Back Where She Belongs(53)

Her mother sucked in a breath, then turned and left the room.

“You...here...all...” Faye said, then her eyelids dropped.

“The neurologist said she would sleep a lot at first,” Tara explained. “It’s hard work to stay awake. We should let Joseph have some time.” She motioned for Sean and Dylan to step out with her.

She didn’t know what she would say to her mother. Her feelings were in turmoil. They found her in the hall, pale as a ghost, frozen outside the room the way she’d been when she’d first arrived. “I can’t face her,” she said to Tara. “Not after what I did. I killed her father and left her to die. She’ll never forgive me. She shouldn’t.”

As angry as she was at her mother, Tara thought of Faye’s words. When you love someone, you forgive them. That’s how Faye lived her life. “Faye loves you, Mom,” she said. “She will forgive you. I know that.”

Her mother’s gaze locked on, digging at Tara, testing the truth of her words. Finally she said, “You don’t lie, do you?”

“No.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“You can face her, Rachel,” Sean said. “You have to.”

Tara’s mother’s gaze shifted to meet Sean’s. Something passed between them, something from the past, something they’d shared, and her mother seemed to gather her composure, stand taller, look certain. Turning her gaze to Tara, her mother spoke solemnly, as if the moment with Sean had given her new strength. “Will you take me to the police station, Tara? I have to turn myself in. I should be punished for what I did. It was unforgivable.”

Tara didn’t know what to say to her mother. Her thoughts were jumbled, her feelings confused, most of them harsh. Then she looked at Dylan. His eyes held compassion and tenderness for Tara.

You know how to love, he’d told her. He said he’d admired her efforts to make peace with her mother. He believed in her. It was time she believed in herself. Tara let her own compassion rise to the surface and override her hurt and anger. Her mother had done a terrible thing, but she was willing to answer for it. Tara was proud of her. And, more than that, she loved her. “Faye will forgive you, Mom. And I forgive you, too.” The words rang in Tara’s ears, truer every second that passed.

She forgave her mother for the childhood hurts, the constant criticism, the indifference and for the terrible accident that had devastated their family.

“You do?” Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “You forgive me?”

“Yes. That’s what people who love each other do,” she said, glancing at Dylan, her voice about to crack. “They focus on the good. They work around flaws. They don’t walk away.”

“Tara,” Dylan said, so much feeling in his voice her heart seemed to lock in her chest.

“You’re more like your sister than I realized,” her mother said, tears actually sliding down her cheeks. She touched Tara’s hair with shaking fingers. “I’m getting used to this style.” She gave a hesitant smile.

“You’re not turning yourself in to Bill Fallon,” Tara said. “He broke the law urging you to leave the scene. That doesn’t excuse what you did, but it was a factor.” Would her mother go to prison? The thought made Tara’s stomach drop.

“You need to get your attorney on this,” Sean said gruffly. “Make sure you protect your rights. For now, we’ll take you home.”

“Thank you,” Rachel said, looking at him. “About Faye. I’m sorry, Sean. I did what I thought was best.”

“It’s not right what you did. I need time to think it through.”

“Of course,” she said humbly, then turned with Sean toward the elevator. He placed a hand on her back.

“I’ll be there in a bit,” Dylan said, staying with Tara. After the elevator closed on their parents, Dylan turned to her. “I’m so glad Faye’s awake.”

“Me, too. I don’t know if she’ll remember the accident or how it came about, or about her father. She might not know that Dad was killed.”

“What she doesn’t remember, you’ll tell her. You and your mother.”

“There’s a lot to tell. Are you as shocked by all this as I am?” Her head was still spinning.

“I am. I can’t believe your mom and my dad...”

“I know. It explains why they were so frosty to each other when we were growing up. My mom kept that secret all these years. And look what she did to protect it. It’s hard to accept.” She swallowed over a dry throat.

“What you said to her was beautiful,” Dylan said, his eyes warm on her face, almost glowing. “That you forgave her and why.”

“I remembered what you said about me—that I did know how to love. When I looked at you, I felt this rush of love for her, for you. So I said what I said and I believe it.”

“You’re a better person than you were, Tara.”

“And so are you.” Staring into his eyes, she got a start. “You have Faye’s eyes. Yours are smoky, but they’re the same gray-green.”

Dylan smiled. “It makes sense, since she’s my sister. Half sister anyway.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I’m honored. Faye’s a great person. Though it’s still a shock.”

“No kidding. Your father surprised me. He seemed calmer, less angry somehow.”

“Exactly. The way he looked at your mom... His whole demeanor changed. It was like a deep wound had suddenly started to heal.”

“He resented my father for a lot more than buying his company at a rock-bottom price,” Tara said.

“And let that fester inside him all these years.” Dylan shook his head in sad wonder.

“He got trapped in the past,” Tara said, recognizing the experience.

“It happens,” he said with a smile.

“It does,” she said.

“But it doesn’t have to limit us. We can learn from the past, from who we were then and become better. Hell, we can reinterpret the past.”

“Turn suffocating into cozy and nosy to friendly?” She smiled, feeling a lightness she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Dylan was right. They’d let themselves get trapped in how they’d been, in the old hurt.

Their eyes met for a long, silent moment. “I sure as hell don’t want to end up like my father.”

“Or me like my mother.”

“We won’t,” he said firmly. He put his hands on her cheeks. “I’ve got to go now, and you’ve got a lot to handle. In a day or two, I want us to talk.”

“I’d like that, too.” Could they possibly try again? Could they forgive each other, trust each other? Could she stay the independent woman she’d worked so hard to become while being with Dylan in Wharton?

Dylan watched her face. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in me telling you not to think this to death, is there?”

She laughed. “It’s scary how well you know me.”

“Scary good, I hope.”

“Very good.” And she hoped he’d know her even better in the future.

* * *

“MAYBE WE SHOULD WAIT,” Dylan’s father said to him, stopping short at the entrance to the hospital. “Maybe tomorrow would be better.”

“It was your idea to come. To support Rachel, remember?”

Faye had been awake for three days. She’d been asking about the accident and Rachel was going to tell her what had happened today.

His father had changed since the revelation that Faye was his daughter. He seemed kinder, more open-hearted than Dylan remembered him, even when he was young.

As a result, the talk about changing Ryland Engineering had gone more smoothly than Dylan had even hoped. It was as if his father’s old resentments, his bitterness, had melted away.

“She’s not going to tell Faye who I am yet,” Sean said. “But if it slips out, I want to be there to back her up.”

Faye hadn’t remembered anything about the accident or the events that had preceded it. Tara had told him the plan was to reveal things gradually, letting Faye adjust in between.

“You think she’ll be ashamed to have me as blood?” Sean turned to Dylan and frowned. “I’m no Wharton. I came up from nothing.”

“Faye doesn’t think like that. She wanted you and Abbott to talk, remember? She wanted her mother to tell the truth.”

“That’s right. Faye’s a good egg. Solid. The best of the bunch over there, I always said.” His father’s face just plain lit up. Dylan felt a tightness in his chest. Seeing his father’s heart expand these past days had restored so much of their old closeness. He would always be grateful to Tara for bringing this about.