“You’re my father? For real?”
He looked at the floor. “Yes.” His voice was thick. “I’m sorry, honey—”
“Stop,” she hissed again. “No more lies, Dad. This is my sister, and thinking over everything, you were never supportive of me finding her. You told me she was probably dead. That’s what you—you tried to convince me of it, but I knew I had a sister. She gave me a drawing, and I had that. There were two sets of thumbprints. Mom, you told me it was a friend, but I remembered it wasn’t. All this time, you guys were trying to bury Ally. That’s why I couldn’t remember her, because I was gone. I thought…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “No. And her brother. I was convinced he took her from us. You told me you knew there was abuse. But it wasn’t him; it was our mom. You let me think it was him.”
She looked at her father as if he’d plunged a dagger into her back. A tug of sympathy rose up in me. She felt betrayed, and she had a right to, but this was her father. He was her flesh and blood. I’d give anything to know who mine was. No. I’d give anything just to have AJ back for five minutes.
Clearing my throat and watching all eyes swing toward me, I asked, “Is she still alive?”
“Oh, no.” The wife began sputtering.
He shook his head, eyes panicked. “No, no. I won’t let you look for her.”
So she was.
She was alive.
“Is she still there?”
Andrea’s mom paled even more. Her hand went to her chest, and she whirled to her husband. “Edward, they cannot—”
He touched her arm, quieting her plea, and looked at me. “Young lady, you cannot go looking for her. Corelea was a spiteful and dangerous mother to you then. I shudder at the thought of what she’d do now, if she could get her hooks in you.”
“Or me, you mean.” Andrea moved forward to stand beside me. She tightened the blanket around her. “You mean if my mother had her hooks in me? Because we have money, Daddy. You have money. I have an inheritance. How would you feel if all of that was squandered away? Everything you worked for, all your life, was ripped away? How would that make you feel?”
She lifted her chin, but her lips trembled. A disgusted sound mingled with her words. “Would it piss you off if I did that? Gave my mother money that you’d earned, like the truth you took from me? My sister. You could’ve—” She started to fall.
Her mother rushed forward. “Andrea.”
“No.” She pulled her arm away from her, but she faltered again. She was so weak. The nurse rushed to support her other side, and I reached around her, trying to help. It didn’t matter. Andrea fell to the floor with a thud as her head made contact with the tile. It was a good, hard smack.
I felt sick.
“Andy!” her mother exclaimed, falling to her knees beside her daughter. A group of medical staff swarmed around her, and in the rush, I was pushed backward.
They hoisted Andrea onto a gurney and wheeled her down the hallway. Her mother followed behind, hugging Andy’s blanket to her chest.
Then the only people left were her father and me. He stared right at me. I readied myself, but I saw no anger there. I thought he would’ve blamed me, the way I could tell his wife did. There’d been an accusing flash in her eyes. But not with him.
I felt a pang in my chest.
He looked…sad. “I’ve always known it was wrong to lie to Andy,” he said quietly. “The truth would come out. I knew that, especially once she was convinced she had a sister and went to find you. The day she told us she was taking a semester off of graduate school to find you—that was the day my lies were going to be over. It was only a matter of time. That was years ago. I thought I’d have all this time to prepare what I was going to say to you. But here you are.” He took a deep breath. “And I still have no idea what words I could utter to make anything right with you again. I am truly sorry, Ally.”
“Emma,” I murmured.
“What?”
“Emma.” I cleared my throat. “My name is Emma.”
“Ah. I see. Yes. Emma.” He tried to smile at me. “That’s a lovely name, too.”
Yeah. Lovely. That was not the word I’d use to describe anything in that moment, much less my name, but it was the name AJ gave me. It was the name I would keep, no matter what.
“Emma!”
Theresa waved at me from the elevators. She frowned, studying Andrea’s father beside me, and asked, “Did you find her?”
I forced myself to nod. Look normal. Act normal. Maybe then everything would be normal? That was a lie, though. Nothing was normal for me. I should’ve been used to that. Never hope for normalcy. Maybe then I might get it? But no. I skimmed a glance back toward Andrea’s dad.
He patted me on the arm before turning away. “I’ll be seeing you, All—Emma. You take care.” Then he took off in the direction his wife and daughter had gone.
“Hey.” Theresa stood in front of me now. She smiled, but there were questions in her eyes. “You okay? Who was that?”
Who was that? “No one.” Was I okay? “I will be okay.”
Her eyebrows bunched together. “Huh?”
“Nothing.” I linked my elbow through hers, heading for the elevator. “I just want to go home.”
As we got on the elevator, she hugged me against her side and pressed a kiss to my temple. “I’m glad you’re okay, Emma. I missed you.” She cupped my face with her palm and pressed my head down to her shoulder. “You deserve a year-long vacation after the hell you’ve been put through. Just think of all the gun ranges and wine nights we could have.”