Adam's Daughter (25 page)

A week later, Adam sent for Kellen. He was standing outside the house waiting for her when she arrived. The car pulled up, and the chauffeur opened the door.

Kellen stepped out. She stood, looking up at Adam with wary eyes, her lips compressed in a thin line.

Adam stared at her, seeing Elizabeth, feeling his hurt all over again
.

He bent down and held out his arms.
Kellen rushed into them.

“Forgive me, Lil’bit,” he whispered.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Adam was in his office when the call came in from Sally Stanford. “I wouldn’t call you at the office,” she said, “but this is important. You’ll have to come over right away.”

“Impossible.”

“It’s Marie. Please get here as soon as you can.”

The line went dead. Adam hung up the phone. He couldn’t believe it
—- Marie was back. She had been gone for almost a year and now suddenly she was back. Adam sank back in his chair, stunned.

When Marie had left last June without a warning, Adam had been surprised, even annoyed. He had been seeing the young woman often since that first night and had thought they had enough of
a relationship to at least merit a good-bye. He had given her many gifts and money, and he had paid Sally good money to secure Marie’s exclusivity. It was not that he particularly cared for her. But he knew that on some level he needed her. Ever since that first night, she had been there for his sexual and emotional needs. It had been a healing experience, and after she left he had felt no need for another woman. But now, she was back.

At the house, Sally greeted him, looking troubled.

“Where is she?” Adam asked.

“She was here this morning while I was out,” Sally paused. "She picked up some things and now it looks like she’s disappeared again.”

“Then why did you call me to come over?”

“I think you’d better come up to her room.”

Something in the tone of Sally’s voice made Adam follow her up to the bedroom where he had spent so many hours. Marie’s musky perfume still hung in the air.

“She left you something,” Sally said, pointing to a small cardboard box on the bed.

Adam went to the bed and peered inside the box. Nestled amid some towels was a sleeping baby.

Adam turned back toward Sally. “Is this your idea of a joke?”

“I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Sally said. “The cleaning girl found it with this letter addressed to you." She held out an envelope.

Adam
hesitated then opened it. The letter inside was written in an inflated flowery hand.

Adam,

I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you about this but I didn’t know how. I didn’t plan for this to happen but it did. I can’t raise him by myself because then I will never
realize my ambition to be a great actress. I know you’ll give him the best.

Marie.

p.s. I know what you’re thinking but it really is your son.

Adam slowly folded the letter and put it inside his suit coat. He turned back to Sally. “This is preposterous,” he said softly. He turned to leave.

“Adam, wait,” Sally said. “You can’t leave me with this mess to clean up.”

“Call the cops.”

“Yeah, right. And tell them to just come on over and pick up a little bundle at Sally’s place.
Adam, you owe me better than this.”

“How do I know it’s even mine?”

“You paid me a lot of money to make sure Marie saw no one else. I keep my promises to my clients.”

Adam paused at the door. “Have it delivered to my house,” he said.

Adam was never quite sure what it was that changed his mind about the baby. But once it was delivered to his home, he couldn’t bring himself to make the call to the authorities. Perhaps it was because he knew the child would be placed in an orphanage. He reminded himself that he was nearly fifty-three years old, a widower with no intention of ever remarrying, a man whose obsession with his business had already bruised Ian and Kellen. But he knew also that the baby was his son and his
responsibility. He knew, too, that Elizabeth would not have wanted him to turn his back on a child.

Adam turned to Hildie, who asked no questions, other than what the child’s name was.

Adam stared at the woman blankly, realizing the child had no name. “It’s Tyler,” he said, suddenly remembering Marie’s last name.

Explaining the baby to Kellen
had been difficult. Adam finally told her only that they were going to take care of the baby for a while. Kellen’s curiosity quickly developed into a playful almost maternal infatuation as she helped Hildie care for Tyler.

After a week, Josh convinced Adam he had to either give the baby up or legally adopt him. Adam told Josh he didn’t care what people thought, but Josh reminded him he had Kellen to think about. Adam told him to go ahead with the adoption.

Adam had no contact with the child, entrusting Tyler’s care to Hildie. On rare occasions, Adam would venture into the nursery, stare down at the pale blond sleeping baby and struggle to feel some sort of connection. But he felt only a sense of obligation.

Soon after Tyler’s arrival, Ian graduated from Princeton and came home. Adam had waited to tell him about Tyler, guessing that Ian would be aghast. Ian didn’t disappoint him.

“Good lord, Father,” Ian said. “Are you crazy?”

