South of the buttonwood.., p.26
South of the Buttonwood Tree, page 26
As Mama, Daddy, and I walked through the double doors leading into the reception area, I was surprised to see Shep standing next to the doorway of a private consultation room. He held a black expanding folder in his hands and wore a solemn expression.
He straightened, came forward, and shook hands with my father. Giving me only a fleeting glance, he said, “I need to speak with all of you. The conference room is available for our use.”
“Now?” Mama asked. “Shep, it’s been a long morning. Can’t it wait? Kebbie isn’t going anywhere.”
He held her gaze. “This isn’t about Kebbie, ma’am.”
Daddy raked a hand through his hair. “Then what’s it about?”
“I’ll explain soon enough.” He gestured to the conference room, and Mama and Daddy exchanged worried glances before walking through the doorway.
I touched his arm—I couldn’t have stopped myself from touching him if I tried. “Should I be worried?”
At the sound of fast-approaching footsteps, I turned and saw Blue headed our way in a tizzy. Her hair was pulled up in a topknot, but loose pieces curled around her flushed face. She wore no makeup, and her eyes were bloodshot as though she’d been crying recently.
“I came as fast as I could,” she said in a jumble of words. “I even took the stairs because the elevator was taking so dang long. Did I miss anything? Sorry I’m late. I hate being late.”
“No worries. You’re not late,” Shep said. “We haven’t started yet. Let’s go in and get this all sorted out.”
He put his hand on my back, guiding me, but it seemed to me he let his fingers linger there longer than necessary. As soon as Blue and I walked into the small room, Mama’s eyes darkened like storm clouds. Blue sat across from Daddy, and I sat next to her, facing Mama’s disappointed sadness straight on.
Shep closed the door behind him and stood at the head of the table. He opened the file folder and shuffled through papers.
“Hello, Blue,” Daddy said in the growing silence, ever polite. “I didn’t expect to see you here today.”
“That makes two of us, Mayor Jud,” she said. Her gaze shifted to Mama. “Hello, Miss Ginny.”
“Hello,” Mama said with no warmth whatsoever. Her thunderous look swung to Shep. “Is this meeting about Flora? Did Sarah Grace sweet-talk you into mediating? I’m not changing my mind about seeking custody. I’ve already contacted the court for an emergency hearing.” Her chin lifted with strong-minded defiance.
Blue’s soft gasp broke my heart, but when I glanced at her, I was proud to see fortitude shining in her amber eyes. She sat straight and her voice was loud and strong when she said, “I’m real sorry to hear that, Miss Ginny, but you should know I’m not letting Flora go without a fight.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Mama sounded resigned more than anything else. “Since you’re a Bishop.”
“Ginny,” Daddy said, his voice tight, stretched so thin it was like to snap in two.
Blue smiled. Smiled. I thought for a moment she’d done lost her mind, but her tone was clear, even, and steady when she said, “That’s right. I am a Bishop. Mine was an imperfect family, but a good family full of love for each other, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Shep interrupted their stare down by saying, “Something unexpected came up in the investigation of Flora’s case, and I need to explore the matter further to see if it merits a separate criminal investigation.” He spread several pieces of paper on the table and stared at me as though looking straight into my soul. “Sarah Grace, as you know your DNA was taken to aid in Flora’s case, as was Blue’s.”
“What?” Mama rocketed out of her chair. “What on God’s green earth possessed you to give your DNA to the police, Sarah Grace?”
For a moment, I wanted to answer pizza with extra pepperoni simply to break the suffocating tension, but the fear on her face stopped me. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Daddy tugged Mama back into her seat, and I swore I heard him whisper, “Pandora’s box,” leading me to recall the conversation we’d had at the Bishop farmhouse the day I decided to buy it.
Truth be told, Sarah Grace, you need this house more than it needs you. There’s a lot to be learned here once you start peeling back the layers. Valuable lessons. But it could also be a Pandora’s box you ultimately wish you’d kept closed. Are you sure you’re ready to take that risk?
