Page 54 of Destiny

“Only she can answer those questions,” Jemima says. “Dr. Parks is on rounds at the hospital now, but she’ll be back when she can. You know where I am if you need anything.”

Since Michaela has moved into the normal wing of the house, staying in one of the guest bedrooms, until this thing with Wendy is resolved, the staff wing has become the hospital wing.

“I don’t know what you think she’s going to tell you,” Dad says. “She’s lied her whole life. Spent most of her life in disguise. She’s a mastermind criminal. The woman won’t tell you the truth.”

Wendy’s eyes flutter open. “I’ve always told you the truth, my son.”

Dad doesn’t react to her waking up. Was he expecting it?

“Oh? Have you?” He scoffs. “All those years when you were an investigative journalist, all those years knowing you were my mother, but you never said anything. Not until it suited you to do so.”

“I wasn’t lying, was I?”

“Lying by omission is still lying, Wendy,” he says.

Lying by omission. The words strike me in my gut. That’s why Brendan is so angry…and I don’t blame him. I lied by omission when I didn’t tell him that my family paid for his damages.

Dad continues, “Plus, you knew my mother and father—”

“Your father and Daphne,” she says. “I’myour mother, Ryan.”

Dad narrows his eyes. “Only genetically. All those years you knew my mother and father were alive, living on that island. You knew what was happening on the adjacent island as well. The island that my father sold to that horrid corporation. Which turned out to be…” Dad shakes his head. “How can one individual be so sick?”

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for my children.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me I had a sister?”

“You never asked me, Ryan.”

“This is all such bullshit. My daughter here”—he looks at me with love in his brown eyes—“this very sweet soul, thinks there’s something of value we can learn from you. I’ve tried to tell her that’s ridiculous, but she’s her own person, my Ava. She wants to give you the benefit of the doubt despite everything she knows about you. And shedoesknow everything. Ruby and I told her the truth about what happened twenty-five years ago.”

Wendy’s lips curve slightly. “Then that says something for me, doesn’t it?”

“Why did you reach out to me?” I ask.

She turns her head, looks at me. “Because you’re my granddaughter, Ava.”

“Okay, but why? You have another granddaughter. You have Gina. You have Lauren’s son, Jack. You have Pat Lamone.”

“I reached out to Pat also.”

“Yes, but you reached out to me first. Me…and the Murphys.”

“It will all become apparent soon.”

“Why don’t you just tell me?”

“Ava, I’m an old woman. There’s a reason why I checked myself into the hospital and a reason why I revealed certain things to Pat so he would come visit me.”

“Are you ready to tell me why?”

“I am. First I need to tell you a story.”

“For God’s sake, Wendy.” Dad huffs.

“Will you ever call me Mother, Ryan?”

“I did once. Don’t you remember?”

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