“It’s going to be all right,” Aislinn assured him kindly. “You have a very nice family. I’m sure you’ll all develop a close friendship with time.”
“Is that one of your psychic predictions?” Mark asked, sounding more prickly than Rachel had heard him before.
Though Ethan frowned in response to Mark’s tone, Aislinn didn’t seem to take offense. Perhaps she, too, understood the turmoil Mark must be experiencing. “It’s just an educated guess. I’ve met all of your family, and I like them very much. As a matter of fact, I’m about to become a Brannon, myself. Ethan and I are going to be married.”
Because Aislinn seemed to be making an effort to defuse some of the tension at the table, Rachel cooperated eagerly. “That’s wonderful news. How long have you been engaged?”
“About twenty hours,” Ethan replied, glancing at his watch. “Not even long enough for me to buy her a ring yet.”
Aislinn laughed softly. “I don’t think she meant it quite so literally.”
“Congratulations, you two.” Mark was smiling again now. “That’s great news.”
“Thanks.” Ethan looked amusingly proud. “We had a few rocky spots—mostly due to me, I’ll admit—but she finally saw what a prize I am.”
“And so modest,” Aislinn added with a roll of her eyes.
Their food was delivered, and all of them concentrated for a few minutes on their meals, giving them a brief respite from trying to keep the conversation going. Ethan was the one who broke the silence, speaking to Mark with what Rachel was beginning to see as typical bluntness.
“I debated for a while about whether we should even try to find you. I knew you would have a life of your own, and I didn’t know how you would feel about having a bunch of strangers suddenly claim to be your family. Aislinn convinced me it wouldn’t be fair to any of us not to bring the truth to light. So—did we make the right call? Or do you wish we’d never shown up at your door?”
All eyes were on Mark as he considered his answer. Rachel suspected it was too early to ask that particular question. He didn’t know yet how he felt about this dramatic turn his life had taken.
But then he sighed lightly and answered with equal candor. “I guess there’s a part of me that wishes exactly that. Thirty-six hours ago, I knew exactly who I was and where my life was headed. Now—”
He shook his head. “Now everything is different. And I can’t say I’m happy about that yet. But when it comes right down to it, I guess I wouldn’t change your decision. I’d rather know the truth than to live the rest of my life in ignorance.”
Ethan nodded, looking as though he both understood and approved of Mark’s response. “I’d have felt the same way. You’ve got the option now of choosing how to proceed from here—but at least you have the facts.”
“You’re giving me the choice about whether to ever tell the rest of the family about me?”
Ethan hesitated—and then shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. My, er, our parents have as much right to know the truth as you did. They may be strangers to you now, but you are their son, and they’ve spent thirty years grieving for you. They deserve to know the truth, even if it’s going to be tough for them to hear.”
Rachel couldn’t imagine what it would be like for them. To suddenly discover that the baby boy they’d lost was now a grown man? That they had missed his entire childhood? That someone they had trusted had deliberately stolen those years from them?
She imagined that in some tiny way, it would be easier for them to believe he had died all those years ago, though primarily there would be joy that he had survived.
“I’m going to tell them,” Ethan repeated. “But I’ll consider your request to wait until after we get the DNA results. I can see your point about that giving us more verification of the story. Still, I don’t like keeping it from them for that long.”
“I think it would be best. If there’s even the slightest chance that you’re wrong, it would be cruel to tell them and then have to take it all back.”
“I’m not wrong. But I’ll wait—for a while. After that, it’s up to you, I suppose, where we go from there. I hope you’ll want to meet them, give them a chance to get to know you, but that’s really your decision. I can’t make you do anything.”
“I’ll meet them,” Mark promised. “If the DNA comes back positive. But—”
“But you aren’t exactly looking forward to it.” Again, Ethan seemed to understand perfectly. “Can’t say I blame you. I tend to go out of my way to avoid emotional encounters with other people.”
Mark managed a smile. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
“You aren’t the only one who’s dreading telling the Brannons what really happened that day,” Aislinn said, her expression grim now. “Ethan and I are going to announce our engagement—and then I’m going to have to tell them that it was my mother who helped Carmen kidnap you that afternoon.”
Chapter Three
“Your mother?” Rachel blurted before she could stop herself.
Aislinn grimaced. “I thought Mark had told you the whole story.”
“He said Carmen had an accomplice—someone who had been told she was helping a woman take her child out of an abusive situation.”
And then Rachel remembered what else Mark had told her about that woman. “He said she was his patient at the long-term care facility. And that she—”
“She died before Ethan and I arrived in Atlanta, leaving a letter telling the whole story,” Aislinn finished evenly. “I can’t begin to understand exactly how she ended up in Mark’s care, though I think she somehow arranged that on her own. I don’t know how it happened that my best friend married Mark’s brother, bringing me into their lives and leading Ethan here. I can only assume that some higher power intervened to bring justice to a family that had suffered entirely too much.”
“I’m very sorry about your loss.”
“Thank you. But I didn’t actually know her,” Aislinn said with a rather sad little shrug. “She left me with my grandfather and my great-aunt when I was only six months old. My mother was a restless spirit with a lot of emotional baggage. She had special gifts of her own, but she never learned to live comfortably with them. She spent many years engaging in self-destructive behavior and making poor judgment calls, such as helping Carmen smuggle Mark out of North Carolina. She ended up dying alone in the nursing home, a wealthy widow with multiple sclerosis and a guilty conscience.”
And Rachel had thought her family was complicated. “This is all very strange.”
“Tell me about it,” Mark muttered.
“Maybe we should spend some time getting to know each other,” Aislinn suggested, apparently trying to lighten the mood for the remainder of the meal. “Mark, you said you’re decorating your house?”
He nodded, taking advantage of the opportunity to change the subject. “I just moved in a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t bring much with me from my old apartment. I hired Rachel to help me furnish and decorate, make the place look nice and comfortable.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“Not to Ethan,” Rachel speculated, studying his expression.
Ethan gave her a wry smile. “I’ve got to admit decorating doesn’t really interest me. I buy furniture that’s comfortable and functional and I arrange it in