The Lies Uncovered Trilogy (Books 4, 5, and 6 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (11 page)

"Hold it," Jack said. "There has never been a moment in your life I didn't consider you my true son and you and Adam full brothers."

"Wrong," Marc said. "I'm the one you were stuck with. Adam's the one who gets whatever he wants. Adam wants a champion roping horse, he gets it. But me... When did you ever take an interest in anything I liked? You've never excavated with me at the mound or helped catalog my findings, or even took the slightest interest in archeology or any of the other things I do. It's all about you and your real sons going off to rodeos and bronc and bull-riding competitions."

"Wait a minute," Adam said, walking over to where they stood. "Not only have you never been interested in any part of this ranch except the Indian mound, about every time you sneezed Mom was there to wipe your nose."

"Like hell she was!" Marc balled his fists.

But before Marc could throw a punch, Jack stepped between them and shoved them apart.
"Both of you back off!"
he shouted.

From the direction of the lodge, Grace started toward them. Jack met her half way, and as he walked and talked and gestured, the expression on Grace's face changed from curious concern, to gradual awareness, to the stunned realization that a twenty-one-year falsehood, no matter how righteous, had been uncovered. Stepping around Jack, she quickened her pace and walked up to Marc, and said, "Honey, we didn't tell you for your own good. We wanted you to know you were as much a part of this family as your brothers and Maddy."

"Only because my father was dead and my mother didn't want me," Marc said, eyes darkened with suppressed rage.

"That's not so," Grace replied in a contrite voice. "Well yes, your biological father was dead, but I wanted you from the start, which is why I got pregnant in the first place. The sperm switch changed nothing. You're still the son of a man I once loved."

"Which is another thing," Marc clipped. "You wiped my real father off the face of the earth. I know nothing about him. It's like he never existed and no one cared."

"I cared a lot," Grace countered, "but he was dead and your father, the one who raised you, and I made the decision to raise you as Adam's brother."

Marc eyed Adam with enmity. "That pretty much fell flat. Adam's been more like a brother to Rick than me." He glared at Rick then, and his look said it all.

You're here because I'm here, and you never gave a shit for me because it's always been about you and Adam...

Rick immediately stepped forward, and said, "Slow down some, Marc. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think how lucky I am because of you. I owe you my life and you're my brother."

"Look, don't try to backpedal here," Marc said. "Yeah, I suppose you owe me your life, but only because of a mix-up at a fertility clinic and some high-tech blood work."

"Son, you've twisted things," Jack said, while reaching out for Marc, but Marc backed away, then turned and headed for his truck. Grace started after him, but Jack grabbed her arm, and said, "Let him go. He needs to sort through this in his own way."

Which Sophie realized was Jack's way of dealing with things when life turned on him. Go off on your own and sort it all out, and everything would fall into place again. But this time, Sophie had the gut feeling that Marc would not come to terms with this, and before it was over, he'd leave the ranch, and the Hansen family, for good.

***

Two days later, Rick and Marc headed back to the ranch after the reading of their mother's will. Her estate was to be divided equally between the two of them. However, by the time the bills would be paid and the fitness center sold for market value, there would be less than forty thousand dollars, which Rick signed over to Marc. With the settlement from the fertility clinic, Rick was comfortably set.

They'd taken Marc's truck, and Marc was silent the entire drive home, but after Marc pulled to a halt in the parking area alongside Grace and Jack's house and got out, Sophie came over to see how things had gone. Rick explained the outcome to her, and when he was finished, Marc, who’d been silent during the ride home and obviously in deep thought, looked at him, brows drawn, and said in all sincerity, "What was my mother like?"

The question took Rick by surprise. Trying to paint a rosy picture of their mother was in the very least a challenge. Even he used the word
shrew
when talking about her to Sophie. Other words surfaced that he shoved back because his mother killed herself because of them, and that part of her life he'd never pass on to Marc.

When he didn't respond, because he was struggling to find words that would put his mother in an acceptable light in Marc's eyes, Marc said, "Why didn't she want us?"

When Rick still said nothing, because he was again struggling to answer a question he hadn’t understood himself, Marc said, "You've got to give me something here. When you were growing up you spent every other weekend with her."

