Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Molly avoided looking at the accusation she knew would be in Rufus's eyes. "I didn't expect to see you before I left. But I did have every intention of telling you all that I know in the letter I was going to leave."

"That's something I suppose!"

"Rufus, please?—"

"Unfortunately for you, I decided to come here to see you after Linus told me your mother was currently in England."

"Don't ever call her that again!" Molly shuddered. "She was never a good mother to me, but what I now know about her makes me want to scrub every bit of her DNA from my body."

Rufus's narrowed gaze lingered on her packed bag leaning against one of the chairs before he turned to look at her accusingly. "You really were just going to write that letter and leave?"

"Yes."

He gave a weary shake of his head. "Which tells me you didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth."

"We've had one night together, Rufus, and you haven't exactly been eager to bare your soul to me either!"

He winced. "That isn't true, on my part, at least. I've told you more, shared more of myself with you, than I have with anyone else during the last twenty-two years."

He had, Molly realized when she thought of some of their conversations. "And I'm so grateful for your trust in me. I really am. It's the reason I decided I couldn't bear to see your face when you learned the truth about me."

"I still don't know all of it," he scorned. "For instance, I have no idea what possible reason you could have had for coming to work at the animal shelter in the first place."

She released a shuddering breath. "I wanted to see Mia for myself, to know if she truly was who I thought she was."

"And who was that?"

"The baby sister I cared for so lovingly for three months." Molly choked out her words.

" You cared for her?"

She nodded. "My mother was never very…maternal. She couldn't stand it when the baby cried, so I did all that I could to ensure Emily was too contented to become a bother."

"You were the one who fed and looked after Mia?" he prompted incredulously.

"My mother obviously made up the bottles of food and such, but otherwise, yes."

"That fucking bitch!"

Molly couldn't argue with the description, knowing he could have used much worse ones and still have been accurate.

"I was devastated when baby Emily disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared," she revealed shakily. "Then, twenty years later, I saw the articles in the newspapers about how you and your daughter Emily, a young woman who was now known as Mia, had been reunited after being separated for the same twenty years. I accepted employment at the animal shelter because once I'd met Mia, I realized immediately she really was that baby sister I had loved so much as a child, and I wanted to spend a little time with her before I had to move on. I had—have no ulterior motive other than that," she insisted. "I just wanted to be with Mia again for a short time."

"And your relationship with me?"

Her cheeks blazed with heat. "That was unexpected."

A nerve pulsed in his jaw. "You seriously expect me to believe you became such good friends with Mia, went to bed with me, because you couldn't help but like both of us?" he bit out coldly.

"I do like both of you," Molly protested. "Very much. Admittedly, it came as a surprise how attracted I am to you. But I assure you, my friendship and affection for Mia isn't faked either," she added softly. "My intention was always only to work here for a couple of months and then move on, nothing more sinister than that, I promise you. Serena Jenkins suddenly appeared here today before I was able to do that. She threatened that if her crimes should ever become known, she would implicate me in them if I didn't leave here immediately."

Rufus made a strangled sound in his throat that could have been caused by any emotion from despair to rage. "How could you possibly be implicated when you were only a child yourself?"

Because Sarah/Serena had ruthlessly used Molly's "cuteness" when stealing those babies! "She has a way of twisting things and facts to suit her purpose."

He frowned. "I'm starting to wonder if your mother might not be a psychopath."

"It's certainly one explanation for her coldness and lack of any empathy for the pain she must have caused so many couples over the years." Yet another reason for Molly to wish she didn't share any of the woman's DNA.

"Did you never ask her, twenty-two years ago, where the baby you loved so much had gone?"

"I'm sure I would have done," Molly's answer sounded defensive. "But I was only five years old, and she was my mother, so whatever answer she gave me, I would have had no choice but to accept it." She released a shaky breath. "I honestly never suspected she was guilty of anything other than neglect and disinterest in me until two years ago, when news of your reunion with Mia appeared in the newspapers, and I began to suspect the truth."

"And you didn't think to share any of that with us during the three months you've been working here?" he snapped.

Accused, Molly acknowledged heavily, "What would I have said? ‘Hey, I think my mother might have abducted Mia when she was a baby'?"

"Yes!" he grated. "Fucking hell, yes!"

