Gifts

Chapter 15 – A Pawn in their Game–1

Alden narrows his eyes at me and looks back at Kent. I’m a little shocked, I admit, that he hasn’t addressed me yet. I stand awkwardly in front of him and Daniel quietly takes my hand, giving it a squeeze of support.

“Is this for real, Lippert?” Alden asks, a threat behind his glare.

Kent nods slowly. “We did a test. It’s a 99% genetic match for paternity. I can show you the paperwork upstairs, and you can have it verified by your own doctors. But, with that kind of proof at hand, Alden.” He spread his hands out, hoping Alden takes him at his word. “Why would I lie?”

Alden nods and returns his gaze to me, staring for a moment. Then, he shocks me again by breathing out a huge breath of air and rubbing a hand down his face. “Damnit, but you look like your mother,” he mutters.

eyes.

My mouth falls open when I see the glimmer of tears in his My heart goes out to him, then. He’s a solid rock of a man, but I can see that deep feelings run beneath.

“Where is she?” he demands.

Surprised, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “She died,” I say, grimacing inwardly at my bluntness. Alden’s face falls minutely. Surely, after all these years, he knew it would be unlikely that she would be alive, but still – he’s upset by the

“When?” he asks.

“Years ago,” I whisper, sorry to be the one to tell him. “I was young – I had just turned six.”

I feel horrible – I had no idea that he cared for her as much as he clearly does. I had assumed she was

what had Fiona called

herself? a goomah. His mistress, or his girlfriend, not someone he really I cared about.

He asks, crossing his arms

car accident,” I say, my voice hardly more than a whisper now. “They said…they said she went fast.

gathering himself together. “And where has she been laid

small cemetery by our home – in the churchyard. I can take

of a switch. He turns his burning eyes to me. “In a churchyard?” He shakes his head. “He didn’t respect her, then, the

to anger. How dare he suggest that David was anything but an

step forward. Daniel holds my hand

nothing,”

“He raised me

KEPT you from me,” the words

cower back, my eyes going wide. Alden takes a heavy step towards me, intimidation in every muscle of

he says, taking another step. “Did he know about your parentage? Did he know

I stay silent, keeping my face still.

thought so,” he says, narrowing his eyes at me. “He kept you from me, my daughter,

of this man. That if this is what he’s like the first time meeting his daughter, then I can’t imagine the kind of things my mother must have gone through. She must have experienced moods that

B

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Gifts

A Pawn

Game–2

so desperately left. Why did I let myself get so wrapped up in this world?

voice rings out behind me, cool

angry eyes to him but Kent holds his ground.

formality. He nods pointedly at the ring on my hand, “that our agreement, years ago, to unite our families through marriage is holding

is a trick,” he says. “How can they be engaged, when you just found her

answer. “We met before, by some miracle,” he says, giving Alden a small but

conveniently, of the fact that we broke up.

suddenly realize that Daniel is in on this. He and his father carefully planned this meeting, this conversation. In one swoop, they

It doesn’t matter what I want at all, whether or not I want to marry Daniel. Because Daniel, too, is a player in this

protest, but Alden interrupts

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