Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [101]
"Would she?" Kate had to ask. There had been too many secrets between them for too long. Perhaps if she understood this one piece, the others would make more sense.
"Of course she would hate it," Duncan said fiercely. "She was a McKenna. She was proud of that boat, proud of us."
There were so few things about her father that Kate was certain of, but his love for her mother had never been in question. Would she hurt him if she spoke the words running through her brain? He'd hurt her many times, her conscience argued. But this could go deep. Would her mother want her to speak?
"K.C. told me that Mom loved him first," she said, taking a deep breath. "He claims that she slept with him, that he actually thought I was his child for most of my childhood. Did you know about that?"
Duncan's eyes turned cold and hard. "Nora never loved K.C. He lived in a fool's paradise, and he's still there, thinking he can take over my life, my boat, my family."
"That's what this is all about," she said, finally understanding the elusive missing piece of Duncan's ambitious drive and his intense, fierce rivalry with K.C. It had never been about the sailing, not really. It wasn't who was the better sailor; it was who was the better man. "K.C. couldn't accept that Mom loved you," she continued. "For a long time he convinced himself that they had a special secret: me, the daughter no one but the two of them knew about. When he realized that it wasn't true, the pretense at friendship was over."
"I won't let him take over my life, Katie. Your mother chose me." Duncan brought his hand to his chest. "Me. I was the one for her. But, even after we married, K.C. was always around. Nora said, 'Let him be, Duncan. He's lonely. He needs friends.'" Duncan's voice took on a bitter edge. "She had no idea he was trying to destroy me every chance he got."
"How did he do that?"
"He'd sabotage my boat before races or he'd bribe someone to race for him instead of for me. He'd drop hints that I was with some broad when I said I was working, just to make your mother doubt me. I didn't see it at first. I thought they were innocent remarks, but he was playing a game all along. He brought you and the other girls presents when I couldn't afford to give you what you wanted so he could be the big man." Duncan looked her straight in the eye. "He bought that damn portrait, Katie."
"What?" she asked in surprise. "But Mom got it for you, for your birthday."
"He paid for it. Said he wanted to share in the birthday present. He knew I couldn't afford it. So he arranged for you all to have it done while I was away on a fishing charter."
Her heart sank. The portrait was paid for by K.C.? Kate would never be able to look at it in the same way. And her mother had let K.C. do it. Why? Hadn't she realized that the man was still in love with her?
"Why didn't Mom tell him to go?" Kate asked. "Did she know he thought he was my father?"
"She was too softhearted. That's why she let him stay."
"I don't believe it was just that." Perhaps her mother had still felt some love for K.C., some unwillingness to completely break the tie.
"She told him a bunch of times that you weren't his kid, but it wasn't until she was on her deathbed that he finally believed her."
It made sense. Because he'd never been on their side after that.
"That was it for him," Duncan added. "He'd thought he'd have something of Nora after she died, but he wouldn't. You weren't his. You were mine. It broke him. That's why he went after us during the race. He was always in our faces, always trying to bend the rules."
K.C. or her father? Kate asked herself. Sometimes she didn't know who had bent the rules more. It was hard to remember.
"I'm not lying about this, Katie."
She wanted to believe him. But as she'd told Tyler earlier, Duncan had a way of making everyone believe his lies, including himself.
"We can't let him win, Katie." Duncan's