Drew

I smile down at Josie, grateful she’s here to support me. I need her tonight, more than I think I ever have… because the last twenty minutes have been the most shocking of my life.

I thought regaining my memory was the worst thing that could happen to me. Having to re-live the accident and knowing there was nothing I could do to prevent it, or to save my baby girl… that was horrendous. But this…?

To know what my father did to my mother…

To know how I came to be born…

Mom coughs and we all look at her. She’s turned and is staring at Hunter.

“I wrote to you,” she says. “When I was lucid, they let me write.”

“I never received any letters. None of us did.”

The man beside Mom lets out a long sigh, shaking his head and she looks up at him. “Theodore must have intercepted them,” she says, turning her gaze back on Hunter. “I wrote to you, though. I promise.”

Ella sits up. “How long were you in the hospital?”

“Nearly three years.” Ella’s eyes widen, her mouth dropping open. I can’t help gasping. Three years? “I’d probably still be there now if it wasn’t for Braydon.” She looks up at the man who’s still holding her, gratitude and love filling her eyes.

“Why? What did Braydon do?” Hunter asks.

“He saved me,” she says, quite simply.

Braydon smiles. “I don’t know about that, but I moved here from Chicago, and I went to work at the hospital as a resident psychologist. After just a few one-to-one sessions with your mom, I realized there was nothing wrong with her… other than the damage your father had done. She certainly wasn’t psychotic, or a danger to anyone… not even herself.”

“Braydon arranged for my discharge,” Mom says. “And although I wanted to contact you, he reminded me I’d have to go through Theodore. We both knew I wasn’t strong enough for that.”

“So you just left us?” Ella says, shaking her head.

“Don’t make it sound easy,” Mom replies. “It wasn’t. But I’d written and heard nothing back. I assumed Theodore had told you stories about me… made you fearful of me.”

“He never said a word about you,” I say, recalling his silences, his rebuttals whenever one of us raised the subject. “He refused to talk about you at all.”

“Th—That’s not strictly true.” I turn at the sound of Hunter’s voice.

“What are you saying? I’m pretty sure I don’t have any holes in my memory now. As far as I’m aware, you’ve always told me…”

“I know what I’ve always told you,” he says. “And it’s not your memory playing tricks. I lied to you, Drew… to you and Ella. Dad told me once, why Mom left.”

Before I can say anything, Mom steps forward, releasing herself from Braydon’s arms. “What did he tell you? Did he say I was crazy?”

“No. He told me you didn’t love us enough to take us with you.”

“Oh, my God.” She raises her hand to her mouth, but then pushes it back through her hair. “Was he implying I’d just walked out, abandoning you? Or did he mean I’d left with another man?”

“I always assumed the latter,” Hunter says, shrugging his shoulders before he turns to me and then looks down at Ella. “I promised myself I wouldn’t tell you what Dad had said because I wanted to protect you from his cruelty. If I was wrong, then once again, I’m sorry.”

Sometimes he can take the big brother thing too far, but in this instance, I’m grateful. I wouldn’t have wanted to hear that, when there was no hope of having it contradicted. “You weren’t wrong.” I smile at him while Ella just nods and leans back in Mac’s embrace.

“I loved you,” Mom says, looking first at Ella, then at me, and finally at Hunter. “I loved all of you, and I still do, but I couldn’t be sure your father would let me have any kind of relationship with you, and rightly or wrongly, I assumed it would be too difficult for you to hear from me after such a long time. Ella would have only been six years old when I was released, and Drew just nine. I didn’t know how they’d handle me coming back out of the blue, especially if their father had fed them stories about me being insane. The last thing I wanted was to scare them…” She pauses, stepping a little closer to Hunter. “And I knew you’d look after them. You were good at that. You’d looked after me for long enough.”

“I’d tried,” he whispers.

“Even though it wasn’t your job.” She smiles up at him and he shakes his head, but doesn’t speak. I’m not sure he can. “When I didn’t get any reply to my letters, I figured you didn’t want to know me anymore, so we moved away.” Mom turns, going back to Braydon. “To England.”

“That’s a long way to go,” Mac says, tilting his head to one side.

