Switched At Birth. Christine Rimmer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the same day that she did, would have put it together that somehow there must have been a switch.”

      “But I don’t understand. If it all would have led back to Durand, anyway, why did he do it?”

      “Apparently, he was freaked. He didn’t stop to think it through. And then, after he’d switched you with Paula’s baby, he had no opportunity to switch you back. You grew up with the Delaneys, believing that they were your biological parents, and if Paula ever told Lloyd that she doubted you were his—”

      “Stop.” Madison put up a hand. “I get it. That’s enough, really.”

      “I understand. It’s a lot to take in.” Jonas stood from the chair. Moving on autopilot, Madison got up, too.

      He held out a thumb drive.

      She stared at it, shaking her head.

      “It’s all on there,” he said, “everything I just explained to you and more, including pictures of your large family in Oregon and Martin Durand’s final letter confessing what he did. I think you’ll agree that the resemblance between you and three of the Bravo sisters is especially striking—and of course, when you’re ready, there will be DNA tests providing conclusive proof. Also, you’ll find contact information for Percy Valentine and your Bravo brothers and sisters. My numbers are there, too. And my door is always open to you, Madison.” He took her hand.

      She let him do that, let him set the memory stick in her palm and fold her fingers around it.

      Was she dreaming? Her moorings to her life, her identity, her self—everything. It all felt torn loose and dangling.

      The oddest thought occurred to her. “So then, are you saying that we’re related, too, you and me?”

      “Yes. You and I are second cousins. Your grandfather and mine were brothers. The extended family is a large one.”

      When her mom died four years ago, she’d lost the last of her family—or so she’d believed at the time. “And you said that the family in Oregon is large, too?”

      “George and Marie Bravo had nine children.” He turned for the door.

      “Had?” she asked his retreating back.

      He paused in midstep and faced her again. “George and Marie were very fond of traveling. One of the children, Finn, was lost on a trip to Russia years ago. The family continues to search for him.”

      “And George and Marie Bravo, what are they like?”

      “I’m sorry, Madison, but two years after Finn disappeared, George and Marie died on another trip, that one to Thailand.”

      “Oh.” The word came out wobbly, more breath than sound, as a wave of sadness washed through her for the lost boy—and for George and Marie Bravo. If they actually were her birth parents, she would never know them now.

      “Listen.” A look of concern had creased Jonas’s brow. “How about if I stay until you’ve had a chance to check everything over?” He tipped his head at her white-knuckled fist and the memory stick she clutched in it.

      “No!” she replied much too sharply. She needed to be alone for this. She needed time to absorb it all and reject it—or to claim it in her heart, take it under her skin. “I, well, would you please thank Percy Valentine for me?”

      “Absolutely.”

      “Would you explain that you’ve spoken with me and given me all the information he sent you?” Her mouth felt so dry. She swallowed and forged on. “I’m going to need some time...”

      Jonas Bravo understood. “You mean you want me to say that you’ll call him?”

      The weird, constricted feeling in her chest seemed to loosen a fraction. “Yes, please. Would you tell him that I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m ready?”

      “I’ll do that. Thanks for hearing me out. Percy will be looking forward to your call.”

       Chapter One

      A week after her life-changing visit from the Bravo Billionaire, Madison stood on the back deck of a cute shingled cottage on a pristine stretch of sand called Sweetheart Cove in Valentine Bay.

      The sky was endless and overcast. Gulls wheeled and soared above the blue Pacific, filling the air with their drawn-out, plaintive cries. She could smell salt spray and a hint of evergreen from the tall trees on the cliffs that loomed behind the cottage and sheltered the private stretch of beach that formed the cove.

      So far, she really liked it here, next to the ocean, on the Oregon coast. It was much cooler and wilder than in LA.

      No, she hadn’t reached out to Percy Valentine. But she would. Eventually. When she was ready.

      Which wasn’t quite yet.

      To lie low, that was her plan. If she stayed incognito, the tabloid reporters wouldn’t find her. She could have a little quiet time for herself while she worked up the nerve to reach out to the family she’d just learned she had.

      And yeah. She might not have outed herself to Percy Valentine yet, but she’d studied everything on that flash drive Jonas had given her. She’d seen all the pictures, read all the explanations.

      And now she believed.

      Her parents—whom she still loved with all her heart—were not her biological parents. She had five brothers, if you counted the one who’d vanished in Siberia years and years ago. Five brothers and four sisters, three by birth and also Aislinn Bravo Winter, the real Madison Delaney—or at least, she would have been if not for what Martin Durand had done.

      Everything seemed strange and new and scary. And it would probably only get more so. But she was coping. She was doing all right.

      Right now, in the interest of not being recognized, she wore a floppy, wide-brimmed straw hat and a terrific pair of Bvlgari Serpenti Gradient Square sunglasses—the black ones with the snake’s-head detail at the temples. It was just the kind of silly disguise she would never try in LA, the kind that wouldn’t fool anyone there for a second. But here in the Pacific Northwest, where no one expected to run into a movie star, dark glasses and a big hat did the job just fine.

      Yeah, okay. There was no one around who might recognize her, anyway. The beach was deserted and there were only the two houses in the cove—her cottage and the larger house next door.

      But so what if the hat and glasses were overkill? She wore them anyway, to be on the safe side and also because wearing disguises was fun. She felt like she could be anybody, some Valentine Bay local who’d rented a beach cottage just to stand out on her deck and stare at the waves lapping the sand, stare and smile and feel no pressure to do anything but simply be.

      Too bad about the Bluetooth device stuck in her ear and the grating voice of Myra Castle, her agent, talking too fast and too loud, as usual.

      “Dare to Dream,” shouted Myra. “Tell me you’ve had a chance to look over the script.”

      “Well, СКАЧАТЬ