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Dannika put her hand to her stomach. Tears dusted her lashes, but she didn’t let them fall. What could she say? Riley had been given amazing parents and a happy childhood, while she had been steeped in death and loneliness. Dannika looked like she had been sucker punched. Had her mother lied to her father? What was the extent of this betrayal?
Dannika cleared her throat. “Tell me what you know about me and my mother.”
Daniel put his knuckle to his lips, as if it were an effort to recall his past. As much as he loved Riley’s mother, she guessed it was the pain of a love lost. “Allie and Cami met when they were children and were friends all through their teen years.” He fiddled with the white collar that signified his devotion to the church. “Ally was the one who taught your mother about Haitian customs. The protection spells, and the healing lotions. I never truly believed in it until Cami lay on her deathbed.”
Riley frowned. “Mom was murdered. She was never in the hospital.”
Daniel touched Riley’s face gently. “This was before you were born. Cami was shot in the stomach during a robbery at the local convenience store. The doctors said she wouldn’t live. That was the day I learned about Allie’s true powers.”
“What happened?”
“Allie said Cami had more to do. She closed the doors to your mother’s private room and performed a ritual. I thought it was similar to the last rite. A farewell to her spirit in the Haitian way. But when Allie put a lotion on your mother skin, and it began to repair the tissue beneath, I realized it was far more. Allie had access to the spirit world, and she struck a bargain.”
“She healed her.”
Daniel nodded. “Yes, but there was a price for both of them.”
“What price,” Dannika asked. Her face as enthralled as Riley’s.
Daniel’s eyes scrunched. “Cami couldn’t have children. While Allie was able to heal Cami, she couldn’t fix the damage that had been done.”
Riley swallowed hard. “What was the cost to Allie?”
“At the time nothing. She said that one day she would come to us for a favor. Of course we agreed. She had just saved Cami’s life, and we trusted Allie completely. In the end she gave us everything.”
“What was the favor?” Dannika asked, her tone devoid of emotion.
Daniel took a deep breath. “Allie had a vision when she was pregnant with her twins. She said she was concerned for her life; if anything were to happen to her, to save her children. There was nothing we wouldn’t do for her. Allie was like a sister to Cami.”
Dannika glanced at Riley. “Cami took Riley from the hospital.”
“Yes. She was a nurse. When the babies were dropped off, she recognized the blanket she had made for Allie.”
Raine rubbed Dannika’s back as black smoke rose in wisps from her shoulders. “Why didn’t she take me?” There was no hiding the pain in her voice. The betrayal. The loneliness of a child forgotten.
Daniel rubbed his chest as if he could alleviate the pain that had taken root there. “Cami was almost caught when she abducted Riley. The authorities took you before Cami could get to you, but she never stopped looking. She tracked you to a group home, but was informed you had perished. By that time Riley was six and we didn’t want to risk losing her.”
Riley forced her body to breathe slowly as the magnitude of what her father was saying hit her. She had missed growing up with her twin sister, never knowing she was adopted or the truth about her past. She couldn’t imagine how Dannika felt. “Why would you lose me?”
Dannika looked away. “Because he abducted you, Riley.”
Riley looked at her father. “Why not adopt us through proper channels.”
Daniel’s face sagged with shame in his eyes. “I had issues after I returned from my tours in the military. I was struggling with PTSD and had some public outbursts. Cami straightened me out, but those infractions were on my record. We’d been trying to adopt for years before Allie got pregnant, but continued to be denied.”
Riley wrapped her arms around her waist, but the chill was in her blood not the cool air around them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniel’s eyes pleaded with hers. “You have to understand, you were a gift. We had already lost Allie. I only met her husband once, but we were told he and her son were also killed in the attack. We didn’t think twice. We thanked God for our daughter and promised to protect her.”
Riley’s heart was bleeding out. A thick staccato of pain thumping in her chest. As much as it hurt, she knew it was far worse for Dannika. Her eyes met that of her twin, but there was nothing either of them could say. Their childhood together had been stolen from them.
Daniel touched his daughter’s arm. “You think I turned to the church when Cami died, but my faith began the day she brought you home. Your mother and you were the gifts I was given. If tomorrow is my last day, then I will have lived a blessed life. I believed we fulfilled our promise to Allie to the best of our ability.”
She tried to keep her emotions contained, for Dannika’s sake as much as her own, but the tears welled in her eyes as her voice swelled. “You had no right to keep this from me. Even if Dannika had died as a child, I had the right to know about her. To know about my mother. My brother. My father.”
Daniel’s face twitched. “I am your father.” He glanced away. “You have every right to be angry, Riley. I’m sorry I wasn’t forthcoming before I got sick. I wanted to tell you, but my time ran out and when I tried, the words wouldn’t come.”
Riley sniffed, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.