Rick drew in a long breath, mainly to bide a little more time while searching for something about his mother he could admire, but before he was forced to fabricate a whole bunch of crap, Sophie said, "She was sweet and sensitive and easy to talk to, and she took me out for a pedicure and we had facials, and I think you would have enjoyed knowing her. I know in the short time I spent with her, I did."

"Then why did everyone around here hate her?" Marc asked.

Sophie shot Rick a glare that demanded he speak up in his mother's defense, so he said the only thing that came to mind, "She could be difficult at times. She was a troubled woman."

"Troubled how? Depressed? Alcoholic?" Marc looked from Rick to Sophie, and when no one responded, he said to Rick, "Look, I'm trying like hell to understand a woman I never knew, who took her own life because she felt guilty, and who everyone at this ranch hated, and I'm getting a big zero. If you don't want to answer that, then give me a reason why she didn't want either of us." Again, he waited.

Rick wasn't ready for all these questions about his mother, most of which had troubled him all his life, so he shrugged, which he realized too late was like shrugging off Marc's question, and answered as honestly as he could, by saying, "I don't know. I guess some women aren't cut out to be mothers. She admitted it last week when she was asking me about..." He stopped short and glanced at Sophie, who had a curious look on her face while waiting for him to finish his sentence, which he had no intention of doing, since Sophie was what triggered his mother's comment. "When she was asking about my plans after I graduate from vet school," he replied.

From the skeptical look on Marc's face, Rick knew his cursory explanation only served to raise more questions. Which Marc fired away by asking, "What was with all the men? From what I picked up over the years she was never without a live-in boyfriend."

Rick shrugged and said, "I've tried all my life to figure her out and came to the conclusion that she was always searching for something she never found."

"Then what happened between her and your dad?" Marc asked.

Rick knew Marc wouldn't stop questioning until he got some logical answers. Deciding to be straight with this one, he replied, "She had an affair with her fitness instructor and left my dad and me. Like I said, some women aren't cut out to be mothers."

Marc looked at him, baffled. "Then why would she kill herself because of that? Her note said she'd failed too many people, especially her sons, yet she never once tried to make contact with me. Even if I wasn't supposed to know she was my mother, she could have tried to get to know me, so she couldn't have cared too damn much."

Rick caught Sophie's dark look, and held it long enough to get her reproof.

You're going to send this entire family into chaos...

Then the expression on her face tempered and became thoughtful, and she said, in a concerned voice, "Maybe when your parents adopted you it was with the understanding that your mother would stay out of your life, since it was their wish to raise you as Adam's twin so you wouldn't feel like an outsider, but that wouldn't mean your mother didn't love you."

Those last words fell flat, and Rick knew it was because Sophie didn't believe them herself. And from the look on Marc's face, he knew. And the truth was, there had been no place in their mother's life for a couple of kids.

"What about my other grandparents?" Marc asked. "Do they know about me?"

"I'd assume not," Rick replied, "or they would've wanted to be connected with you."

Marc glared at his house, the expression on his face a mixture of anger and bitterness. A feeling Sophie knew well. She also understood the urge for a person to act impulsively and do something rash to get back at people who'd wronged them, even if what they'd done was justified. Placing her hand on Marc's arm, she said, "You need to square things away with your parents because they did what they thought was right for you."

Eyeing the house with steely resolve, Marc said, "No, I don't need to do a damn thing." Yanking open the door to his truck, he climbed in and started the engine, then swung the truck around and headed back to town.

"He's going to leave here," Sophie said, as she and Rick stood watching the dust billowing up behind Marc's truck as it sped away.

"He'll get over it in a few days," Rick replied. "It's new and he needs a period of adjustment. You seem to have come to terms with things with your mother."

"That's different," Sophie said. "No one hid anything about my biological mother from me, so I always had a sense of who I was, even though my mother was dead, but Marc has nothing. He knows nothing about his biological father because Aunt Grace buried that when she adopted Marc, and he knows nothing about your mother because no one around here will talk about her, even you, and he's never felt like he belongs here."

"Just because he doesn't like ranch life doesn't mean he feels like an outsider," Rick said. "This is new to him now, but he'll get over it."

