Red Flags Read Online Free PDF Page B

me. My father and I had made progress in our relationship over the past year, and I was starting to trust him with my thoughts and emotions. But I didn’t feel connected to him, not the way I was connected to my grandparents.
    â€œCan you do that, Kate? Can you commit to working with me on this relationship and promise not to walk away when it gets difficult?”
    I sucked in a breath. Direct hit. Different responses leapt to my lips, including “The way you walked away from me all those years ago?” and “Maybe I don’t want this relationship if it means betraying my grandparents.” But I held onto them. Finally responded. “I’ll do my best.”
    The facts weren’t disputed. My parents fell in love, married, and had me while they were students at Boston University. But three days after my birth, my mother died in the hospital. I’d gone home with my mother’s parents, and I’d had no contact with my father or his family until three years ago. That’s where stories diverged.
    One year ago, Billy and Holden informed me my father’s family had paid my grandparents to take me away. Since that information was news to my father also, we agreed to ask our respective families what had happened. I’d been dreading today’s discussion.
    My father wasn’t a popular subject in my grandparents’ house—his name was anathema, in fact. But I was an adult now, and I needed information. It took me nine months to wear my grandmother down. Three months after I’d finally cornered her, she still barely spoke to me. I didn’t have the full story, but I had the idea.
    My father cleared his throat. “Would you like to start with what you learned?”
    â€œIt wasn’t much.” I paused. “You have to understand, my grandmother doesn’t talk about you or your family. It was all I could do to get her to confirm she’d talked with members of the Reilly family back then. She wouldn’t say who. She said all parties agreed I should be raised by her and Gramps, and that was that.”
    â€œAnd the question of money?”
    â€œShe said your family provided some funds for my upbringing.”
    â€œThat’s it?”
    â€œThat’s all she’d tell me, but Gramps helped me piece together more of the story. He has no more love for the Reillys than Grandmother does, but he understands I need to know.” I sighed. “That’s what Grandmother can’t see. I’m going to make my own decisions, and it’s better for me to have all the facts.”
    â€œI’m sorry they’re still so angry.” He pressed his lips together and looked away.
    â€œMe, too. I don’t like hurting them.”
    We stayed quiet while the waitress delivered our meals.
    â€œGramps nosed around and figured out my savings account was started with a deposit of fifty thousand dollars, so that must have been from your family.” I dug into my omelet. “I didn’t get any further details about who Grandmother spoke with or what was discussed. All she’d ever say was you and the Reillys didn’t care about me, didn’t want me, and wouldn’t see me in the hospital, which we know is untrue, based on the photo you gave me of your father holding me. Gramps said Grandmother came back from Boston with me and all she said was, ‘We will raise the child, and we will never communicate with them.’”
    I looked up from my plate to see my father staring out the window with tears in his eyes. I hadn’t ever seen him emotional about the past, and it startled me. “I shouldn’t have dumped all that on you at once.”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t know how much it was, but I knew they’d handed over money. They say your grandmother demanded it for taking you.”
    A mouthful of eggs prevented me from an outraged response.
    â€œI don’t believe it,” he said.