Switch Master: 6 (Ink and Kink) (30 page)

“What plans?” Phalen asked.

“I’d invited him and his aunt to dinner Saturday night.
Thought it was time for them to meet the family,” Taran said.

“Good thinking, try for Sunday,” Ethan suggested.

Taran made the call, not necessarily surprised that his call
went to Luke’s voicemail. A couple minutes later he received a text, a
teenager’s favorite mode of conversation.

Not surprisingly, Luke was at the roller rink with Emily.
They were going to study together after she got off her evening shift at work.

Damn, the kid gave up his skateboard and drawing pad for
studying with a pretty girl? That was a sure sign Luke was meant to be a
Maddox.

Taran put away his phone for a while, glad the text
conversation occupied his attention. He was worried about Samantha, but he had
to trust that she was doing what she needed to do regarding her mother.

Still in her car after talking to Taran, Sam looked up at
her mother’s condominium building. It was one of ten identical buildings.

Each building had a cream-colored brick façade and green
trim. Each was made with six floors of condo units outfitted for seniors aged
fifty-five or older. Each building had a restaurant, a convenience store,
fitness room, an indoor pool, gardens, arts-and-crafts workshops, a library and
covered access to the other buildings.

After her mom had taken early retirement, she’d relocated to
Vermont and had been here for almost three years. Initially, Sam had been
worried about her mother living so far away, but Gwen really seemed to like it
here.

Tucking her keys and both of her cell phones into her
pockets, she grabbed the envelope from the passenger seat, exiting the cruiser.
Since she’d talked to her mother earlier, she knew it was Mexican Train night
and her mom was planning to stay in to play the newfangled Dominos game.

Using her mom’s spare key for entrance into the building,
she followed signs for the game room area of the complex. It took some twists
and turns, navigating a few friendly seniors in power chairs before she located
the game room.

Her mother stood out in the crowded room. She’d always been
a stickler for looking her best among company. Tonight Gwen wore a pretty
floral print dress and her graying hair was intricately styled.

She was sitting at a big round table with four women and a
man. Sam noticed the pattern of dominos on the table, barely hearing the quiet
conversation between them. Taking another deep breath, she crossed the room.

“Mom,” she announced herself quietly. Gwen drew her hand
back from placing a domino in its spot and turned around.

“Samantha? My goodness, this is a surprise!” Her mother
hopped up from the table, intercepting Sam with a hug.

“I know I just showed up out of the blue, but we really need
to talk. Can you spare the time?”

“You must know that I can,” her mom said. “Come and meet my
friends first.”

“I’d like that,” Sam agreed. Her mom made short work of
introducing her to the table of companions. The elderly gentleman was a riot
and a charmer.

“If you all will excuse us, my daughter, who’s a detective
in Boston, has come all this way to visit. William, I expect a rematch next
week,” Gwen challenged.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” William assured.

Sam waited for her mom to pick up her purse and the two
headed off.

“How’s your boyfriend, Samantha?” Gwen asked while they
walked down the hallway toward a bank of elevators.

“Taran’s good, Mom. He’s doing something with his brothers,
Ethan and Phalen, tonight. You’ll have to meet them soon. They’re great, their
wives too.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Ethan, isn’t he your partner?”

“Um-hmm, he’s the best.”

“How do you feel about Taran?”

“I love him.”

“Real love?” her mother asked.

“Yes, the real deal, happily ever after kind,” Sam answered.
“I hope.”

“You hope? Why would you say that? Did he do something or
say something to hurt you?”

“No. It’s complicated. We can talk at length in your condo.”

They quieted as they approached the elevators. Her mom
punched the up button and the doors of the one on the right opened. They
stepped in, both still quiet. The ride up to the fifth floor was swift.

“Shall I make a pot of coffee before our talk?” her mother
asked as the door slid open.

“That’d be nice, but don’t go to any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble. It’ll just take a minute or two.”

The condo was only a short walk from the elevators. It was a
corner unit, with two bedrooms, two baths and a moderately sized kitchen. Even
though residents were on a dining program to cut down on grocery expenses, the
kitchen provided plenty of room and space to cook should they wish to.

“Let’s have a seat in the living room while coffee’s
brewing,” Gwen said after preparing the coffeemaker.

Sam nodded and took a seat on the loveseat. The furniture
was nice, with a lounge chair and a cushioned rocking chair, each with a matching
dainty rose-and-green leaf print. A plain oak coffee table sat before a
flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. The floors were all dark cherry with
rose-and-green area rugs.

