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“I’m not joking.” He wished he was.
Phil jerked forward in her seat. “Everyone knows who that child belongs to.”
Yeah, the supposed sins of the previous generation were far more believable than the truth.
“I know why you think that. The rumors that she was Teddy Bronson’s child must have been everywhere. But Stella ismydaughter.”
Phil jumped to her feet, her face set. “I don’t know what lies that woman has been spinning but she can’t be yours.”
He frowned, struck by a sudden thought. “Did you ever confront Teddy about Stella?”
“No,” Phil scoffed. “There was no need. By the time I learned she existed, we were already separated. The divorce proceedings were well underway!”
Then Stella hadn’t been the straw that broke the camel’s back. That had to be a blessing, right?
“It’s obvious you’ve never taken a good look at Stella. That’s understandable?—”
His aunt waved her hand in his face like she was flagging down an inattentive waiter. “The girl is Teddy’s! That rat even bought them a house—one he paid for with the divorce settlement I was forced to give him.”
“He makes Mariana pay rent.”
None of his explanations about Stella seemed to be getting through to her, but this did.
“What?” she cried.
It was time for the photo. Garrett showed it to her, but Phil shook her head adamantly.
“This is Photoshop. Or that new thing they are talking about. The thing fromThe Terminator.” She snapped her fingers. “AI. This is AI.”
Garrett rose to his feet, tugging her to the glass doors.
Stella was on all fours next on the flagstones surrounding the koi pond. He couldn’t hear what she was saying but it appeared as if she was having an animated conversation with her mother.
“Stella is here, in the flesh. I want you to look at her, not her picture, and tell me what you see.”
Frowning, Phil went to the desk, taking out a pair ofglasses he’d never seen. She perched them at the tip of her nose and peered out the window.
He knew the moment she saw the resemblance.
Clutching the glasses more firmly on her face, she turned to him with a gasp. “Good Lord. That’sme.”
It was true in a way. The sisters had looked a great deal like each other, but he thought Stella resembled his mother more strongly.
“There’s a lot of the Martins in Stella,” he acknowledged. “She’s very smart and sweet. And she’s going to be a real ballbuster when she grows up. But neither Emma nor I can take credit for any of that. We’ve known she was ours for all of forty hours.”
That caused visible consternation.
“Why did that wom—” Phil stopped, catching herself. “Why did Mariana let everyone believe Stella was her child?”
Because her life experience has taught her to expect the worst from people.
“She thought Emma’s accident wasn’t an accident,” he explained, launching into a brief sketch of what happened all those years ago, all the doubts, her fears. How hard Emma’s recovery had been.
“She did the best she could,” he finished. “It was a very stressful time.”
“Yes, I can imagine.”
Phil folded her hands together. She was quiet for a moment before she cleared her throat. “Well, it’s getting cold outside. I think it’s time you called your wife and daughter inside.”