Suddenly I had the uneasy feeling he hadn’t been talking about the house at all.
Shep went on, still talking directly to me. “When I was discussing the DNA findings with Blue yesterday, there was speculation that her test had been mixed up with yours, because some of the results didn’t make sense.”
Blue reached for my hand, and when I looked over at her, confusion sparkled in her eyes.
Mama stood up again. “Are we obligated to stay here?”
“No, ma’am,” Shep said. “But one way or another, this matter isn’t going away. Answers are needed, and there’s more to this story to be told.”
“Let’s go, Jud.” Mama pulled at his elbow.
Daddy clasped his hands on top of the table and shook his head. “No. We knew this day might come. I never wanted to keep it quiet. We should’ve been more transp—”
Mama held up a finger. “So help me if you say the word transparent.”
My heart hammered. “Mama, please sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
She sat, but she didn’t say anything. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
Taking a deep breath, Daddy said, “Sarah Grace, the truth of the matter, what that test shows, is that I’m not your biological father. Your daddy is Mac Bishop. When he and your mama were younger, they had been dating secretly, since her parents didn’t approve of him. They were planning to be married, but he passed away before that could happen. I always promised him I’d take care of your mama if something happened to him while he was in the military … so I asked her to marry me. I adopted you at your birth, and I tried to raise you up the way Mac would’ve. I definitely know I love you as much as he did, but man alive, I wish to God above that you could’ve met him. He was a hell of a good man.”
Mama’s face hardened. “If he was so good, he wouldn’t have gotten himself killed by picking a fight, would he? He’d promised me he wouldn’t fight, promised me he wanted better for himself, but he just couldn’t help himself, could he? Bishops,” she muttered before her shoulders started shaking from silent sobs.
The words echoed around the small room, becoming fainter and fainter as the pulse in my ears became louder and louder. My body grew heavy, thick, like I’d gone completely numb from head to toe. I didn’t know what to think. What to feel.
I heard Blue’s breath hitch as she fought not to cry. “He didn’t pick the fight. He was defending a woman who was being assaulted. When Mac died, the army did a death investigation. I just found the official report yesterday in a folder of old papers. He died with honor.”
At this news, Mama closed her eyes tightly and folded into herself as if trying to block any more pain. Mascara streaked her face as she fell apart.
How many times had she warned me to keep away from the Bishops? To do better. Be better. Now it all made sense. She’d been trying to protect me … from myself.
Bishops can’t stay out of trouble. It’s in their blood.
I stared at her as if I didn’t even know who she was. She’d been so angry with me, giving me the silent treatment, over the revelation of my secrets, yet she’d been keeping her own much bigger ones. It was hypocritical at best and damned hurtful now that I knew the truth.
“I had a feeling there was more to that story,” Daddy said. “Mac only fought in self-defense or in defense of someone else. He hated people who picked on others just because they were bigger, stronger. He embodied the saying about how strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others. Why didn’t Twyla or Cobb say what really happened?”
Blue lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We’ll likely never know.”
The room was starting to spin, turning round and round with my thoughts. Feeling queasy, I took deep breaths and fought the urge to run.
Daddy’s gaze swung to Shep. “There’s nothing criminal about what happened between Ginny and Mac. I legally adopted Sarah Grace. I don’t know why you gathered us together like this, when you could’ve waited. We’re a family in crisis, and you’ve only added to our emotional load.”
Shep’s eyebrows went up. “I understand you’re upset, Jud, but it’s best to remember who truly bears responsibility for keeping Sarah Grace in the dark. We might not be here now if the truth had always been spoken. The fact remains this meeting couldn’t wait. As I said, there’s more to this story, and it involves Blue.”
“Me?” She sniffled loudly. “How?”
His tone softened. “Your DNA test.”
“Do I need to redo it since my test was mixed up with Sarah Grace’s?”
“No, Blue. There was no mix-up at the lab.”
“How can you say that after all this?” She gestured around the table.
