“No one would have expected you to do anything.”
“I know. My dad said the same thing, but he was also struggling. Her death changed him. He sort of lost interest in parenting. I got put in front of the TV a lot, read thousands of comic books. He still took me to school, helped me with my homework, but I could see his heart wasn’t in it.”
“He was grieving.”
“Of course. And that’s why I was happy when he started dating a couple of years later. Kids can be smart. They may not have all the details, but they know what’s going on. And I wanted my happy-go-lucky dad back. It’s funny, some kids get scared when their dads bring home a stepmom, but not me. I was excited to meet Shauna. I missed having a mom and I really hoped she’d like me.”
Kate frowned. She could no doubt see where this was going.
Liam chuckled. “Oh, it wasn’t obvious at first, but like I said, kids soon figure things out. Shauna was just, well,pricklywhen I met her. Maybe it was nerves, I don’t know, but she didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies.”
“How old were you then?”
“Nine.” He rolled his shoulders, trying to release the tension in his neck. “She was a beautiful woman, sophisticated and elegant. So different from how I remembered my mom. My mother was beautiful too, but in a homey way, you know? Comfortable. She wasn’t concerned about the latest fashions. She was just happy being a mom and a wife.”
Kate nodded her understanding.
“But Shauna wanted to be wined and dined and didn’t really make an effort to hang around me. I could tell she wished my dad hadn’t had a kid. And I guess he was so taken with her he didn’t notice how frosty she was to me. I was sent to a lot of babysitters. I remember sitting in other people’s houses, wishing I could be at dinner with them. Wishing she wanted me.”
Kate reached over and caressed his thigh under his robe. Her fingers, so cool and soft, felt wonderful on his warm skin.
“Anyway, they got married. I remember overhearing a conversation as they were planning the wedding. Shauna didn’t want me there. She said she didn’t want any kids at the reception, but I knew it was just me she wanted out of the picture.”
“Why?”
“She never said, at least not to me. Maybe she was threatened at having her predecessor’s son around. Maybe she felt my presence diminished her place in the family, or that she’d never have complete influence over my father because of me. She was the sort of person who needed that, to have some kind of control over another person.”
“That’s awful. How could anyone behave like that to a child?”
“People do all sorts of terrible things to children. Look at Andy, leaving Michelle and her mom before she was even born.”
Kate nodded.
“Anyway, my dad insisted on me coming to the wedding, but by that point, I didn’t even want to be there. I was the ring bearer. I remember feeling tempted to drop the rings down the toilet.”
“I can’t blame you there.”
“Well, I didn’t. They went on a long honeymoon, and I was sent to stay with the elderly neighbor next door, an old friend of my mom’s. The next couple of years were a blur of sports practices that Shauna never attended, school concerts that only my Dad came to see, you get the picture.”
“Was your dad happy?”
“I think so, for the most part. And after a while, he got sick. A heart condition. He spent a bit of time in the hospital.”
Kate’s face darkened. “Liam…”
“He died of a heart attack when I was thirteen. And so I was left with Shauna, the woman who never wanted me in the first place.”
She grabbed his hand, squeezing, her face contorted with clear pain.
His bitterness manifested in a sour smile. “To her credit, she did house me for a year. She was never cruel, just indifferent. But to a kid that’s worse. We just existed together, did our own things. But deep down, I wanted her to hug me and tell me she was glad I was in her life. I wanted her to accept me as her own.”
“And you never got that.”
He shook his head. “But she put a roof over my head for twelve months, even though I spent that year wondering when she’d grow tired of me. I suppose she kept me that long because she felt guilty, and I know she did love my dad. But at the end of that year, she met a man. A wealthy man. He wanted to marry her, but he didn’t want another man’s moping kid in his house.”
Liam spotted a tear fall from Kate’s eye. He wiped it away for her, hating the fact that she felt pain on his account. He leaned in and kissed the trail left from her tears.
“Anyway, it gave Shauna the push she needed. One day, she pulled me out of school and told me my bags were already in her car. She drove me to Aunt Margaret’s, a distant relative of my dad’s who I didn’t know very well, and told me that I wouldn’t see her again.”
