Page 49 of Pulse
“How long were she and your dad together?” he asks.
“Not long.” I gaze up at Troy. “My mother was working in a tailor’s shop, and my dad brought a jacket to be hemmed. He says he fell in love with her at first sight. Her letter said he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.”
“Her letter?”
“Yeah.” I kick a glob of sand, watching it land with a splat a few yards down the beach. “I never knew I had a father. She would say that my father loved me very much but had to go. She’d get emotional about it when I brought it up, so I didn’t. I assumed he’d died.”
Troy shoves his hands in his pockets. “How did you find out about him?”
“Well, it turns out that they were in contact all of my life.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.” I shrug. “My dad’s dad, so my grandfather, founded Dallo Metalworks. Apparently, he wasn’t quite an upstanding citizen or a nice guy. When my mom found out she was pregnant, they panicked. Neither of them wanted me raised with anything to do with my grandfather. My dad said we still wouldn't be safe, even if he left with my mother and moved to the other side of the world.”
“Your granddad was that bad?”
“That’s what they say.”
“So what happened? Your dad just walked away from you and your mom?”
I consider the question. It’s not that easy.
“Kind of, I guess,” I say. “Mom didn’t want to abort me or put me up for adoption. And my dad didn’t want her to do that either. So the only way they could guarantee that I wasn’t indanger from one of my grandfather’s schemes was for him to never know I existed. Foranyoneto know I existed.”
His forehead pulls together. “So why did your dad come into your life now? If it’s so dangerous, and it still is because we’re here, why did he change course after all these years?”
“My grandfather died. I think I was thirteen or fourteen. My father inherited the company. It took him a few years to clean it up and make it more … legitimate, I guess. By the time he was ready to figure out how to come into my life, my mom got sick.”
“You’d think that was the perfect time to come into your life. He could’ve helped you cope.”
“Maybe. Or he might have just inserted himself at a time when I needed to make as many memories with her as I could because her illness was terminal. Depends on how you look at it.”
He nods his head, shuffling his feet through the water.
My heart hurts as I think of the pain my mom must’ve endured. Losing a man I believe she loved with all her heart—that’s why she never dated or married. Dying young with a daughter barely in her twenties with no other family except a father she didn’t know. She must’ve been terrified at the end and lonely in the middle.
I hate that for her. So much.
“But whynow?” Troy asks.
I sigh. “When Mom was sick, and at the end of her life, she saw my dad. She asked him to see her, and he did. She wrote me a letter and gave it to him to give me if he ever thought the time was right to come into my life. The letter contained things that only she knew, and it was in her handwriting. It spelled out what happened between them and said that if Joseph Dallo handed me this letter, I could trust him. That she wanted me to.” I smile sadly. “She told me once that a letter might appear one day written on her mother’s rose stationery. And if it did, I shouldread it. I didn’t know what that meant until my father handed me her letter.”
“I’m just throwing this out there,” he says carefully. “Do you find it ironic that he stayed out of your life because it wasn’t safe for over twenty years, and when he decided to make contact with you, someone threatened your life?”
I can’t deny it. That’sexactlywhat it looks like. But my gut tells me it’s not him, and I always trust my gut.
“It is ironic,” I admit. “But I think it’s a coincidence.”
Troy sighs in frustration.
“What would he gain from threatening to kill me?” I ask. “I talk to him all the time. We have a solid relationship.”
“You just met the guy.”
“I just met you, and I trust you won’t kill me. What’s the difference?”
He stops himself from answering.
