Sinful Ever After - Vivian Wood Page 0,53

happened?” she says, gripping me by the elbow. “Is Margaret okay?”

I sigh, pulling her along as I head for the front porch of the main house.

“She is resting comfortably. We thought she had maybe broken her ankle, but it’s just a bad sprain.” I hesitate. “There is some bad news, though.”

Olivia looks up at me with wide eyes as we climb the porch steps. She looks like she’s preparing herself for the worst. “What?”

“She had an attack. What did they call it? A transient ischemic attack. Sort of a partial stroke, but not as serious.”

Her eyes bug out and they fill with tears. “What does that mean? Can she… is she…”

I interrupt her, holding up a hand. “I told you, she’s okay. She’s just resting. They are going to keep her for a few days.”

She lets out her breath in a rush, blotting at her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be.” It seems natural to pause and draw her into a hug. And she lets herself melt against my body, all too willing, sniffling. She fits in my arms perfectly.

I rest my chin against the top of her head, for a second forgetting everything else but how amazing holding Olivia feels. For something that is supposed to be wrong, her small body pressing against mine feels fucking right. She makes a soft sound against my chest, somewhere between a sniffle and a sigh.

Though I don’t want to, after a minute I push her back a little. She wipes at her eyes again, shaking her head.

“Sorry,” she apologizes, her voice raspy.

I favor Olivia with a soft smile. “It’s okay. I think it’s been a long day for all of us.”

She bites her lower lip for a moment then sighs. “While you all were gone, I tried to work. And I came across something that I think you should see. Come on, it’s upstairs.”

She offers me her hand as someone would offer their hand to a small child, which makes me smile. I take her hand, wrapping my larger one around it. She tows me inside and upstairs to the ballroom in silence.

Once we step into the ballroom, she lets my hand drop. I feel the absence of her hand keenly for a few beats of my heart, but I keep it to myself. Olivia moves around the stacks of paper to her desk, then returns to where I stand in the doorway with it. I glance at her expression as she hands me the paper but her face is unreadable.

I glance down at the paper, studying it. It’s just a cheap piece of paper, with a string of numbers printed at the top which I think means it’s been faxed. The printing on the actual document is small, but I see that it’s titled “Certificate of Live Birth” at the top.

Everything else swims in my vision, looking like I’m holding a photocopy of something written in an ancient language. I try to scan down for a name, but it’s useless. I thrust the document back at Olivia.

“Read that off for me, will you?” I can’t even look at her, because I am so fucking ashamed.

She takes it back from me and clears her throat.

“Certificate of Live Birth for Aiden Maxwell Moreland. Born in Newark, New Jersey on November 1st, 1989,” she announces.

God damn. It’s my birth certificate, then.

“Oh my god,” I mutter, looking down the page. “What the fuck?”

Olivia is chewing on her bottom lip like she’s keeping a secret. Glancing at her, I wave the piece of paper in front of her face. “What the fuck is this? Someone knew that…”

I halt, groaning and putting a hand over my face. I have to tell her the whole truth now I guess, since she already found out this much. She hovers sort of anxiously, her eyes glued to my face.

“My mother told me before she died that Thomas Morgan was my father. No more, no less.” I blow out a breath. “I don’t even think she knew that he died.”

Olivia’s eyes go wide. I can see her trying to do some math in her head.

“Whoa. Is that how you ended up out here?” She pauses and then shakes her head. “No, you moved out here years ago. And your mom only passed away a few months back.”

My heart drops into my stomach at the mention of my mother’s death, but I give her a wan smile. “Upon reflection, she did give me the pamphlet for the National Park