He said, “I know it wasn’t mixed up because I dropped off Sarah Grace’s test at the lab late on Sunday, and it wasn’t yet completed yesterday morning. And this is where the criminal element I talked about comes into play. Because those results I shared in your living room were yours.”
Blue
“Impossible,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s been some kind of mistake.”
“All the tests are here before me. Yours, Sarah Grace’s—which was completed this morning—Persy’s, Kebbie’s, Flora’s.”
I kept shaking my head, but as if it had sneaked into the hospital and slid under the door, I could feel the wind’s relief just the same as I had yesterday, when it rushed down the chimney and wrapped around me.
Relief at the truth finally being revealed.
The truth of who I was.
“Your test is nearly identical to Sarah Grace’s. Twyla and Cobb are your grandparents. Persy is your aunt. Flora is your first cousin once removed.”
Everyone’s eyes were on me as if seeing me for the first time—even Ginny’s. And for once, she wasn’t looking at me with disdain.
“How can that be?” I asked.
Compassion was written all over Shep’s face, in the softness of his eyes, the tilt of his jaw. “Blue, your test is so similar to Sarah Grace’s because she’s your sister. Your parents are Mac and Ginny.”
There was dead silence in the room. It yawned and stretched and stole all the air.
I put my hands to my face as I tried to breathe, even as the wind wrapped its arms around me, trying to console.
“No. Im-impossible,” Ginny stammered. “What kind of cruel joke are you playing, Shep?”
“The DNA tests don’t lie,” he said to her. “Sarah Grace and Blue share the same parents. They’re full sisters. There are no records of an adoption or guardianship on file for Blue, and she didn’t even have a birth certificate until she was five. I need to know how she came to live with the Bishops. Did you ask them to raise her? Did Mac?”
Ginny’s face had drained of all color. I had her chin, I realized. My God, I had her chin. A sob caught in my throat, and I couldn’t take a deep breath.
I felt a hand on my back, rubbing it, much like I soothed Flora. Sarah Grace.
My sister.
“I think it’s time to leave.” Jud slid his chair away from the table. “This conversation has gone on long enough.”
Undeterred, Shep asked, “Miss Ginny, do you deny having a baby in December of 1990?” He glanced at the paperwork. “December eleventh?”
She opened her mouth, and it hung open as her gaze suddenly swung to me. I wasn’t sure what it was I saw in her widening eyes. Horror? Disbelief? A mixture of the two? “I—Oh. Oh my God. She told me you’d died. She told me you died and that she buried you. Why? Why would she do that? I chose love. A perfect family was mine! I shouldn’t have been cursed!”
She chose love. The phrase nagged and the wind whirled around me, circling round, like I was suddenly caught up in a funnel cloud. Everything spun, all the words and emotions and feelings I’d had since finding Flora—she’d been the key to unlocking the truth. To righting a wrong. Without her, I would’ve never known the truth. My truth.
“‘A perfect family is yours. Choose love,’” I said. “That’s what the button says, doesn’t it?”
Ginny’s face crumpled. “You have the button? She told me she’d buried it with you.”
“I have it.” My hands were shaking, and I pressed them together. “I found it yesterday, too, in the same box as Mac’s papers, a memory box that Twyla had put together for me a long time ago. The button was hidden in the brim of my baby hat.”
She bent in half as if the truth had broken her. Jud put his arm around her, pulling her close. He kept looking between me and Ginny like he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Who?” Shep asked. “Who are you talking about? Who told you Blue had died? Twyla?”
“No.” It hurt to speak the name, because I knew it was going to cause him pain. “It was Mary Eliza.”
Ginny’s head came up, her face ravaged with emotion, and she nodded before she turned to Shep. “Your mother stole my baby.”
In my head, I could hear Mary Eliza’s rantings.
The wind, the wind! The wind knows! Blue is trouble. Trouble, trouble. The wind, the wind! Took the baby. Trouble! Took the baby! The wind knows! Atone, atone!
