“Yes, sir. My pleasure.” Smiling, she took Rhett and returned to the kitchen.
Carly couldn’t handle being alone with Mitch. “I don’t th—”
He held up a hand to silence her. “We have a lot of ground to cover, beginning with Marlene’s death.”
Carly barely had time to grasp that info before Mitch continued.
“Frank Lewis located the car that hit Marlene. The driver, a college kid, admitted he’d been switching CDs and not looking at the road. When he hit Marlene, he panicked and left the scene because he’d had a few beers. When he heard she died, he was afraid to come forward because he knew he’d face jail time. He stashed the car and only recently took it to a shop for repairs. Frank turned the evidence over to the police.”
“Thank you. My parents and I needed answers. I’m sorry for the boy, but I’m also glad your father wasn’t involved.”
“So am I. Not just because of the legal hassle, but because I needed to know he wasn’t such an unfeeling bastard that he’d murder someone—the mother of his child, for godsakes—for pissing him off.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. Tension radiated from every abrupt, tight movement, but his unwavering gaze held hers. “I’ve racked my brain to find a way to prove that I love you and that I have no intention of using you to gain custody of Rhett or taking him away from you to get my hands on my inheritance. I’m ashamed to admit that was my original plan. It isn’t anymore. I was selfishly thinking of what I wanted, what I needed, and I never considered who would be hurt in the process. Although I honestly believed you’d tire of playing mommy and want your freedom.”
“I would never do that.”
“I know that now.” He dropped his files on the coffee table and closed his fingers around her upper arms. His warm grasp contrasted with the cold she felt inside.
“I don’t want to lose you, Carly. I don’t want to go back to being the ice man you so rightly accused me of being, and I don’t want to be a heartless SOB like my father.”
“Mitch—”
“Hear me out.”
She had no choice unless she used her self-defense training, kneed him in the groin, broke free and ran. But where would she go?
“The only way I can think of to prove that it’s you I want and not this pile of rocks or a bunch of ships is to renounce my inheritance.”
She gasped. That he wanted her more than this estate or the company he lived for made her eyes sting and her heart well with hope. “You can’t do that.”
He grimaced. “Right. I can’t do that. Because I can’t selfishly walk away and screw my sister and brothers out of what they deserve. I won’t cost them their inheritance.”
He released her and picked up the top file. “You’ll find the paperwork in here dividing my share of my father’s estate between Rhett, Rand and Nadia, but that can’t go into effect until this year is over and the terms of the will have been met.”
He tried to thrust the documents into her hands, but she refused to accept them. “Take it.”
“Mitch, you can’t do this. I won’t let you.”
“I can do whatever the hell I want with my share. It’s not against the law to give it away and no one will be hurt.”
“You’ll be hurt.”
“If it proves my love for you, I’d happily give it all away.”
He loved her. He’d said it before, but this time she believed he meant it. Her heart blipped irregularly.
“This is your legacy, Mitch. Your future. It’s the last thing your father gave to you.”
“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter. Not without you.” Looking frustrated, he tossed the file back on the table and swiped that hand down his face. He paced a few steps away, pivoted and retraced his path. After huffing a deep breath, he picked up the manila envelope and offered it to her.
She kept her hands by her sides. “If that’s more of the same, I don’t want it.”
“It’s not. I can’t give you your daughter back. I can’t erase twelve years of second-guessing your decision. But I can tell you her name, show you her smile and let you hear a recording of her laughter. I can tell you her life story to date.”
Carly had never fainted in her life. She came close now. Spots dotted her vision. She staggered back a step and took huge gulps of air. A tremor started in her legs and worked its way upward until her entire body shook.
She stared at the envelope Mitch held, torn between wanting to rip it open and greedily soak up every detail of her daughter’s existence and terrified by what she’d discover.
She thrust her arms behind her back.
Mitch frowned. “I thought you’d want this.”
Her breath hiccupped three times. “I do. But I—I don’t.”
She shook her head. “What if I made a mistake? What if she’s unhappy or neglected or unloved? How could I live with myself knowing I’d ruined her life?”
“You didn’t.”
She clung to those words and searched his eyes for the truth. “How do you know?”
“I had Frank Lewis find her.”
“I don’t think that’s legal.”
He sighed. “Probably not. But giving her up has haunted you. I wanted to put your mind at ease.”
As far as gifts went, this topped the necklace for being the most perfect thing she’d ever received. But she couldn’t accept it. She grasped the golden Rhett charm in her fingers and brushed her thumb over the smooth surface.
“You did the right thing, Carly.”
“You’re sure?” Her eyes burned. She blinked them furiously and focused on Mitch’s face instead of the envelope that could answer what felt like a lifetime of questions.
