Page 68 of Shy Girl
Was the regret for me?
“You weren't a ghost,” he continued, oblivious to the way my mind swam around from hope to despair. “You were just a spitting image of your mother.”
“You r-r-rememb-ber her?”
“I do.”
I frowned. So did he. “Perhaps not on purpose,” he amended, “and not with the best of feelings. What happened between the two of us wasn't her fault alone, and I don't blame her. But it certainly wasn't an action I can say I'm proud of now.”
The sincerity in his tone took me off guard. I couldn't help the way his words made me feel: unwanted and betrayed. He flicked the words off his tongue easily, as if he didn't care about what they really meant.
Was I the action he wasn't proud of? No. I was the result of it. His adultery led to an out-of-wedlock child. Breathing proof against his worthiness to such a lovely wife. Likely he regretted outcomes more than actions. I kept those thoughts close.
“Regardless.” He shook his head and rubbed a hand over his eyes, the first sign of humanity I'd really seen. “I saw you and wondered. You fit the age. You had a stutter. When you saw me, you looked as if you'd seen a ghost, too. You looked the way I felt. So I sent a message to my investigator and set him off to do his thing last night.”
The pieces clicked into place. So he had recognized me, then learned whatever he could. Although weird things happened every day, it seemed almost impossible that I justhappenedto come to the island where my biological father threw a massive wedding event for his daughter.
Not hisonlydaughter, however.
Had fate thrown this together? Some great, cosmic force that rolled the dice when our lives decided lessons?
“And?” I whispered.
“And he confirmed you as . . . well.” Anthony cleared his throat, but his drawn gaze eased a little. Evenhewouldn’t say the words, and that hurt. A diabolical insult to my existence. A reminder of who I would always be to him. “The confirmation was an odd feeling. I can't say I was surprised. As I mentioned, you look just like your mother. But I was . . . concerned.”
For the first time, I could see that my presence must feel like a threat to him. Did he think I came to unravel everything? To enact revenge or justice? Because he would have been right . . . at least initially. But now everything had changed again.
Perhaps he was being so pleasant now out of fear of reprisal. Even a hint of scandal at a time and place like this could unravel his daughter's most important day.
“I'm n-not here for t-trouble.”
He smiled, but clearly didn't trust me.
“No one ever is,” he said blandly, then tapped the papers below his hands. “Whether your mother told you about the situation, whether you found the NDA, or something else doesn't matter. It's clear you know what has happened between your mother and me? Do you deny this?”
My hesitation came because for the first time I realized that this whole trip was, in the heart of it, a basic assumption. Did Iknowthat the NDA was Mom's? That they'd had a one-night stand? No. The idea was based on pieced-together ideas that I'd cobbled together out of tenacity and desperation.
The moment I'd seen him standing alone on the back porch, it's like I'd realized the truth. Anthony Dunkin, oil tycoon from Texas, reallywasmy biological father. His arrival on my doorstep confirmed it.
Although the paperwork that existed had pointed that way without question, having him stand before me now made it undeniable in my heart. Something in that positive confirmation sent my soul into a spin, like doors slamming shut.
“I d-d-don't know for sure,” I said. “I’ve operated l-largely on an as-s-sumption.”
“How so?”
“I f-found the ND-DA. Sh-she doesn't know I kn-now.”
“Did you look for me?”
All my life,my heart whispered.
“Af-fter I saw it, I was c-curious. I G-googled you.”
He stared hard at me, gaze tapered, then nodded once. “Interesting,” he murmured. “Well, I’ve come to present you with a proposal of your own.”
“B-but—”
He held up a hand, and I stopped. “Please,” he said, “allow me to get through this explanation, and all your questions will be answered.”