Mom looks over at him. “You’re British?”

“Yes. I know what it means to cross the Atlantic and start again. It’s an enormous commitment… and I didn’t have any family to leave behind.”

“It wasn’t a decision I took lightly,” Mom says, gazing up at Braydon. “I missed my children every minute of every day. Maybe I was weak. Maybe I should have tried harder, but Theodore had stolen all the fight from me. I had nothing left.”

“What did you do when you got to England?” Mac asks.

“We settled in a tiny village in Cornwall. Braydon opened a private practice in the nearest town, and we did our best to be happy… which was hard for me, without the three of you.”

“Did you have any more children? The two of you… together?” Ella asks, blinking hard against her tears.

“No.” Mom’s answer is blank, her voice monotone, and Braydon steps a little closer to her.

“I said earlier that there was nothing wrong with your mother, other than the harm your father had done… but you need to remember he’d done some considerable damage. Physically, there was no reason your mother couldn’t have had more children, which was a miracle in itself, considering what your father had done to her. But I think to have had another child, while the three of you were absent from her life, would have destroyed her.”

“Did our father divorce you?” Ella asks, still looking at Mom and still clearly desperate for information. She reminds me of myself, wanting all the blanks filled at once.

“No,” Braydon says, answering for our mother, who looks exhausted now and seems to need a little time to recover. “I believe he’d have divorced her, if he could. I think it’s one of the reasons he treated her so badly… because he wanted his freedom and couldn’t have it. She knew what he’d done, you see? She knew he was a rapist, that she’d been underage when they’d first had sex together. I imagine he either knew, or found out, that there’s no statute of limitations on statutory rape, and if your mom had her freedom, she’d be able to tell anyone and everyone what kind of man he really was. Maybe he was also worried about what might come out during the divorce proceedings. Either way, he needed to feel he could exert control over Lindsay and everything she said. Staying married to her, but preventing her from having any contact with the three of you, was the best way of doing that, even if it meant he wasn’t free to do what he wanted with his life.”

“I remember now…” Hunter says, shaking his head. “Doreen told me our father had always maintained he couldn’t leave you,” Hunter says, turning to Mom. “It made little sense at the time, but it does now. His behavior bound him to you.”

Mom nods her head. “And me to him, unfortunately. He still held that fear over me, even if I hadn’t heard from him or spoken to him for over twenty years. I didn’t even realize he was dead until I got back here.”

“Seriously?” Hunter’s surprise is obvious. “He died nearly three years ago.”

“I know, but he’s not a household name in Cornwall, and I wasn’t a beneficiary in his will, so there was no reason for anyone to contact me.” She stops talking and looks around at us. “To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure he’d have left the three of you anything in his will, either. Part of me fully expected him to leave it all to Doreen.”

“He left her a very specific eight figure sum,” Hunter says. “But most of it came to us.”

“At least he got that right,” she whispers.

“Don’t give him too much credit,” Hunter says, letting out a sigh. “I’ve often wondered why he left us so much.”

“So have I,” I say and he turns to me, nodding his head.

“I know, and in talking to my lawyer about something else last week, I’ve realized one important factor that none of us had ever taken into consideration before.”

“Oh?” Ella and I both turn to look at him, although it’s me that speaks.

“Yeah. The date of his will. It was before he got sick… before he took the company public. When he wrote and signed that will, his cash value was significantly less than it was when he died. He left us the house, and whatever remained of his estate, after Doreen had been paid her legacy. That was how it was worded, and if things had stayed how they were, we’d have had to sell the house, and probably our shares in TBA to pay her.”

“You’re kidding,” Ella says.

“No.” He shakes his head. “When you come to think about it, it makes more sense than him suddenly developing a conscience.”

It does. But there’s one thing I still don’t understand. “You’ve always maintained he knew he was dying, so why didn’t he change his will?”

“I’m guessing he ran out of time. His cancer developed more quickly than anyone thought it would. Who knows? Either way, I don’t think he intended to make us millionaires.”

“It sounds more like he intended to bankrupt you,” Mom says and we all let out a collective sigh.

