Her Name Was Annie Read online

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were seeing someone.” He turned his attention to Jack, sizing up his competition.

  “Well, I am. Sorry.” I shrugged.

  Michael nodded, then extended his arm to look at his watch. “Oh boy, I’m actually late for my appointment at the car dealership. My salesperson wants me to check out the fully loaded Porsche they just got in. I may be coming in with a new car tomorrow.”

  “Have fun with that.” I threw back my head and expelled the breath I had been holding when he whisked past Jack like a dog with its tail between its legs.

  “What the heck was that all about?” Jack asked, stepping into my classroom with his hands in his pockets and his grin growing bigger.

  I waved my hand in dismissal. “Just some egomaniac I’m trying to ward off…what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “You kind of left me no choice. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all afternoon.”

  “Oh shoot!” I grabbed my phone from the bottom of my purse to find a missed call and two texts from Jack. “The ringer…” I started.

  “Is off again,” Jack finished.

  “I turn it off during class, and then I forget to turn it back on again,” I explained.

  “I have to head back into work, but the neighbor’s security camera got a clear shot of the car and the license plate from the other day.”

  “Oh.” I sat up straighter in my chair, while Jack scrolled around on his phone.

  “It was a rental in the name of Jennifer Armenti.”

  “Okay…” That name didn’t ring any bells to me. Jack handed off his phone to me. A California driver’s license appeared on his screen with a photo of a dark-haired woman who appeared to be in her late thirties or early forties. I looked at her birth date on the license, did a quick calculation, and found I was right on the money, she was forty-one. “I’ve never seen this woman before in my life.”

  “I didn’t think so.” Jack sighed.

  “Jack, maybe we’re reading into this too much. Maybe she was just in the neighborhood looking at real estate. She could’ve been visiting one of the neighbors or perhaps she was lost. She is from California after all, so it would make perfect sense that she wouldn’t know the area too well.” I envisioned Jack rushing back to his office, running himself ragged, trying to link this woman to a former case. In fact, I knew when he said he had to head back into work, that’s exactly what he’d be doing. I didn’t want him to lose hope that maybe this was a lead, but at the same time, I didn’t want him to drive himself crazy, trying to make a piece fit that wasn’t the right shape. The mystery he was trying so desperately to solve could’ve been that it was just a case of an out-of-towner making a turn down the wrong street. “She could’ve been sitting on the side of the road, putting something into her GPS or making a phone call. There’s a million other scenarios as to why she was there.”

  “I’m sure there are, but…the neighbor’s camera shows her there for twenty-three minutes. How long does it take to plug something into your GPS? Not to mention, she bolted the minute you walked down the driveway.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “And you’re forgetting another important detail.” Jack interrupted. “She’s from California. Where was that man in the ocean from?” He raised his eyebrow as if to say checkmate. That fact had never crossed my mind. Guess that’s why he was the FBI agent and not me.

  “Oh,” I murmured. My simple explanation had suddenly been overpowered by Jack’s logic. “So what now? Are you going to be living on caffeine and no sleep for the next few days, trying to figure this one out?”

  “I might.” He scratched his head and nodded. I knew better than anyone Jack was like a dog with a bone when he got a lead on a case. Especially one that personally affected him.

  “Well, try and get some sleep, and don’t forget Kara’s coming home tomorrow.”

  “I haven’t forgotten. I’ll be in touch if I figure anything out. Turn your ringer on!” He requested. I flipped the lever on the side of my phone, making sure it was on.

  “It’s on,” I replied, staring at the doorway long after Jack was gone.

  I began to play over all the obvious clues Jack had laid out moments ago. The fact that she had been sitting there for quite an amount of time and how she was from California as well as the man in the ocean. I still wasn’t buying into it as much as Jack was. California was a huge state, so it could’ve been a mere coincidence. I raked my hand through my hair, knowing this was Jack’s way of trying to redeem himself for a crime I had made him feel guilty of for so long. One that I now knew wasn’t his fault. It took me years of heartache, blame, and eventually the demise of my marriage to come to that conclusion. I only hoped it didn’t take me as long to convince Jack of his innocence.

  I arrived home with just enough daylight to allow Max and me a quick walk around the block. No matter what kind of day I had or how low I was feeling, he always managed to perk me up with his overexuberant greeting. He looked forward to our afternoon walk, and I made every effort to make it home before dark to not disappoint him.

  “Okay, okay! Calm down!” I said as he danced around by the front door while I tried to hook his leash to his collar. He was getting bigger and stronger, but each day he was doing a little better with his manners on the leash. Max led me down the driveway, and I waved hello to my next-door neighbor who was hanging Christmas lights from his house.

  I stopped dead in my tracks when I reached the sidewalk to find the same gray sedan parked in the exact spot it was the other day. I glanced over my shoulder at my neighbor, who was still on the ladder, figuring if this person was planning something, at least there’d be a witness. Jack had my paranoia setting in big-time. I pulled my phone from my pocket, readying to dial his number, then took a few steps down the sidewalk to see if they followed me. I heard the car door slam behind me, and my hand began to tremble as I punched in the passcode on my phone.