“I’m sure.” He backed her toward the chair closest to the fireplace. “Sit.”
She did, not because she liked following orders, but because her knees were ready to buckle. Until her fingernails bit into her triceps she didn’t realize she’d wrapped her arms around her chest and hugged herself.
Mitch opened the flap and extracted a single typed page.
She quickly averted her face and covered her eyes. “Wait. Stop. I can’t contact her or see her. I would never disrupt her life like that.”
“No. You can’t and you won’t. I had Frank delete any contact information from his records. So even if you wanted to go too far, you couldn’t.”
She sought Mitch’s eyes again. “Just tell me one thing. Is she happy?”
Mitch looked inside the envelope. “Yes. Do you want to see her picture?”
“Yes. No!” She wrestled temptation. “No, it’s better not to know, better not to search for her in every crowd. I do that enough already without knowing what she looks like.”
“Would you like to know her name?”
The push-pull for answers continued. A name wouldn’t hurt. She nodded. “Just her first name.”
“Her name is Katherine. She goes by Katie.”
“Katie.” She rolled the name around on her tongue. Her little girl’s name was Katie. A sob punched its way up her throat.
“She’s not alone, Carly. She has parents who love her and a younger sister who’s also adopted.”
Maybe Katie’s sister would be there for her the way Marlene had always been for Carly. For several moments, she was too choked up to speak. “Thank you.”
“Do you want to see the rest?”
It took a minute to find the strength to do the right thing—the right thing for Katie. But she finally shook her head.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. It’s enough to know Katie’s happy.”
He extracted another sheet from the envelope and offered it to her. Carly leaned back and squeezed her eyes shut. It wasn’t easy when she wanted to know so much.
“It’s a list of addresses of the agencies that help connect birth parents with the children they relinquished. I’ll help you sign up. And then after Katie’s eighteen, if she ever wants to find you, she can.”
She opened her eyes and accepted the list. The page rattled in her hand. She hugged it to her chest and blurted, “Burn it.”
Mitch stiffened. “The file?”
“Yes. Please, Mitch. I’m strong enough to do the right thing now. I might not always be.”
After a moment’s hesitation he crossed to the fireplace, extracted a match from the brass holder and struck it into flame. His gaze caught hers, waiting. Carly nodded, and Mitch set the match to the corner of the envelope.
Fire licked upward, consuming secrets best left untold. For Katie’s sake.
Mitch dropped the burning pile onto the grate and returned to Carly’s side. He knelt by the chair, rested one hand on Carly’s knee and the other on her shoulder. Together they watched the last bits of paper curl into ash and the microcassette warp and melt.
When it was over, he cradled her face and wiped her wet cheeks with his thumbs. His eyes met hers, and the love and approval she saw in the deep green depths filled her with hope.
“You did the right thing, Carly,” he repeated.
She couldn’t hear those words often enough. And whether Mitch meant today or twelve years ago didn’t matter. A smoldering ember of happiness flickered to life deep inside her.
“Marry me, Carly. Not for the inheritance. Not for Rhett. Marry me because you’ve taught me how to do the right thing. And let me love you. Because of you I finally know how.”
Air stuttered from her lungs, forced out by the emotions expanding inside her. She cupped his face and brushed her thumb over his mouth. He kissed the tip.
“You always knew how, Mitch. You’ve been putting your family first all along. I love you, too. Yes, I’ll marry you. For Rhett’s sake. But mostly for mine.”
Epilogue
Ten months later
“W hat’s that?” Carly asked as she approached the double lounger where Mitch reclined on the back deck of the island villa he’d rented for their honeymoon.
He tossed the envelope on the table and checked out Carly’s curves in the tiny bikini he’d bought her this morning. Oh yeah. He wanted some of that.Her knowing smile reminded him he hadn’t answered her question. “It’s a letter from my father. The attorney gave it to me before we left Miami. I’ll read it later. Right now I have better things to do, like starting our honeymoon off with a bang. Literally. And for that I need you nak*d.”
He winked and reached for the string tying her top at her nape. “This cottage is isolated enough that no one will see if you stay nak*d for the duration of our stay.”
She grinned but swatted his hand away. “I will if you will, but first, the letter. We waited nine months for this honeymoon. I’m sure you’re man enough to wait five more minutes.”
Her challenge made him smile. The woman did love issuing challenges. Anticipation hummed through his veins. He and Carly had married in her church within two weeks of her accepting his proposal the second time, and he still couldn’t get enough of her. The year required by the terms of his father’s will had finally ended, and they’d wasted no time in turning Rhett over to his grandparents for some serious spoiling and jumping on a chartered jet. They’d officially kicked off their honeymoon an hour later—in the mile-high club.