“Samantha, why don’t you tell me what brought you here?”
Gwen came up and sat beside Sam, taking her hand.

“I wish I could say I’m here to make amends for the times I
couldn’t visit…or wouldn’t,” Sam said. “I’ve always felt as if I’d abandoned
you when I ran away, but my intention was to save you from being fired.”

“Honey, don’t you know simply having you back home, knowing
you were safe and James Cormack is answering for his crimes against you and so
many others were all I needed?”

“If only I’d been braver, come to you when I found out I was
pregnant, maybe a lot of things would be different.”

“I admit it, Samantha, I clammed up whenever you asked about
your father. Looking back on it, my silence hurt you. The last time, we’d
argued and soon after you disappeared.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, so sorry,” she said, knowing she’d say it
again a thousand times just to make things right between them.

“Mark, Martin and Barbara Cormack should apologize to you,
to us. Mark stayed silent while I feverishly tried to find you. He was very
much his mother’s son back then, willing to do anything for the family name and
fortune, hers and her husband’s.”

“Mom, I need to know something.” Sam shrugged out of her
coat and opened the envelope, pulling out the photos. “These were sent to me
today. Mark Cormack’s return address is on the envelope.”

Gwen stretched out to take the photograph on the top. She
paused, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath. “Heaven above, these are
Martin’s. How on earth did Mark get a hold of these? I haven’t seen them
since…Martin took them.”

“He took these? How?”

“He used a tripod. He fancied himself a photographer with
ambitions of traveling the world. He was such a handsome, passionate man back
then.”

“Mom, is Martin Cormack my father?” Sam finally asked,
having to know once and for all.

“Yes he is.” This time there was no evasion or fear, no
change of subject, just straight-up honesty.

Feeling ill, Sam was about to charge for the nearest
bathroom when her mom’s hand caught her elbow to stop her. “Samantha, calm
down. You need to sit down and listen.”

“How can I calm down, Mom? I had a child with Mark, my
half-brother, a child who may not have died as I thought,” Sam said, feeling
hollow and confused.

“Honey, Martin is not Mark’s father,” Gwen revealed.

“What exactly are you saying?” Sam collapsed against the
loveseat, realizing she was shaking.

“They were forced to marry. Martin tried to make their
marriage work, but Barbara’s tantrums and hysterics pushed him away. They
didn’t share the same bedroom and she frequently visited college acquaintances
in New York City.”

“He told you that?” Sam asked.

“When you clean someone’s house, you find out who’s sleeping
where and who’s not sleeping together at all.”

Sam shifted in her seat, facing her mother. “Who is Mark’s
father?”

“My guess is that she found herself a baby daddy. Several
times I’d heard Barbara and Martin argue over a man she’d met in New York,”
Gwen said.

“Mom! A baby daddy?” Sam questioned, finding her mother’s
word choice amusing.

“Well, I don’t know what they called it back then. Right now
it’s important for me that you know I loved you from the moment I knew I was
pregnant with you.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me about my father?”

“I was scared,” her mom admitted.

“Of what, did Martin threaten you?” Sam reached out,
grasping her mother’s hand.

“Yes, but it was more than that. When you were old enough to
start asking about your father, I was afraid you’d be angry with me for having
an affair. He…he came to me on a cool, wet October night, claiming he’d left
Barbara due to his suspicion of his young son not being his own.”

“Did he actually say that?” Sam asked.

“Yes, he believed she had a brief affair with a doctor she
knew from when she attended New York University. Plus, he claimed the timing of
her pregnancy didn’t match to the last time they’d been intimate and that he’d
used the old-fashioned pull-out method of birth control.”

“Trust me on this one, Mom, Barbara could still get pregnant
by her husband.”

“I told him that too, but he was devastated. You can imagine
what happened next.”

“Oh Mom,” Sam whispered, not really sure what to do or say.
“I wouldn’t have been angry. There’s no fault in loving someone. You loved him,
didn’t you?”

“Oh yes, at the time I loved him very much. He was quite the
charmer.”

“How long were you two together?”

“After that first night, off and on for about a month and a
half,” Gwen answered. “One morning, I saw him looking at a photo he’d taken of
Mark and I insisted he needed to go back to his family. It wasn’t the boy’s
fault that Martin had doubts about his paternity. He did go then our affair
ended. Soon after that I realized I was pregnant with you. I tried to contact
him, but he refused to return my calls.”