They were sitting in the study, and Adam stared at his grown son, a handsome young man sprawled elegantly on a sofa, his long legs propped on a coffee table.

“A man must take responsibility for his actions, Ian,” Adam said. “That is all I am doing.”

“But how do you know it’s really yours? All you have is this whore’s word.”

“He’s mine,” Adam said. “I know he is.”

Ian shook his head derisively. “What a homecoming,” he muttered. “I
return ready to take my place in the business and now I have another scandal to deal with.”

Ian’s callous reference to Elizabeth’s death left Adam speechless.

Ian rose. “Well, I’m going out for a while,” he said. “I have some old friends to look up.”

“Ian,” Adam said sharply. “If you’re going to live in this house again, you’ll abide by my rules. The first one is that I want you to be discreet about the baby. I don’t want anyone to know the truth about this yet.”

“You can’t keep something like this a secret,” Ian said.

“I have to,” Adam said, “until I can find a way to explain it to Kellen.”

Two weeks later, Kellen came into Adam’s study while he was working. She stood directly in front of his desk. He saw that she had been crying.

“Is it true that Tyler is my brother?” she asked.

Adam confronted the piercing stare of her green eyes. “Who told you that?” he asked softly.

“A boy at school. He called Tyler a bad word...a bastard.”

Adam sighed. “Come here,” he said.

Kellen came around and
stood by his chair. He took her hand. “It’s true, Tyler is your brother,” he said. “I’m his father.”

Kellen frowned slightly. Adam could see her mind working.

“Mother always wanted to have a baby boy...but she didn’t,” she said finally.

“No, she didn’t.”

Kellen stared at Adam for a long time.

“You’re too young to understand,” he said finally, unable to stand the accusatory look in her eyes.
“Someday I’ll explain it to you. But for now, I need you to do something. I need you to be good to your brother. Can you do that for me?”

“I’ll try,” she murmured.

He tried to gather her in a hug but she pulled away. He released her and watched her walk slowly out of the study.

After that day, Kellen was never as affectionate to Tyler as she had been before. She tried to hide it, but Adam saw her
indifference. He knew that Kellen was a loving child, but he sensed that the attention she gave Tyler came out of the promise between father and daughter, not from the heart.

Ian treated the baby the same as he always had Kellen, as if neither existed. Kellen had long ago transferred any affection she might have for an older brother over to Stephen. It seemed strange to Adam that the house, which had felt so deserted after Elizabeth’s death, seemed at times just as empty now despite all its inhabitants.

Adam finally broke down and shared his thoughts with Josh one night in the study over brandies.

“It’s like we’re a family of strangers, Josh,” Adam said. “We’re connected to each other but we’re strangers nonetheless.”

“Give it time, Adam,” Josh said.

Adam was quiet for a long time.

“Family,” he said softly. “I never had one, you know.”

Now it was Josh’s turn to be quiet.

“Ian, Kellen, and Tyler,” Adam said. “They have different mothers but they have my blood.” He took a long drink of the brandy and set the glass down.

“
They will learn to be a family,” he said. “We all will.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-
THREE

The sun was hot, and Kellen shut her eyes in pleasure, feeling its warmth on her face. The grass was soft and fragrant, and it tickled her neck. She felt lazy and inexplicably happy.

“You’re going to get freckles if you stay in the sun,” Stephen said.

She glanced over at him, sitting against a tree with a book in his lap. They had come down to the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts to study but the magnificent spring day made it difficult to concentrate.

“I don’t care,” she said. “It feels so good to be away from the house. Tyler was driving me crazy.”

“He’s only four. All kids are like that at four.”

Kellen stretched languidly, and Stephen’s eyes were drawn to the outline of her breasts, pressing against the black leotard she wore under her skirt. Kellen was now almost eighteen and though she was apparently oblivious to her own body, Stephen was not. It seemed to him at times that she had grown up so fast. One day she had been climbing trees with him. And now, suddenly, she was...almost a woman. It was disconcerting. He had fantasies about her now that left him excited and frustrated. It was more than disconcerting. It was agonizing.

“You’ll flunk if you don’t study,” he said.

“No, I won’t. I have a B going into the final.” She smiled. “And old man Isaacs has a crush on me.”

“Everything comes so easy to you.”

Kellen rolled over onto her stomach. “That’s not true. I worked hard all year. Now, I just want to finish school and get away
.”

“You can’t. You’re going to college. If you study.”

“Big deal, across the bay to Berkeley. I want to go to Paris and really study.”

“Study what?”

“Life and people.” She smiled. “‘The only people for me are the mad ones, who burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.’”