Stolen Moments (And Then Came Love Book 2) (21 page)

“No wonder you agreed to take care of the baby. She needs to finish her education and take that once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“I wish it was a little closer, but I can’t deny her that experience.”

Trevor rubbed his hand down her back. “Enough about kids. We’re still alone and I’m sure Mina’s going to be gone for a while.”

Arianna stood. “I’ll race you upstairs.”

Trevor caught her arm and pulled her onto the couch. He stood and raced up the steps before her.

“Totally not fair.” She called after him as she ran up the stairs behind him.

*****

Trevor’s phone rang during dinner.

“Excuse me.” He stood and walked into the other room to answer. “Hello.”

“This is Mark Lewis from the DNR. We got the word that you’re off medical leave.”

“Wow, that’s was quick.”

“We’ve been trying to get you on since you applied.” Mark chuckled. “Anyway, we have a testing spot open on Wednesday if you’re interested and then if you pass, you can start on Thursday.”

“What time on Wednesday?”

“Two o’clock work for you?”

“Yeah – I’m in Minnesota right, but I’ll head back early on Wednesday to make sure I’m there.”

“Excellent. I look forward to seeing you then. And congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Trevor smiled as he hung up the phone. He walked back into the dining area and kissed Arianna on the cheek.

“What was that about?”

“That was the DNR. I’m off medical leave. They want me to come in for a physical test on Wednesday and then if I pass, I start Thursday.”

Arianna cocked her head. “I thought we were staying until Thursday.”

“We’ll have to leave on Wednesday morning instead, if you’re all right with it.”

She nodded. “Of course. And congratulations.”

“I’m excited. I’ve missed working.” He smiled and sat back down to eat.

Chapter Nineteen

May 19th

Arianna turned to Trevor and raised an eyebrow as he pulled into a long gravel driveway, not far from Kurt’s, lined by cherry trees. At the end was a charming farmhouse complete with a pitched roof and a large front porch with two rocking chairs and porch swing. “Where are we going?”

Trevor stopped the car and put it in park before turning to face her. “Remember when you said you didn’t know where your Dad was or if he was still in the military or not?”

Arianna’s eyes widened. “You found him?”

“I did. He lives in this house with his wife, her children from another marriage, and their two children.”

She fell back in her seat and looked down the driveway at what looked like the perfect storybook home. Her eyes narrowed. “This makes me feel more resentment. Maybe we should go back to the cabin.” Trevor caught her train of thought and shook his head.

“There’s a reason to meet them.”

“Them as in his new wife and the children he abandoned me for?” Arianna folded her arms over her chest. Great. Trevor wanted her to meet this perfect family. What was he thinking?

“The Mullers, the family you’ve come to love in a short period of time, is related to your Dad’s new wife.”

“Great.” Arianna threw her hands in the air. “As much as I love it here, I’ll never be able to come back here. Take me back to the cabin. It may be best if we go home in the morning.”

“Aren’t you the one who was always encouraging me to connect with my family? From the research I’ve done and the talk that I had with your father, I believe there are some things you’re both in the dark about.”

“Yeah, but your family didn’t completely abandon you at the age of fifteen. Hell, before that for him. My father abandoned me and had another family all together.” Arianna shook her head.

“Did you ever think your Dad may not have known what was going on in your life?”

“Because he chose not to.” Arianna let out a heavy breath. “I understand the military is a tough place to be and you can be away from your family for years at a time, but why didn’t he come looking for me once he got out?”

“What if your mother lied? Told him you wanted nothing to do with him?”

“What if she did? He could have checked! I’m thirty years old! He could have contacted me, to see if I was interested in finding him.”

“But he can say the same about you. You have the same resources to find people that he does. And don’t say anything about him still possibly being in the military, you could have hired a private investigator to find him if you wanted too.”

“I thought he gave up on me. Knowing he has another family, secreted away in Minnesota, makes me feel like it’s even more true.” Arianna leaned her head against the window, eyeing the house like it was an impregnable fortress. “I’m not sure I can do this, Trevor.”

“Weren’t you the one who forced me into a better relationship with my father? Meet them once. If you don’t ever want to see them again you don’t have too. But you have at least two siblings you’ve never met.” She blinked.
Two siblings? Dear old dad had been busy.

“It would be nice to not constantly feel like an only child.” She glanced over at him. “All right. Let’s meet him ... them.”

