The rebel doctors secret.., p.14
The Rebel Doctor's Secret Child, page 14
“What’s wrong? Where’s Ally?” Knox asked, taking Bree’s shoulders and steadying her.
“She’s gone. Ally is gone.”
* * *
Bree’s words made no sense to him. His daughter had been there just minutes before, playing with her Barbie dolls on the floor by Lucretia’s chair. Leaving Bree, he rushed to the receptionist office to see the dolls lying on the floor. He started back toward the other rooms when Bree stopped him. “I’ve already looked everywhere. She’s not there.”
“What’s happened?” Lucretia said, coming from the waiting room where she had gone to show Megan and her mother out.
“I can’t find Ally. Was she with you?” Bree asked.
But Knox could see by the shock in Lucretia’s face that she didn’t know where the little girl was. “I’ll call the security guard and have him start looking for her.”
Knox took Bree’s hand as Lucretia rushed to the office phone. “We’ll start on this floor and work our way down.”
“But what if she went outside? Oh, God. What if she was taken?” Bree pulled her phone out. “Lucretia, call 911. And call me or Knox if you find out anything.”
Knox led Bree into the hallway, looking both ways, but seeing nothing. “She couldn’t have gone very far.”
“I don’t understand why she would have left the office at all. We talked about this. She knows not to go anywhere without an adult. I don’t even let her be outside our house without me with her.”
Knox tried to think of some reason Ally would have left the office and where she would have gone. “Maybe she’s just playing with us. Kids don’t understand that sometimes playing like that can be dangerous.”
He stopped at the first office they came to and looked around the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but have you seen a little girl? A blonde? Green eyes?”
“She was wearing jean shorts and a pink-and-purple plaid shirt,” Bree said, her body trembling when she joined him in the doorway.
When the woman in the office shook her head, they moved on. They had visited each office on the floor, looking closely at the children in the waiting room at the county pediatric clinic. But Ally wasn’t there.
They had started down the stairs when Bree’s phone rang. “Hello? Ally?”
Knox tried to listen to the person on the other line but they spoke too quietly. When Bree hung up and her legs went out on her, Knox caught her and lowered her to the nearest step. Her face was paler than usual and then she began to cry.
“What is it?” Knox asked, holding Bree by the shoulders. “Tell me.”
Knox had been through many tragedies in his life. He’d lost friends and loved ones. He’d held babies that had never taken a breath. He’d held the lives of patients and their babies in his hands during emergency surgeries. He’d even been in danger himself at times when he found himself up on a mountain, driving around their hairpin turns in snowstorms or torrential rains. Nothing scared him like the look in Bree’s face at that moment.
“They found her. She’s in the security office downstairs,” Bree said, her voice shaking with each word.
Then she lost it, there on the steps of that old, run-down county building. All Knox could do was hold on to her as the tears began to run down his face, too.
* * *
They made it to the security office as soon as they got themselves together. But when they walked in, Knox was surprised to find a solemn Ally that made no move to run to them.
“Oh, Ally, you scared me so much,” Bree said, not seeming to notice that the little girl didn’t hug her back. “Why did you leave the office? You know that you can’t go anywhere without an adult with you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” Ally said, pulling away from her.
“What? What’s wrong, sweetheart? Is this about the trip to the ranch? I told you that me and Dr. Knox needed to talk about that. Being mad about that isn’t a reason to run away and scare us like that.”
Knox could see that Bree’s fear of losing Ally was beginning to dissolve. She had moved on to wanting answers and he had an idea what those answers would be. Bending down so that he was on his daughter’s level, he met her eyes. “Ally, did you listen in on a conversation between me and your aunt?”
The girl only showed the slightest hint of guilt before she put her chin up in the air. “You said that you were my daddy and Aunt Bree doesn’t want me to know.”
Knox heard Bree catch her breath, but he didn’t look up. “Me and your aunt were having a private conversation. If you heard us say something that you didn’t understand or that made you angry, you should have let us know you were there. Running off wasn’t the right thing to do. You scared us badly. If you ever hear something that scares you or that you don’t understand, I want you to tell one of us so we can explain it to you.”
He didn’t want to scold his daughter. She’d heard something that she shouldn’t have overheard and she was probably as much confused as she was scared. That was on him and Bree. But he also couldn’t allow her to think that running away would be the answer when she was angry or scared.
Bree bent down and joined them. “I’m sorry that you overheard us. We were both trying to find a way to tell you, but I wanted you to have some time to get to know Dr.... I wanted you to get to know your daddy before we told you. I know you have a lot of questions and we’re going to try to answer them the best we can.”
Ally looked from him to Bree, then back to him. “Are you really my daddy?”
Knox looked his little girl in the eye. Green eyes, so unlike his own, but still there was something in the stubborn glint of them that reminded him of his mother. “Yes, Ally. I’m really your daddy.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
WHILE BREE TALKED to the police officer and the Children’s Services officer, Knox took Ally over to a corner where they could talk. “Do you have any questions for me while your aunt Bree is talking to the officers?”
