The one bright spot was Cole’s brain scan. It turned up negative. No cancer, though he’d have to have the scan once a year for the next five years to be safe.
When my father was admitted to the hospital, Cole made sure he had the best care. Not because my father deserved it, but because of his love for me.
Booker questioned my father, trying to find out where Clive was, but his efforts were in vain. My father claimed to know nothing. I told Booker what little I knew, but he wasn’t able to locate him.
The bomb squad successfully defused the bombs on Seth and Maggie’s cars. Just as Booker had suspected, Daddy had them both rigged to explode.
It took them three hours to defuse the bomb in Booker’s building, an hour of which was spent getting the igniter under Cole deactivated. It was the longest three hours of my life.
Cole’s injuries were superficial, though he did have to stay in the hospital overnight as a precaution.
Booker didn’t fare as well, and he spent six days in the hospital. He had a broken nose, three fractured ribs and a fractured cheek bone, along with a severely bruised kidney and spleen. He also had a minor skull fracture. Seth insisted it was a good thing Book had such a hard head or they really might have done some damage. But I could see the fear in Seth’s eyes. He was afraid of losing Booker.
I tried my best to avoid everyone at first, feeling shame and guilt for all that had happened because of my family, until Cole sat me down one day.
“Lilah, inside all of us is the potential for good and the potential for evil. Which one survives depends on which one we feed. You’ve chosen to feed the good. You can’t control what others choose to feed.”
“You’re pretty smart, Ducky.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“I didn’t come up with that analogy. It’s part of an old Cherokee tale involving two wolves. I just paraphrased it a little,” he admitted. “In fact, I’ll tell you the entire story after we discuss page forty-nine of our favorite book,” he winked, pulling me in for one of his mind-bending kisses.
Maggie wouldn’t allow me to hide out either. She came by the house every day under the guise of planning out the details of our new enterprise, Innovative Interiors. After deciding we’d rather not put up with bridezillas, we chose to start an interior design firm, not wanting to compete against Haley and Donna’s corporate design.
“Mags, you moved again,” I said, trying to be patient. “Why do you keep looking at your phone?”
“Sorry.” She scrunched her nose in an apology. “Seth’s defending his dissertation today, and we’re celebrating with a picnic in the park after. He’s going to text me when he’s done.” When she moved yet again, I set the canvas aside for another time.
Maggie followed me into the kitchen. “I’m going to make up some tea. Would you like some?” I asked, removing the chamomile tea from the tin I kept next to the stove and setting a kettle to boil on the stove. “Maybe we can sit outside and enjoy the fall weather before the snow hits.”
“Sounds great. Thanks. Where did Cole and Booker go?”
“Not sure. Booker called yesterday afternoon and said he had to go out of town and asked Cole if he wanted to go,” I said, adding honey to my cup.
“Odd. It can’t be anything with the MET since Booker quit three weeks ago. I wonder what it is?” Maggie added sugar to her cup.
“I didn’t ask. Cole needed to get out. The poor guy’s going stir crazy, sitting around taking care of me. He said it was my fault for introducing him to adventure.” I laughed. “I told him he should go back to work, I’d be fine. He finally agreed to going part time starting next week.” I wanted a normal routine back in our lives.
“Sorry,” she said before I filled her cup with water. “Seth just texted. I have to go.” She gave me a quick hug and left.
I curled on the couch and sipped my tea, forcing all thoughts of the past few months out of my head.
Until the front door opened and Cole walked in with Birdie.
“What are you doing here?” The anger in my voice spoke loud and clear. Birdie was not welcome.
“I brought her.” Cole signaled for her to come in. She shook her head and stayed on the porch.
“Child, you believe the words of your father so easily. You hurt me,” Birdie said, shaking her head.
“I hurt you? You were the only one I trusted. You are . . . were like a second mother to me. Leave.” I walked into the kitchen, shoving my empty teacup into the dishwasher and slamming it shut. After a few deep breaths, I came back into the living room to find Birdie still standing in the doorway.