Trevor nodded, put the car in drive, and started back up the driveway. He pulled in front of the house.

The front door opened. A man stepped out. Her daddy.

Arianna took a sharp intake of breath. “He looks the same as he did the last time I saw him.”

Trevor got out of the car and came around to open Arianna’s door for her. He took her hand and helped her to her feet.

Her father smiled and blinked back tears. “A-Arianna. You’ve grown into a beautiful young woman.”

Arianna pursed her lips and looked at Trevor.

Trevor stepped up to the porch and held out his hand. “Trevor Vitalli. I’m the one who contacted you.”

“Dustin Halsey. A pleasure to meet you.” He took Trevor’s hand in a firm and friendly handshake. Then he looked back at Arianna. “How long have you two been married?”

Trevor shook his head. “Oh We’re not. We’ve—”

“How can you ask questions like that?! Like you want to get to know me when you abandoned me?” Arianna planted her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed. “Where were you when Mom threw me out? Left me fifteen, pregnant, and in the hands of strangers rather than being the father I needed. You went gallivanting off making a new family and tossed the old ones off like uncomfortable shoes.”

A tray dropped in the background with a clatter, glasses shattered, ice cubes went flying in all directions, and liquid pooled in a puddle on the porch.

Arianna’s eyes went to the doorway.

A plump woman of middle height was crouched there, doing her best to clean up the mess that had once been a tray of iced tea and lemonade. The woman rose to her feat, setting the tray on a wrought iron and tempered glass table. She had eyes the color of the summer sky and dark golden hair shot through with streaks of silver. Her hair curled around her dimpled, rosy face, and went to her shoulders, wreathing her head like a halo. She wore a summer dress that was gathered at the waist and went to her knees. The dress looked hand made. Over this she wore an apron that said “kiss the cook” and a pair of flip flops on her feet.

The woman’s eyes narrowed to slits, and her mouth drew down into a glare as she stomped toward Dustin jabbing a finger at him. “You left her alone and pregnant at fifteen?”

She turned to Arianna and her look softened. “Oh Honey! If I had known, I would have sent him home to you immediately.”

“I didn’t know.” Dustin raked a hand through his hair as his gaze flittered between Arianna and the woman shaking a finger in his face.

His gaze settled on Arianna. “I swear I had no idea. When I came home the last time, your mother said you were at a friend’s house. I handed her divorce papers and she told me she was pregnant with your sister. She tried to make me stay, but I knew it wasn’t the right place for me.”

“My sister?” Arianna blinked twice. What sister? She didn’t have a sister.

Dustin pulled his wallet out of his pocket and walked over to Arianna. He flipped it open and flipped through his pictures. He stopped at one of Arianna when she was fifteen. “That’s the last one I have of you. After the fight your mother told me that you never wanted to see me again. I tried to keep in contact, but after your e-mail, I stopped trying.” He held out the wallet.

Arianna held up her hands. “Wow – let’s go back to my first shock. I have a sister?”

“You don’t know her?” Dustin turned to the next picture and handed it to Arianna. “It’s a couple years old, but that was taken the last time I got to see her.”

Arianna swayed on her feet, the world spinning around her.

Trevor put his arm around her to steady her. “Are you alright?”

Arianna pointed at the picture, her mouth agape.

“Shit, it’s Candace!” He stared at the picture.

“You do know her.” Dustin smiled.

She took a deep breath. “My fifteen-year-old daughter brought a friend home from school one day. A pregnant friend who had been thrown out of her house. Her name is Candace Ellington.”

“Ellington ... is your mother’s maiden name.” Dustin sighed.

“I didn’t even recognize my mother’s maiden name. Hell, I don’t think I ever knew it.” Arianna’s head spun and the desire to run away was palpable. But one critical piece of information came into focus.

“Okay, before we get too far into this. What email did you receive from me? Because I had no clue where you were? As far as I knew you were still in the military and I had no way of getting in touch with you?”

Dustin shook his head. “I received an email supposedly from you saying you wanted nothing to do with me. You were pissed because I left your mother and called Greta,” he motioned to the woman beside him, “a few choice names I don’t care to remember.”

“I didn’t even know there was another woman.” Arianna put her hand on her forehead. She felt warm, and a throbbing started behind her right eye. “Mom threw me out shortly after the last time I saw you. And from then on I was worried about being pregnant and taking care of my daughter.”

