Highland Dream (Book 1)

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Cam ignored all around him. All those who hailed him, stopped their work to speak to him, those with troubles, and those with no troubles at all. He was pretty sure that at one point he had pushed aside one who had the unfortunate circumstances to be in his way. It was all a little hazy, his intent focused on the cottage he knew Isla had taken Aislinn.

He would not let his father get away with this. This he could not forgive. The inner workings of a bitter old man, trying one last time to ruin his son. He would not accept it.

He saw the door in front of him. He didn’t know how it happened, his mind blank. He saw the door in front and next he found himself at the back of the cottage, Isla cage in against the back wall as he loomed over her.

Shaking himself free of his current state of mind, he took a step back, went to apologise. When he saw the look on Isla’s face he froze. She was not mad at him. She had the oddest expression, he had never seen her look so soft and approachable. He was already out of sorts and this sent him further off kilter. He wanted her to hit him upside the head as she had when he was a child. Tell him he was acting like a fool, and should not be dragging her here, there and everywhere.

“What?” Taking a deeper breath and steadying his voice. “What do you know? Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, please.” He didn’t often say please. Never begged, but he was close here. He needed something from her, Isla had to give him the truth.

“I was never going to pretend otherwise. I was going to come to you when all the pieces had come together. You need to stop jumping to conclusions you know nothing about.”

That just confused him further. Turning away and tugging at his hair, he tried to use the techniques he had before battle to centre himself. He could not look at her just yet. “Jumping to conclusions.”

“Yes Camdyn. Conclusions you seem to have come too for that face must have been huge leaps away from the truth I’ve found.”

Catching his attention, with both her tone of voice and her words, he could not yet give into the hope, but he was feeling a little lifted. “Explain.”

“I would, if you let me.” She made her way over to the barrel further along the wall and sat with a weary sigh. “I was cautious when I first met her. She is identical to the woman I now know to be her grandmother. The woman you call mother’s mother…”

“So it is true? She is my…”

“Do not interrupt Camdyn.” The sharp tone took him back to his youth for a fleeting moment. He knew he was wrong then, the hope blooming, though he knew he could not take it if it was flattened once and for all. “The woman you called mother. I did not say she was your mother. Aislinn was also never claimed by your father, he claimed David as his child and your mother never knew, and therefore, in that case Aislinn was never their child. David was your brother. The woman who gave up her son, claimed a daughter. She was not your sister there, and never had been. But more for the reason, your mother did not give birth to you.”

The hope had took root within him, but confusion was clouding the growth. “What do you mean, not my mother?”

“The woman who gave birth to Aislinn, Suisan, did not give birth to you.” His world stopped for the second time that day. It had finally hit what she had been trying to tell him. While one side of his life was now heading back on track, another part seemed to be falling apart.

“I have no idea where you are going with this?” But he did, he felt it deep down. There was something there. Something he had never known before. This he was so certain of.