Page 58 of Three Little Wishes

“Mom, please, just tell me.”

“Your father was Will Bennett. You and Noah are related, honey. You’re first cousins.”

Willow felt as if she was going to be sick and surged to her feet, nearly knocking her mother over. “No, no, it can’t be true.” She paced in front of the table. She couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t comprehend what her mother was telling her.

“You’re in shock, honey. Please sit down and let me explain.”

“Explain what, Mom? That you cheated on our father? That much I understand.” She couldn’t remember ever being this angry at her mother, and there was nothing she could do to temper the emotion that came out in her voice. “Whyyou wouldn’t tell me before now, before I was falling in love with… with my… Noah, is what I don’t understand, and I don’t think I ever will.”

“I didn’t know. I had no idea you even knew Noah, let alone that you’ve been living with him for almost a week!” Her mother shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you, and you have every right to be angry at me, to hate me,” she said on a broken sob. “But please, honey, please sit and let me try and explain.”

“I don’t hate you, Mom. I’m just… The way I feel about Noah…” She shook her head, unable to go on, and lowered herself onto the chair, feeling numb.

Her mother sat on the chair beside Willow, turning to face her. “I didn’t cheat on my husband with Will Bennett.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My sister, Camilla, isn’t your zia, honey. She’s your biological mother.”

Willow’s body went warm and then cold and then back to warm. Not from shock this time but from relief. “Mom, Cami was in love with Flynn, not Noah’s uncle. All she talks about is Flynn. She chased a teenager down Main Street…” She trailed off at her mother’s wide-eyed expression and realized what she’d just revealed.

Willow winced. “I’m sorry,” she said, and then she told her mother everything that had transpired in the last week and why she had done what she’d done.

“I can’t really get mad at you after keeping the secret of your paternity for all this time, and I understand why you did what you did. Though your zia and nonna might not be as understanding, but we’ll deal with that later.”

“Why, Mom? What did Cami do that was so horrible thatyou guys cut her out of your lives for decades? She’s family, and she loves you. She gave me to you to raise as your own.”

“It’s not as simple as that. But that can wait for another time. What I want to know is why you’re accepting this so well. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to forgive me, that you’d hate me for lying to you for all these years. But you’re more upset that Noah is your cousin.”

“We don’t know that he is. Not for sure. Flynn could just as easily be my father.” She prayed with all her heart that he was. “Cami hasn’t mentioned Will once. All she’s talked about is Flynn.”

“My sister believed Will was your father, honey. It’s why she named you Willow. In his honor. She was devastated by his death.”

“She was just as devastated when Flynn left her to go back to college that summer.”

“She was, and she did love him. And, according to Camilla, they’d been intimate just days before Flynn announced he was leaving.”

“So you agree, there is a chance Flynn’s my father?”

“Yes, there’s a chance. But it’s a very small chance. You and Noah can take a DNA test. We’ll talk to Sage about it. Right now, though, I’d like you to tell me why you’re not more upset about my sister being your mother.”

“She’s not my mother, you are. And nothing will ever change that. I might not entirely understand why you kept it from me, but there’s nothing for me to forgive. I’m grateful that you kept me and raised me and loved me like your own.”

“We’re the ones who are grateful for the gift that you are. And I didn’t love youlikemy own. You are mine, and you were from the moment Camilla left you with—”

A knock on the glass interrupted her mother, and they looked to see Carmen opening the door and poking her head inside, her worried gaze moving from her daughter to Willow.

“Your mother, she told you,sì? You’re okay? You’re not angry with us?”

“No, I’m not angry, Nonna. I love you, all of you, and that will never change,” Willow said. “But I have something to tell you, and I hope you’ll be as forgiving as me.” She pushed out a chair with her foot. “Come sit.”

Once her grandmother was seated, Willow cleared her throat. “So, Cami is here in Sunshine Bay. She’s been staying at the beach house with me, Noah, and his sister Riley. And before you start yelling at me, just remember how long you’ve been keeping me in the dark, and it wasn’t completely my fault that Cami’s here. She was in an accident and has amnesia. She thinks she’s seventeen, and she loves you, Nonna, so much. You too, Mom. You and Zia.”

Her grandmother bowed her head, and Willow’s mother reached over and rubbed Carmen’s arm.

“What happened? I think I deserve to know, don’t you?”

“She’s right, Gia. She deserves the truth,” her grandmother said, then looked at Willow. “You girls, you don’t think the Rosetti curse is real, but just ask your mother, she knows that it is. She didn’t listen to me and married that man, a photographer. Bah, he was aculo.”

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