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She hung up not bothering to listen to it, what was the point? Morris had most likely figured out her trail led nowhere, and they were going after Haley right now. She felt like sinking down onto the floor and bawling her eyes out but that would only lead to more questions.
Nate walked over and forced her back to the area with the others.
“Gabby, I’m sorry,” Sam told her. “I was out of line, we’re all worried about Dad but that’s no excuse.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she sighed.
Her sister sent her a sympathetic smile before asking, “Who were you talking to over there?”
“Dr. Jameson, he was on call last night when Iris called me. He offered to go and see how Dad was.”
“You just met him last night?” she inquired.
“Yes, oh come on Viola that’s just ridiculous,” she said grasping where her mind had gone.
“No it’s not. I’m guessing you weren’t wearing your wedding ring last night, much like right now,” she added pointedly.
“I was in bed when Iris called me, so yeah I probably forgot them in my rush and I don’t wear them at home while I do the dishes and cook dinner,” Gabby told them. “But to insinuate that I’d knowingly lead someone on…”
“I didn’t say it was on purpose, but it’s no secret that you’ve had guys following you around from the moment you learned to smile Gabby,” Viola stated. “Let alone how many ofmyboyfriends only hung around to get a glimpse of my little sister.”
“This again?” she groaned. “Didn’t we have this out like three years ago after your latest loser broke into my apartment?”
“Enough girls,” their mother broke in, “this isn’t the place to have this argument.”
“I’m not arguing,” Viola said. “You can’t argue with the truth.”
Gabby rolled her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall wondering if she should sign her own name to the check-in sheet so she could get a shot, fall asleep, and not have to listen to this anymore. She knew Viola resented the fact that she’d gotten married first, but that wasn’t her fault. Well, in a small way it was, but mostly it was her sister’s choice of men. True Viola’s boyfriends from the time she was fourteen and Viola had been eighteen had found an interest in the odd duck outof the Simmons family, an interest that she’d once heard being discussed by her sister and the latest creep she’d brought home.
She could still remember the oddest sensation that had passed through her when she heard the boy ask if Gabby had been adopted and then the sly suggestion that maybe her mom had an affair. It had grabbed hold of her and refused to be shaken which was how she found herself at sixteen offering to help clean out the attic for the expansion of the house her mom and dad been planning.
It’d taken her weeks to do it because she went through everything, every single piece of paper, every book and she finally found it, the picture of her mother and another man, a man who she immediately saw a resemblance to, and that was also the time during which she’d discovered her real aptitude for computers. She felt guilty about breaking into the HR files at first when she realized that the man in the picture worked with her mom, or had seventeen years before then.
It had taken her almost four months after she discovered his name and tracked him down through his work history for her to work up the courage to approach him, when she showed up at his house he wasn’t there but Haley was. The instant connection was startling for them both but instead of being angry, Haley had been thrilled to find that she had a younger sister. That first night they’d spent over five hours talking, Haley spilling that her mom had breast cancer and her dad was at the hospital with her.
She still couldn’t explain why she had decided to hide her knowledge from Rick, her biological father, but she knew why she kept Haley hidden, she didn’t want to share her or have her other brothers and sister be angry that she’d finally connected to someone the way she never had with them. She loved them, just never had much in common with them.
Haley’s mom had died a year after they’d found each other, and she’d hidden in the back of the church at the funeral silentlysupporting her sister and that night she’d held Haley as she cried.
She had applied to a ton of schools but eventually chose to go to the same one as Haley and they’d had two years of seeing and being with each other daily until Haley had graduated and moved to Boston. During the next year they kept in contact but slowly during her senior year things had changed, Haley stopped calling, writing, answering her and she figured she was just busy but a few days before graduation she’d shown up hysterical and crying.
She was pregnant but refused to tell her who the father was, just that it hadn’t worked out. Gabby had moved to Boston getting a job at Graves and helping Haley with Jessica after she was born. Things had been good, until the night Donald had shown up at their place, beating both Haley and Jess. She’d gotten home just before he rushed out the door, but he hadn’t seen her then, something had told her to hide at the sight of the front door half open.
After that, she’d left her job, taking one here so she could be closer to her family, and so Haley could be near her dad and brother, Gabby’s other half-brother, Adam. Her first job back here hadn’t been with Wyatt’s company; she’d only started working there after Haley had told her of the opening. Haley had moved in with her dad for a while and Gabby had found a place of her own. It was the first time she’d ever been completely on her own and she discovered she liked the feeling but missed Jess and Haley.
When Jess began having seizures, they’d both been scared and when the reason came out she’d begged Haley to go to the police but she had been so worried that Donald would come back and finish what he’d started that she refused to. That was when Haley had moved into her own place, close to the hospital in caseof an emergency in the night, and Gabby had been a constant overnight visitor.
She honestly didn’t know why or how they kept their secret. Plenty of times in the past few years her brothers and sister had almost caught Haley and Jess at her place or Rick and Adam nearly caught her at Haley’s but the two sides were still in the dark, which worked to her advantage right now, unless Wyatt had figured it out.
Her head was pounding now, the stress and worry making the thought of a shot sound better and better. She pushed thoughts of Wyatt, Haley, Jess and Donald out of her mind and glanced at the clock on the wall. Where was Aaron? He’d been gone almost twenty minutes now.
“Gabby, Mrs. Simmons?” he said getting their attention forcing her to give him a silent apology. “Sorry for the delay.”
“How’s our father?” Nate asked hugging Viola to him as Sam supported their mother.
“Resting, he had a small cardio infarction,” Aaron explained.
“Dummy English please Doc,” Sam said.
