Daniel's Desire by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

not as if they made peace with it. And those children are your grandchildren. Don’t you want to do whatever you can to be a part of their lives?”
    “I’m sure your brothers would never allow that,” she said, her expression bleak.
    “But they might. Isn’t it worth taking a chance? And what about me? I’ve lost four brothers and the woman I loved because of what happened all those years ago.”
    She gasped at that. “What does you breaking up with Molly have to do with anything your father and I did nearly thirty years ago?”
    “It just does,” he said. “Take my word for it. The decision you and Dad made has cost all of us. Maybe it’s cost the two of you most of all.”
    “We’ve learned to live with our choice,” she told him, still not backing down.
    “And that means you have no regrets?” he asked bitterly.
    “Of course we have regrets. We’ve had regretsevery day of our lives since we left Boston, but we can’t go back in time and undo what we did.”
    “You can’t undo it, but you can make it bearable for the rest of us.”
    She reached out to touch him, hesitated, then drew back. “Talking about it might make things worse. Have you considered that?”
    “How? How can the truth possibly be any worse than the explanations that each of us has been forced to consider? Were Ryan, Sean and Michael so unlovable? Or did you just draw straws and choose me and Patrick? Were we cuter than the others? Or less trouble? Maybe you meant to leave us behind, too, but we clung too tightly.”
    Tears were spilling down her cheeks as he spewed out all the questions that had tormented him, questions he knew that his brothers must have asked themselves a million and one times, as well. How could boys of nine, seven and five have been expected to cope with being abandoned? It would have been natural for them to have blamed themselves, to have grown up thinking they didn’t deserve to be loved. It was a miracle they’d opened their hearts to anyone.
    “Oh, Daniel, don’t do this,” she whispered. “Not to yourself. Not to us.”
    “Why not, Mom? You and Dad did it to us.” He pushed away from the table. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
    “Daniel, don’t leave. Not like this.”
    “I can’t stay.”
    “At least say hello to your father before you go,” she pleaded.
    “I can’t. If I do, I’ll say something I’ll regret.”
    He left through the kitchen door and went for awalk, too angry and upset to get behind the wheel of a car. Why couldn’t they see that their secrets were destroying their family? What could have driven them to make such a devastating decision all those years ago?
    As badly as he wanted answers, he knew that his brothers wanted them even more. They deserved them. He’d tried to warn his mother about that. One of these days, there was going to be a confrontation, and it was going to get ugly. And as much as he loved his parents, as much as he felt he owed them, he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to bring himself to mediate, to be the cool voice of reason in such a volatile situation. At that moment, if he had to choose sides, he was going to be on his brothers’. His parents were dead set on not giving him even the tiniest excuse to be on theirs.
     
    Molly was bone weary by the time she climbed the stairs to her apartment. She’d meant to get away sooner, but the bar had been busy and Retta had been on her feet too long as it was. Molly hadn’t been able to ask her to fill in waiting on tables.
    When she opened the door to the apartment, the TV was on, but Kendra was sound asleep on the sofa, her dark lashes like smudges of soot on her pale cheeks. If Molly wasn’t mistaken, there were dried traces of tears there, as well.
    “Oh, Kendra, what’s going on with you?” she whispered as she pulled a blanket over the girl. “I can’t hide you forever, not with Daniel breathing down my neck.”
    Not that Molly minded the prospect of going a few rounds with Daniel.