Read Online A Daughter's Story by Tara Taylor Quinn - Free Book Online Page B

enough.
    And she was still breathing.
    “Weird how you still feel like family to me,” she said, not
quite ready to hang up.
    “It’s not so weird,” Cal said. “We were an impressionable age
when we were told we were going to be a family forever.”
    “You were the best big brother, Cal.”
    “You were easy to be nice to.”
    “Yeah, but I was a stupid girl.…” She remembered one of Cal’s
playmates saying that about her once. She’d hated that boy after that. Hated Cal
playing with him.
    “Other than Dad, you and your mom and Claire were the only
family I’d ever known.”
    His words hung in the air.
    “Mom and I, it’s always been just us.” Whether the past was her
fault or not, she felt responsible for at least part of his suffering. “Mom
never, after your dad, after Claire… There’s never been another relationship for
her. She just works and goes home.”
    “That must be hard on you.”
    “Not as hard as it is on her.” She wanted him to know that
Rose’s choices had not brought her happiness. That no one had won. Maybe, if he
knew how much they’d suffered, he’d find a measure of justice in that, at least.
“Remember that last day, how Claire sat on her knees on that chair at the table,
with her bear in one hand, and shoved so many Cheerios into her mouth she
choked?”
    “Yeah. She said she was late and had to eat fast.”
    “She was always mimicking the rest of us,” Emma said, brushing
away a tear that dripped down her cheek.
    “Like the time she answered the phone and told your mom’s
principal that she had to hang up because she had bills to pay?”
    “I’d forgotten that!” Emma said with a grin, remembering. And
wondering if Rose remembered. Then she said, “Mom still has that kitchen table.
She’ll never get rid of it.”
    “My father wants to talk to her.” His tone dropped.
    “You don’t think that’s a good idea?”
    “He’s lost a good portion of his life because of her. What do
you think?”
    “I think that our parents’ lives are their own,” Emma said
slowly, saying words she’d never have said before. She couldn’t protect Rose any
more than Rose could protect her. “I think they need to do what they feel is
right,” she added.
    “I’m not convinced.”
    “You might not have a choice.”
    “Meaning?”
    “They’re adults. And they were in love.”
    “She’d better not throw blame, or interrogate him, or—”
    “Don’t worry,” Emma said, feeling a tremendous surge of love
for the boy who’d grown into a man. “Mom feels even worse than I do about all of
this, if that’s possible.”
    “I just want you to understand that I won’t tolerate any more
blame cast on my father. Or any more slander. I’ll take whatever means I need
to.”
    “And I’ll be right there fighting with you, Cal,” Emma said.
“Because right is right. And because, in spite of all the years and all the pain
and sadness, the past couple of hours have reaffirmed that you’re still my
brother.”

CHAPTER TEN
    C HRIS WENT BACK to see
Marta.
    There was no reason for his visit. But Sunday, when he knew Jim
would be at the bar with his cronies, Chris stopped by to see the woman who was
his godmother, if one put any stock in that kind of thing. Chris never had.
    She was sitting on the back patio with a cup of coffee when
Chris pulled up.
    “You came back,” she said, opening the screen door to let him
in.
    He acknowledged the obvious with a nod.
    “You still take your coffee black and as strong as God can make
it?”
    “Just like my dad.” Chris had lost count of the number of times
he’d heard how he drank his coffee just like Lyle Talbot had done. And, where
coffee was concerned, he’d quit trying to be his own man.
    While Marta went to the kitchen, Chris settled into the largest
of the white wicker chairs facing the ocean in the distance.
    He didn’t need the view. He had a better one from home.
    “I talked to Anne Havens at church this morning.”
    Anne