That night in her room at Magnolia Breeze, she hadn’t been accusing me of stealing Flora—she’d been confessing to taking me. The wind had been trying to get her to tell the truth before she took it to the grave.
And with this final piece of the puzzle, suddenly I knew deep in my soul that I’d finally found what I’d been looking for my whole life long.
The thing with no name was me.
I’d simply never realized it, because I hadn’t known I’d been lost.
Chapter
22
Blue
As I walked up my front walkway after time spent at the hospital, the wind blew about, but there were no messages in it. No summons. No nudging to action.
All lost things in my world had been found.
I opened the front door to the heady aroma of garlic, onions, and spicy sausage and saw Marlo in the kitchen, stirring a pot on the stove.
Henry was lying on the couch, reading The Wind in the Willows to Flora. He glanced up when I came in and gave me a sweet smile before going back to the book to finish his sentence. He was doing the voice of Badger exactly like Moe, and a lump formed in my throat as my gaze swung to Marlo.
Moe would live on in Henry. And, in turn, Flora. He’d live on in every child that he’d read to in The Rabbit Hole over the years. Did she see it? His influence at work? His legacy?
She watched me like she knew exactly what I was thinking, but didn’t comment on it. Instead, compassion lit up the golden flecks in her eyes as she tipped her head to the side and said, “I know you’re probably not hungry, but you should eat something. You’ve had a day of it. I’ve made some red beans and rice, one of your favorites. It’s almost ready. Another fifteen minutes or so.”
A day of it was putting it mildly, but it was nothing like what Kebbie was going through. My stomach immediately declined the offer, but I didn’t want to disappoint Marlo, so I said, “Thanks. I can try to eat a little something.”
Outside, I saw Persy and Moe playing fetch with Hazey. Earlier, I’d called Persy to let her know what was happening, and she’d met me at the hospital for moral support. While I spoke with a new investigator called in to take over for Shep, Persy sat with Kebbie for a while, sharing the whole shocking tale, even though there was no sign she’d heard a word of it. And when it seemed like I was going to be at the hospital for quite a while longer, Persy had decided to head on home to break the news to everyone else.
I dropped my bag, quickly washed my hands, and walked over to Henry. He had set the book on the coffee table and was already standing up to hand Flora over to me. I took her, carefully holding her head as I brought her to my chest and breathed in the scent of her, resting my cheek on her head. “How’s she been?”
“A little fussy, but reading to her has calmed her down some. How’re you?” he asked, his troubled gaze sweeping over me as if I’d been physically injured by today’s revelations.
The longer I spent turning over in my mind what had happened, the more I began to think maybe the truth would be the start of healing. For a lot of us. “I’m not sure. It’s all a little too new to sort out my feelings yet. I feel like I’m operating on autopilot for the most part.”
Marlo came to stand next to me. She put her arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into her. She’d been my foundation for so long that I instinctively counted on her for comfort—and she always seemed to know when I needed it most.
Henry stuck his hands in his pockets. “Looks like you’re in the best hands now. I should probably get going to the bookshop, unless you need me to stay. Just say the word.”
He hadn’t had to stay at all—Marlo had been here the whole time. It meant a lot that he’d kept the bookshop closed half the day to be here for me. “Why don’t you come back after closing time? I’m sure there’ll be plenty of leftovers, and I wouldn’t mind if you read a little bit of The Wind in the Willows to me, too.”
He smiled and said, “Sounds like a good plan to me.” He kissed Marlo’s cheek, then mine, then the top of Flora’s head.
When the door closed behind him, Marlo looked at me with her eyebrow raised.
As a blush settled in my cheeks, I said, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you planned this all along. Henry and me.”
Grinning, her eyes widened, flaring dramatically, and she pressed her hands to her chest. “Me? Why would you think such a thing?”
I shook my head and sat on the sofa with Flora, watching her as she pushed her tongue against her lips. I hated the thought that I might have to hand her over to the Landreneaus, but my gut twisted painfully at the thought of someone stealing her away.