“I think we should listen to what she has to say, Lilah,” Cole said carefully.
“Are you kidding me?” I all but shouted.
“Birdie deserves to tell us her side of things.”
I silently signaled for her to go ahead with a flippant wave of my hand, all the while wanting nothing more than to slam the door shut in her face.
“Birdie, please come in.” Cole closed the door behind her. She didn’t enter the room, but instead stood in the entryway.
“Go ahead, Birdie.” Cole stepped over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, giving me a squeeze.
“Do you remember your father waking us in the dead of night, saying we had to leave the house in Lupe, Arizona, immediately?”
“Yes. Just after Bill was killed. I remember. Go on,” I said angrily.
“What you didn’t know was earlier that night, someone tipped your father off that federal agents were coming to arrest him and he needed to get out fast.” She slumped wearily onto the bench by the door and continued. “Lilah, he left behind a half a million dollars’ worth of heroin.”
“Half a mill . . .” I wheezed. My jaw dropped.
“The Feds seized his US bank account. Your father had no way of paying off his supplier. He couldn’t access his foreign accounts, not wanting to risk drawing attention to himself. If the Feds discovered those accounts, he’d have lost everything.”
“Birdie, what does all this have to do with my child?” I snapped. I didn’t want to hear about my father’s dealings. It made no difference now that he was gone. After his arrest, the government seized three foreign accounts of his worth over five million dollars. Even the fact that we were broke was a lie.
“This is important to know. He owed money, lots of money. He was desperate. Very few of his business acquaintances would extend him a loan. They considered him a risk now that the Feds were on to him. He eventually raised all but a hundred thousand dollars.” Birdie took a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes.
“The man he bought the heroin from called him and said he had four days to come up with the rest of the money. When one of his friends jokingly suggested your father sell your baby, your father tossed him out the door in a fury.
“He tried for two more days, but still no one would help. Then I overheard him talking to a man, a very evil man named Barry Robbins who specialized in black market babies. He gave your father the money he needed, and then explained his evil plan to your father. The child would go missing the day after she was born. This Robbins scum was delighted to learn that you were having a home delivery, because it would be easy to destroy the birth certificate. ‘No one can check the baby’s footprints if there are ever any questions,’ he said, telling your father he was to make sure we didn’t file it.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” I threw my arms in the air. “This is cruel, Birdie. My father isn’t here to defend himself. Why are you here?” I repeated.
“Because of me,” Cole said, putting his arm around me once more. “Your father’s story didn’t add up. I had Booker track her down. Yesterday he got a good lead, and that’s why I left. I wanted to talk to her myself, hear her side of it. I found it hard to believe that a woman who wouldn’t allow you to kill a fly would murder a baby.”
“And yet she did,” I snapped.
“Lilah, let her finish.”
I couldn’t sta
nd being near her; my anger burned too strong. I moved across the room and stood, my arms crossed, my chin firm.
“I feared that if I confronted him about what I’d heard, he would have me killed,” Birdie said. “I couldn’t very well protect the child or you if I were dead.” I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she continued her lie. “I went into town and called my sister, Isabelle. We came up with a plan, and she immediately flew in from Florida and got a room at a motel on the outskirts of town. You were only three weeks out now and so it was a waiting game.
“Two days later, Alan was killed. As you know, your father had a breakdown when he heard the news. But luck was on our side and he had to be hospitalized.”
“I remember being very upset and you made me a tea to help calm me down. It put me into labor instead.” I pinched my face tight to block the memory. It didn’t work.
“I drugged you, Lilah. I put medicine in your tea to put you into labor, and another one to make you groggy. I needed you to be confused and disoriented if the plan was to work.”