“Does he know I’m his daughter?”

Gwen frowned, saying, “He came to visit when you were five.
When he saw you he asked who your father was. I told him the truth, but it took
time for him to actually believe it. He came by again a few months later and
offered financial support if I kept quiet, ostensibly to protect you from his
wife.”

“That’s why you kept your secret for so long.”

“Yes, I didn’t feel as if I had much choice.”

“He moved us to Falmouth, didn’t he?”

“He did. It was close enough for me to take a boat from
there to Martha’s Vineyard.”

“He was a cad! I almost wish I didn’t know the truth now.”

“I think in his own way, he was trying to keep you close to
him without tipping off his wife about you. She’s not someone I’d ever want to
turn my back on.”

“If that’s the case, why on earth did he arrange to have us
come to the Vineyard that summer?”

“Honestly, I only knew that he’d finally had DNA analysis
done proving he was not Mark’s biological father, and he’d gotten it into his
head to try romancing me again. It didn’t work, but he was a Cormack who wanted
his way. I said no several times until he offered to get you into an Ivy League
college if I worked the summer there.”

“I could’ve gotten a scholarship. My grades were good
enough.”

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret making
the decision to move to the island. I wanted what was best for you,” her mom
admitted. “The choice put you on Mark’s radar and I was saddened to know he
hurt you the way Martin Cormack did to me.”

“The few times I’d dealt with Barbara Cormack back then, she
wasn’t very nice. I hid myself in the guest house, reading my books and playing
with my first computer. That thing was massive, remember?”

“You always were talented when it came to computers.”

“Before we got that computer, I had to use a computer lab at
school. You gave it to me for my birthday.”

“Actually, Martin gave it to you. I’ve hated him for a long
time, Samantha, but his saving grace was that he hired the private investigator
who traced you to his brother and tipped off the police.”

“Of all the people I’d thought was the detective’s source
the day he’d come to me in the hospital, it certainly wasn’t another Cormack.”

“James was a very troubled man. His name was hardly ever
spoken, not by Barbara or Martin, anyway. I never did know what James had done
to cause the whole Cormack clan to ban him from returning to New England.”

“It took awhile for me to forgive myself for hurting you
when I ran away, Mom. I’ve Taran to thank for helping me do that,” Sam stated,
trying to grasp it all. “I’ve told you I think my baby may be alive.”

“Yes, I remember from when we spoke earlier in the day. Do
you want to talk to your father? Ask him to help in finding the truth?”

Sam didn’t know. “He’s never given me reason to think he was
my dad or even wanted to be. I’m still trying to take it all in. Thank you for
your honesty tonight. Now I feel more confident about moving forward with Taran
and hopefully Luke Walker.”

Gwen reached up with her free hand and brushed Sam’s
forehead. “Happily ever after was all I’ve ever wanted for you.”

“I love you, Mom. I don’t say it much, I know, it doesn’t
make it less true,” Sam said, finding herself suddenly wrapped up in her
mother’s unshakable love.

“I love you too. Now listen to your mother. I’m going to fix
us some coffee and we’ll chat. You’re staying the night, aren’t you?”

“I was hoping to,” Sam answered.

“I’ve got plenty of room. Stay for as long as you’d like.”

“I need to call Taran and let him know.”

“Call him and remind him if he doesn’t take care of you as
you deserve, he’ll face the wrath of a Riley!” her mother warned vehemently.

With their hearts laid bare and the truth finally known, a
tremendous weight lifted from Sam’s shoulders. She still had to grasp the fact
that her father was Martin Cormack and Mark wasn’t her father’s biological son,
yet she and her mother had bridged a tremendous gap.

Hugging her mother closer, Sam couldn’t fight the tears that
fell. Only when her mom dried her tears sometime later did they separate.

Quietly, Gwen prepared two mugs of coffee, bringing them and
a plate of biscotti in on a small tray with sugar and cream. Reconnecting on a
whole new level, they talked about so much more than where they’d been or where
they’d come from.

They spoke of the future, of love, the Maddox family, Sam’s
friends, roller derby, the group of companions Gwen had made at the retirement
village and Mexican Train. Sam couldn’t say she completely comprehended the
rules of Mexican Train. If it made her mom happy to play the game, she was all
for it.