“You split us up!”Roxie hissed.“Why would you do that?”
“But you had your own family, dear.”Anne Marie was staring at her like she truly didn’t understand the outrage.A strand of platinum hair had slipped from the diamond clip at the back of her head, and it quivered against her cheek.“There was a couple there for you too.”
Roxie stepped back as if she’d been slapped.
Lexie hurried towards her.“Roxie grew up in foster care.”
Her mother turned the same ashen color as her father.“But…but they werethere,” she insisted.“We all agreed.”
“Agreed to what?”
“To take one of you.”
Lexie thought she just might be sick.
Julian’s gaze was beseeching as he looked at the two of them standing side by side.“You needed homes, but the agency had trouble placing you together.You have to understand.We thought it was the next best solution.”
Roxie sputtered, but this time it was Lexie who stepped forward.“Why me?”she pressed.“Why did you choose me?”
Her father smiled at her, his eyes going watery.“You came to me.”He cleared his throat.“You came to me, a beautiful little doll, and called me Daddy.”
“She wanted her real daddy.”Roxie’s voice nearly sliced the porch in half.She pulled back another step and raked her hands through her hair.“How old were we when this happened?What do you know about our parents?”
“You were two, and I know next to nothing.”There was compassion in Julian’s eyes as he looked at her.“Honestly, we were given no information about your past.”
“And you didn’t ask,” Roxie hissed.
The porch fell back into silence.Inside the house, a vacuum started running.Life was continuing as normal, but outside, the past held everyone in its grip.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”Lexie finally asked, even as she steeled herself for the answer.“You knew I was curious.Didn’t you think I’d want to know about my family?”
Her father’s proud gaze turned flinty.“Weareyour family, Alexandra.You’re an Underhill now.”
Her spine stiffened.“I’m theadoptedUnderhill.Everybody knows that.You made sure of it.Why not give me the whole truth?”
Anne Marie took a shuddering breath and tears slipped from her stunning blue eyes.She swept up her napkin and pressed it to her cheek.
Julian clenched his jaw at the sound of his wife’s crying.“Your mother and I fed you, gave you a home and loved you.”
Loved being the last thing he thought to mention, Lexie noticed.And why not?Landers had been conceived only four months after they’d taken her into theirlovinghome.In all the excitement, she’d taken a backseat.They’d had someone else to love, someone of their very own.
“Why put her through the wringer about the billboard then?”Roxie demanded.“If you didn’t want her to know about me, why did you send her out looking for me?”
Lexie’s eyes narrowed.Yes, why?
Julian got very quiet.“It was a long time ago.”
The tension on the veranda grew.Even the birds in the surrounding trees stopped chirping.
“Jesus, Julian,” Cam said softly.Lexie felt his hand wrap around her wrist.Her own was clenched into a fist.
“Did you think we wouldn’t look alike anymore?”Roxie asked.“Did you think she wouldn’t find me?”
Lexie watched as her father’s mouth twisted.He was focused on the pond again.His blond hair suddenly seemed dull, and Anne Marie was crying outright.The tears weren’t pretty, leaving splotches on her foundation.
“Well?”Roxie pressed.
“The picture in the newspaper upset me.”Julian smoothed his tie and looked at the floor.“It didn’t occur to me… I’d forgotten…I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