“Well, it worked alright. I saw spiders climbing the walls, and bloody liquid oozing through the windows. I thought I was losing my mind.” I shoved my hands through my hair and twisted it up into a loose bun. I wheeled around and shoved a finger at her. “She was born alive, I heard her cry.”
“She did cry. She was strong and pink and healthy. The most beautiful baby I’d ever seen. She was prettier than you, and you were a beauty.” Birdie had the nerve to smile as she described my child to me.
Sickened, I sank onto the couch. Cole settled next to me.
“Enough, Birdie. Tell her the truth. Stop easing your guilty conscience and tell her why we brought you back,” Cole demanded.
“I didn’t kill your baby, Lilah. Oh yes, I told your father I did, and with his black heart he believed me. The only reason he didn’t kill me right then was the file I had on him, you know, the one I gave you a copy of at the park that day. Instead, he threatened to tell you what I’d done if I didn’t leave immediately. He’d been trying to find a way to get rid of me and saw his chance.”
Suddenly, the air grew thick. I could hardly breathe. “Where’s my child if you didn’t kill her? Did you sell her?”
“Lilah!” Birdie looked genuinely offended. She got up and went to the door. “Come,” she said to me, gesturing to the front yard.
Cole took my hand and walked with me. Outside, playing in a pile of autumn leaves next to Booker, was a little girl with curly brown hair. She picked up a handful and tossed them into the air and giggled. “It’s raining leaves,” she said in her sweet three-year-old voice.
My knees gave out. If Cole wasn’t next to me I would have hit the floor. Feelings too overwhelming to name flooded me, filling every crack in my being as I gazed upon the child I’d believed dead. My body shook with the deluge of emotions.
“Sofia, come here, child. I want you to meet your Mami.” Sofia stopped mid-scoop and turned to us. Birdie was right. She was the most beautiful child I’d ever seen. Her hair was like mine, and her smile infectious. She marched up to the porch, strong and confident, stopping when she reached the top one, her big brown eyes searching my face.
“You’re my mommy. Birdie has a picture book of you next to my bed. I read it every day.” She smiled. I noted her dimples. It was the only thing about her that testified of her father. Otherwise, she was all me, curly hair, soft brown skin, gregarious spirit.
The tears came so fast I couldn’t stop them. I dropped to my knees to be eye level with her. My heart ached to grab her to me, smother her in kisses, but I held back, not wanting to frighten Sofia. Sofia, my daughter.
She reached and touched my face. “You don’t have to be sad anymore. Uncle Booker said the evil wizard who wouldn’t let me see you is gone. I like your handsome prince, too. He got me ice cream for breakfast.” She pointed to Cole and smiled. She was a flirt already.
“She has a wonderful imagination, much like you.” Birdie laughed, wiping a few strands from her round cheeks. “She pretends she’s Rapunzel. I am not allowed to trim her hair, not even her bangs.”
I reached out cautiously and touched her hair, not wanting to frighten her. What I really wanted was to wrap her in my arms, smell her, kiss her, tell her of my love for her even though I just met her. I didn’t, fearing I’d frighten her. Instead, I gently stroked her hair.
“You can cut it now, Birdie. Mommy’s back and she has her prince,” my daughter insisted. My daughter. The word sang through my soul like a song on birds’ wings. “I get to live here now, Uncle Booker said.” She turned and waved at Booker, who was getting into his car. “Bye, Uncle Book.”
“Goodbye, Angel.” He waved.
She took Cole’s hand. “Where’s my room?” She dragged him inside. I watched her with hungry eyes until she disappeared from sight before turning back to Birdie, my heart already aching at her absence.
“What happened? Please explain this all to me?” I waited until Sofia was out of earshot to ask Birdie. I didn’t want her to leave my side, yet I had to know what happened.
