Momentary Marriage(97)

“With so much evidence to the contrary,” Kelsey drawled, “the conclusion does seem a stretch.”

He sat his drink untouched on the table. “A long time ago I got into the habit of worrying about your mother. I loved her very much at one time. Habits are hard to change, even after twenty years.”

Kelsey just looked at him. He seemed so strong, so much in command. So much like Jared.

The thought chilled her.

“Look,” her father said. “I don’t know what brought you here, but I’m glad you came. For a long time now, I’ve been thinking of finding you.”

“Really? Why?” She couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but she hoped he couldn’t see the real question. Why did you leave us?

“I need to explain,” John said, shifting in his chair, an edge of agitation in his voice. “All these years…I’ve neglected you and your sister. You don’t have to sit there looking so accusing. I know what I’ve done.”

Kelsey stared at him, not sure what to say.

He got up and went to the expansive glass wall behind his desk, his expression brooding. “There really isn’t any explanation. I started off paying child support for you both, but seeing you….”

John Layton stopped, wheeling around to face her. “You have to understand, your mother and I had a very bad marriage and a worse divorce. It was a long time before I could even think of the woman without wanting to break something.”

He stopped, his hands clenched at his side, his face red.

He’d paid child support for them both? Why wouldn’t he have paid for them both?

The big man standing in front of the window suddenly sighed, the anger and frustration draining out of his expression. “Your mother had the power to make me nuts. I couldn’t see her after the divorce. Some ugly things happened…worse things were said. It took me a long time to end the marriage. I couldn’t go back into it.”

“So not seeing her meant not seeing Amy and me?” Kelsey heard herself ask.

“Unfortunately, yes, it meant not seeing you.” His lips firmed into a straight line. “I didn’t start out with that intention. I had planned to fulfill my responsibilities.”

The tick of a clock filled his pause. They’d been ‘responsibilities’ to him. Kelsey sat in the chair, aware of the strangeness of the moment. How unreal it all seemed.

“Your mother,” he said with obvious difficulty, “was very angry with me toward the end. I’d…disappointed her, I suppose.”

Not hard to do, Kelsey acknowledged to herself. Chloe tended to be easily disappointed.

“At the end,” John Layton said, “she…wanted to hurt me and she…said some things I later came to doubt.”

“What things?” Kelsey asked, frowning at him.

He looked down at the drink in his hand. “Your sister.”

“Yes.” The breathless tightness in her chest made the word difficult.

“In the middle of one of our fights, your mother told me Amy wasn’t my child.” He said it baldly, as if the words had festered inside him too long.

“She told you that?” Kelsey gasped. “It isn’t true! I don’t believe it. She’s my sister! Amy is your child.”

John Layton was silent for a long moment. “Probably.”

“You’re not sure,” Kelsey concluded, looking at him as shock reverberated through her.

“Almost completely sure now,” he said finally. “Twenty years is a long time to think over an argument. I’ve pretty much concluded that Chloe wanted to hurt me. That’s why she said Amy was another man’s child.”

“So all these years,” Kelsey paused, “you weren’t sure…?”

“No,” John Layton confirmed. “When she filed for divorce, your mother tried to claim that both you girls were fathered by different men, but I knew you were mine. There’s a strong family resemblance and, when you were conceived, things were still good between your mother and I.”

Kelsey sat in the chair, not knowing what to say.

“In the face of any proof otherwise,” John Layton said, “the judge ordered me to pay child support for you both, as well as spousal support for your mother. So that’s how it ended. We were divorced and I was supposed to send the money. Your mother and I never talked after that.”

Swallowing hard, Kelsey said, “It may not matter to you, but Amy and I are very similar now. Her hair is lighter and she has different color eyes, but….”

“I’m sure she’s mine,” John Layton said with an understanding smile. “It’s just a shock for a man to hear that sort of thing.”