Dead Certain - Mariah Stewart [86]
Sean appeared to be at a loss for words.
Ramona reached for the photos. Greer covered her hand with her own. “No, don’t leave in anger.”
“I’m sorry, Greer. I need to get home. I told the babysitter I’d be back before ten.”
Sean found his voice. “You have children?”
“A boy and a girl.”
“Where do you live?”
“In East Hilton.”
“Are you married?”
“Divorced.”
“Do you work? Do you—” Sean shook his head. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Start by saying that you believe I could be who I say I am.” Ramona’s eyes pleaded. “We can go on from there.”
Greer looked back at the photo. “I have this picture, too. It was taken on Grandma Michaels’s front porch.”
“That’s what it says on the back.” Ramona flipped the photo over and read the tidy handwriting. “Sasha and Sean on Mom’s front porch.”
“Makes you wonder about her, doesn’t it?” Greer shook her head slowly. “Why she had the three of us, if she was going to give us away . . .”
“Yeah, well, all these years, I thought it was just me. That maybe she kept the two of you in some secret place, and just got rid of me because I was . . .”
Unable to finish the sentence, Ramona pulled the hood of her raincoat up around her face, preparing to go out into the storm again. “I need to go,” she said in a shaky voice as she moved quickly toward the door.
“Don’t you dare.” Greer got up from the table. “Don’t you even try to run away from us.”
She wrapped her arms around the young woman and held her for just a minute as Ramona’s shoulders began to shake and she wept silently.
“Now, you don’t have to do that, hear? It’s going to be all right. It will be. We will work this all out, the three of us, and everything will be fine.”
Ramona nodded and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Oh, thank you, darlin’.” Greer gave her a hug. “Thank you.”
Ramona nodded and opened the door. With a look back at Sean, she stepped through it.
“Now, you be real careful going home.” Greer followed her outside. “And you call me in the morning, and we’ll talk, okay, honey?”
When Ramona had disappeared down the driveway, Greer turned to Sean, her eyes wet, and said, “I understand that you are a skeptic by nature, Sean. But you could have been a little kinder.”
“I didn’t know if she was telling the truth.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Why would she make up a story like that, about going to that office and being handed over like that? It’s not like we’re the heirs to some big family fortune.” Greer came behind him and put her arms around his shoulders. “I guess you were too young back then, but I remember like it was yesterday what it felt like to be taken away from that house—Grandma’s house—and away from you, to be put in with strangers. Everything changed, Sean. Even my name. I kept waiting for them to bring you. I felt sure that if I was really good, that they’d let you come, too. I waited and waited. . . .”
Her tears rolled down the back of his neck, but he sat, still as a stone.
“I missed you every day. And every night, when I said my bedtime prayers, the only thing I ever prayed for was to be with my little brother again.” She sniffed and searched her pockets for a tissue. “When I found you, it was the sweetest day of my life. So I know exactly what Ramona means when she says she has a hole inside her. I’ve had it all my life.” She blew her nose and stuffed the tissue back into her pocket. “I suspect you do, too.” She gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Only difference between you and me is that I want that hole inside filled up. You seem to be content to let it stay empty.”
She gave him one last pat on the back, then turned off the outside lights. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Sean. But of course, it’s your choice.”
She tossed the tissue into the wastebasket on her way out of the room, leaving her brother alone in the quiet kitchen.
The room was nearly dark, the neon under-the-counter lights the only ones left on. Amanda stood in the doorway, studying the silhouette that sat motionless at the table.
“Are you all right?