Page 36 of Fortune’s Control (Fortune’s Creek #1)

Sarah Jane Carter sounded unnatural. Who was that?

“Do you know why she changed her name? Do you know who my father is? Is Mayberry his last name?” My questions came in a rush, leaving me gasping for air by the end.

“That’s a mystery your mother will need to answer. She previously dated someone with that surname. It’s possible they married, and I never knew.” Her lips tightened at the memory. “He was in prison twenty years past for robbery; I’m unsure whether they were together then.”

My father was in prison? “I never heard about him.”

“Hank Mayberry. That was his name.” Evelyn put a finger to her lip while shaking her head at the long-ago memory. “I forgot about him and never connected your name until now.”

My throat closed up over my next question. Fear over the answer led to wavering in my search for her. Once the simple part ended, I retreated, leaving Shane to tackle it for me. “Did you know I existed?”

“It never occurred to me she had children. She, well…she never expressed interest in children. Let’s leave it there.” Her eyes bulged. “Are you an only child?”

“There’s only me and Sarah Jane.”

“Sarah Jane, huh? I can promise, if I’d known, we would have met years ago. I missed her every day, and now, years later, a granddaughter returns home to me. Fortune’s Creek is aptly named. How is she?”

I deliberately misconstrued her question. How do you explain Sarah Jane to her mother? “We rarely talk, and her latest beau is George. I’ve never met him.”

“That answers my question enough.” Evelyn drew back and pinched her lips. “We lived in Miami when she was younger.”

“Miami?!?”

“Yes, until my husband died. Frederick’s cancer took him quick, and I needed a job, so I took one at the university and bought our little house.

Sarah disliked living here, claiming Fortune’s Creek was too small and backwards for her.

She missed so much school, I worried she’d drop out.

I’ll never forget that sigh of relief when I learned she passed her final year of high school. ”

This was too much. “I had a grandfather.”

“Fred Carter.” She took a wallet from her purse.

“I still keep his picture with me, even after all these years. He always had a joke or a story ready. We never had another child, and Fred doted on her, and she loved him right back. A real daddy’s girl, and she took his loss hard.

Sarah’s light dimmed after he died, and she was never the same after.

She never admitted her grief, but I knew. ”

“My grandfather.” I took in the stranger’s 1980s shorts and striped tank top, searching for anything familiar in his warm smile or long brown hair. “Do you have more pictures?”

“One more.” She pulled out another photo, bent-tipped and yellowed with age. “This is your mother. She was fourteen in this picture.”

Her hair and clothes were an older style, but otherwise, my fourteen-year-old twin stared up at me. “I looked like her.”

I passed the picture to Shane, who checked it out before returning it without speaking a word. He intended this to be a conversation between my grandmother and me.

“I have more at home if you’d like to see them. I’ll dig up my old photo albums this evening for you. What else is there?”

This was so much to take in. Most people never learn about their family, because they grow up with them. This was a water hose turned on full blast and aimed at my chest. “What happened after her graduation? I was born soon after that.”

“Yes, I suppose you were. Never ask a woman her age, but I’ll ask because I’m old and it doesn’t matter anymore. What’s your age, honey? ”

Who cared? Shane knew, and if this solved my mystery, I’d shout it from city hall. “Twenty-nine, almost thirty.”

Evelyn did the mental math. “She may have been pregnant when I saw her last. If she was, Sarah Jane didn’t tell me.

I wish she had. I could have helped, and your birth might’ve been what we needed.

Well, wishes don’t solve problems, do they?

” Evelyn wiped her eyes. “Like I said, she and Hank were an item. She’d stay out all night, or longer, and come home without an explanation.

I worried, but any effort to keep him away ended in another argument.

So, I settled for forbidding his presence in my home, hoping she’d lose interest and move on to another man, but she didn’t. ”

Her pained expression said she neared the breaking point between them. “What happened after that?”

“Sarah Jane stole my wedding ring and denied it. I was afraid of losing it after Fred died, so I stuck the ring in my jewelry box and would check on it every so often. Well, it went missing, and when I asked, she said I lost it years earlier. I told her if she returned it, all would be forgiven, and we’d never speak of it again.

” Evelyn placed both pictures back in her wallet, giving herself a break before explaining further.

“We fought instead, right until her boyfriend drove up on a new motorcycle. Now, I don’t know nothing about motorbikes, but I recognized a new one when I saw it.