Molly dropped to sit on the arm of the couch, her legs no longer feeling capable of supporting her. "After all these years of silence, you were more likely to have me assessed for a mental illness than believe a word I was telling you."

Rufus gave a sharp shake of his head. "Better that you had tried than we learn the truth because your mother suddenly decided to visit you today. The same woman I now know stole my daughter from me. Dear God," he groaned. "If her presence in London has anything to do with her even thinking of abducting Lilybeth, I'm going to strangle her with my bare hands."

"No!" Molly rose to her feet, her eyes wide with horror. "Surely she wouldn't be so cruel—" She broke off, knowing Serena Jenkins was capable of that and more. "I would never allow such a thing to happen!" She felt nauseous at the thought of any harm ever coming to Lilybeth.

"How would you stop her?"

"I just would!"

He released a soft sigh. "You don't even know where she's staying."

"I didn't ask her for that information because, at the time, I simply didn't care. " She closed her eyes briefly before continuing. "She abandoned me, Rufus. Left her ten-year-old daughter—me!—alone in an apartment for five days and nights before someone noticed I was living there alone. I was terrified," she recalled with a shudder. "But also frightened to ask for help, because I knew if I did, my mother would be angry with me when she eventually returned."

His eyes narrowed. "Was she often angry with you?"

Molly sighed. "Occasionally." She gave a bitter laugh. "Which didn't involve hitting me, as you might suspect. No, she usually just ignored my presence and didn't speak to me for a couple of days. Which was purgatory for me when she knew she was all I had. I'd never had a father or any other relatives I could ask for help, just a mother who occasionally disappeared for a couple of days."

"She'd left you before that last time?"

She avoided his searching gaze as she nodded. "Sometimes. But usually only overnight. Which, God help me, I realize now probably coincided with the disappearance of someone's baby." She shook her head. "I know how all this must seem to you, what you must think of me now that you know the truth?—"

"You really don't," he murmured.

Molly eyed him quizzically. "Then tell me."

"A child should never be held responsible for her mother's or father's behavior."

The lead weight settled in Molly's chest, because Rufus hadn't answered the question she'd asked him. "And yet acts of revenge are often carried out for just that purpose."

"Never by me."

"Even if she told me she sometimes used me as a distraction to couples so she could abduct their baby?" She might as well tell him the worst of what she had learned.

Rufus stilled. "Is that what she did?"

Molly nodded. "She told me today that she had, yes," she acknowledged woodenly.

"That admission is so fucked-up, I don't even know where to start pulling it apart," he bit out. "Except to say," he added firmly, "that you are not, now or then, in any way to blame for what your mother chose or now chooses to do."

"Then why do I feel as if I am?"

"Because you're a good person and your mother isn't."

A good person, yes, but Molly still knew it would be impossible for any victim of Serena Jenkins's horrendous crimes to ever be able to forget or forgive Molly's connection to the other woman. "I honestly don't know where the woman I once called Mother is staying. She just told me I had to leave here today, and that she would be watching to ensure that I did as I was told."

"Which means she's probably still in London." Rufus nodded. "If she is, Linus will find her."

Could it really be that simple? "She told me she'd had someone watching you and Mia for the last two years. To make sure that none of the events of the past would ever be traced back to her. It's also how she discovered I was working and living here."

"Well, that explains that situation, at least. Although I can't say I'm thrilled at knowing the psychopath who abducted my daughter all those years ago has been having us watched for the past two years." He scowled. "Even more worrying, why the hell didn't I know that, in relation to Mia, at least, when both Darius and I are so vigilant about keeping her safe— Damn it!" he bit out.

"What?" Molly prompted when Rufus didn't add anything else.

"There's one easy way I can think of for us to be kept under surveillance," he grated. "Which is that one of the people I employ is being paid to do it."

"Is that possible?"

"I'm starting to believe anything is possible after the things I've learned today," he rasped. "I employ dozens of personnel all around the world, and I took on an extra dozen of them, with Darius's agreement, when Mia opened the animal shelter and I needed to keep it and her safe when she was here. Hiring someone who was already being paid to be here to give feedback to a third party is the perfect way to hide that behavior."

"I'm so sorry."

"Not as sorry as he or she is going to be when I discover who it is," he assured grimly before his gaze narrowed on her. "What happens if you don't leave?"

"She said she would come back." She swallowed. "And that this time, she wouldn't be asking."

