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It was sweet, and beyond crazy.
I brushed my teeth and went back out to join them. There was one thing I had to know.
“Why now?” I looked from Earl to Martha. “Why tell me after all of these years? You didn’t think to tell me when she passed. So why bring the truth out now?”
Earl’s hands shook as he spoke. “We promised we wouldn’t, Sutton. You don’t know what that man is capable of. He would have killed Jo if she had stayed there.”
My mother had been married when I was born. She had been married for a few years, and according to the law, never divorced. He had abused her, hurt her, and stalked her until she had to go into hiding.
A wave of remorse and regret washed over me. I didn’t even know the woman they were describing. Max had said we lived in my grandmother’s trailer, but I found out that my mom had pawned some jewels and bought the place on her own.
It was already furnished. The woman died in the grocery store and Judith bought it all, cracked formica, ratty couch, and old lady trunks.
“You are a bodyguard?” I asked Max, who had been rather silent while Martha and Earl unburdened themselves.
He nodded ruefully. “I used to be. I’ve gotten old, Sugar. But I promised that I would always look after you, and I have tried to stick by that promise.”
Martha and Earl seemed so different all of a sudden.
It felt strange, and I didn’t like looking at them as strangers. Martha looked sad and old and hadn’t said one nasty thing to me since I arrived. I found out that she was a widow early in life before she went to work for the man my mother married.
She and Earl were never married.
How? It was too much. I felt lightheaded.
“Your mother’s family didn’t want Judith to marry Forrest,” Martha was saying. “She told me that they cut her off when she ran away to Vegas with him. I don’t know a lot about them. But I know she missed her brother Justin terribly.”
The body.
That was why Knox was here. The body had been identified as Justin Landry. He shared my last name, and, looking at those old pictures, he even looked a little like me.
I tried to swallow the shock I was feeling. “And this Justin, the body you found, he’s my uncle? Were there any next of kin? How did he find us? I don’t understand how you can lose someone for twenty-five years and then all of a sudden find us.”
“It’s the publicity about your inheritance,” Knox added. “Everyone loves a Cinderella story. When your stocks went through the roof and then you and Williams decided to wed, that was front-page gold.”
I nodded, like I understood, but I didn’t understand. I shouldn’t have come without Mark. I needed him with me, holding me. This was too much.
Knox pulled out a crumpled paper. On it was a list of names that were all crossed out besides Justin Landry.
“We found this in Gabe’s office. We don’t know if he was contacting these people to try and find out more about you or your mother. We don’t know who he talked to. But every name on the list that has been crossed out is either missing or dead. I am inclined to think that this came from Gabe’s killer and not Gabe.”
“And you are sure this body really belongs to Justin Landry?” I asked.
Knox nodded. “The forensic reports are back, and he was identified by his daughter.”
His daughter.
“I have a cousin?” I asked hoarsely.
Knox winced. “I had meant to break that to you another time.”
I felt slightly hysterical. “I’ve had enough of hidden secrets. Please, just tell me the truth.”
“Okay,” Knock said. “Her name is Margaret Landry, she’s a law student and lives in Boston. She was here briefly to identify the body, but she left with it for the funeral.”
“How do we know she is really my cousin?” I asked.
“You can take a DNA test if you are worried, Sutton. It’s an easy procedure and you will be able to tell if you and Margaret are related.”