“Did I get her in trouble?” Ally said, biting her lip in the same cute way Bree sometimes did.
“Your aunt can take care of this. Just like she’s always taken care of you.”
“Does your being my daddy mean that I won’t live with her anymore?”
Right when Knox thought he was prepared for anything his daughter could ask, she surprised him. He’d thought she’d have questions about how he and her mother had met. How was it that he didn’t know that she was his daughter? Questions that he’d have asked. Instead, she’d asked something that was much more simple. At least it should have been. “Me and your aunt are still trying to work out the details. How do you feel about it?”
He knew these were things that he and Bree should be discussing with her together, but the choice of time and place had been taken away from them when Ally had overheard them talking.
“Don’t you like Aunt Bree?” Ally asked.
“Of course, I like your aunt a lot.” He wasn’t about to try to explain the crazy emotions Bree made him feel to his daughter. He was still trying to understand them himself.
“Do you want to kiss her?” his daughter asked. “My friend at school, Danny, says his parents kiss because they love each other.”
Knox was going to have to find out who this Danny kid was and why he was talking to his daughter about kissing. He looked over to where Bree spoke with the officers. There was nothing he’d like more than to kiss away the worried look on her face right then. “Yes, I want to kiss her.”
“Then why can’t we all live together?” Ally asked, her face turned up to him.
How did he explain to her how complicated adult relationships were? But did it really have to be that complicated? Wasn’t the simple truth that his feelings for Bree had grown into something much more than those he should have for his daughter’s aunt or for the midwife he worked with? Hadn’t his fascination with her freshness, her spirit, the way she stood up to him, started long before he even knew about his daughter? Hadn’t he felt something forming between the two of them the day they’d delivered the baby at the clinic when she’d smiled at him and it had suddenly felt like the two of them were the only two people in the world, and he was okay with that?
And then there was the night they’d spent together. He’d never felt so whole, so complete, as when he’d held Bree in his arms that night. It was like pieces of the puzzle that had been his life that he’d scattered recklessly had suddenly come together. He couldn’t imagine his life now without his daughter. He didn’t want to imagine his life without Bree beside him.
He looked down to see his daughter staring at him with such faith in her eyes. Such faith in him, trusting that he would make everything right, when all along it was Ally’s innocent reasoning that pointed him toward what he had wanted since the day her aunt had accused him of having his own fan club. If he’d ever had a fan club, there was only one person he would want in it. And that was Bree.
* * *
Bree sat beside Knox as he parked his truck in front of his parents’ house. Facing Gail and Charlie Collins today wasn’t something that she wanted to do today, but she knew she would have to face them at some point.
“So Ms. Gail is really my grandmother?” Ally asked for the hundredth time since they’d left their house.
“She’s my mother and that makes her your grandmother,” Knox said once more, with a patience that he should have won an award for.
But then again, he wasn’t about to face his parents while trying to explain why they had never been told about their granddaughter before now. Knox had given them the news over the phone and he said that they had taken the news well, that both of them were excited to learn that they had a grandchild even if they’d lost the first years of her life. Now it would be up to her to explain just how she had kept them from their only grandchild.
“It’s going to be okay,” Knox said, taking hold of her hand.
He’d been quiet most of the ride there, answering Ally’s questions easily, but saying almost nothing besides that. He’d even seemed nervous when he’d arrived to pick them up. The kiss he’d given her when Ally had run to get her backpack had been little more than a peck between friends. He seemed to be somewhere else. And considering what they were about to do, she needed him to be there with her. “Are you sure they won’t run me out of town the moment they see me?”
“I can almost guarantee you that by the time the day is over they will be the happiest people in the state of Tennessee,” Knox said, though she noticed his eyes didn’t meet hers.
Ally, tired of waiting for the adults, undid her seat belt and opened the truck door, hopping down and running toward the house before Bree could make a grab for her. By the time Bree and Knox made it to the door, Ally was already opening it and running in as if she owned the place.
“Ally, stop. You didn’t even ring the bell,” Bree called from behind her. The Collinses were going to think she’d raised their granddaughter as if she lived in a barn. Of course, their barn was actually nicer than the house Ally lived in.
“That’s okay,” an older man said as he came down the stairs. With hints of gray shooting through the same light brown hair that matched his son’s, Charlie Collins had aged well. His skin was tanned and a little weather beaten, but as he walked toward them, she could see that he still had that swagger that had sent screaming women falling out into the aisles when he’d performed. His eyes were the same light gray as his son’s, too. And right then he only had eyes for one person.
Ally stood staring up at him, her eyes studying him. “Dr. Knox, he’s my daddy, he says that you are my grandpa. Are you okay if I call you grandpa or will it make you feel old? My friend Josie says that she doesn’t call her grandmother Grannie because her grandmother says it makes her feel old. I can call you something else if you’d like me to.”
