“Your mother said she wasn’t looking for a relationship. Whenever I asked to take her out for a meal, or for a day trip, she refused. I felt like I was her little secret, something I did not care for.”
“She pushed you away?” Carla let out a knowing sigh.
Diego nodded. “Suzette told me about a curse that meant relationships in her family ended in disaster. There are many superstitions in Spain, so I tried to understand. But then she announced she was returning to England and things were over between us before they had the chance to flourish.
“Barbara wasn’t ready to return home just yet, so she stayed in Spain, and my parents were happy to retain a reliable tenant. I was studying to be a doctor and still collected the rent money in person each week, just to be sure.” He rolled his eyes a little.
“Barbara missed Suzette and invited me to join her at the cinema and to watch bands perform. She asked me to show her around Barcelona, telling me she would make me less serious.” He shrugged. “I was happy to let her try, especially because I was missing Suzette, too. Though, of course, I could not tell Barbara this.”
He paused for a moment, seeking out Carla’s eyes. “You might think that having a relationship with both Suzette and Barbara sounds questionable, but it never felt that way to me. It took several months for me to fall in love with Barbara, and Suzette didn’t keep in touch when she returned home.”
“Did Mum tell you she was pregnant?” Carla asked.
Diego shook his head. “No, not for some time. When Barbara and I found out the news, we both presumed Suzette had met someone in England and had his child.” He looked down and twisted his hands together. “I only found out you were mine when you were nine years old...”
Carla’s jaw hung open. “Nine? Mum kept it from you until then?” She also wanted to yell at him that she was now forty-two. Why had it taken him so long to admit he was her father?
He nodded slightly. “Suzette only ever wrote to me once, after receiving her cancer diagnosis. Her time was ticking away and she wanted me to know I was your father. She sent me a photograph of you, the first I’d ever seen, and I faced a terrible dilemma about whether I should tell Barbara about you or not.
“She knew about Suzette’s cancer, and my family was also pressing us to have children, so it was a tough time for her. Barbara and I were undergoing fertility treatment, so how could I tell her that I already had a child with Suzette? It might have broken her heart.
“I also felt surplus to your life and to Suzette’s, though there were many times I thought about getting in touch with you...”
Carla’s vision blurred. She’d never known whether she’d been conceived from a one-night stand, a loving relationship or if her mum even knew the identity of her father. Except for sharing the news with Diego, Suzette had taken the identity of Carla’s father to her grave. She dug her nails into her palm. “I can’t believe it’s taken me forty-two years to know about you, for us to meet.”
Diego’s face was also full of emotion. “We did meet once before,” he admitted. “Many years ago, in the hospital.”
Carla wrinkled her brow, trying to think back in time. “My fall from the horse?” she asked, recalling the only time she’d been injured in Spain.
“Yes. I was working there and remembered seeing you in the waiting room. Your hair and eyes were so much like Suzette’s it was like seeing her double. It had been twelve years since she’d sent me the photograph of you and I checked your name and address on a hospital form you completed. Carla Carter. My daughter and only child. I could not believe you were here! I was the doctor who drove you back to your hotel after your accident. You were in a lot of pain and it wasn’t the right time for me to tell you I was your father...”
Carla nodded numbly. “Twenty-one years ago.”
“I kept telling myself to reach out to you afterward. One day passed and then another and still I did nothing.” Diego hung his head. “Barbara and I kept trying for a family until we were well into our forties, but it did not happen for us. I’m not proud about keeping these things from her.”
He looked so lost and ashamed that Carla reached out and took his hand. A warmth slowly and surely washed over her, as if she was bathing in a sunny lagoon. She was with her father. Her baby was going to have a granddad. It was awful he hadn’t been part of her life for so long, but his explanations made sense. She understood why he’d hung on to a secret.
Diego’s shoulders relaxed a little. “As soon as I found out you were pregnant, I was overcome with pride,” he said, his voice lifting. “I have missed out on seeing my daughter grow up and I do not want the same with my grandchild.”
“That won’t happen,” Carla promised fiercely.
“Things will not be easy,” he warned. “I will need to tell Barbara...”
Carla thought about Babs’s fragile side that she didn’t allow many others to see. “Please be gentle with her. She’s noticed you’ve seemed happier and thinks you might have met someone else.”
“I looked that way because I’d seen you.”
They both grinned cautiously at each other.
“I had to come back to England to see you,” Diego continued. “I wanted to be here for you and the baby, and to see you walk down the aisle.”
Carla scratched her neck. “I don’t think my wedding is going to happen. Everything is stacked against it.”
Diego took time to think of his response. “The thing I have learned over the years from my patients, especially ones nearing the end of their lives, is to never give up hope. Listen to what your heart tells you, because if you ignore it, it can cause you great pain.”
Carla sniffed and nodded. “I’ll try.”
Hesitantly, Diego stood up and slightly raised his arms. Carla stood and stepped forward, too, and her surroundings fell away as she leaned into his embrace. She inhaled and Diego smelled of leather and lemon soap, just as she’d always imagined a father would. His hug gave her a shot of strength, making her feel like she could do anything, face anything. Even Tom.
Diego pressed his cheek against the top of her head. “Please don’t say anything to Babs about anything just yet. I need to work out how to tell her...”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Neither of them heard or saw the door opening behind them, until a gasp told them they had company. Carla raised her head and saw Jess and Babs standing there. Her sister’s arms hung limply at the sides of her cotton dress, and Babs’s mouth hung open with horror.
Carla and Diego quickly pulled away from each other.
“I’m sorry. Are we interrupting something?” Babs asked, her eyes piercing into them.
“Babs and I met at Gran’s house,” Jess said. “What the hell’s going on?”
Babs curled her lips. “What exactly are you hiding from me?”
Diego moved and tried to take her arm. “I’m sorry, I need to tell you...” He floundered, struggling to find the right words.
He and Carla shared an anguished look and they knew there was no way out. They had to tell the truth.
Carla also didn’t want to lie to her sister, and without space and time to think of a more delicate response, she blurted out to Jess and Babs, “Diego is my father.”