"You're wrong," Sophie countered. "I don't live here, but it's been obvious for years that he feels like he doesn't belong. He and Adam have never been close, and he and his dad are like aliens from different planets, and Adam was right when he said, every time Marc sneezed, Aunt Grace was there to wipe his nose. There's no question she caters to him. She always has, and I never knew why until now. She's trying to make up for denying Marc the right to know about his father and his other family, and Marc's going to leave here because he has no idea who he is, and finding out is foremost on his mind right now. You need to spend time with him when he comes back, if he comes back. Not only do you owe him your life, but you owe him big for opening up a can of worms and letting them slither into his life."

Her words, and the tone of her voice, reminded Rick of the Sophie she'd been all his life, the one holding up a hoop for him to jump through, which didn't sit well with him right now. "Look, I don't need you micromanaging things between me and Marc. Besides, it would have come out with the reading of my mother's will, so don't get on your high horse like I'm the cause of this." Turning abruptly, he went to the stable to saddle up. He needed to be alone to think about Sophie and Marc, and how they fit into his life, and where he'd go from here.

CHAPTER 9

While standing at the check-in desk at the entrance to the lodge, Jayne went over with Sophie, for the third time, the list of things for Sophie to take care of in preparation for Adam and Emily's wedding. "Honey," Jayne said, "if you want, I can have Grandma Hansen address the invitations and you can do something else. You seem very preoccupied today, and the invitations need to be mailed."

Sophie blinked several times to get back on track, and said, "I'm fine, just a little distracted. This thing with Marc was such a surprise I can't stop thinking about him and what he must be going through. Has anyone heard from him?"

"He's okay," Jayne replied. "Jack called around to some of his friends and he's staying with one of them. Jack thinks it's best to leave him alone right now and let him adjust. He's certain he'll be back to work things out."

"Both Uncle Jack and Rick think that if you go off somewhere and shut out the world, everything will work out, but I don't agree. Marc obviously doesn't want to be alone because he's with friends right now, but friends could give him all kinds of bad advice. They're hearing one side of the story, and that's the side of an angry, disillusioned, bitter guy who feels like he's been deceived by his parents, actually by all the adults in this family."

"I agree," Jayne said. "From the beginning, Sam and I thought the boys should have been told, but it was the way Jack and Grace wanted it. Becca also knew, and I was a surprised she never said anything to Rick since they've always been close, but I guess she didn't want to make waves. The whole thing is pretty disturbing."

"What about Marc's other grandparents, Aunt Grace's in-laws?" Sophie asked. "How much do they know?"

"Nothing," Jayne replied. "Grace told them there had been a mix up at the clinic and she got the wrong sperm. Apparently they had been against Grace and Marc's father marrying because they'd wanted him to marry a college-educated woman, so they had never been close to Grace, and after Marc's father died, Grace never saw them again. She wrote them a letter when she planned to be inseminated, and they showed no enthusiasm, so after the mix up they accepted it and asked no more questions. To my knowledge, they've had no further contact with Grace."

"Well, I know from the way Marc talked that he intends to find them," Sophie said.

"You're probably right," Jayne replied. "I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. Now about the invitations." She lifted the lid off a box and handed one to Sophie.

Sophie studied the embossed invitation. Running her fingers over the raised lettering, she noted that Emily and Adam were making their own announcement since Emily came from a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic father, drug addicted mother, and a brother who'd dropped out of high school. "Who’ll walk Emily down the aisle?" she asked.

"Jack," Jayne replied. "Emily asked Maddy to be her flower girl and left her dress up to Grace, and Emily's only attendant will be a girlfriend from high school. But not having the support of family brings up another issue, and that's planning the cake and flowers. I asked Emily if she wanted me to take care of it and she did, and the flowers too. She doesn't have anything special in mind, just said she'd leave it to me, so maybe you'd like to take it on."

Sophie couldn't help but think it odd that Emily had no interest in planning her cake and flowers. It just didn't seem right, unless she was embarrassed that the expenses fell on Adam's family. "I'll put something together," she said.

Jayne gave a little despondent sigh. "I'm sorry this thing with Marc and Adam has come up. Emily was upset about it. She said she needed to be alone and planned a day at the coast."