“I’m sorry, Arianna. If I knew, I would have come back for you. I would have helped to take care of you and your daughter.” He stopped. “If you give her a chance, you and Greta will get along, I’m sure.”

Greta stood and looked over at Arianna. “Honey, you look like you could use a hug.or an Xanex.”

Trevor leaned over and whispered. “She’s Kurt’s niece.”

Arianna nodded.

Greta turned to her with a gentle smile and put both hands on her shoulders. “This all sounds bad, but you don’t have all the details and if you’ll let your Dad explain.”

Arianna reached up and covered Greta’s hands with hers. “It’s another nail in the coffin to say my mother is a lying, conniving bitch who never should have had children.”

“Oh ... your mother has done many things wrong honey. But she makes beautiful babies.” Greta nodded and pulled her in for a hug.

Arianna stiffened, but there was something comforting about this hug from this virtual stranger. It felt real. Not like the hugs her mother had given her as a child. But a hug with emotion and love behind it.

Greta pulled away a bit as Arianna teared up. “There. Why don’t we go inside, sit down on the couch and let your Dad tell you his side?”

Arianna looked over at Trevor to steady herself. He smiled at her.

She squeezed Greta a little tighter. “Thank you.” Arianna wiped the tears from her eyes.

Greta put her arm around Arianna’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s get you inside.”

Arianna looked at the tray of broken glasses and the puddle on the porch. “Let me help you clean this up.”

Greta shook her head and smiled. “No you go in and talk to your father. I’ll finish this up and join you in a few minutes.”

Arianna tapped Greta’s arm. “Thank you.”

“No problem Honey, hear him out okay? It may have not started out the way it should have, but I love your father.and he wants nothing more than to be in your life. When Trevor contacted him he was over the moon.” Greta squeezed her hand and then shooed her inside.

Arianna walked into the house and looked around.

The place looked lived in. Coats hung on a hall tree with shoes lined up against the wall beside it. The wood floor felt warm and well-trodden under her feet and the carpet, soft and cozy. The furniture was a delightful mishmash of antiques, squashy, comfortable chairs and couches, tables with shelves underneath loaded with books and magazines, and the occasional knick-knack from some faraway shore displayed on top. Pictures covered the walls. She spotted herself right off. She was fourteen at the time, her school picture. She stopped at the first picture a much younger Greta, a man who wasn’t her father, a toddler, and an infant.

“That’s Greta, her late husband and their two kids, Gerolf and Ulrik. They’d be your two step-brothers.”

“Well those are interesting names, but knowing a bit about the family they come from, I’d say it’s pretty normal.”

“They’re pretty rare even in their culture.” Dustin moved over to the next picture.

Arianna trailed him. The next picture appeared to be recent. Three boys were pictured, all about her age. “Was the third boy her first husband’s kid as well?”

Dustin let out a heavy breath and grimaced. “That’s your half-brother Marcus. Greta and your mother were pregnant at the same time.”

“Oh.”

“It’s a complicated story, will you let me explain?” Dustin motioned to the couch.

Arianna sighed and looked at Trevor. The throbbing behind her right eye was back.

“You can do this.” Trevor kissed her cheek.

She nodded and took Trevor’s hand and together they walked to the couch.

Dustin grabbed two pictures that sat on the shelf above the television. He sat down next to Arianna. Taking a deep breath, he handed one of the pictures to her. “That picture is of Greta’s first husband, Lindley. We always called him Lin.”

Arianna looked at the picture of the man in full military dress. “Another military man.”

Dustin handed her the second picture.

The picture was of both Lin and her dad.

“I was nineteen at the time, it was two years before you were born and we were stationed in Germany together. I wanted your mother to come with me, but she’d have none of it. Didn’t want to go overseas. She hated to travel and barely moved with me when I was stationed in the U.S. She stayed in Omaha, while I went to Germany.”

“I remember moving some when we were kids, but not a lot.”

“We moved a couple times, but the last time she told me she wanted to go back to Omaha to be around her family, and we did.” Dustin sighed. “I tried to make it work with her, I did.”

Arianna nodded. She didn’t know what to say. Everything she heard pointed to her mother lying. It wasn’t a far stretch. “I didn’t know Mom had family around the area.”

“That’s why I didn’t understand why she wanted to move back there. She never went to see her family and they never came to see her. Her family was rather distant. Her parents were career focused, she was raised by nannies when she was little, but as she got older her parents let her live more and more on her own.”