After all that Serena had told her today, Molly really hadn't cared enough to ask any more questions. Just as she had no interest in the movements of the woman who might have given birth to her, but who had certainly never loved or cared about her. The older woman had proved that when she admitted to having walked away and never looked back.

The only reason for Serena Jenkins being here now was to threaten Molly into doing as she instructed. To warn that if she even attempted to tell the Wynter family the truth, Molly would regret it.

As if Molly didn't already know that!

It had never occurred to Molly that Rufus would somehow learn the truth of the past from another source only hours before she had intended to make good her escape.

It didn't surprise her that Linus Wynter had been able to find out what he had in just a few hours. Mia had told her about Linus's serious hacker skills when she had explained he would be carrying out a background check on her before she could employ Molly. Mia had also explained that normally, Linus utilized those skills for the family-owned company, Wynter Security.

Rufus shook his head. "I'm still disappointed that you didn't feel you could tell me about her visit and the reason behind it."

"Don't do that," she pleaded.

"What?"

She huffed. "Hearing you've disappointed someone is like having a knife thrust in your gut before it's slowly twisted."

"Wow, that turned graphic pretty quickly," Rufus drawled, feeling some of the heavy tension built up in the last few minutes ease from his shoulders.

Molly's smile lacked real humor. "It's also true. Besides," she said, sobering, "telling you the truth earlier would only have meant you hated me all the sooner."

"That simply isn't true. I could never hate you." He deliberately softened his voice.

Yes, he had been shocked by what he'd learned today, but he had never, not for one moment, blamed Molly for what had happened in the past. Nor would he.

"I've already told you, I will never blame you for something your mother did," he insisted as he took a light grip of her arms. "Molly, I know we're only just starting out, but I already know there's something special between us. I know you feel it too."

She didn't meet his gaze. "I can't allow myself to."

"Why the hell not?"

She released a heavy breath. "Because I know that every time you looked at me in future, you would think of what my mother did to you. To Mia."

"You are as much a victim of that woman's cruelty as anyone. Nothing I've learned today has changed the way I feel about you. Nothing. Nor will it do so in the future."

"You— You can't?—"

"Molly, dear sweet Molly, I can and I will. I'm falling in love with you," Rufus admitted softly.

He hadn't thought he would ever allow himself to fall in love in the way he knew he was with Molly.

He and Beth had shared an affection, one that had deepened on the birth of their daughter, but he didn't believe he had ever been in love with her or her with him. They had been friends and were both making the best of being married for the sake of the daughter they shared. Even so, Rufus had been thrown into the depths of grief when he believed both Beth and Emily had died in that crash.

Which had him questioning, and fearing, how much more deeply he would have suffered if he had loved Beth with the single-minded passion of a soul mate.

The sort of love he already knew he felt for Molly?

God, yes!

Even the thought of Molly just up and leaving was enough to cause a hitherto unknown panic to rise inside him.

Apart from his cousins, and until Mia returned to his life two years ago and now Lilybeth, he'd had nothing and no one to love, and so no one to lose again either.

He already feared he would lose every part that truly mattered to him if Molly were to leave his life.

She stared at him. "How can you still feel that way after all that you've just learned?"

"Not one of those things changes the fact you were, as I've already said, just another victim of Serena Jenkin's greedy machinations—" He broke off abruptly, staring at her.

"What?" Molly looked at him searchingly as he released her to step back. "Rufus, what were you going to say?"

He shook his head slowly, knowing it was too soon to voice what were only speculations.

"We'll have time to discuss all that again later," he dismissed. "Because right now, after all these years, I am finally this close—so fucking close—to apprehending the woman who is responsible for Beth's death and stealing our daughter."

Molly nodded heavily. "I can't fault you for feeling that way, I would too in the same circumstances."

Rufus nodded. "I also want to be there when she's arrested and put in cuffs, before she's taken away and locked up in a cell until her trial. Then I want to sit in the court as all the evidence against her is presented to the judge and jury. Even if she gives up the dates and places of where she abducted those children in hope of a lighter sentence, I still believe any jury will ensure she serves years of time in jail, or possibly a mental institution if she really is a psychopath, for the crime of abducting Emily, Ronan, and—and all those other children she took from their parents."

Rufus not only wanted to see that happen, he was going to do everything in his considerable power to ensure that it did.