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Chapter Sixty-five
Roy, confused but willing, followed her to the bedroom she shared with Kean and she pulled out her laptop. In a few seconds, she found the files for her mother and held out the screen so he could read the information.
A cry broke from him, one that tore at her heartstrings. He dropped to the bed as if all the strength in his legs had vanished. She sat next to him.
His voice came out raspy, hoarse with emotion. “Who is this woman to you?” His blue lasers, the ones that reminded her of what she saw in the mirror every day, searched her expression.
“She’s my real mother, Roy. Her name is Scarlet Honor and she lived in San Francisco. According to the file I was able to obtain, she gave me up for adoption because her dream was to be an actress. Regrettably, she passed away two years later and was never able to achieve her goal.”
“Lordy, lordy.” He shook his head sadly. “How terrible. Scarlet was the reason I left San Francisco. She wouldn’t marry me, said she never wanted kids. All she wanted was to be an actress.”
“How long did you and Scarlet know each other?”
“We were together for six months, night and day. I thought we were in love. But when I wanted to get married, she refused. Said she had just been notified that her audition to act in a play on Broadway had been successful and it was the answer to all her dreams. I was stunned and heartbroken. I offered to wait but she would have none of it. Left me. Just walked out. I never saw her again.”
“So you came to Honolulu.”
“I had to. Everywhere I went in ‘Frisco, I saw her. The memories were killing me.”
“When did you leave San Francisco?”
“It was two weeks after Christmas; January 1986.”
“I was born in August 1986.”
Roy’s stunned cry broke through within a few seconds, and his sob of joy left her in no doubt as to his delight. “You’re mydaughter?”
“I believe so. We can always get a test—”
Stiffening, he gently took her face into his shaking hands and they stared into each other’s tear-filled eyes. His tender smile twisted her heart into a big, happy, glowing knot of love. “Do you truly feel that’s necessary?”
She whispered the words. “Not for one second.” They hugged. He rocked her and she patted his back. The feeling of sweet acknowledgement would never occur again and they both wanted to savor the moment.
Releasing each other, they again stared, grinned and he kissed her forehead so lovingly that the sniffles returned.
“How can a man be so blessed with an instant family? All in a few magical moments, I’m a father and a grandfather.” His unsteady hands cupped her face and his thumbs wiped away the tears on her cheeks. He gazed into her eyes. “How long have you suspected?”
“From when you told me about your earlier life in the sunroom. About the actress you wanted to marry in San Francisco but that she wanted a career.”
“This is the most wonderful thing that could have ever happened to me. I’m not even going to dwell on the years we’ve missed, the years I could have watched my child growing up.”
“You’ve never been a father before?” She held her breath, the sudden increase in her heart’s thudding came close to choking her.
His startled questioning look passed the conversation back to her.
“Sloan. He calls you ’Dad’. He has three fathers—”
“Oh, sweetheart. Now I know why you were so pale earlier, and it also accounts for your fearful expression when I called Sloan ‘son’.” He again wiped at the new deluge of tears. “Alia, I’m not his father.”
“But how do you know for sure? He said all three of you were with Wai.” Hope filled her and began to replace the ugly fear from moments earlier.
“Because, though I loved Wai, I was neverin lovewith her and we never slept together. I was and always will be in love with your mother. So there is absolutely no chance that the boy is mine.”
“Why haven’t you ever told him? He believes that any one of you could be his dad.”
Roy’s cheeks filled with color and he lowered his head so he could break away from her searching gaze. “I never admitted to the others that we hadn’t been intimate. That way I had as much right to be Sloan’s father as Tommy and Les.” He held her shoulders firmly. “When he was first born and Wai needed a babysitter, she turned to me for help. And after she left, Tommy and Les did the same. As a farm boy with lots of siblings, I had the most experience and they were terrified they’d do something wrong. So, in those days, I ended up spending more time with him than either of the others. As the months went by, he became my boy as if he were of my blood. Never doubt it. I do consider him my son, but he is not your half-brother.”
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am, Roy. I mean Dad.” She grinned at his look of delight.
“Me too, sweetheart. Me too.”
