Free Missing with Bonus Material: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book One by Shelley Shepard Gray

for sure!”
    A sick, terrible ache formed in her middle and held on tight. Why were her parents beaming? “So no one but me is adopted?”
    “Nee.”
    “None of them? Not Reuben or Petey or Becky?” Only after she asked the question did she dare to feel guilty. How could she want her siblings to be adopted, too? Shame filled her as it waged war with resentment. Struggling to contain the mixed emotions was causing her head to pound.
    “You are the only one. We never told you because we didn’t want you to feel different than the others.”
    When her daed paused, Lydia quickly spoke, filling in the gaps. “No different from the others who are really your children.”
    “You are my daughter,” her mamm soothed. “You are just like the others.”
    The words sounded forced and faked. “I am not. I am someone else’s daughter. Some . . . some other woman’s,” she sputtered. “But for some reason she didn’t want me.” Confusion spun with feelings of sadness. She was twenty years old! How could her parents have kept this a secret for so long?
    Her father frowned. “Lydia, it wasn’t like that.”
    “You were always a blessing to us,” Her mother said. “That is what we are trying to tell you.”
    “I hear what you are saying,” Lydia allowed, but now she didn’t even know if that was the truth anymore. Her mind reeled. What did it mean when everything she had thought was true was now lying on its side? “I don’t know what to think.”
    “You shouldn’t think anything is different. We are still your parents, and you are still our daughter.” Her father said with such a determined expression that she supposed he thought she was eight years old again. That all he had to do was say that something was the way he wanted it, and she would accept his word.
    But it was now obvious that his word couldn’t be trusted anymore. After all, he’d lied to her about who she was her whole life.
    “Why are you telling me all this now? Does my real mother want to meet me?” She ignored the flinch her mother gave. “Has she ever contacted you? Have you been contacting her all this time?”
    But instead of seeking to give her more answers, her father retreated behind a mask of propriety. Reaching out, he clasped her mother’s hand and threaded his fingers through hers. Making a solid connection. A bond. “This is your real mother, child.”
    “You know what I mean.” Forcing herself to be strong, to ignore the tears that were threatening to fall, Lydia held herself stiffly. “Did she ever say she wanted to know about me?”
    Her parents exchanged looks. “Nee,” her mother finally said. “The woman who gave birth to you never wanted to know you, and she never wanted you to know about her. That was part of the agreement,” she added, looking torn and guilty.
    The small ray of hope that had been threatening to rise vanished completely. There was no happy news here. Her real mother had given her away like an unwanted kitten and had moved on with her life. Her real mother had never wanted to hear about her. She never wanted to get to know her.
    Though it didn’t make all that much sense, given that she’d just found out about it all, the harsh rejection stung. Hurt more than Lydia could ever imagine.
    “Why tell me now?”
    Her father leaned toward her. “With everything that happened with Perry, we started realizing that the Lord gives each of us only a small number of days on this earth,” he said quietly after glancing toward her mother again, “We began talking about the time of your birth, and how you are twenty now. An adult. One day soon you’ll find a man and get married. We realized that time is precious. It is probably best not to count on many more tomorrows. Instead, it is best to do things right away.”
    “I didn’t want to wait any longer, even though I knew this news would upset you, Lydia,” Mamm said. “We thought it was something you would want to know before you married and had