"By herself?" Sophie asked.

Jayne nodded. "I think it bothered Adam some."

Sophie contemplated that. It seemed strange, so close to the wedding, for Emily to be running off alone like that. She didn't want to say anything to Jayne, but she hoped Emily wasn't following a pattern she had in the past with her on-and-off relationship with a guy in high school. During the off times she'd cry on Adam's shoulder, but after Adam picked up the pieces, Emily would be back with the boyfriend. But after graduation the boyfriend joined the service, and when Adam ended up at the same college as Emily, he had his chance. The family wasn't surprised when Adam gave Emily a ring at Christmas and announced a July wedding.

Sophie couldn't help but admire Emily though. In spite of her dysfunctional family, and the off-and-on boyfriend, she'd managed to pull straight ‘A’s through high school, was valedictorian of her graduating class, and got a full-ride scholarship to college.

"Life can get messy at times," Jayne said when she saw that Sophie was still staring at the invitation. "But in two weeks Adam and Emily will be happily married and off on their honeymoon for a few days at the coast. Jack and Grace are paying for the honeymoon trip, and Maureen's paying for the cake, flowers and invitations."

"Then they must really like Emily," Sophie said, surprised they didn't have at least a little misgiving about Adam marrying into a family like Emily's.

"They admire Emily for her academic achievements," Jayne said, "and they know how much Adam loves her. He's been in love with her since his junior year in high school when they were in a play together, though he always had to take a back seat to the boyfriend, but not anymore."

"Adam might have to look for another best man though," Sophie said. "He and Marc had some pretty heated words the other day, with Marc accusing Adam of being their father's favorite, and Adam accusing Marc of being a mama's boy. They would have come to blows if Uncle Jack hadn't shoved them apart."

"I know," Jayne said. "Jack talked to Rick about it and told him to be ready in case Marc doesn't come around. Adam's fine with that, since he and Rick have been closer over the years than he and Marc, but he wouldn't want Marc to know."

"Marc knows," Sophie said, "which is why I don't think he'll be back, even for Adam's wedding. But you're right. The invitations need to be addressed."

Sophie collected the boxes and made her way between groups of ranch guests who were gathering in the lodge while waiting for dinner to be announced, and settled onto a two-person couch at the back of the room. Placing the boxes on a coffee table in front of her, she removed the list of invitees attached to a box with a rubber band, unfolded the paper and pressed it open, then arranged the stacks of small and large envelopes in front of her.

For the next twenty minutes, as she meticulously addressed envelopes, with the invitee's name on the one that would hold the invitation, and the full address on the larger one, her mind was divided between what she was doing, and images of her father walking her down a grassy aisle there at the ranch and turning her over to Rick, who'd be waiting beneath the grape arbor that had been built for ranch weddings. Then she and Rick would exchange vows that would join them as husband and wife. She'd been connected to Rick all her life, but never in a way that would bind them body and soul while bringing her into the Hansen family.

All her life the ranch had been the place she wanted to be, whether to be around Aunt Grace and Uncle Jack and their pack of kids and imagining herself one of them, because that's the way they always made her feel, or with Rick and Becca and their folks, because they were also like family. But all those years, the idea of marrying into the family had never occurred to her because they were all like siblings, until this visit, and now she couldn't shove the idea of marrying Rick aside.

"Darn!" She snatched up the envelope she'd inadvertently addressed to the ranch instead of the invitee and tossed it into the wastebasket beside the chair.

"What's the problem?" She looked up to see Rick.

"Distractions," she said, and reached for another envelope. "Here, make yourself useful." She shoved a stack of addressed invitations to the end of the coffee table, and said, "Put the smaller envelopes into the bigger ones and make sure the names match up, and stick these on each." She nudged several sheets of stamps beside the envelopes.

Rick sat on the couch, but before starting to stuff envelopes, he lifted one of the invitations off the pile and studied it. Overly long. So long, Sophie said, "What's the problem?"

Rick gave a cynical snort. "My parents were divorced. Uncle Jack's divorced. Emily's a loose cannon when it comes to stability." He tossed the invitation onto the table. "Sometimes it seems pointless to marry."