  “Stephanie?” a woman’s voice called from the distance. I turned around slowly and cautiously to find a woman resembling the driver’s license photo Jack had showed me walking toward me. Max began to bark as she came closer, and I didn’t stop him like I normally would when a stranger would approach.

  “I’m sorry. Do I know you?” I asked once she came into earshot and Max’s warning subsided. She was around my height, with long dark curls sticking out of her white winter beanie.

  “No…umm.” She seemed flustered, and it was obvious she was struggling with the right words to say.

  I had visions of her pulling a gun from her pocket and shooting Max and me right there. Maybe she was working with someone else who she just gave the signal to, and maybe they were on their way right now to run me down with a car. All the memories from that horrible day all those years ago that I had suppressed for so long began to surface, and suddenly I didn’t think Jack was being so paranoid after all. The only difference was, this time I was prepared, and I refused to let her know that deep down inside I was falling apart with fear.

  “You were here the other day?”

  She nodded guiltily.

  “Why?” I demanded.

  “Be-because my mother asked me to find you.”

  I creased my eyebrows in confusion. “Your mother?”

  “I’m your sister, Stephanie.”

  Chapter 19

  “ARE YOU OKAY?” Jack asked as he took a seat on the couch. As luck would have it, I had texted him, asking him to call me because I had some big news. I then proceeded to leave my phone downstairs while I went up to take an hour-long bath to try and decompress from the shock I was in.

  “Yes, I’m so sorry. I forgot to bring my phone upstairs while I was in the bath and—”

  He held up his hand to stop me from talking. “Steph, what’s going on? You seem rattled.”

  I sighed heavily. “Hmm…guess my bubble bath didn’t help much. I found out who that woman was today. The one in the car out front.” Jack was hanging on to
my every word, waiting for more, but it still felt so weird saying my sister, when my entire life I was an only child. “She’s my sister…well, half sister,” I continued, watching the stress that was all over Jack’s face morph into relief, then confusion.

  “What?” he whispered, seeming just as surprised as I was when she had first introduced herself to me.

  “Yeah, tell me about it. I think I would’ve been less shocked if she pulled out a gun. The only thing that prevented me from passing out was that I knew I was adopted. If I hadn’t found that letter in my mom’s things, you’d be visiting me in the hospital right now.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She really didn’t say much. She and her mother came here, trying to find me. She decided to introduce herself first and be the go-between, in case I rejected the idea of meeting her mother.”

  “Are you going to meet her?”

  I nodded. “They’re leaving tomorrow night, so I’m taking a personal day tomorrow and meeting her for coffee.”

  “Did her daughter tell you anything about the circumstances, like why she gave you up for adoption?”

  “No,” I whispered. “She said it wasn’t her story to tell. So I’m guessing I’ll find out tomorrow.”

  Jack stared blankly into space before speaking once again. “Are you okay? Will you be able to handle all that on your own?”

  “I think so. I mean, it’s not like I have any emotional connection to this woman other than she gave birth to me. Whatever happened in her past really holds no bearing on me.”

  “Yeah, but her past is the reason for your existence.”

  “I know that, but what can I do? It’s not like I can go back in time and change it, so I just got to grin and bear it.”

  “Did she tell you anything about her?”

  “Her name is Francesca. She’s Italian. Guess that explains my dark hair, dark eyes, and love of cooking.” I managed a laugh. “Her husband passed away two years ago. She’s sixty-five years old.” I could tell Jack was trying to do the math in his head. “She was seventeen when she had me,” I continued, sparing him the mental calculation. “Other than that, she didn’t say much more. I did learn a lot about my sis—I mean, Jennifer.”

  “Your sister?” Jack said the word I was unable to get out.

  “Yeah. It just seems so foreign to use that word in relation to me.”

  “I’m sure it does.”

  “Get this, she’s an elementary school teacher too.” I smiled. “She has a partner, Dina, who she’s been with for the past fifteen years and they have a seven-year-old son. Kara has a cousin from my side of the family.” I shook my head. “God, that seems so weird to say. When for all these years, it’s been just me.”

  “Well, I don’t know how you’re feeling, but I’m happy for you to be able to meet them.”

  “I’m not really sure how I’m feeling about it all. I guess it’s human nature to want to find out more, but…” I sighed. “I don’t think I’m going to tell my father about this just yet.”

  “Why not? You not telling him about it is the same as him not telling you that you were adopted. And I’m guessing it’s for the same reason he decided to keep the secret for so long…because you’re afraid he might be hurt by it?”

  “Yes,” I whispered. It was all so coincidental that they found me right after I learned about being adopted. Would my father think I sought them out? I swore to him that he and my mother were my parents and I couldn’t care less who gave birth to me. “I don’t want him to think I found them because I wanted to know who my real family was.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I know, but what if he thinks I did?”

  “Steph, I think your dad knows you better than that. Besides, unless you have some pretty powerful connections, there was no way on earth you would’ve gotten that information so quickly.”

