Until There Was You(98)

“I didn’t lie,” Posey said, glancing at the picture of Pope Benedict. Lies of omission are still lies, she could hear him whispering in his creepy bad-guy voice. “I mean, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think it mattered, Gret. That’s all.”

“How could it not matter?” she hissed.

“I’m so disappointed, Posey,” Stacia announced. “I’m stunned. Shocked. Horrified.”

“Okay, Ma, I get that. Look, Gret. It wasn’t— It didn’t have anything to do with the present.”

“Well, I think it’s disgusting,” her cousin said. “Dante crawls from your bed into mine, and you crawl from his into Liam’s, and I’m sorry, Posey, I guess I’m not like you, but I think that’s vile.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Posey protested.

“Liam? Now you’re sleeping with Liam? Oh, Posey, are you a sex addict?” Stacia asked. Max flinched and retreated once again, running the water to drown out the conversation.

“Ma, I’m not a sex addict! Come on! This is me, remember?”

“That’s right,” Gretchen snapped. “Posey who can do no wrong. Well, guess what? This was wrong. How dare you? You get everything, don’t you, Posey? You always have to have everything—Henry, Jon, a niecey-poo on the way, that fat kid who follows you around like a dog.”

“Don’t you dare—” Posey began.

“And now I find out you had Dante first, and I can’t take any more.” With that, Gretchen stormed out of the house, slamming the door. A second later, they heard the sound of a car peeling out of the driveway.

“I can’t believe what I’ve heard,” Stacia said, wringing her hands. “I’m stunned. Max, I’m stunned. Get me a sherry.”

Well, this birthday would certainly be memorable.

Max came back into the room and handed his wife her little cordial glass, then sat next to her, a wall of Teutonic solidarity. “You’ve upset your mother,” he said, his voice gentle but still stern.

“I’ve upset my mother, Dad? How about Gretchen has upset my mother?” she said sharply.

“We’ll deal with her later,” Max said.

“How could you keep this a secret? How could you even be with that man in the first place?” Stacia asked, tossing back her drink in one gulp.

Ironic, that Stacia now had a problem with secrets. Posey took a deep breath, then another. “Okay, let me explain. First of all, I always thought it was kind of ridiculous that you had such a grudge against Dante.”

“Oh! Now you’re taking his side?”

Stacia cried.

“Ma, calm down. He has a very successful restaurant. And so do you, in your own way. There’s room in the world for both.”

Stacia harrumphed.

“And secondly…” Posey’s voice trailed off. “Okay, secondly, it’s not like men are beating a path to my door. When he…asked me out—” made a pass “—I was flattered, you know? He’s a good-looking, charming guy. So we saw each other—” slept together “—a few times, and it just petered out. That was it.”

Stacia lifted a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Gretchen was so excited about him that I didn’t want to ruin things for her. Dante and I had a little talk and just agreed that some things are better left unsaid. I don’t know why he told her, since it obviously didn’t…mean that much.”

Posey clutched a throw pillow against her stomach. In hindsight, it was clear that she’d felt almost nothing for Dante, other than some basic attraction and the hope that they’d see something in each other…something special. It had had little to do with reality. She knew that now—now that she’d felt the real thing.

“And yes, Liam and I have been dating,” she added quietly. “For about a month.”

“Another secret. And here I thought we were so close,” Stacia sniffed.

Posey gave her mother a long look. “Speaking of secrets,” she said, sitting up a little straighter, “I was wondering if you could tell me about that letter.”

“What letter?” Max asked.

“The letter from my birth mother.”

The blood drained out of both parents’ faces, answering the question of whether Max knew about it.

“How did you find out about that? Did you find her?” Stacia asked, her voice shrill.

“No, Mom. Gretchen mentioned the letter. She read it when it first came.”

“What do you mean, she read it? That was none of her business!”

“Ma, she thought it was something about her parents. Can we stick to the point here?”

“You said you never wanted to find them,” Max said.

“I might’ve felt differently if I’d known my birth mother wrote to me, Dad! I can’t believe you kept that secret! Didn’t it occur to you that I’d like to know?”

“The letter wasn’t to you,” Stacia boomed. “It was addressed to me.”

That stopped Posey in her tracks.

“It’s true, honey,” Max said gently. “It came through the lawyer who handled your adoption, and it was addressed to ‘the woman who adopted my baby.’ We would never have hidden a letter that came to you.”