“Ava’s adorable. How old is she?”
“Five.”
“How did she get lost?” I listened while Misti spoke about that day, looking up at the window every so often, in case Carolyn watched us. After hearing the story, along with the happy ending, I was pretty sure Carolyn wasn’t going to come down. I picked up that Misti didn’t think so either.
Without talking to Carolyn first, I wasn’t sure if telling Misti about my suspicions was a good idea. I mean… what if I was wrong? On the other hand, if I asked Misti what she thought about the picture, maybe she’d get her mother to see me.
It was now or never, so I reached into my purse and pulled out Misti’s photograph. “I thought you might want to see this.” I handed it to her, and her eyes widened with surprise.
“It’s Ava. But I don’t recognize it. Where did you get this?”
“That’s the thing. It’s not Ava. I think it might be… you.”
“Me? But… I’ve never seen this before. How can it be me?” She studied it, thinking it looked exactly like her, but the age was wrong. In this photo she was two or three. “My mother doesn’t have pictures of me at this age. She told me all my baby pictures were destroyed in a fire. Did someone give this to you?”
I nodded, not quite sure how to continue. “Yes. Mack Haywood had a whole album full of pictures just like this one, including baby pictures.”
She caught my gaze. Was I trying to pull something over on her? “What are you saying?”
“I was hoping to talk to your mother, so she could explain. I don’t know exactly what this means, but I have a pretty good idea, and it involves Mack Haywood. Do you want to hear it from me, or shall we ask her?”
Misti sat back in her chair, her breath coming out in short little gasps. Did this mean that something had happened to her? When she was a child? “So if this is me… what do you think happened?”
“I think… you were taken away from your family… and raised by someone else.”
Misti’s breath caught. “You mean kidnapped? And you think…” Her gaze swiveled up to her mother’s room. How could it be possible? If I was right… did this mean her mother wasn’t really her mother, and she’d… kidnapped her? What the hell? That was insane. Still… in a place where she’d never admitted it… she’d known there had been something missing… something wrong… all her life.
In the first place, she didn’t look a thing like her mother, and she never had. Her hair and eye coloring were completely different. They had different body types. In fact, nothing about them matched, and it had always bothered her.
Then there was her father. She’d always believed that she must have taken after him, but her mother had refused to talk about him. There were no pictures of him, or any of his possessions that remained behind after he left. When she did mention him, the story seemed to change every time her mother spoke. But, most of the time, the subject was strictly forbidden.
If this was true, it made sense that her mother had been so secretive. She’d made up the story that her father had left her right after Misti had been born. It meant that her mother’s reticence to talk wasn’t because he’d broken her heart… it was because he’d never existed.
Misti inhaled sharply, thinking that it explained her mother’s constant neediness. She’d tried to escape her mother’s controlling will all her life, even finding a college far away. But nothing really changed. Her mother had always found a way to weasel back into her life. It usually involved money that came with conditions attached.
Even after she’d found a husband, and had a child of her own, her mother had managed to insinuate herself into her life. Look at her. Here she was, right back with her mother where she started.
But this… could it be true? “Tell me everything. I want to know.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but the sound of her mother’s voice calling from the house stopped me.
“Misti? Misti!”
My gaze jerked to the window, finding that Carolyn had pulled it open and was leaning her head out. “Can you come up here for a minute? I’m ready to meet your friend, but I need your help first.”
Misti frowned, unhappy to put me off, but years of dealing with Carolyn kicked in, and she couldn’t turn her down. “Will you watch Ava for a minute?”
“Of course.”
With a nod, she hurried inside. I glanced back at the window, but Carolyn had disappeared. Had she heard us talking? It sure seemed like it. So what was she planning to tell Misti? I noticed the photograph sitting on the table and picked it up.
As far as proof went, this was kind of flimsy. Could Carolyn convince Misti that I was wrong without promising to look into it? From what I’d picked up, Misti wanted to know, but would she defy her mother to find out? Her mother held something over her, but what? Her fortune? I had no doubt that Carolyn had a lot of money; maybe that was part of it.
Several tense minutes later, Misti emerged from the house, her face flushed and angry. I picked up that her mother had used her illness as leverage to keep Misty from upsetting her and had denied the whole thing. The reprimand from Carolyn accusing Misti of being taken in by me still stung.
Misti held my gaze, wondering if I was the gold-digger her mother had insinuated. Had I made it all up for a piece of her fortune? I didn’t seem the type. Then there was the photo. Was it a fake? But what