  He was right. I’d never researched it before, but I was certain finding out information on adoptions required one to go through a lot of red tape on both ends. Which got me wondering how my birth mother had tracked me down. How long had she been looking for me? Why was she looking for me? These were all questions I could get the answers to tomorrow, if I was brave enough to ask them. “The whole thing just seems so surreal to me. I was finally coming to terms with the fact that I was adopted, and now meeting the woman who actually gave birth to me is going to be a whole new shock to the system.”

  “Just see what she has to say, and then take it from there.”

  I nodded and forced a smile. “Well, at least now you can put your mysterious woman in the car case to rest.”

  “Yeah, but that still doesn’t help me with the mysterious man in the ocean.” His voice wavered in defeat.

  “Jack?” I focused on the twinkling Christmas tree lights, trying to fight the emotion building up in my eyes. “Today, when she got out of that car and started to approach me, everything came back to me from that day.” I finally turned my head in his direction, giving up on the battle with my feelings. He reached for my hand, and I oddly took comfort in it. “I pushed that memory so far back into my subconscious, that I was foolish enough to believe it didn’t exist anymore—but it does.” I focused deeply into Jack’s eyes, which were begging me to go on.

  “When she came walking up that sidewalk, I envisioned a few different scenarios—none of them good. But the fact of the matter was, I knew I had options. I could’ve let Max go after her…he’d probably lick her to death.” I managed a laugh. “But maybe he would’ve scared her enough to make her run the other way. I could’ve screamed for help to the next-door neighbor who was outside. I could’ve maybe controlled the outcome if something bad were to happen.” I stopped and took in a sharp inhale. “That day, when that car purposely came at me, there was nothing I could do. I didn’t have time to play out different scenarios in my head. I had nowhere else to go.”

  Jack threw his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. “And I’m so sorry, Stephanie.”

  “Don’t be,” I whispered. I waited for him to return his gaze back to me before continuing. “It wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t my fault. I know for years I made you feel like you were to blame because of the circumstances, but what I never told you was I blamed myself just as much because I couldn’t protect him. I should’ve been able to save him. I was his mother…”

  My tears, my sadness, and my pain wouldn’t allow me to get the rest of the words out. Jack pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly, rubbing my back in small circles. He buried his face into my shoulder, and when I felt the dampness of his tears soaking through my shirt, I realized for the first time the burden he’d been carrying around for years as well. I wasn’t sure how long we sat there, holding each other, but it was something that was long overdue, and something that should have happened years ago. Perhaps if it had, we’d still be married.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry, Jack,” I whispered. “Sorry for making you bear the brunt of everything.”

  “Stop. It was an accident. One that neither one of us had control over. I don’t want us to ever forget it happened because then it would mean we were forgetting him, but I want us to get past the blame.”

  I nodded and he rubbed his thumb along his cheek, wiping away a tear. The lights from the Christmas tree reflected off his blue eyes that were so full of emotion. My hand reached for the side of his face, caressing his razor-stubbled face.

  I had loved him for most of my life, and regardless of everything that had happened between us, I still loved him. It wasn’t the same butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling of first love, it was a mature one. One that withstands obstacles and heartache. One that has as deep history that nothing or no one could ever erase. Besides my father, he had been the one man in my life who I could always depend upon, even when I vehemently pushed him away. My head inched closer to him, and unlike last time, I was the one to initiate the kiss, and this time, I didn’t plan on having any what-if moments.

  Chapter
20

  THE HOUSE WAS chilly when I awoke the next morning. My heat was set to automatically drop in the middle of the night in case the hot flashes decided to kick in while I was sleeping. Normally, I’d hop out of bed and bump up the temperature while I carried on with my morning routine. But there wasn’t anything normal about this morning. Yes, I had woken with a man lying beside me countless mornings prior, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. What seemed so perfect the night before, now seemed like a big mistake in the light of day. Jack turned on his side and pulled me closer. The warmth coming from his body instantly melted the chill away along with any doubts about what we had done.

  “What are you thinking?” Jack asked, pushing my hair out of my face.

  “I was just thinking how cold I was, but not anymore.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Umm...maybe I was thinking I hope we didn’t do something last night that we’re going to regret.”

  “I won’t,” he said with such affirmation that it gave me that boost of reassurance I needed to believe I wouldn’t and shouldn’t either.

  “What time do you have to be in the office?” I asked, lifting my head to see the time on the clock.

  “Not until later. I have a meeting in the afternoon.”

  “Oh, well, that’s a coincidence, my meeting is this afternoon as well.”

  “So that means we’ve got all morning to…”

  “Go back to sleep.” I laughed.

  His hand skimmed my bare breast and falling back asleep was the furthest thing from my mind. I pressed my naked body into his, and everything inside of me was wanting him once again. He pulled me on top of him just as Max began to carry on from downstairs. It wasn’t his usual, I need to go outside bark, it was his, someone is at the front door bark. My body froze as I listened carefully, cinching my eyebrows in confusion upon hearing the familiar creak of the front door opening.