Page 35 of Rufus

“One of them?” she prompted cagily, still not sure how much Rufus knew.

“Linus is convinced that your mother has abducted other babies over the last thirty years. He believes they could have been sold to couples wealthy enough to pay her price. Let’s hope it’s nothing more nefarious than that, because from the increasing deposits made into her offshore bank account, it could possibly be as many as two babies a year,” Rufus bit out.

Molly was horrified. She had suspected something like this after her conversation with Serena Jenkins earlier today. But she couldn’t even begin to absorb the number of babies Rufus was now saying her mother had taken.

“Is that what happened with Ronan?” Her mother had implied as much earlier, but Molly had refused to give her the satisfaction of asking for details.

“We believe so,” Rufus answered her. “Linus used the dates and times you gave me to trace Ronan’s origins and disappearance back to Northern Ireland. I have every confidence that by the end of the day, Linus will have also discovered exactly who adopted Ronan.”

“His real parents need that information. I only need to know he’s safe and happy.” It was all she had ever wanted to know in regard to Mia too.

But once she’d met the other woman, it had been impossible not to stay and enjoy her friendship for a few weeks or months.

“I had only begun to guess at some of this before today,” she told Rufus awkwardly.

“But your mother confirmed it when the two of you spoke earlier?”

“Some of it, yes,” she admitted.

His eyes glittered. “And you didn’t think all this should have been the first thing you told me when I walked in the door earlier?”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Molly avoided looking at the accusation she knew would be in Rufus’s eyes. “I didn’t expect to see you before I left. But I did have every intention of telling you all that I know in the letter I was going to leave.”

“That’s something I suppose!”

“Rufus, please?—”

“Unfortunately for you, I decided to come here to see you after Linus told me your mother was currently in England.”

“Don’t ever call her that again!” Molly shuddered. “She was never a good mother to me, but what I now know about her makes me want to scrub every bit of her DNA from my body.”

Rufus’s narrowed gaze lingered on her packed bag leaning against one of the chairs before he turned to look at her accusingly. “You really were just going to write that letter and leave?”

“Yes.”

He gave a weary shake of his head. “Which tells me you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

“We’ve had one night together, Rufus, and you haven’t exactly been eager to bare your soul to me either!”

He winced. “That isn’t true, on my part, at least. I’ve told you more, shared more of myself with you, than I have with anyone else during the last twenty-two years.”

He had, Molly realized when she thought of some of their conversations. “And I’m so grateful for your trust in me. I really am. It’s the reason I decided I couldn’t bear to see your face when you learned the truth about me.”

“I still don’t know all of it,” he scorned. “For instance, I have no idea what possible reason you could have had for coming to work at the animal shelter in the first place.”

She released a shuddering breath. “I wanted to see Mia for myself, to know if she truly was who I thought she was.”

“And who was that?”

“The baby sister I cared for so lovingly for three months.” Molly choked out her words.

“You cared for her?”

She nodded. “My mother was never very…maternal. She couldn’t stand it when the baby cried, so I did all that I could to ensure Emily was too contented to become a bother.”

“You were the one who fed and looked after Mia?” he prompted incredulously.

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