Sophie picked up the invitation and slipped it into an envelope, and said, "Emily might be a little unstable emotionally because of her family circumstances, but Adam's the kind of guy who'll be around for her for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do they part. Theirs will be a long happy marriage"

"Maybe I'm not referring to them," Rick said.

Sophie looked askance at him. "Then I assume you're referring to yourself, which surprises me. Your father and Jayne are like a match made in heaven."

"Yeah but how many tries does it take to get it right? My parents dated two years before they married and that didn't work."

"On the other hand," Sophie said, "Aunt Grace and Uncle Jack got married six weeks after they met, and that marriage is solid. And my dad and mom couldn't be happier. It's being soul mates. The soul knows what the body doesn't so you have to tap into your soul, like at Whispering Springs, where you just seem to get answers. Maybe it's because the eerie sounds have a way of enabling us to make contact with our souls."

Hearing no response from Rick, Sophie assumed he thought she was losing it, but when she looked at him his face was sober, his eyes intense, and there was nothing about his expression that questioned what she'd said, almost as if he'd accepted it.

But an instant later, his face became cynical. "Yeah, soul mates," he said. "That's about as pointless as marriage." He rose and left the lodge.

***

Later that day, while standing near the back of the lodge, Sophie turned away from the guests milling about and stood looking out the window at the cabin across the way, where she and her folks always stayed when they came to the ranch, and felt totally bereft. Not only had her last conversation with Rick left her feeling empty, because whenever they were together it was as if the rift between them was growing wider, but she felt disconnected from her parents. When she was at college she missed them, but there was always a bond between them, whether it was a simple,
'Hi Mom and Dad I love you,'
email, sent late at night after finishing her studies, or five minutes on the cell to keep them current.

She'd tried several times to reach them, but no one was home, and they didn't answer their cell phones, but it had been a couple of hours since she'd last tried, so she decided to try again, and this time, leave a message. After punching in the phone number, she waited as the phone rang, all the while mulling over what to say, and when the recording cut in, she found herself saying, "Mom, I'm sorry. I wish you were here now because I don't want to go into this over the phone since that seems so impersonal, and the way I stormed out of the house, it's just that I feel so bad, and I said such hateful things, and here it's, well, very troubling, and I just wish you were here because what I want to say to you I really, really want to say it to you directly—"

"Then go ahead."

Sophie froze. Slowly she turned, and when she saw her mother standing not more than a few feet behind her, she couldn't stop the stream of tears that started running down her face while she was leaving her message.

When she rushed into her mother's arms, her mother held close, but after a few moments Justine released her hold some, and said, "Honey, you said things here were troubling."

"That's not important now," Sophie said, swiping a finger beneath each eye. "About all the terrible things I said before I left California—"

"It's okay, honey, I understand," Justine replied, cutting her off.

"No, Mom, it's not okay," Sophie said. "I acted like a spoiled, unappreciative brat, saying all those hurtful things to you, then rushing out of the house and driving six hundred miles. I guess I'm not very mature for a twenty-three-year-old, and because of it, you and Dad put your lives on hold and came here when I should have turned around and gone back home. I'm so sorry."

Justine pulled Sophie down to sit on the couch with her, and after they'd settled, she patted Sophie's hand, and said, "Sweetheart, the things you said are past now. I'm not an emotionally fragile woman, and I've been called a lot worse things in the past, so let's just put it all behind and go from here. As for Dad and me coming here, several months ago we reserved the cabin for a couple of weeks from now in anticipation of Adam's wedding, but after you left, well since Dad just finished his latest book, and we've talked for years about finding a piece of property here, we decided to come earlier. We're staying at the old hotel in McMinnville."

"I didn't mean the things I said," Sophie repeated, dismissing what her mother had just told her, not convinced she
had
put it all behind. "I'm actually very proud of you now because you did turn your life around, and I'm sure Dad's proud too since he's the reason why."

"It wasn't your father who turned me around, honey," Justine said. "He was willing to accept me the way I was. It happened the day a little girl called me Mommy, up in a cabin in the mountains. I knew then if I could, I'd move heaven and earth to be the person that little girl thought I was."