Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“You’ve rang,” I drawled, staring at her frazzled looking face.
She reached down and yanked me inside. “I’ve been trying to call you for days, Athena Murphy!”
I shook her hand off before saying, “I’m not quite sure what you expected from me when you invaded my privacy so spectacularly.”
My mother narrowed her eyes. “It was for your own good.”
I was already shaking my head. “No, it was for your own good. I’m done with the hovering, Mother. I wanted to come here today to let you know that I’m taking a step back, and really want you to understand the boundaries I’m putting into place.”
My mother’s mouth opened. “You’re what?”
“I’m done playing the obedient little puppy for you. From now on, you’ll have no access to anything of mine—including location and house. I changed my locks. I disabled all of my locations for you. And I want you to respect the boundaries, or you might very well lose the last daughter you have.”
Something crossed her face, and she looked almost… hesitant.
I didn’t like the look and the hair on the back of my arm started to rise.
“What is it?” I asked, studying her face.
“I, uh, have something to tell you,” she admitted.
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.
This should be good.
She waited so long to tell me, though, that I began to grow impatient.
A box on the kitchen table caught my eye, and an opened letter sitting by it with cursive print had me wandering toward it.
Something about the handwriting was familiar.
Achingly familiar.
I reached for the letter and…
Memories assaulted me as I studied the handwriting.
Mom had beautiful handwriting.
She’d started learning calligraphy from a young age, and incorporated that into her everyday handwriting, making it look almost magical. Fantastical.
She’d started to teach both Mary Beth and me how to write our names in calligraphy.
That was about all I knew how to do to this day because I’d hated it. But Mary Beth had loved everything about it.
My eyes skimmed down to the bottom of the page, and I saw the signature.
Holy shit.
I dropped the letter and moved toward the box.
And I started going through them all.
Mary Beth.
Mary Beth.
Mary Beth.
“What is this?” I breathed, looking over toward my mother.
My mother had this guarded oh shit look on her face that clearly told me everything I needed to know without saying a word.
I glanced at the date of the one in my hands.
Last year.
Thanksgiving.
Mary Beth had dated them all.
The one that’d been sitting out on the table was dated yesterday.
“What the fuck is this?” I whirled toward my mother.
My mother flinched.
I was numb.
I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, either.
Letters.
Hundreds of letters from my mom to Mary Beth. Mary Beth to my mom.
“Mary Beth,” she answered simply.
“Mary Beth?” I asked. “The same Mary Beth who was kidnapped when I was a child? That same Mary Beth?”
I wasn’t making sense.
I knew it.
But I couldn’t get my thoughts and my mouth to coordinate.
My brain was just whirling a thousand miles an hour.
“Yes,” she shrugged as if it wasn’t anything new. “She writes me instead of emailing me because we don’t want to have a trace.”
“You don’t want to have a trace,” I mused. “As in, you know where she is?”
“I’ve always known,” she whispered.
My mouth opened and closed, and I stared at her in shock. “What do you mean you’ve always known?”
“Mary Beth wasn’t adopted.” She looked sheepish. “Mary Beth was my biological child. I met Mary Beth’s father back home, and one thing led to another, and it just happened. She just happened.” She winced. “I had her back home and left her with her dad until I could convince Patel that we should adopt her. Her dad and I decided that we would trade off time spent with her. I’d have her for the first five years, and he’d have her the next five. Only, by the time it was my time again, she didn’t want to come. So she’s stayed with her dad ever since.”
“You… are you telling me that you staged her kidnapping?” I blurted out.
She winced. “You weren’t supposed to be dragged into it.”
“I wasn’t supposed to be dragged into it…” I shook my head incredulously. “What the hell, Mother? Did Dad know? Gavrel?”
“No,” she stated firmly. “They didn’t know.”
“Why would you keep something like this from us? Why not just tell us? Why? What was all this for?” I was reeling.
“My affair partner hated that your father was a senator and always putting us in danger, and I agreed with him. But I loved your father with all of my heart, and I couldn’t leave him. Leave you and Gavrel.” She looked away. “You don’t understand how dangerous your father’s job was. He had a lot of enemies, and we were getting death threats all the time. We got shot, for Christ’s sake!”