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“What about my father?” Harrison asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since you were small. At that time, he had no other kids. But it has to be his side since I have no one on mine,” Emily said.
“Harrison said he was created by immaculate conception, so I assumed there was no other side.” Sera glanced over at him. He didn’t seem to think she was funny.
“He always did think he was special,” Emily agreed.
“I’ve noticed that also.” Sera chuckled, falling in love with the woman and seeing a little of each of her girls in her personality.
“As far as I know, Harry Rolf never had any more children. But I haven’t seen him in over thirty years now. A lot of time for that kind of stuff.” Emily looked at her coffee cup as she spoke.
“Do you have any way we could contact him?” Harrison took his mom’s hand in his.
“No, and I don’t want to. Nor do I want you to contact him.” Emily visibly paled and squeezed her son’s hand.
“Okay, Mom, I won’t,” Harrison said.
“Good. Now I need you to move some stuff around upstairs, if you will excuse us, Sera.” Emily jumped up from the table, her ex forgotten with Harrison’s promise.
Like a good son, Harrison shrugged off his suit jacket and followed her from the kitchen, rolling his eyes as he went. Now alone, Sera was unable to stay seated as she waited. She needed to discover everything she could find about Harrison and his family.
Maybe because she had just run into her past was the reason why she wanted to know more about Harrison’s. In the semi-dark living room, she found pictures. Harrison at his high school graduation, so closely resembling the boy she met two years later. Another of him and Veronica in a professionally posed shot, neither looking overly happy. The one that captivated her was baby Harrison, probably less than a year old, laying on his stomach on a blanket, smiling at the camera. In her bedroom, she had almost an identical picture of Emma doing the same thing, looking the exact same way.
She felt creepy as she snapped a picture of it with her phone, then one of his graduation shot. At this point, the future was unknown, and the girls might want to know what their father looked like one day. At least now she could show them.
Sinking into the closest chair, she wanted to just run away from his house and these people. Harrison and Emily deserved to know about the girls. Sera was just being selfish by keeping them away from them. Emily would love them unconditionally, as would Harrison.
But in fifteen years, Sera had made a life for her girls, a life that would be turned on its ear if she let Harrison and Emily into it—split custody holidays and watching Harrison find love again, without her. Seeing it in the office was going to be hard enough. Seeing it when he took her children away from her for holidays would kill her.
As she stared at the picture of Harrison from when they first met, she knew she hadn’t fallen for him in the last few weeks. She had loved him for years. She had maybe not loved him when they’d made Emma, but by the time Violet came, she was in deep.
“Are you okay?” Emily said quietly as she sat in the chair near Sera’s and squeezed her knee.
Shaking herself, she said, “Sorry, just lost in thought.”
“I understand. He likes you too,” Emily whispered.
Swinging her eyes to Harrison’s mother, she said, “What?”
“Harry, he likes you also. The last time he was here, he told me about you. And you like him too. Sometimes you have to be told.” Emily grinned at her.
“I don’t have to be told. I’ve known for a long time.” Sera picked a nonexistent piece of lint from her skirt.
“But he never knew. Harry’s been drifting for a few years. Well, more than a few. That woman threw him for a loop.” Emily admitted with a nod at the picture of Harrison and Veronica
“You didn’t like her?” Sera looked up at the older woman.
“Not even in the beginning,” Emily said, shaking her head. “Not that I told Harry. It wouldn’t have changed anything if I had. He thought he loved her and that she loved him.”
“That happens.” Sera had no idea how else to respond to Emily’s confession. She had also disliked Veronica instantly.
“How did you raise seven children? One was bad enough.” Emily chuckled.
“One day at a time. But I never really mothered the five older ones; they were long past wanting or needing a mother. They needed someone who was there for them no matter what, so I made sure they knew they were loved and wanted and had someplace where they belonged.”
Sera lookedat the picture of Harrison and his wife. They wore matching shirts and were touching, but the pose seemed forced. “My marriage was not like Harrison’s. I married Bradford to have a father for the child I was carrying, and he married me to have a mother for his children. It wasn’t a love match; it was convenience. Within a month, he had moved to South America and hasn’t returned once.”
“Never?” Emily asked in dismay.