Charlie Collins looked down at the little girl before he broke out in laughter as loud as if he had a mic hidden in the beard running down his chin. “I think I’d like to be called Grandpa. And what shall I call you?”
“My name is Ally. Ally Rogers. And this is my aunt Bree. You can call her Bree, though, because you’re an adult.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Bree,” Charlie said, nothing but politeness in his tone.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Collins.”
“There she is,” Gail Collins said, coming down the stairway behind her husband. “How are you doing today, Ally?”
Ally ran up the stairs and met Gail. “I’m fine. You’re my grandma.”
“So I’ve been told,” the older woman said, taking Ally’s hand as she continued down to where Bree waited. “Charlie, why don’t you take Ally down to the basement to see the playroom? If I remember correctly, our granddaughter likes to play those video games you have down there.”
“Can I go?” Ally asked Bree. When Bree nodded, Ally let go of her grandmother’s hand and grabbed hold of Charlie’s.
“I thought I’d saddle up a couple of horses for me and Bree. I’ll be right back,” Knox said, giving Bree an encouraging smile before heading back out the front door.
Bree watched him retreat, leaving her alone to face his mother. “I guess I owe you an explanation about why I didn’t tell you about Ally when we were here.”
“Let’s sit down a moment,” Gail said, moving over to where four leather chairs faced a large fireplace. “Knox has explained most of everything, at least everything he knows.”
“I’ve told him everything that I know myself. I wasn’t in Brittany’s life at the time so I can only say I think she had reasons for the way she handled the pregnancy. Maybe if she hadn’t been killed, she would have changed her mind. I don’t know.”
“If it’s not too painful, do you mind me asking why you and Brittany weren’t communicating? Knox said you didn’t even know she was pregnant until after Ally was born.”
“When I look back, it was stubbornness on both of our parts. Brittany wanted a life in country music. I wanted to go to college and then medical school. She felt that my refusing to perform with her had ruined her chances of that life. I didn’t think so. I still don’t. Don’t get me wrong, she had a beautiful voice, but there are a lot of beautiful voices in Nashville.”
“I’m glad you got to go into medicine, but midwifery? That wasn’t in your plan, was it? But then I’m sure raising Ally wasn’t in your plan, either. You had to have considered telling Knox about her at some point. You had to know that you could have gone on to medical school if he’d taken Ally.”
Knox taking Ally from her had never crossed her mind. She’d done her best to honor her sister’s promise, until she’d had proof for herself that her sister was wrong. “Ally’s not just my niece, Mrs. Collins. She’s my child in every way. I never thought of giving her up to anyone. I did what was asked of me by my sister. Neither of us knew that within a few hours she would be dead.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to upset you. I have no doubt you did what you thought was best for Ally. I could see the love you two share when Knox first brought the two of you to the ranch. I thought then that maybe Knox had finally found someone that he could have a steady relationship with. Then I find out that it wasn’t you that he was interested in, it was Ally. It’s taking me a few moments to believe that.”
They both stood when Knox came into the room. “Ready?”
“Yes, but is it okay if Ally stays here?” Bree asked Knox’s mother. Their whole conversation was confusing to her. She couldn’t tell if the woman was angry at her or if she truly was trying to figure out how all of this had taken place. And Bree had to admit, her saying that Knox was only interested in Ally had hurt, even if Knox’s mother hadn’t meant for it to.
“Of course. This is her home now as much as it is Knox’s. Besides, I have an interior decorator arriving soon to help us make one of the rooms here just for Ally.”
Not knowing what to say to that, Bree followed Knox outside. He helped her mount a sweet, gentle mare before he climbed up on his own horse. “I haven’t been on a horse in a while. When I was young, me and Brittany took lessons. It’s one of the few things I regret not being able to give Ally.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that now. We’ll make sure she gets lessons,” Knox said, leading the way across a field that ran behind the house.
“Are you okay?” Bree asked. “You’ve been quiet all day.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “There’s a path I want to take you up to on that hill. Then we need to talk.”
His words had an ominous tone to them. What had happened since the two of them had talked last that would have made him change so much? And what had he meant when he said that we would make sure that Ally had riding lessons? Did he mean the two of them, together? Or was he talking about him and his parents? Anytime Knox had brought up helping Bree pay for Ally’s support, she’d shut him down. She knew that at some point she’d have to accept that Knox had the right and the responsibility to help with Ally’s expenses, but it was hard to take money from someone when she’d worked so hard to support the two of them on her own.
And what had his mother meant by having a room decorated for Ally? Did she think that Ally would be moving in here? Was that what Knox wanted?
And then there was the comment of his mother’s about Knox being just interested in his daughter. Had he not told her that the two of them were involved? Or was that all in her own imagination? She knew that people had sex and then moved on; wasn’t that what her own sister and Knox had done?
