A Mother's Secret Read Free Page B

killed by a drunk driver shortly after coming home. Adam had always believed he was the result of that brief marriage. Josephine Fraser had remarried nineteen years later. Daniel, born of that marriage, had been barely five when his parents split, and he had virtually no relationship with his father now beyond obligatory Christmas cards.
    This past year, Daniel, Adam and Joe had been shocked to learn that Adam’s father was actually another soldier named Robert Carson who had fought at William Fraser’s side and apparently had felt obligated to take care of his buddy William’s widow. This despite the fact that Carson was married.
    Daniel couldn’t help growling damn near every time he thought about Robert’s notion of “taking care” of a woman. What he’d done was make her his mistress, and so quickly Adam had to have been conceived awfully soon after the funeral of his supposed father.
    That wasn’t the worst of the revelations, though. The part that had shocked Daniel was that the affair had continued. Two years later, Josephine had given birth to another baby, a girl, and given her up so that Robert Carson and his wife, Sarah, could raise her as their own. Adam, just a toddler when his sister was born, hadn’t remembered her. It was this sister, Jenny Carson, who had just toasted Joe and his bride.
    Daniel could no longer think of his mother without anger. It would seem he’d never really known her, a woman who would give away her own child.
    Should he feel lucky that she’d kept him?
    Since she’d died ten years back, Robert Carson almost as long ago, and Sarah Carson this past year, this all would have been ancient history except that the younger generations now had to deal with the fallout.
    Adam hadn’t been able to. Daniel believed to this day that the shock of the revelations had contributed to Adam having that second, deadly stroke.
    The Carsons’ son, Sam, who’d been raised to think he was their only biological child, wasn’t happy. He was particularly pissed to find out his younger, supposedly adopted sister was actually Robert’s child by blood, as well as law.
    Daniel’s half sister, Jenny, had taken the surprises better than most, even though she’d learned that her father had lied to her all her life, letting her think she was adopted when she was actually his. But, hey, she’d grown up in San Francisco during the sixties, so maybe she came by her attitude of peace and love naturally.
    What Daniel knew was that she didn’t feel like family to him. Neither did her daughter, Sue. Ties of blood didn’t mean anything to him.
    And he had no relationship at all to Sam Carson, the golden boy who had resented finding out Adam was also a Carson, and older by a few weeks besides. Or to Sam’s daughter, Belle.
    If not for Joe, Daniel would have shaken his head, been pleasant if any of the Carsons called, and left it at that.
    Joe, though, had finally embraced the extended family.Somehow they’d all ended up gathered at Adam’s bedside at the rehab facility. Almost all of them had attended Adam’s funeral, and now they were gathered here today to witness Joe’s wedding.
    Only Sam was missing. Even his wife, Emily, was here, and their daughter, Belle, neither of whom were related to Daniel.
    Unfortunately, the Carsons et al were acting a hell of a lot like family, no matter how much Daniel wished they weren’t.
    Yeah, but this was Joe’s wedding, and he’d wanted them here. That was what counted, Daniel reminded himself. For Joe’s sake, he’d be civil. Even friendly. He might even dance with Jenny, because he couldn’t think of a way not to, short of rudeness.
    Love wasn’t a word much in Daniel’s vocabulary, but he’d loved Adam, he loved doe-eyed Kaitlin…and he loved Joe. Who deserved whatever Daniel had to give tonight to make this Christmas Eve perfect.
     

    P IP AND J OE HAD DECIDED to celebrate Christmas day at home. Tomorrow they would begin their honeymoon—a short one