“He probably did,” Hunter says. “But changing the subject slightly, if you weren’t aware of Dad’s death, then you won’t have heard than Ken Bevan died in a car accident.”

Mom shakes her head. “No, I hadn’t,” she says, glancing over at Julianne. “When did that happen?”

“Just after Christmas,” Julianne says. “I can’t say it was a great loss to humanity.”

Mom smiles. “No. Probably not.” She shakes her head. “I only came back because I read about Drew’s accident… which was a complete fluke.” She turns, looking at me. “It was on the Internet. Someone had posted something about the young lady who was driving the car. She was a model, I believe?”

“Yes.” I nod my head, although now doesn’t feel like the time to go into details about Lexi and everything that happened between us.

“I can’t remember most of the article I read, but your name popped out at me, and I saw you’d been injured. I—I had to come back. Braydon couldn’t come with me then, because he had work commitments at his practice.” She turns back, facing Hunter again. “When I came to see you, I wanted to tell you everything, but I couldn’t… not by myself. I should have realized that would be a problem.”

Braydon kisses her cheek, and she stops talking. “Your mom still struggles with what your father did to her. She was nervous about coming back, even though she had to, to make sure Drew was okay. When she discovered your father was dead, she called me and we agreed, there and then, over the phone, to move back here. She wanted to be close to you all, to see if she could rebuild her relationship with you. I stayed behind in England for a while, to sell the house and wind up my practice, and we’ve bought a house in Providence. I’m going to start another practice there, if I can… and…” He looks around at Ella, me, and Hunter. “And if you’re all in agreement, we’d like to get married.”

Mom glances up at him and then turns to us. “I—I need you all to forgive me… if you think you can.”

There’s a prolonged and awkward silence, during which you could hear a pin drop. None of us seems to know what to say until Pat coughs and we all look over at her. She’s sitting still, holding Mick’s hand in hers, and she glances around the room. “What’s wrong with you all?” she says, shaking her head. “Do you honestly think your mom needs your forgiveness? Because if you do, I got something very wrong when I raised you. She’s a victim of your father, just like the rest of you… only worse. And I didn’t raise you to be victims. I taught you to rise above what’s been done to you… to do better. To be better.” She stares at Hunter, as the eldest. “So… be better.”

Hunter nods his head, stepping aside and pulling Livia to her feet before he moves closer to our mom.

“This is my wife, Livia,” he says, placing his hand over her tiny bump. “And our daughter, who you’ll get to meet in a few months’ time. Her name will be either Talia, Poppy, or Skye.”

“Not Talia,” Livia says, looking up at him. “I’ve changed my mind about that.”

“Again?” he says, smiling. “We’ve only known the sex for five days, and I think we’ve gone through about eight names already.”

“I know.”

“Are Poppy and Skye still in the running?” he asks.

She nods her head and turns to our mom, offering a tentative hand. I guess she’s nervous about her father’s involvement in Lindsay’s story, but Lindsay reaches out and pulls Livia into a hug, kissing her on the cheek.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” she says. “I overreacted.”

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing compared to what Hunter did when he first found out.”

I chuckle and Ella laughs out loud before she stands, dragging Mac out of his seat.

“This is my husband, Mac,” she says, going over to Mom. “I’m sorry I didn’t invite you to our wedding.”

“That’s okay,” Mom says. “I think it was probably for the best. I wouldn’t have wanted my dramas to spoil your day.”

Ella blushes. “Our son, Henry, is asleep upstairs, but I have no doubt he’ll put in an appearance very soon. He should wake up at any moment.”

They both step aside and I stand, offering my hand to Josie. She takes it and I pull her up, along with Maisie, who she’s still cradling. I don’t let go, but lead her over to Mom and she smiles at Josie… a friendly face, I guess.

“You’ve met Josie,” I say. “But you met her as my nurse, not my fiancée.”

Everyone gasps, but no-one louder than Josie and she turns to me, looking up into my eyes, as I grin down into her bemused but beautiful face.

“Fiancée? Since when?”

“Since now. Everyone else is either married, or getting married.” I nod toward Mom and Braydon. “I figured we should join them.”

She shakes her head, which doesn’t feel very promising. “Is this your idea of a proposal?”

