Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“No pressure,” Ruby says. “But I would like the chance. I promise you I won’t disturb anything, but my husband, and especially my daughter, are seeking answers, and they won’t rest until they find them. I’d like to help them if I can.”
“I have nothing to hide,” Lauren says with a sigh.
“We know that,” I say. “But Ruby—and my father and I—have a vested interest in finding out more about what your mother’s been hiding all these years. The DNA results show that Jack and my father share paternal grandparents. It doesn’t seem possible, but DNA doesn’t lie. Jack can’t have come from my father’s sister, and we know he didn’t come from my grandfather, or he’d be a sibling. My grandfather only had one brother.”
“My uncle Sean,” Dad says. “Unless there’s another brother we never knew about, but it would have to be a full brother, not a half brother.”
“My father has always been convinced that the Steel family had something to do with his uncle’s death by lethal overdose sixty years ago. We haven’t been able to find anything linking the Steels to his death, but he did die at Brad Steel’s wedding, and he never did drugs, according to his brother and sister. Yet many drugs were found in his toxicology report.”
“And you think my mother had something to do with your uncle’s death,” Lauren says.
“I always thought the Steels were behind it,” Dad says, “but now that I know about your mother and her involvement with the Steels…”
“You won’t find anything here,” Lauren says abruptly.
“If I know your mother,” Ruby says, “she probably has hidden things in plain sight. If you would just let me have a look around. You can certainly accompany me or have Jack accompany me.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Ruby,” Lauren says. “It’s not that at all. It’s just… I’d really like to distance myself from my mother.”
“Don’t you want to meet your brother?” Ruby asks.
Lauren picks up her teacup once more. “Does he want to meet me? He never knew I existed.”
“Yes, he does. Right now he’s concerned about our daughter. Your mother reached out to her, and she’s obsessing on why that is. Why didn’t she reach out to Ryan himself, or to our other daughter? Why Ava?”
“I’d like to know that as well,” I say.
“Who knows why my mother does anything?” Lauren takes a sip of tea.
“Has she told you anything about your father? Brad Steel’s half brother?”
“No. Not much. I didn’t even know who he was until fairly recently.”
“And you never met him?”
Lauren shakes her head.
“We found a copy of his birth certificate,” I say. “Under the floorboards of my apartment above the bar. The bar my dad bought from Jeremy Madigan, Wendy’s uncle.”
“And you think maybe Wendy hid some documents up there?”
I frown. “How else could they have gotten there? Unless Jeremy himself put them there. He’s long gone, so we can’t ask him.”
“Just let me have a look around,” Ruby says. “I’ll try not to be long.”
Lauren sighs. “That’s fine. Go ahead.”
Jack rises. “I’ll go with her, Mom.”
Lauren nods, and then I rise as well.
“Do you mind if we tag along?” I ask, gesturing to Dad.
“Not at all,” Jack says.
Ruby, Dad, and I follow Jack out of the living room.
“Where do you want to start?” Jack asks.
Ruby glances around the home. It’s a large ranch house, not unlike the one Ruby lives in, though not as sprawling. The layout is similar, though. “Do you have a basement or an attic?” she asks.
“No attic,” Jack says. “Just some crawl space. We do have a basement that’s partially finished.”
“Let’s start there, in the part that’s not finished,” Ruby says.
“You got it.” The door to the basement is off the kitchen, and we go down a long flight of stairs into a carpeted rec room with a big-screen TV and a pool table.
“You play pool?” I ask.
“Yeah, I love it.”
“How come you never come into the bar in Snow Creek? The Steels play pool there all the time.”
“Just never thought about heading over to the next town,” Jack says. “Once we get all this behind us, sure, I’d love to come hang out at your bar. I mean…I am your uncle and all.” He lets out a sound that I’m not sure is a laugh or a scoff. Perhaps a combination of both.
Jack leads us to the part of the basement that is unfinished, and Ruby scouts it out like the professional that she is, pulling back layers of fiberglass and then rubbing her hands together. “Yes, I should’ve worn gloves.”
“I can get you a pair.”
“Too late now. So far the walls are clean.” She looks around. “Do you have any electrical outlets down here? Other than the wiring going to these lights?” She points at the fluorescent lighting on the ceiling.