One Daddy Too Many Read Online Free PDF Page A

Now, he wants to share custody. Why? Does he think he can do better?”
    Yetta returned to the stove and picked up the spoon she’d used to stir the soup. “Katherine, no one in their right mind would question your parenting skills. Your daughter is an absolute delight—wise, generous and kind. But Ian is her father. Not a good one, I agree, but he exists. And there will come a time when she’ll resent the fact that you kept her from seeing him. She might even run away to be with him. That could be disastrous.”
    Kate closed her eyes. Suddenly, she had a clear image of a young teen with flowing brown curls on the side of the road. Hitchhiking. Alone. Vulnerable.
    “I didn’t say I’d never let her meet Ian,” she said, shaking her head. “Maybe after he gets well…is this something you can recover from? Liz would know. I’m going to call her.”
    “She isn’t home. She had some kind of hearing with those two poor women from Charles’s hotel. They’re asking to be allowed to stay in the United States, and Elizabeth is trying to help.”
    Kate had been too distracted by her own troubles to pay much attention to her sister’s latest humanitarian effort. “Well, the lawyer Rob set me up with said he’ll schedule an appointment with a family mediator once Ian gets released. I only hope it’s later rather than sooner. With this wedding coming up in a hurry, I’m going to be swamped.”
    She filled her mother in on the job Rob had tossed her way then asked, “Do you need my help? I’ve been so busy worrying about Ian I just stood here and let you do all the cooking.”
    “Heavensno. The soup just needs to simmer a bit longer.”
    Simmer—pretty much all Kate had been doing lately. And she was sick of it. She walked to the doorway that connected to the living room. “Hey, poops, let’s go fly the kite you got for your birthday from Auntie Liz. It’s still light outside and we both need the exercise.”
    Twenty minutes later, at Lorenzi Park, Maya called out in a high-pitched squeal, “Run, Mommy, run fast.”
    Ironic, Kate thought as she gamely fought to keep the kite aloft. Her daughter was urging her to do exactly what her sixth sense said to do. Run. But which way? And for how long? Would distance alone be sufficient to avoid this upcoming confrontation with her own failure?
    She’d loved Ian, but he’d lied to her, along with everyone else. I was a gullible fool once, but I’m through letting him control my life—even in absentia.
    Her goals were clear-cut and simple: rebuild her restaurant’s reputation, care for her daughter and, when she could afford it, move into a place of her own. She knew she couldn’t rely on anyone else to make these things happen. Not her family, not Ian and certainly not Rob.
    The fine string pulled taut beneath her fingers as breeze and kite connected. “Okay, Miss M, let go of the tail.”
    The exotic blue-and-gold parrot-shaped kite shot skyward, nearly ripping the plastic spool from Kate’s left hand.
    “Ooh, pretty,” Maya said, clapping and jumping up as if to touch the dancing yellow ribbons. “You’re good, Mommy.”
    The praise was sweet, but it turned out to be premature. A minute later, the wind died. The kite drifted back to the ground faster than Kate could rewind the string. She ended up surrounded by an unraveled mess.
    The imagefit her life perfectly, she decided. She and Ian had been flying high—briefly, dazzlingly. But then everything crashed. And she couldn’t get over her anger. Even now, she wanted to punish Ian for ruining their perfect life. But her mother was right. Someday, Maya would hold Kate accountable for the decisions she made today.
    “Don’t worry, Mommy. We can try again.”
    Kate sat down and pulled her daughter into her lap. “Maya, love, we need to talk. Remember how I told you your father didn’t live with us because he did something wrong and had to go away?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Well, now he’s coming