“No.” But this is very spur of the moment, so the thought that I’ve had any ideas about this is almost comical. I reach out, taking Maisie from her arms and turn, handing my daughter to Hunter, who grabs her with a smile on his lips. Then I turn back and drop to one knee, taking Josie’s hands in mine. “Okay… there’s nothing like doing this in front of an audience.” I’ve only got myself to blame for that, and I take a deep breath, looking up into Josie’s eyes, the words coming naturally, now I’m here. “Even when I didn’t know anything else, I knew I loved you. When everything was dark, you were my beacon of light, guiding me back to where I belong. You’re my ray of hope, Josie… my everything… my dream come true. All you have to do is say yes, and make the dream a reality.”

She smiles and I smile back as she nods her head and whispers, “Yes.”

I leap to my feet, pulling her into my arms, and I kiss her as everyone gathers around, congratulating us. There are kisses, pats on the back and hugs, and then Hunter hands Maisie back to me, and I turn back to Mom again.

“Who’s this?” she asks.

“This is Maisie. She’s your granddaughter.”

I hand Maisie over to Mom and she lets her tears fall as she gazes down into Maisie’s beautiful face. Josie looks up at me and I know this is right. We’ve completed the circle.

I lean over and kiss Josie, just as Hunter coughs and we turn to face him.

“If we’re in the mood for making announcements, then I’ve got one, too.”

I groan, unable to help myself. “You’re not thinking about buying back the rest of the shares in TBA, are you? Because if you are…”

Hunter shakes his head. “Hell, no. In fact, I’m thinking of doing the exact opposite. That’s why I went to see my lawyer. I’m giving up my position as CEO.”

Livia smiles and I get the feeling she knew this was coming, even if it’s a surprise to the rest of us.

“What are you going to do, then?” Ella asks.

“I’m going to be a father.” He rests his hand on Livia’s bump and she places hers over the top. “I’m going to get right all the things our father got wrong… like being there when our daughter takes her first steps, and when she says ‘Daddy’ for the first time.” He smiles at me and Ella. “Neither of you have gone back to work since the accident, and Henry’s birth.”

“No,” I say, grinning. “I’m enjoying being a father myself.”

“I noticed.” Hunter chuckles. “And I was thinking, maybe the three of us could do something together for once.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting we start a new business, because I really don’t have the time… and besides, I can’t think of a single thing that involves an advertising man, a photographer and a chef.”

“Neither can I,” Hunter says. “But that’s not what I had in mind. We all have our shares in TBA still, and I’m okay with leaving them where they are for now. That’s more that enough involvement in business for me.”

“Me, too.” Ella nods her head.

“Good… so I was thinking we could do something completely different.”

“Like what?”

“Like being better.” Hunter glances at Pat with a smile. “I was thinking we could take some of our money and do some good… give something back.”

“Is this you railing against Dad again?” I ask and he nods his head.

“Absolutely. I think we’ve established he never meant for us to have his millions, so let’s do something he’d have hated.” I have to laugh and Ella soon joins in. “I haven’t worked out what yet,” Hunter says. “But I’m sure if we put our heads together, we can come up with a few ideas.”

“I like the sound of that,” I say, holding Josie a little closer as Ella goes over and gives Mom a hug, taking care not to crush Maisie, and the two of them rest their heads together, while Mac moves in and shakes Braydon’s hand.

“Shall we all go eat?” Pat says, raising her voice above the hum of conversation.

“Oh… um…” Mom seems embarrassed.

“We’d like you to stay,” Hunter says, looking at me and then Ella. I nod my head and she does, too. “We can talk about wedding plans.”

“Whose?” Ella asks. “Mom’s, or Drew’s?”

“Both,” Hunter says with a laugh and I shake my head at him, although I don’t mind in the slightest.

I bend and kiss Josie as everyone files out of the room, Mom still holding Maisie in her arms.

“Thank you,” I whisper, and she looks up at me.

“What for?”

“For giving me back my family.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. Without you, I’d still be floundering around, trying to remember who the hell I am. And now I know…”

“Oh? And who are you?”

I smile, kissing her again. “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

The End

Thank you for reading Mistaken Intention .