her.
“Two days later your mother showed up on my doorstep. She knew about the divorce and the pregnancy. She didn’t want me going back to you or even telling you about the baby.”
He leaned against his desk and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “She knew I wouldn’t have divorced you if I’d known you were pregnant.”
“Right. At that point she was willing to do anything to get me out of your life. Even give up her own grandchild.”
Sam didn’t want to believe it, but he understood his mother. She’d spent her entire life manipulating people and events to suit her purpose, including him.
He knew his mother and he knew Tanya, which made the next question easy. “How much?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Fine. Two hundred and fifty thousand up front, five thousand a month until she was eighteen or went to live with you, and payment of all her expenses. In return I was to move to New York and make sure you never found out about Kelly.”
He was numb. “Why now?”
“Because I’ve worked my ass off for the past twelve years, Sam. I’ve married twice to men with money, and by God I earned every penny of my settlements. I’m finally financially secure, and I’m ready to live my life.”
“And Kelly would get in the way?”
“I’m thirty-four. That’s practically middle-aged. I can’t have a twelve-year-old daughter.” She hesitated. “I’m getting married and moving to Europe. Kelly can’t come with me. I was going to put her into a boarding school, but when I told her, she freaked out. She wanted me to let her stay in the apartment. She’s involved in ballet and that’s all that matters to her. I suppose with the right staff… but I couldn’t risk it. All it would take is one emergency, and Raoul would find out about her.”
Sam swore. “You’re marrying a man who doesn’t even know you have a daughter?”
“I never told him about her. I’ve been careful to keep them apart.”
All he could do was wonder what he’d ever seen in Tanya. Then he remembered. He’d been twenty-two, fresh out of college, and abroad on his own. Tanya had been beautiful, charming, and the living, breathing embodiment of every fantasy he’d ever had.
“I’ve left a message with your mother’s law firm telling them you now have custody of Kelly,” Tanya said. “They’ll take care of the paperwork. I’ve dealt with her for the past twelve years, Sam. Now it’s your turn.”
“This means you’ll be giving up the money,” he said cynically.
“I know. I can afford to. She’s actually not that much trouble. Get her into a dance class and a private school, and you’ll barely notice she’s around.”
Her callousness stunned him. “She’s your daughter.”
“Don’t make me out to be such a bitch,” Tanya said. “Kelly’s done fine. She doesn’t want for anything.”
“How about parents?”
Tanya laughed. “Right. Because if I’d come back twelve years ago, you would have been so happy to find out we were having a child together. You hated me, Sam. You wanted me gone and you were willing to pay any price to get that. So here’s the rest of the bill. I’m having her things packed up. They’ll be there by the end of the week.”
“That’s it?” he asked.
“What else is there?”
“Don’t you want to talk to Kelly?”
“No, and I doubt she wants to talk to me.”
She hung up.
Sam slowly pushed the Off button on the phone and set it on the desk. As he did so, he glanced at his watch. It had been less than twenty minutes since Kelly had walked into his house. Twenty minutes during which his entire world had spun out of control.
Now what?
Sam walked into the kitchen to find Kelly finishing off her plate of enchiladas. Francesca stood by the sink, a glass of wine in her hand. He couldn’t blame her for that, although he wanted something stronger than Merlot.
“I talked to your mother,” he said.
Kelly carefully put down her fork, then wiped her mouth on a paper towel before turning toward him. Her wide green eyes didn’t show any emotion.
He studied her face, looking for similarities. He thought he might see traces of Tanya, maybe in her high cheekbones and the shape of her mouth, but he wasn’t sure. Nor did he see any resemblance to himself. Was his ex-wife lying?
He dismissed the question. Tanya might be out for the easy buck, but she wasn’t stupid. Why would she try to pass someone else’s kid off as his? All it would take was a DNA test to determine paternity. If he wasn’t the father, he would hunt Tanya down and return Kelly. If Tanya was really running off with some guy who didn’t know about Kelly, she wouldn’t want to risk Sam showing up with her kid.
“Did she tell you about Raoul?” Kelly asked. “His father is some minor count or something. Euro-trash. But Tanya is totally into the title thing and Raoul’s the heir. His dad is pretty old, but Raoul is only like twenty-five. They’re going to live part-time in Paris and part-time at some big house Raoul has in the south of France.”
“She only mentioned that she would be living abroad.”
“And that you’re stuck with me.”
She spoke the words casually, as if they didn’t matter. Sam tried to see past them. Wouldn’t a twelve-year-old girl care that her mother had abandoned her? But Kelly met his gaze calmly, barely blinking, displaying no emotion.
“She said you’re into ballet,” he told her, avoiding the “stuck with” part of Kelly’s statement.
“Apparently there’s a prestigious teacher here in Santa Barbara,” Francesca said. “Kelly did some research on the Internet.”
Kelly nodded, her curls bouncing with the movement. “You’re going to have to set up an audition. I brought workout clothes with me in my backpack, but that’s all. So I guess I need to go shopping for some stuff. You can drop me off at a mall in the morning. Or can I take a cab? Do you have cabs out here?”
Sam held up his hands. “Hold on. One thing at a time. Your mother said she was sending your things. They’ll be here at the end of the week.”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “And between now and then what am I supposed to do? Tanya never said you were cheap.”
“I’m not-”
He shook his head. He wasn’t going to argue with her about shopping. There were more important issues. School. No. It was June. School was out for the summer. Shit. Which meant she was going to be around all the time. Could he leave a twelve-year-old alone while he went to work?
He thought of her ability to travel from New York to Santa Barbara. Leave her alone? It sounded more like he was going to have to lock her up.
“We have a lot of things to figure out,” he said.
Kelly shrugged. “Whatever. I just want to get back to dance class right away. You’ll call in the morning, right? I have the number in my backpack.”
Dance class would keep her busy-probably a good thing. “Yeah, I’ll call.”
Kelly slid off the stool. “Good. I wrote down the names of my teachers and where I’ve been studying. Be sure to sound forceful when you call. Dance teachers respond to pressure from crabby parents. You might want to mention you’re rich. They like that, too.”
The longer she spoke, the more he could see his ex-wife in her. “Thanks for the advice,” he said dryly.
“No problem.”
She left the kitchen. Francesca crossed to the counter and picked up her dirty plate. “At least she’s not a wallflower,” she murmured as she carried the dish, fork, and glass to the sink.
“You say that like it’s a good thing.” He swore. “I can’t believe Elena left this morning. Talk about timing.”
Francesca’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think of that. You can’t leave her alone all day.”
