“I don’t know her address, but I’ll tell her to call you.”
“Just give me her number and I’ll call her and that way I can check returning it off my to-do list.”
“I’ll have her call you.” A door slammed in the background and Siobhan heard a female voice that sounded a lot like her sister. “My food’s here. Gotta run.”
The call disconnected before Siobhan could ask if Kelly was staying with her. After writingJanelle’s addresson the back of an envelope, she circled it twice. If she could prove her sister was staying with her mother, maybe that address would suffice if legal service became necessary.
Before she even set down the pen, her phone buzzed and she saw an unknown number on the screen. After underliningJanelle’s addresswith a bold line, she answered it.
“Mom said you have something of mine?”
“A necklace,” Siobhan replied, pushing down the disappointment that swept through her when Kelly didn’t even say hello. They’d been reasonably close before her sister married Brian, but the conflict between them during the marriage and divorce had put a dent in their relationship.Siobhan adopting Oliver had essentially ended it. “Tell me your address and I’ll drop it in the mail tomorrow.”
“Just keep it.”
“It looks valuable.”
There was a long silence, and Siobhan was looking at her screen to make sure the timer was still ticking off seconds before her sister spoke again. “What do you really want, Siobhan?”
“Did you know Brian is Oliver’s biological father?”
Kelly sighed, as though she was annoyed at being bothered. “Maybe.”
“You knew his cousin and I are friends and I might be around his family at some point.”
“I was hoping the kid would look like me.”
“He doesn’t. Why did you lie?”
“Because I know you and you would have sided withhim, and then I would have had to deal with that man for the rest of my life just because we shared a kid.”
A kid.Siobhan took a deep breath, glancing at Oliver to cool her flash of temper. “You could have still gotten the divorce while you were pregnant, and given him to Brian instead of me when he was born. You didn’t have to raise him, so it doesn’t explain the lying. And thefraud, Kelly. You and Steve signed legal documents and I don’t know about him, butyouknew they were false statements.”
“Steve thought the kid was his, but then he didn’t want to be a dad anyway, so it worked out okay.”
Okay?Except for paperwork that had made Siobhan Oliver’s mother being fraudulent. “Where are you now?”
“Why?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose, praying for patience. “Because we have to straighten this out, and we’ll probably need a signed statement from you.”
“For what? Just let him see the kid if he wants to.”
The words were thrown out casually enough, but Siobhan knew her sister well enough to hear the underlying fear. Kelly wasn’t sure what the penalties for lying on birth certificates and adoption papers were, but she didn’t want any part of paying a price.
“It’s more than just seeing Oliver and you know that. To have his paternal rights protected, the paperwork has to be done.”
“I have a different boyfriend now, Siobhan, and he’s going to propose,” Kelly said, and there was a hint of panic in her voice. “He owns a house on the water in Connecticut and you should see his cars. But he doesn’t know I had a kid before and that kind of thing matters to him.”
It didn’t surprise her at all that his money was the most important attribute for Kelly to share. “If that’s a deal-breaker, he’s probably not a great guy.”
“Don’t mess this up for me, Siobhan.”
“For you? What about the mess Oliver and I are in now?”
“It’s not my problem. I gave him to you, so that’syourproblem. Deal with it.”
Siobhan closed her eyes for a moment, reminding herself she couldn’t force Kelly to feel compassion or empathy. She’d certainly tried over the years, but her sister only cared about herself. Something she’d inherited from their mother, apparently. “Okay. I’ll figure it out. I always do. Just give me your address, though, and I’ll send you the necklace.”
