Free Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) by Heather Tullis Page B

Sooner is better than later. She’s lost something massive. You don’t get over that fast.” She stared at the empty fireplace. “Sometimes you never get over it.”
    “So what’ll you do?” Delphi asked, her eyes wary.
    “Just love her to pieces. What else can you do? She’s mine.” She smiled after she said it, pleased to hear the words tripping off her tongue. “And for the first time I actually get to admit that. It doesn’t matter what happens, I’ll just love her and hope for some kind of miracle that I don’t screw up too badly. And if I do screw up, I know you’ll set me straight.” She looked at Delphi.
    “You better believe it,” Delphi said.
    “Are you afraid of messing up?” Lana asked. “I’m terrified of making mistakes.” She touched her growing stomach. “And my baby didn’t just come out of a major trauma.”
    “Everyone messes up.” Rosemary looked at Lana. “You nearly threw away Blake, and he’s made you disgustingly happy. Cami almost kicked Vince to the curb, and Sage and Joel were nearly killed by a stalker for heaven sakes. We’re all damaged—and that’s not counting stuff before we met last spring.”
    “Then it’s good she has all of us. Because one of us is going to be there for her, even if the rest of us are clueless,” Sage said with a firm nod.
    Yeah, that worked for now, but if Rosemary took Cleo back to DC at the end of her contract, who would be there for her then?
    “I wonder,” Cami said tentatively. “Do you think maybe you shouldn’t announce to the world that she’s your daughter?”
    Rosemary glared at her. “Right, because I want her to think I’m ashamed of her? Not a chance.”
    “I don’t mean that,” Cami said.
    “No, but you don’t know what you’re saying,” Delphi said. “You’ve never felt like a second-class citizen because Dad wouldn’t acknowledge you in public. You never had to be his dirty little secret, and have visits with him, but not be allowed to go places with him where someone might know you, because then someone might find out and ruin his life.”
    “You weren’t...” Cami seemed to reconsider what she was saying. “You felt like that?” She looked at the four half-sisters. As one of George DiCarlo’s legitimate offspring, she hadn’t dealt with the same issues as the rest of the girls.
    “Not often,” Sage said, “but sometimes.”
    “A lot.” Rosemary nodded.
    “All the time,” Delphi said.
    “I knew he loved me, but yeah, I felt it. I couldn’t tell anyone, couldn’t tell my friends about my fun trips with him and had to make excuses when he came to town for why I couldn’t do stuff with them. Everyone else just said they were hanging with their dads for the weekend,” Jonquil said. “If I’d said that, people would have wanted to meet him, so... lie, lie, lie.”
    Cami and Lana looked at each other in dismay. Apparently this hadn’t occurred to them at all. They hadn’t known any of the others existed until the reading of George’s will and definitely hadn’t experienced any of it themselves.
    “Wow, now I feel like an obtuse idiot,” Lana muttered.
    “Serve me up some of that.” Cami leaned back in Vince’s arm. “And then he announced it to the world after he was dead so he wouldn’t have to face the questions.”
    “Yeah.” Rosemary shifted in her seat. It had been a weak and selfish thing to do, but as much as Rosemary resented that fact, she still loved him.
    “That said, Cami’s not entirely wrong, either,” Delphi said.
    Rosemary glared at her. “What do you mean?”
    “Cleo just lost her parents—the only ones she’s known. She’s always known you, but it’s not like she’s had time to adjust to the fact that you’re her birth mom, and you moved her halfway—more than halfway—across the country to start a new school. Maybe she doesn’t want to tell anyone yet. You should let her decide whether or not to spread the word.”
    Rosemary couldn’t believe