Abigail Gordon - His Summer Bride - Becoming Dr Bellini's Bride / Summer Seaside Wedding / Wedding in Darling Downs

‘Katie, this is madness. At least stop and talk to me. Let me explain.’

‘There’s nothing to explain, is there? I know exactly how it went. You knew all along that my father had another family, a family he didn’t want me to know about… or my mother, for that matter. How old is Natasha, do you imagine? Twenty-four? That means she was born while he was still married to my mother. How do you think I feel about that? Can you imagine? And yet I still would have wanted to know that they existed. Don’t you think I had a right to know?’

‘Of course you did. And he would have told you, given time. It’s just that he wanted to pick his moment. You were getting along so well together. He didn’t want to spoil that.’

He frowned. ‘Katie, you’ve only just discovered that he’s passed on. You’re bound to be upset and not thinking clearly about things. You’re emotional and overwrought, and you should give yourself time to get used to the idea that he’s gone before you start dissecting his behaviour and giving yourself grief over it. You’ll have a much more balanced outlook in a day or so’s time.’

‘Will I? I think I have a pretty firm handle on the situation right now. I might even forgive my father for his deception…after all, I’ve been there before. He left us back in England and eventually I managed to come to terms with what he had done. I know what kind of man he is…’ her voice lowered to a whisper. ‘Was.’

She stopped walking and faced him head on. ‘It’s you I have a problem with. You’re the one who kept the pretence going. You banded together to keep me in the dark about it, about my family—my brother and sister, for heaven’s sake.’

She shook her head as though to throw out all the debris of broken dreams that had gathered there. ‘You knew how lonely I was through all those years after he left us,’ she said, her eyes blurred with tears. ‘You knew how much it hurt me to be rejected and how desperately I needed to know the reason for that. You should have told me the truth… that he had another family out here, one that he was prepared to stand by, to love and protect. It would have helped me to understand. I wouldn’t have kept my hopes up that my relationship with my father could have been something more than it was.’

Her gaze locked with his. ‘Instead, you let me flounder and lose my way. You made it so that I stumbled across his children at the worst possible moment. You could have stopped all that, and yet you did nothing.’

‘Katie, I had to keep it from you. Jack made me promise. He wanted to tell you himself when the time was right.’

‘Well, you should never have made that promise,’ she told him flatly. ‘Because of it, all my illusions are shattered. I thought I knew you... I thought I could trust you but I was wrong.’ She took in a shuddery breath. ‘You should go back to the house, Nick. I need to be alone.’

‘IF THERE’S anything at all that I can do to help you through these next few weeks, Dr Logan, please be sure to give me a call…at any time.’ The lawyer handed Katie his embossed card. ‘I know this must be a particularly difficult time for you.’

‘Thank you.’ Katie accepted the card and slipped it into her bag. She was still numb from everything that had happened over the last couple of weeks. Her father had died, the will had been read and now she had to try to pick up the pieces and go on with her life.

How was she to do that? Nick had betrayed her. The one man she’d thought she could trust had let her down, with devastating consequences. He’d once told her that she was special and that she’d shaken him to the core, and yet those had been empty words. It seemed those feelings were fragile, and he was easily diverted.

His duplicity left her feeling utterly lost and alone and she couldn’t see how she was ever going to recover from this.

Even now, Nick was watching her from across the room. It was bad enough that he was there at all, but there was nothing she could do about that. She could feel his dark gaze homing in on her, piercing like a laser, but she was determined to ignore him. She wanted to avoid him at all costs. He’d known all along about Tom and Natasha, but he had said nothing. How could he have left her to find out about them that way? If he had cared anything for her, wouldn’t he have told her?

‘It can’t have been easy for you, discovering that you had a family out here in California,’ the lawyer commented.

‘No,’ she confessed. She’d had two long weeks to think about that awful day at her father’s house, and now she was here with her half-brother and-sister, gathered together under the same roof once more, and it was every bit as unsettling now as it had been then. ‘I’m finding it all a bit of a strain, I must admit. I’m still struggling to take it all in. It hadn’t occurred to me that my father would leave the vineyard, the house—everything, in fact—to the three of us.’ She frowned. ‘I’m not sure what I expected, really… after all, I hadn’t been part of his life for some twenty years.’

‘The terms of the will were very precise.’ His brows drew together in a dark line. ‘After his second wife died, he stipulated that the property and the land should go to his children, and he named each one of you specifically. It wasn’t an afterthought. He had the will drawn up several years ago. Other bequests were added later—like the monetary gifts to his housekeeper and manager.’

‘And the collection of rare books that went to Nick Bellini.’ That was the reason for him being there, wasn’t it, on a day when she’d thought she would be safe?

He nodded. ‘Jack knew that he had a special interest in them, and he wanted to thank him for his help over the years. He said Nick had always been there to advise him about matters to do with the vineyard, and lately he had looked out for him when he was ill.’

‘It sounds as though you knew my father very well.’ Her mouth softened. ‘He must have talked to you quite a bit about these things.’

‘That’s true. I often had occasion to meet with him, so we got to know one another on a friendly as well as a professional basis. I had a lot of respect for your father.’

Katie’s mouth made a faint downward curve. It was a pity she couldn’t share that opinion. Her world had been turned upside down when she had discovered her father’s secret. Now she would remember him as a weak man who hadn’t had the courage to admit to his shortcomings. How much grief would he have spared his family if he had done that? Even her mother had echoed those thoughts at his funeral.

For Katie’s part, she wanted to weep. What was it about her that made people treat her this way? As a child, for a long time after her father left she had felt that she was unlovable… worthless… and now those feelings of rejection and isolation were intensified.

Was there anyone she could rely on? Her ex had cheated on her, and her own father had left her so that he could be with his other family. And now Nick had hurt her deeply by keeping her in the dark about her brother and sister. If he’d cared about her at all, wouldn’t he have confided in her, tried to smooth her path and let her know about something so significant as a family that was being hidden from her?

‘How are you bearing up?’ Nick came to join them, and the lawyer discreetly excused himself to go and talk to her new siblings. ‘If there’s anything I can do—’

‘You could stay away,’ she said, slanting him a brief, cool stare.

‘I’m sorry you feel that way.’ His gaze flicked over her, taking in the silky sheen of her chestnut hair, the troubled curve of her mouth, and then shifted downwards over the slender lines of her dove-grey suit. The jacket nipped in at the waist, emphasising the flare of her hips, while the slim skirt finished at the knee, showing off an expanse of silk-smooth legs. ‘I was hoping by now you’d have had time to think things through… and maybe come to the conclusion that I’d acted with the best of intentions.’