CHAPTER THREE
Harry closed himself into his bedroom upstairs. Party guests were gathered outside the window in the backyard, but they were all a blur. Scrolling through Amelia’s list of contacts, he found Mom and pressed the call button with a shaking hand.
Molly picked up after one ring. “Amelia? Is everything okay, sweetie?”
The shock of hearing her voice after so many years of hearing it only in his dreams made him momentarily speechless. “It’s not Amelia. It’s Harry. Harry Sullivan.”
Molly went so silent on the other end that he almost thought their connection had been severed. Obviously stunned, she asked, “How do you have Amelia’s phone?”
“She found me.” He barely recognized his own voice, it was so strangled with repressed fury and frustration. “She’s here in the city.”
Molly gasped. “Amelia is in the city?” Shock reverberated through every word.
“She took a bus here. Five hours. All by herself.” Just saying the words riled him up all over again. “Anything could have happened to her.”
“She took the bus to the city?” He could hear how shaken she was. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, thank God.”
“Put her on. I need to talk to my daughter.”
“Our daughter. And I’ll put her on as soon as you and I are done.” His gut was churning as he said, “Why the hell did you hide my daughter from me?” He could no longer pretend to keep his cool. “How could you do that to me? And to her?”
“Wait…what are you saying?” She sounded completely confused, even more than she’d been when he’d told her who was calling. “How could you possibly think Amelia is your daughter?”
“She read your old diary, Molly. She read what you wrote about me.”
“I did write about you and how we dated, but I never said you were her father. You’re not. You can’t be.”
He couldn’t believe she was trying to deny it. “I have proof. She took a DNA test, and I showed up as matching fifty percent of her genetic markers.”
“You might have a piece of paper that says that, but it has to be wrong. Some kind of horrible joke someone is playing on her. She’s never been bullied before, but maybe something has changed at school that I don’t know about. Maybe she mentioned your name to someone after reading my diary and they thought it would be funny to mail her false test results.”
Whatever Harry had expected, it wasn’t this. Not just an out-and-out denial, but Molly’s utter refusal that he was Amelia’s father. Worse still, she was somehow managing to plant doubts in his head, even though he was holding the DNA test result.
“Finding out I have a teenage daughter is no joke.”
“Of course it isn’t, but I’m telling you, it’s not possible.”
“She’s mine, Molly.” Hadn’t his father said Amelia had his eyes, his mouth? And hadn’t she fit right in with his siblings, as though she’d always been a part of the family? Always been a Sullivan? “Mine.”
Molly made a frustrated sound into the phone. “I need to come get Amelia, and once I’m there, we’ll figure out how she could have gotten her hands on this mistaken DNA test result.”
“It’s no mistake,” he insisted. “The timing of everything is exactly right—it’s been fifteen years and nine months since we were last together.”
“No, we had already broken up when I got pregnant.” She was just as insistent. “She’s not yours.”
“We’ll do another paternity test—and then you won’t be able to deny the truth.” Harry almost never raised his voice. He’d always been the calm one, the person everyone could count on to be reasonable. But now he was practically shouting into Amelia’s phone.
“Don’t you dare do anything until I get there.” Molly’s shock shifted to a fierce protectiveness. “I get that you think I’ve kept Amelia from you her entire life. But I swear I haven’t. And even if you don’t believe me, when it comes to my daughter, I will protect her no matter what.” Her voice was slightly softer as she added, “I’m sorry you aren’t her father, Harry. But I really think it’s best if we go over everything in person rather than on the phone so that there’s no chance of your misunderstanding. And even more than that, I need to see my daughter and know that she’s okay. Where do you live?”
The thought of seeing Molly again, of her walking into his house, was so strange, he couldn’t begin to imagine how it would feel.
He gave her the address. Then she said, “I’ll be there as fast as I can safely manage the drive. Now, could I please talk to my daughter?”
The last thing he wanted was to let Molly off the hook. He wanted to force her to tell him everything right that second. But despite how upset he was, he also understood how desperate she must be to talk to Amelia—and to come here to see for herself that she was okay. And Amelia must be a bundle of nerves waiting to find out how their call was going.
“I’ll take the phone out to her now.” As Harry walked down to his study, he could hear laughter coming from the room. He’d never appreciated his family more than he did right at this moment, when they were going out of their way to get over their own shock at meeting Amelia so that they could help settle her nerves. “She’s with Alec, Suzanne, Drake and my father.”
“You called everyone to come over as soon as Amelia showed up?”
“They were already here. We’re celebrating Drake’s and Suzanne’s engagements today. They’ll both be getting married later this year.”
Despite the knots twisting him up at the doubts Molly had managed to plant inside him, he smiled at Amelia as he walked into the study. “Your mom is going to drive here tonight, so you’ll be seeing her soon. Here she is.”
Amelia took the phone from him and walked over to the window for a little more privacy. “Mom—”
Everyone in the room could hear Molly exclaim how glad she was that Amelia was okay, then say that she had scared her half to death by getting on that bus.
Amelia’s shoulders slumped. “I know I shouldn’t have taken the bus so far by myself. I’m really sorry.” Then her shoulders moved back slightly. “But I needed to know who my dad is! And he’s great. They all are.”
Everyone in the room raised their eyebrows as Molly told Amelia that she’d explain everything once she got there, then all but hollered that she still should have told her what she was doing—and that she was grounded. Forever.
Amelia slumped again. “I already said I wouldn’t do it again—you don’t need to ground me.”
Whatever Molly said next was at a lower volume, but Harry could just make out the words I love you so much from across the room.
“Love you too, Mom. See you when you get here.” Amelia slid the phone into her back pocket, then turned toward the group, obviously not realizing they had been able to hear their conversation. “She’s pretty mad.”
Harry moved to her side. “She’s just glad you’re okay.” He smiled at her, his heart fuller than it had ever been for the teenager who had instantly become the center of his world. “I am too.”
When she smiled back, regardless of the doubts Molly had put into his head, he opened his arms to Amelia…and was so damned glad when she walked into them and lay her head on his chest.
“I’m so happy you found me, Amelia.”
“Me too.”
He held on for a long time. But it would never be long enough. He already knew that.
When he reluctantly let her go, he tried to corral his spinning, spiraling thoughts into a straight line. She had to be hungry, thirsty, and wondering where she was going to be staying. “How about I show you your bedroom while your aunt, uncles, and grandfather clear out the party? And then we can get you something to eat and drink?”
“I am pretty starved,” she said, rubbing her hand over her stomach. “I can’t go that long without food or Mom says I get grumpy.”
“Just like Suzanne,” Drake drawled. “It’s a seriously bad idea to ever let her blood sugar get too low.”
Suzanne rolled her eyes, then said to Amelia, “Bet you didn’t figure you’d have a couple of uncles like these guys to deal with.”
“I think they’re both awesome! All of you are.”
“Right back at you, Amelia,” Alec said with a grin. “Welcome to the family.”
And as Harry picked up her backpack and took her upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms, with Aldwin pressed so close to her that she could barely walk in a straight line, she beamed the whole way.
Already a Sullivan through and through.