Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [98]
"No one will stop me, Katie. You've left your father on his own this time. And we both know he can't do it without you. He never could."
Tyler flipped off the television set in his hotel room and realized he couldn't put off calling his brother for another minute. He should have called yesterday, but he'd felt so conflicted after spending the evening with Kate that he just hadn't had the heart to call Mark. He felt like a wishbone, being pulled in two directions, and it seemed like he was betraying both of them. There was no way they could all win. In the end, someone would be terribly hurt.
Picking up his cell phone, he punched in Mark's number and waited.
"Hello?" A childish voice greeted him.
"Hi, honey. It's Uncle Ty."
"Hi, Uncle Ty."
"How are you, sweetie?"
"I'm fine. Daddy needed some water, so I got it for him. I even put ice in it."
"You're a good helper. But I thought that was Shelly's job."
"She had to go out for a little while. She's not back yet."
"Not back yet?" Tyler wondered where Shelly had gone. Mark was supposed to have twenty-four hour care at all times, especially with Amelia in the house.
"Do you want to talk to Daddy? I think he might be asleep, but I can check."
Tyler felt even more uneasy at the idea of Amelia being in the house with Mark asleep and no Shelly nearby. Amelia was only eight years old, although at the moment she sounded closer to twenty. For the first time, Tyler wondered if he was doing the right thing. Mark would have a long road back to recovery, a road that would require care, money, and time. Would Amelia be shortchanged growing up in such a way?
"Are you okay there by yourself?" he asked her.
"I'm not by myself. Daddy's here. He'll wake up if I need him."
"What if you fall or something?"
"Then I'll get up," she told him with simple childish logic.
He couldn't help smiling at her practicality. "I guess you will."
"Daddy and I wrote Mommy a letter, and we put it on the dining room table so she could see it when she's looking down on us. I printed in really big letters, too, so she could read it from heaven."
Tyler's stomach clenched at her words. "That sounds nice."
"Do you want to hear what I wrote?"
Did he want to have his heart ripped out of his chest? "Sure," he said, knowing that was the answer Amelia wanted.
"I'll get it."
Tyler heard her set down the phone and wished he could call her back. He was torturing himself -- punishing himself for getting carried away with Kate yesterday, for letting Mark down, even if only in thought not in action.
"Are you there?" Amelia asked when she returned to the phone.
"I'm here."
"Dear Mommy, we miss you a lot," she read. "We hope you're happy in heaven, but we wish you were here. I sang your song last night to Daddy, and he said I must take after you, because he sings really bad. I'm going to try to be just like you when I grow up."
Tyler's heart twisted with emotion at her simple statement, and he couldn't help wondering for the thousandth time why Mark and Susan hadn't told Amelia she was adopted, maybe not the who, why, where, or whatever, but enough so that Amelia wouldn't be shocked to find out one day that she was not who she thought she was.
"I'm talking to Uncle Ty," Amelia yelled, probably to her father. "Daddy wants to talk to you," she said. "Bye."
"Bye, honey."
"Ty? What's up?" his brother said a moment later. "Why didn't you call me back yesterday? I left you three messages."
"I didn't have anything new to report."
"Well, maybe I had news," Mark snapped. "George got another letter from the investigator, Mr. Watson. He found the doctor in Hawaii who delivered Amelia. He has a signed letter stating that the doctor turned the baby over to George on the exact same date of our adoption. He's getting closer, Tyler. The doctor even has my name listed as the adoptive parent. But there's no signed release by the birth mother or father.