Tempting Taine (16 page)

Taine leaned against the balustrade of the stairs to support himself, his whole world turned upside
down
by what he had just learned.
 
His own mother had known he was a father and had deliberately kept him away from his daughter for years.
 
If he had not found the letters, they could have remained estranged forever.
 
"How could she have done such a thing?
 
How could she have hidden this from me?"
 
She had made it clear that she
didn
ot
approve of Verity, but to go to such lengths to keep them apart was immoral, untruthful, even bordering on the psychotic.

His father made a noise that was almost a groan.
 
His fingers were compulsively wringing the blanket over his knees.
 
"That was my fault, too, son.
 
We
didn't
always get along so well, your mother and me.
 
She was as stubborn as all get out, and I
wasn't
any better.
 
The fights we used to have.
 
But
she liked her women's club and her lunch gatherings too much to give up the lifestyle I could offer her.
 
And
I could never have divorced your mother.
 
It
would've
meant losing half the farm.
 
Not even Jessie Samuels was worth half the farm."

"You mean…"
 
Taine's voice trailed off into a sputter.
 
What other surprises could the world possibly have in store for him in one day?
 
He tried again.
 
"You
mean,
you and Verity's mother?"

The old man wheeled his chair back into the study and Taine followed him.
 
"Jessie Samuels was a housekeeper here for a while when her kid started school.
 
She'd
come over three afternoons a week.
 
Your mother was always off at her charity meetings or fundraising committee or suchlike.
 
I was lonely.
 
So was Jessie.
 
One thing led to another, and we ended up having an affair."

His brain
couldn't
comprehend what he was hearing.
 
"You and Verity's mother?
 
You're
joking.
 
She must be half your age."

"I'm not proud of myself for that - she was young enough to be my daughter - but I fell in love with her.
 
And she was fond of me, too, even though I was far too old for her and a married man to boot."

Taine sank down into an armchair and put his head in his hands.
 
Christ, what a mess he and his father had made of things.
 
They were a right pair of fools.

"And then Celeste found out.
 
It was inevitable, really, with the risks Jessie and I were taking to be together.
 
A catastrophe waiting to happen.
 
She hit the roof.
 
I have never seen any woman as angry as she was.
 
She fired Jessie on the spot and threatened to divorce me."
 
His voice broke, and he had to clear his throat before continuing.
 
"I couldn't have that.
 
I had to promise I would never see Jessie again before she would let the matter drop.
 
And I kept my word."

The vicious fights between his parents.
 
The brooding silences that lasted for weeks.
 
The poisoned atmosphere in the house.
 
The knowledge that his parents disliked, maybe even despised each other.
 
This had been his world when he was a boy.
 
It was one of the reasons he had left the country once he had finished his schooling, so he did not have to suffer his parents' unhappiness alongside them both.
 
That, and the fact that Verity had left a whole in his heart so big he
wasn't
sure it would ever mend.
  
"You never considered leaving Mom?"

"The farm."
 
His father's voice broke on the words.
 
"I couldn't lose half the farm."

Taine shook his head.
 
What was a piece of land compared with love?
 
As a young man, he would gladly have given away the entire place if it had meant keeping Verity.
 
A mere farm was nothing.
 
He would have given the entire world for her.

"Then you turned up with Verity in tow, looking so much in love.
 
Just like Jessie and I had been.
 
Poor Celeste.
 
She
couldn't
stand it.
 
The mother had stolen away her husband, and now the daughter was threatening to steal away her son.
 
I think she went a bit crazy that day."

"That awful lunch.
 
I just about died of embarrassment.
 
For years I wondered whether that had been why Verity left me."

"The poor Samuels kid.
 
She never stood a chance.
 
Not against Celeste.
 
And
the worst of it was that I couldn't even speak up in her defense.
 
The more I tried to protect her, the angrier and more irrational Celeste became.
 
For all her faults, she loved you dearly and only wanted to protect you."

"So she hid Verity's letters to me, knowing all along what they contained.
 
That I was a father."
 
The bitterness he felt towards his mother showed in his voice.
 
"God preserve me from a love like that."

"She did what she thought best for you."

"No, she did what she thought best for
her
."
 
The hand holding the unopened letters shook a little.
 
