Accidental Dad. Lois Richer

      “The same might be said about twins,” Kelly murmured, trying not to feel hurt that her mother apparently found no such connection with her.

      “Those twins would be better off somewhere else.” Arabella’s lips clamped together in a tight line.

      “How can you say that?” Aghast, Kelly stared at the woman she’d never felt she understood. “This is their home.”

      “Their foster home. Temporary. They’ll make a new home with some other woman.” Arabella shrugged. “Marina wasn’t their real mother no matter how much everyone pretends.”

      “She was as much their mother as she was Jacob Samuel’s.” Kelly grit her teeth when Arabella shook her head.

      “The connection between mother and child comes from carrying a baby near your heart for nine months. Marina had that with Jacob Samuel.” Her face wan, Arabella leaned back against her pillow with a sigh. “But she made do with the twins.”

      “You mean like they were second best?” Indignant, Kelly smothered the words she longed to say to snap her mother back to reality. She was here to make things better, not worse. “If Marina heard you say that she’d be furious, Mom. She loved the twins as much as if they were her own flesh and blood. Pretending she didn’t is not a credit to her memory.”

      “You’re pretending, sidling up to Sam, acting as if her family is yours because you have no one in your life.” There was a kind of sneering sound to the words. “Why did you come back, Kelly?” her mother demanded.

      The question stopped Kelly in her tracks. She refused to show how deeply those words wounded. “I came back because my twin sister died, and I wanted to be here to help however I could.”