‘They sound like wonderful people, pumpkin.’
‘They are. The best.’ And they were. She wasn’t sure how she’d got so lucky. ‘So you don’t have to give up the tour. I’d hate for you to disappoint all your fans.’ Not to mention what it might cost to reschedule those concerts or refund the tickets.
‘They’ll understand. Sebastien’s put out a statement about it being a family emergency. Besides, I want to be there for you and Carter. I know I haven’t been there enough. Not like I said I would.’
‘I understand, Papa. Your work is important.’
‘So are you and Carter. I can’t believe it took almost losing you for me to see that.’
‘You didn’t almost lose me.’
‘That’s not what Sebastien said after speaking to your Barb and then the hospital when they called.’
‘They over-exaggerated.’
‘You under-exaggerate. You always have. Some of the places you’ve been, the danger you took on.’
‘I was helping people.’
‘Sure you were, at your own expense. So, I’m not taking your word for it this time. I’m on my way to see you and won’t believe you’re one hundred percent okay until I have you in my arms. Okay?’
‘Okay.’ The pain in her chest released, the hole it left replaced with a warm glow that filled her and spilled out until she realised she was smiling at the phone. ‘I can’t wait to see you, Papa. And I know Carter’s going to be thrilled.’
‘I can’t wait to see my little man either.’
‘There’s room for you in the cottage, so you can stay with us.’
‘I don’t care where I am as long as I’m with you.’
The smile grew bigger, she couldn’t stop it. ‘Okay.’
‘Now listen. I have to talk to you about the will …’ There was some more crackling and then, ‘so you’ll have to look over them.’
‘Sorry, Papa, I didn’t catch that.’
He sighed, his aggravation showing clearly down the line. ‘You’d think with all the technology we have now that they’d manage a thing like a call from a plane better than this.’
‘CoalCliff’s in a low signal area as well, so that’s possibly not helping.’
‘Hmph. Well, what I was saying was—’ More crackling, ‘—legal papers in regards to the money she left. And now he’s filing for custody too.’
‘What? I didn’t catch half of that. Custody of what?’
‘Carter.’
‘What?’ Her mind blanked for a moment, and then her anger reared its head. It was so preposterous. Absurd. ‘Who on earth has more right than us to look after Carter? If there was someone, surely they would have been on Samantha’s files with the social workers.’ They would have placed Carter with an actual relative if there was one. As far as she knew, there wasn’t. Samantha hadn’t had anyone but that aunt, the one who had now died and left everything she had to Carter.
‘It’s his dad.’
‘Carter doesn’t have a dad.’ At least, Samantha had never listed the name of one on his birth certificate.
‘He does. At least, this bloke says he’s Carter’s dad and he says he wants Carter to live with him.’
Her chest tightened, heart beating fast and hard, making it difficult to hear or think beyond its pounding. Hadn’t she been through enough? She couldn’t cope with this too. She wanted to escape, to go to her special place—except it was burned down and she couldn’t. Some arsehole had set it alight, just like someone had set her house alight. Anger furled inside, burning the edges of the panic and fear. She latched onto the anger. She preferred anger to fear. ‘It’s funny he didn’t come out of the woodwork until there was money coming to Carter.’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘Funny also how he’s made no attempt to see Carter in all this time.’
‘He says he didn’t know about him until just recently.’
It was possible, given Samantha hadn’t listed anyone as the father. Still … ‘How did he find out?’
‘Something about—’ crackle, ‘—will was read. Aunt’s husband’s son from a previous marriage. He stayed with—’ crackle, crackle, ‘—how Samantha met him.’
Despite the crackling, Prita heard enough to get the gist. She frowned. ‘So he really wasn’t interested in finding out about what happened to Samantha until there was money in the offing.’
‘True. But if he truly is the biological father, and he didn’t know—’ crackle, ‘—might be a claim. The lawyers are looking into it. There’s paternity—’ More crackling, ‘—sort it when I get there. Anyway, I’ve got to go. This line’s—’ crackle, ‘—worse. I can barely—’ crackle, ‘—you.’
‘Me too.’
‘I’ll see you— twenty hours, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll sort— Nobody’s taking—’ crackle, ‘—away from us Brennans.’
‘No. They’re not.’
‘Love you, aingeal.’
‘Love you, Papa.’
The phone clicked in her ear and then he was gone. She rubbed at her chest, the happy, longing feeling giving way to rising fury. Someone wanted to take Carter away from her? Not going to happen. She’d given up her entire life and changed everything for that little boy and she wasn’t about to give him up now without a fight. It was a life she’d decided on for him, but until now, she hadn’t realised how much she’d wanted it for herself too. And she did. She really did.
Hell. She needed to do something. She’d never been good at sitting around waiting.
Well, there was plenty to do, wasn’t there? If she was going to win any fight for custody, now more than ever she needed a home for them both. Security. More clothes and things than Reid had bought for them. Her clinic.
It looked like she really was going to have to take Flynn up on the offer of using the cottage not only as a place to live but to run her business from. She needed to get