“My sister Isabelle took the baby and hid with her at the motel. I promise, Lilah, I thought your father would be dead in only six weeks, otherwise I wouldn’t have done this. I knew you would be devastated, and for that I am so sorry, but I didn’t know what else to do to protect everyone. I’ve seen your father at his darkest, Lilah. I knew what he was capable of, and I feared him. Although I must say, never did I think him capable of selling his own grandchild on the black market.” Her voice was full of repugnance as she spoke. “However, he was desperate for money. The supplier threatened to kill him and you. I’ve never seen him like that before. He was a wild man, unreasonable.”
She mopped the beads of sweat from her forehead with a tissue as we sat down on the steps. “After only three days I regretted my rash decision. I decided to come and tell you everything. I hoped you run away with me. We could take the babe and hide out until your father passed on. But when I called the house, Payo told me you’d run away again.
“I tried in vain to find you, honest I did, but it was as if you disappeared. When you did surface five months ago, you were back in your father’s home and had made that deal with him. I hoped he’d honor the deal, and then you could have your daughter and raise her in peace.”
“You kept my child away from me for three-and-a-half years. Years I’ll never get back. You were the one person I thought I could believe in, trust.” Even having Sofia back didn’t take away the sorrow.
“I was wrong. So wrong.” Her eyes hung heavy with guilt as she apologized. “I was also desperate. I didn’t plan on you leaving two days later.” I watched the tears falling down her warm brown face, partly wanting to comfort her, partly hurting too much to do so.
“Sofia. I was going to name her that after my mother,” I said quietly.
“You told me that once. That’s why I gave her the name. Every night she asks me to tell her stories about you. Whenever we read fairy tales, she changes the princess’s name to Lilah. She has your imagination. She even carries a small picture of you in a little Hello Kitty purse. She shows it to anyone who will listen. ‘This is my mommy. An evil wizard’s holding her in his dungeon. When I get bigger I’m going to rescue her,’” she says.” Birdie chuckled and took my hand.
“Child, I love you both as my own. I hope someday you will forgive my impulsive act.” She broke down and cried. This time I placed my arms around her and cried as she told me again and again that she loved me.
Epilogue
“I want the upstairs room, mommy.”
Mommy. Hearing that word from my sweet little daughter brought tears to my eyes again. Birdie and I came to a tentative truce and she now sat in my living room, drinking tea. I still loved Birdie with all my heart, but had no idea if I could forgive her. I thought about the lies I’d told Cole when I came into town, and how he’d forgiven me. Hopefully, wi
th time I too could move past the pain.
“Are you sure you want to be upstairs? We can change this room into a princess castle, too.” I pointed to my art studio, a room I’d gladly give up for my daughter. Cole nodded in agreement.
“No. A princess must have a tower.”
“Booker and I can paint it this weekend. We can probably have it ready for her by Monday,” Cole said. “What color do you want the walls to be?”
“Pink,” she announced, to no one’s surprise.
“Pink it is. Maybe you and mommy can go and pick out a bed tomorrow,” Cole suggested.
“We’d better go today. There’s no place for her to sleep tonight.”
“Oh, I can sleep with you and the handsome prince tonight. Your bed is giant size,” she insisted. “Are you going to be my Daddy?”
Cole scooped her up in his arms. “I would love that, if you want me to.”
She studied his face for a minute. “Yes. I always wanted a Daddy.” She gave him a quick hug before wiggling to get down, and went straight over to Birdie.
“Come, see my new room.” She grabbed Birdie’s hand and dragged her up the stairs.
“I can never thank you enough for this.” I pointed up the stairs at Sofia. “My handsome prince.” I grinned, stroking his brow. “She’s going to rule the seven boys, you know that, right?”
“No doubt. And for the first time in generations, there’s a Colter girl. She’ll be spoiled rotten.” He laughed and gathered me in his arms. I laid my head on his chest and let the word mommy sink into my heart, still struggling to comprehend everything.
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“Impossible.”
The End
*Other novels by Sherry Gammon
Unlovable ~ Book one of the Port Fare Series
Souls in Peril
Pete & Tink ~ A novella
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