"I don't believe she thought for a moment of my happiness.
 
Not for a single moment.
 
She watched me break my heart over Verity and she never said a word."

"You were pregnant when you left me."
 
He had not been able to wait a second longer for Verity, but had jumped into his car and paced up and down outside the hospital entrance for several hours until she finished work.
 
As soon as she appeared in the doorway, he strode across the parking lot towards her.
 

She stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of him, not even noticing that she was standing right in the middle of a puddle and the water was leaking in over the tops of her shoes.
 
"What do you want?"

How much heartache had he caused her?
 
How many sleepless nights?
 
How many years had he wasted without her?
 
Taking her by the arm, he steered her towards his jeep.
 
"You were pregnant when you left me."

She shrugged off his arm.
 
"Of course I was.
 
That can hardly have come as a surprise to you.
 
You don't have a baby without being pregnant first."

"Come with me for a moment.
 
I have something in the truck I want to show you."

She shuffled her feet on the spot, clearly unwilling to go with him.
 
"Will it take long?
 
I'm in a hurry to get home."

To get home to her daughter.
 
To
their
daughter.
 
The daughter he
had been robbed
of knowing.
 
"Only a minute."

She made a huffing noise and followed him to the truck.
 
"Well?
 
What is it?"

"Get in."

She clambered in and stretched her legs out in front of her, making another huffing noise when she realized how wet her shoes were.
 
"So, what is it?
 
You have exactly one minute and then I'm out of here."

He climbed into the driver's seat and tossed the opened envelope into her lap.
 
"I found this today."

Her face paled.
 
"So?
 
I don't have time for a trip down memory lane."

"I might interest you to know that before today I had never seen the letter or the photographs inside."
 
Then he tossed the other eight, unopened envelopes on to her lap.
 
"I also found these.
 
In my mother's writing desk.
 
Would you care to explain what is in them?
 
Or shall I guess?"

Hr face went so white that for a moment he thought she was going to pass out.
 
After a few seconds of shocked silence, she took a deep breath.
 
"So, you didn't read the first letter and you never even opened my letters after the first one.
 
I guess you
really
weren't cut out to be a father."

"Correction.
 
My
mother
never opened your letters after the first one.
 
I never got to see any of them at all."

She looked up at him then, her eyes dark in her pale face.
 
What she saw in his face made her blink.
 
"You didn't know about Aroha, then?"

"Not until two hours ago.
 
I had no idea I was a father.
 
None at all."

She shook her head slowly from side to side, comprehension dawning slowly on her face.
 
"How can that be?
 
No one ever told you?"

"Who
would
have told me?
 
My mother was the only one who knew, and she deliberately kept my daughter's existence a secret from me."

A flash of anger burned through her eyes.
 
"She's
my
daughter.
 
Not yours.
 
You never even knew she existed before today."

"Not by my choice," he reminded her.

"Whatever.
 
It makes no difference."

There was silence in the truck as both of them digested the new reality.

"So, what now?"
Verity said with forced brightness.
 
He could hear the brittleness in her voice, as though she would shatter into a million pieces with the slightest knock.

"I'd like to meet her.
 
Aroha."
 
My daughter, he thought, but did not say aloud.

"She doesn't know who you are."

He sucked in a deep breath.
 
Of
course
she would not know.
 
"What have you told her about her father?
 
About me?"

Verity's face turned a little pink around the edges.
 
"Nothing really.
 
A bunch of silly stories.
 
One day you were a magician from the future, and the next day you were a
taniwha
from the bottom of the lake.
 
I don't know how she will take the reality."

She was
stalling for time
, but he could not accept any delay.
 
"You have to introduce us.
 
I've
missed so much time with her already.
 
I'm not prepared to miss any more."

"Now?"
 
She looked as though she would rather face a firing squad.

"Yeah, now.
 
I was tempted to go straight to your house and meet her right away but I figured that
wasn't
fair on you.
 
I've been waiting for hours for you to get out of work so we could go see her together."

Verity's shoulders slumped as if she knew she was beaten.
 
"Let's go, then."

He started the engine and put the truck into gear.
 
"Who looks after Aroha when she gets home from school?
 
She's too young for you to leave her alone."
 
He wanted to know everything about his daughter, but he did not know where to start.