How long had they been planning this?
“You said your mother was pregnant,” Toby said quietly. “Did she have the child?”
The child, I thought, my stomach sinking. His child. The DNA that Mellie had given Sheffield Grayson, the DNA that had come up as a match for Toby’s—it wasn’t mine.
“My sister,” Mellie replied. “Her name is Evelyn. She goes by Eve.”
I saw something—just a hint of emotion—in Toby’s eyes. “A palindrome.”
“She chose it herself,” Mellie replied quietly, “when she was three years old, for that reason. She’s nineteen now.” Mellie turned to me. “And everything you have should be hers.”
For the first time, I heard surety burning in Mellie’s tone, and I understood that while she hadn’t meant for me to be hurt, it was a risk she’d been willing to take, because Toby Hawthorne did have a daughter.
It just wasn’t me.
Did the old man know? Did Mellie ever try to tell him?
“What do you want from me?” Toby asked.
“I want Eve taken care of,” Mellie said fiercely. “She’s a Hawthorne.”
My gaze cut to Toby’s. “And a Laughlin,” I said quietly. I wasn’t Mrs. Laughlin’s great-granddaughter. I wasn’t Rebecca’s niece, Emily’s niece. Eve was.
She was the one who belonged here.
I swallowed. “Bring her to Hawthorne House.” The words chafed against my throat, but I wasn’t going to give in to that hurt. “There’s plenty of room.”
“No.” Toby’s voice was blade-sharp.
Mellie scrolled furiously through her phone and shoved another picture in his face. “Look at her,” she demanded. “She’s your daughter, and you have no idea what her life has been like.”
Toby looked at the photo. Without meaning to, I stepped forward. I looked, too, and the second I saw Mellie’s sister’s face, I stopped breathing.
Eve was a dead ringer for Emily Laughlin. Strawberry-blonde hair, like sunlight through amber. Emerald eyes, too big for her face. Heart-shaped lips, a scattering of freckles.
“My daughter isn’t coming to Hawthorne House,” Toby told Mellie. “If you bring me to her, I will see that she’s taken care of. Discreetly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, finally recovering my voice. Toby was talking about leaving. Like he was just going to walk away. After everything I’d been through, everything that Jameson, Xander, Grayson, and I had done to look for him.
“Do you promise?” Mellie stared at Toby like I wasn’t even in the room.
“I promise.” Toby’s eyes traveled to mine. “But first,” he continued softly, “Avery and I need to have a conversation alone.”
CHAPTER 85
You’re going to keep her a secret?” I demanded, once we were out of Mellie’s earshot. “Eve?”
Toby took my elbow and guided me to the exit. “There’s a car outside,” he told me. “Key’s in the ignition. Take it and drive north.”
I stared at him. “That’s it?” I said. “That’s all you have to say to me?” Eve’s face—Emily’s—was still fresh in my mind.
Toby reached out and brushed the hair off of my forehead. “In my heart,” he said quietly, “you were always mine.”
I swallowed. “But biologically, I’m not.”
“Biology isn’t everything.”
I knew in that moment that I’d gotten this much right: Toby had sought me out after my mother died. He had been watching me. He had wanted to make sure that I was okay.
“My mom and I had this game,” I told him, trying my best not to cry. “We had lots of games, actually—but this one, her favorite, it was about secrets.”
He stared off into the distance for a moment. “I made her promise never to tell you—about me, about my family. But if it was just a game, if you guessed…” He looked back at me, and his own eyes were shining. “Damn it, Hannah.”
“How the hell was I supposed to guess?” The words burst out of my mouth. I was furious suddenly—at her, at him. “She said that she had a secret about the day I was born.”
Toby said nothing.
“You signed my birth certificate.” I wanted answers. He owed me that at least.
He reached out to lay a hand against my cheek. “There was a storm that night,” he said quietly. “Worst one I’d ever seen—Hawthorne Island included. I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I’d managed to stay away from Hannah for three long years. But something brought me back. I just wanted to see her again, even if I couldn’t let her see me.