her lips. “You hit the car, didn’t you?” Her mother had acted strangely, but Tara had never considered this possibility. Holding her breath, she waited for her mother’s answer, knowing already that she was right.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“IT WAS JUST A TAP,” Tara’s mother replied breathlessly. “I wanted to pass...get them to stop, you know? Anyone would have.” Her cool dignity was gone. Her words ran together. “I brushed the bumper...had to swerve so I wouldn’t crash...I was dizzy...I had taken one of my pills. I’d had a gimlet, too. I was so upset from Faye...you have no idea....” She stopped and gave Tara a pleading look, then swallowed. “I pulled over. When they didn’t drive by, I knew something was wrong, like maybe they’d stopped for me, so I ran back and saw the barrier had been bent.”
“You caused the crash,” Tara said softly. “It was you.” She still couldn’t believe it or understand that this shaky, scared confession was coming from the the same dignified, emotionally restrained woman she’d grown up with.
“I called Bill. He told me not to go down there, that I couldn’t help, that he would take care of it, that paramedics would be on their way in seconds. I wasn’t thinking. My head was not clear. Everything was fuzzy. You have to understand.”
Tara’s body rocked back, as if her mother’s words had physically pushed her. “So you drove away? Left them there?” Her mother had abandoned her dead husband and dying daughter. Tara felt dizzy with shock and disappointment. Her mother had hit them and run away.
“Bill was the officer in charge of the scene. That’s how he explained it. What he said was the law. I might cause more injury. He told me that.”
Excuses? That’s all her mother had? She was fuzzy and obeyed Bill Fallon like a child? “How could you?” Tara took quick breaths, fought down the desire to rail at her mother, to shake her, make her see what she’d done.
Get the truth. That was what mattered now. She had to let her mother talk. There would be time for outrage later. “Why were you trying to stop them?” she said finally in a calmer voice. “Why were you so upset that you took drugs and had a drink?”
Her mother stared at her, her face white, gulping for air, as if she might vomit. Joseph stood behind her, his jaw hanging, as horrified as Tara was.
“You need to tell me,” Tara said. “Too much goes unsaid in our house.”
Her mother gulped, but didn’t speak.
“Why were you chasing Dad and Faye? Where were they going?”
“They were coming to see me, weren’t they, Rachel?” The voice from the doorway made them all turn. It was Sean Ryland. His tone had been personal, almost intimate. Dylan stood beside him, eyebrows raised in surprise, too.
Her mother stood and turned to face Sean, not saying a word.
“That’s why you wanted to meet me,” he continued. “They’d learned a secret you wanted kept. You had to beat them to the punch.”
Tara had never heard Sean Ryland speak so gently. “Tell me now, Rachel. What were you afraid I might learn?”
Her mother’s body softened, her gaze, too, looking at Sean. It was as if they were the only two people in the room. They clearly had a relationship that Tara knew nothing about.
“It’s about Faye, isn’t it?” Sean said. “She’s mine.”
Her mother dropped her head and her shoulders sagged before she spoke, her voice low and rough. “There was no use in telling you.”
Tara’s brain stalled. What? Sean was Faye’s father? Her mother had been with Sean? She saw that Dylan was stunned, too.
“How did Faye find out?” Sean asked. “Did you tell her?”
Her mother raised her head, pulled herself together, taking a shuddering breath. “She had tests. Because of Joseph’s genes. She sneaked out hair from Abbott’s brush, replaced his toothbrush with a new one. The results showed that Abbott was not her biological father. She came to me and demanded I tell her who it was.”
“And did you?” Sean asked. “Did you tell her?” Tara could tell he was holding back anger, making a supreme effort for her mother’s sake.
Her mother shook her head, her eyes downcast. “Not at first. I told her those companies are scams, they mix up the tests all the time, but she kept at me and kept at me.” She lifted her anguished gaze to Sean. “I gave in.”
“You cheated on Dad?” Tara blurted.
“We weren’t together at the time. We’d broken up.”