movement will keep the tears at bay.
“And after, there wasn’t really anyone around that had those answers either, or even really just around. ”
“After what, Cami?” My voice is so gentle it’s almost a whisper.
“After my mom died.”
Liam folds his hands on the dining room table.
“I looked into you, it’s nothing personal, it’s what I do.
” That’s a massive understatement. He casually looks into people all the time, but when his hunch about who Cami could possibly be was confirmed, he looked into anything and everything related to Cameron Maura Walsh.
“You’ve had a file with Connecticut Family Services since you were twelve years old. ”
“Yeah. After she died, I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I became a ward of the state. That’s where her last traveling nurse job had moved us to about six months before everything happened, so that’s where I ended up.”
She means that’s when she entered foster care, where she would go on to be shuffled amongst fourteen different foster homes in the six years she was a ward of the state.
Four of the homes she was placed in are no longer eligible for foster placements due to unsafe conditions, including but not limited to child abuse and neglect.
I might be sick. She’s twenty years younger than me, and even if for some Godforsaken reason our mother wouldn’t have taken her in—a scenario that would never have happened in the first place—I could have protected her from that.
“One of my siblings was left alone and had to enter foster care?” My face is deceptively calm as I’ve slid the mask on to control my shit, but my tone is grave.
“Were you okay? I mean, what the fuck? How the hell didn’t we know this, Liam?
” My anger slips but is directed at Liam.
Cami’s soft voice interrupts my fury. “I guess, technically that statement is true, but you didn’t know about me, and all I knew was that I had siblings somewhere out there.
” She shrugs. “So, I kept my head down, tried not to get in any trouble, and started saving money from the moment I turned sixteen and could get a job. That money saved, paired with what little my mother had in savings, bought me Cherry and freedom.”
“Why didn’t you come to us or contact our dad?” Liam presses.
She shakes her head. “It wasn’t that easy. He was never on my birth certificate, and I didn’t know where you lived. I was just a kid.”
A sigh escapes me. She just turned twenty-one the other month, so to me, she’s still a kid. “When did you find out where we were?”
“About a year and a half ago I had saved up enough to hire a private investigator to find your dad and see if I really did have siblings out there. I’ve always thought it would be neat to have a brother or a sister.”
“Neat … and that's why you moved to Forrest Falls,” I say softly as she nods.
“Yeah, I was curious what you were all like, but it all became too hard and too much. I kept telling myself that next week I’ll speak up.
Or tomorrow I’ll say something to one of you.
But I never found the courage.” She looks ashamed but she has no reason to be.
She’s been alone for almost a decade. Cami is strong and resilient—but she no longer needs to face life alone.
Liam hums. “Have you met our father?”
She softly shakes her head again. “No, that’s one interaction I’ve been able to avoid. Word on the street is he only likes the coffee from The Forrest Falls Diner,” she adds with a tight smile.
“He is a creature of habit, that’s for sure,” Liam chimes in but keeps his face as neutral as possible.
I need to know everything—and what she is hoping for here.
“What was your goal in coming to Forrest Falls, Cami?” I ask, trying not to sound like an asshole.
It’s public knowledge that I’m a billionaire and not a huge secret around here that the entire Callahan family is more than financially secure.
One eyebrow slightly raises and she rears her head back just enough. Did I insult her by asking that?
She shakes her head softly. “I know this looks suspicious because I didn’t tell you right away, but I don’t want anything from anyone.
I just wanted to meet you guys and see …
what you were like. For all I knew, you’d all be assholes, and I would drive out of town glad I dodged the bullet of having to deal with a family like that. ”
Liam nods. “But you haven’t left town.”
“Even though some of us are clearly assholes.” I tilt my head to Liam and Cami laughs as I break the tension.
“I mean, he’s not wrong. I can be, and I’m trying really hard to process all of this, but I keep coming up with more questions than answers.”
“Like what?”
“Like why didn’t our dad know about you? Where have you been all this time? Who took care of you? Did anyone take care of you? Were you hurt in those homes? Why were you alone, and how the fuck did you end up in foster care? Have you been okay? Have you been safe?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have all of those answers, but I can say I’m okay now.” She reaches out and squeezes his hand before quickly snatching her hand back.
“No, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry we failed you. I promise if we knew about you, we never would have allowed you to be all on your own.” Liam cringes at his own words.
“He’s right. We are a lot of things—opinionated, overbearing at times, and even occasional assholes, but we would never turn our back on our family,” I say as my jaw clenches tightly.
“You guys didn’t know. I mean, I barely knew anything, so you didn’t fail me. You didn’t have the chance to fail me. And I’ve learned that family can be a choice, it’s not an automatic thing just because of some shared DNA.” She’s graciously giving us an out here.
“Yeah, well, now we have a choice because that was before and this is now,” I say as another gust of wind howls through the night and Cherry sways a bit.
“And this,” I swirl my hand in the air, “isn’t going to work.
We have a lot of things to figure out, but we can start with the basics.
Pack what you need, but you aren’t freezing without heat on my watch. ”
She looks around her RV in confusion. “Where am I going?”
“That’s up to you, Cami. I’ll give you the option of either putting you up in a hotel room or you can come stay in one of my guest rooms. I’m only in town a few more days this week, and then I’ll be back on Christmas Eve, but you’re welcome to stay.”
She eyes me, unfiltered suspicion at my offer. “For how long?”
I can understand that she’s used to short term things, but I’m not just inviting her home for a warm place for her to sleep. Liam and I are inviting her into our family, but she doesn’t get that yet. She doesn’t understand what it means to be a part of The Cavalry, but she will.
I softly shake my head. “For as long as you need to, Cami. You’re not alone anymore.”
Liam adds, “And I’m so sorry you have been. But if you’ll have us, I promise The Cavalry always shows up for its own, without question or hesitation.”
She starts to dismiss Liam’s statement, but he cuts her off before she can voice an argument.
“Don’t deny it, Cami. I’m extremely thorough in my research, and I may have already confirmed the shared DNA,” Liam confesses.
It’s true, he confirmed that less than twelve hours after he found out her mother’s work history and the fact that she was a traveling nurse working in Forrest Falls prior to the summer when Dad’s affairs exploded in our lives.
And there are her eyes.
Cameron Walsh has felt familiar to multiple of my siblings—myself included—but we couldn’t place it.
Our sister Savannah has our mama’s cobalt eyes, but Vivian has the same vivid green eyes that our father has.
The same vivid eyes that are staring at me in disbelief across a tiny table in a chilly RV.