He came inside, so I asked him if they took it, and his smile answered my question. ”

“They stole the ring.” A story told decades later, and I knew it as if I’d witnessed the entire incident.

“Looking back, I believe she sought his approval, like she once did with her father, but I didn’t understand it at the time.

Instead, I told Sarah Jane she couldn’t live in my home and date him, so she picked Hank.

It was a foolish ask on my part as, given time, she’d probably move on from him to someone else, maybe someone better. Did she?”

I winced at the faint trace of hope in her voice. “A series of boyfriends, but no one special.”

“She called me months later, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, and I was fixing to join a quilting bee. Sarah Jane sounded upset, but wouldn’t tell me anything, and I had no idea where she was.

She asked for money, and I told her to come home.

Well, to skip to the next part, I wired her money.

It was the same a few months later, and again after that.

One day, she told me she’d moved to Atlanta and needed to put a deposit on an apartment.

This time, I suggested she come home again, so I could help her in person. ”

I guessed this part since my mother enjoyed her life, and I couldn’t imagine her returning to Fortune’s Creek. Not willingly. “She refused that, too.”

“I sent her the money rather than risk losing her. I had an address and a phone number, and I wouldn’t squander that progress with another demand, as my last one had created such a large rift between us; I worried it might never be healed.

We had time, and I figured patience would work in my favor.

” She crooked her head to the side and squared up her shoulders.

Evelyn continued, this time with no trace of regret.

“It went on for a year. It’s strange to think of it.

She was supporting you, and I had no idea.

It’s good that she called, as I had the means to help.

Christmas approached, and I suggested she come home.

We’d celebrate, and I’d help her out again.

She refused, and we fought. That was the last time we spoke. ”

“You gave up?” Shane asked.

“Give me some credit. I did not give up.” She poked a finger towards him.

“I sent her a Christmas card, and she returned it unopened, with ‘No such person at this address’ on the envelope. You can call it a mistake, but you’d be wrong.

She’s my daughter, and I know her handwriting.

She wrote that. I called, and her phone number was disconnected, so I sent another letter, with a check inside, like a little bribe.

The post office returned this one, too, but with an official sticker letting me know she’d moved on.

I waited, assuming it’d be the same as before, but it wasn’t.

Once I learned about the Internet, I tried to find her, but there were so many Sarah Carters, I got lost.” Evelyn lifted one shoulder.

“I stayed in that house longer than I should have in case she came home.”

“You never heard from her?” I asked, unsurprised. “I asked about you over the years, and sometimes she’d drop hints. I knew about Fortune’s Creek, and she would mention you.” Sometimes the words came out in anger or frustration, and other times with regret and pain.

“You decide on a particular action, convinced of your cleverness, and then you spend years doubting yourself. I often wondered about my own choices. Should I have stayed quiet about the wedding ring to keep her close? I knew you lived in Atlanta, so maybe a surprise visit would have mattered. Most of the time, a person lives with consequences they never see coming. It took a while, but I found you today, and isn’t that a lovely consequence?

That’s the end of my story. Whatever happens next, you’d know better than I. ”

She patted my hand while Shane squirmed beside me.

“She’s still in Atlanta. We moved a lot when I was young, when the rent check bounced.

” What to say next? After this reunion, it felt wrong to tell her all my wretched stories.

Sarah Jane wasn’t a perfect mother, but she was Evelyn’s daughter, and I didn’t want to destroy whatever little chance remained of their reunion.

“She struggled, like many single parents, but we managed.”

“How is she? Is she healthy? Safe?” Evelyn asked once our food was delivered.

My desperation for information blinded me to how much Evelyn needed her own.

She provided for me without once demanding any answers.

“She’s healthy and safe. Her current beau, George, planned a cruise for them.

She knows I’m here, and we spoke…two weeks ago.

She works for a bank and has been promoted a few times. ”

“Does she know about the two of you?” Evelyn waved a finger between us.

“Yes, I delivered the news two weeks ago,” Shane said.

“Did she visit during those two weeks?” Evelyn leaned back in her chair and flashed knowing eyes. “I’m old, and sometimes old people are stuck in their ways, and other times, they get stuck and sink lower. For now, let’s eat and enjoy each other’s company. Shall we do that?”

I grinned. “I would love that.”

“Once we’re done, we can decide what to do about Sarah Jane.”

“Could you come to dinner tonight or tomorrow?” I blurted the question without considering Shane first.

“Or both?” he followed up.

She pointed a fork at him. “Now, that’s a good follow-up.”