Page 82 of Sing with Me

“I invited Zeta and Wilson to stay in our guest cottage tonight instead of in a hotel,” Mom added. “I wish your dad was here, but he said he’s busy in Atlanta.”

Diehl nodded. Dad was trying to save the family business. Diehl wished he could be there with him, but he had burned out trying to do the right thing. He hoped to God that he would get over it so that he could get back to work.

This new development wasn’t helping any.

Somehow it felt surreal. Yet at the back of his mind, he had always known that he could not trust Isobel. She had spent entirely too much time and money in Italy for them to say they were happily married.

If Isobel had loved another, why not just say so?

In fact, Diehl remembered how Isobel had complained to his sister that he had no time for her. Was it his fault now? Had he driven his own wife away to her lover’s arms?

Two kids!

How could Diehl not know?

Diehl recalled what Mom had told him the week before when she was still in Hawaii. Luigi had money troubles with his estranged wife. So how long had he sponged off Isobel, who in turn had sponged off Diehl?

What a mess.

Diehl had willed his fortune to his two children, but if they were not his, would he have to modify his will?

“They’ve never been yours,” Zeta said. “I wish we had known sooner—like before Elisa was born—but such is life.”

“I raised them,” Diehl said. “I was there from their births until now.”

“Don’t you want them to have a good future?” Mom asked.

“Money is not everything, Rose,” Zeta said. “Right now, these two kids are all I have left of my Isobel.”

Mom blinked.

Diehl went to her. Put his hands on her shuddering shoulders.

“You have to let us have them,” Zeta said.

No. Diehl might not know too much about child custody law, but he knew that he had been married to Isobel when both children were born. His name was listed on the birth certificate. The court would consider him the legal father of Elisa and Ethan.

In essence, he was the surviving parent—biological or otherwise. No way was he letting these two non-parental third parties get custody of his kids.

“You’re holding these two minors against their will,” Zeta said.

Against their will? Diehl didn’t recall Mom saying anything about the kids not wanting to leave Hawaii when she had gone to pick them up.

Still, Zeta’s statement made Diehl second-guess whether his own kids wanted to be with him. If anyone were to ask his twelve-year-old now, in the bad mood she was in, the answer could be anything.

How would they respond once they found out that Diehl wasn’t their biological father? Would Elisa revolt? Would Ethan be devastated?

“Why are you like that?” Diehl couldn’t stand this part of Zeta that Isobel had inherited. Tenacious pit bull persistence was one thing, but she was barking up against the wrong wall here.

“I’m sure you want everything done in the best interest of the two children.” Mom reached for another tissue paper.

Diehl had spent a fortune raising the two kids and paying for everything, from their twelve-bedroom family home on West Paces Ferry in Atlanta—which was bigger than Jared’s cousin Logan’s house down the street—to their education at the most expensive private school in Georgia, and to their many vacations all over the world, flown there and back on the Brooks private jet.

Diehl wondered if the kids would want to stay with him. If the court asked, would they say yes?

“We are their biological grandparents, their closest relatives,” Wilson added.

Zeta and Wilson seemed to be in agreement on the matter. Sometimes Diehl found that Zeta would do her own thing and then surprise Wilson later.

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