Page 10 of The Unforgiven
“I’m an adult, Seth. You can say anything to me.”
“Tell me about yourself. Tell me everything, from the moment you were born until today. Do you have a picture of your mother?” he asked. He clearly had no recollection of Sylvia at all.
“Seth, before I tell you anything, I need to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“I know what you said in the car, and I want to believe you, but I need to know the truth. I promise I won’t judge you or refuse to have any dealings with you. I will give you a fair chance based on the man you are today.”
Seth nodded. “Go on.”
“Did you take advantage of my mother that night? I know she might have been drunk, or drugged, but I’m fairly certain the sex wasn’t consensual, not on her part.”
Seth’s gaze slid away from Quinn, and he set down his fork. “Look, the honest truth is that I don’t know. I drank a lot in those days, and Robert wasn’t above slipping an E pill into the drinks. That was just the kind of underhanded thing he would do,which was why I never kept in touch with him after I went home. I didn’t consider him a friend. I recall waking up at Chatham Manor the next morning with a blinding headache and love bites on my neck. I clearly had unprotected sex with your mother, but I have no recollection of the act itself. If I did anything to hurt her, then I’m genuinely sorry. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I would have been, had I known.”
Quinn shook her head in dismay. After speaking to four men who’d slept with Sylvia around the time Quinn was conceived, she was no closer to the truth of what had happened that night. She supposed she’d never really know. The only thing she knew for sure was that Sylvia and Seth had made a baby, and it was her.
“I had a good life, Seth, and wonderful adoptive parents who loved me like I was their own. I couldn’t have asked for a better mum and dad.”
“I’m glad of it. At least we didn’t ruin your life, as we so easily could have. My son says at least once a week that I ruined his life,” Seth joked and reached for another beignet.
“Seth, tell me about your family. As far back as you can.”
Seth pushed away his plate and leaned back in his chair. “I only know what I’ve been told, and I leafed through the documents when I retrieved them from the safe this morning. My grandfather was big on family history, but I didn’t much care, at least not while he was still alive. My father wasn’t interested either. He started the trucking company and built it up from two moving vans to a million-dollar concern. Don’t be fooled by the shabby office. We own more than two hundred trucks and make deliveries all over the country. Besson Trucking Limited is a very successful business.”
Quinn nodded. She had no wish to talk about trucking, but the company was clearly Seth’s passion, so she rearranged her face into an expression of polite interest.
“I more than doubled our fleet and brought in some lucrative contracts. Dad welcomed my ideas and supported mebringing in new technology. Until then everything was recorded manually in the logbooks and everyone paid by check. Now it’s all electronic. It’s a beautiful thing.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“Brett wants to go into sports medicine. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass—pardon my French—about the business. He’ll probably sell the lot before the ink dries on my death certificate.”
“I’m sorry. Kids rarely want to follow in their parents’ footsteps these days.”
“Are your parents academics?” Seth asked.
“No. My mum worked as a secretary before I came along, and Dad was a civil engineer.”
“And Sylvia?”
“Sylvia was a teacher.”
Seth nodded. “Well, I tell you, I never had much interest in history, ours or anyone else’s. I liked math and science, and majored in business and finance at school. Never even picked up a historical novel, besides the ones I had to read for school.A Tale of Two Cities,” he said, shaking his head. “What did I care about the French Revolution?”
“Isn’t Besson a French name?” Quinn asked, hoping to redirect Seth to the subject of family history.
“Yes, it is.”
“So your ancestors came from France?” Quinn prompted. Most likely, they would have been affected by the French Revolution, but Seth didn’t seem to see the connection.
“Are you finished?” Seth asked, looking at Quinn’s still-full plate.
“Yes. I actually had something at the hotel.”
“Let’s go in the living room and I’ll show you all the information I have. It isn’t much. Granddad donated all the documents to the museum, including the family tree. It hangs in the foyer.”
“The museum?” Quinn asked.
