Free Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer Page B

part of me, so entwined with my body and my soul that he could never be disentangled.
    If Jack had been able to adopt me, would I be sitting on this bed, staring at Dwayne Coffey's high school picture? If I'd had as much right as Brooke and Alyssa to call Jack Daddy, would I have truly believed he loved me as much as he loved them?
    We're a happy family,
I said to myself, closing the yearbook and piling it on top of the others.
We have to be.
Because if I didn't have that to believe in, then I had nothing left at all.

Fifteen
    M Y CELL RANG. I answered it. It was Mom, I told myself, or maybe Jack.
    But it was Faye. "How're you doing?" she asked. "Hard at work?"
    I'd spent so much of my life claiming things were fine when they weren't that it surprised me to hear the truth come from my mouth. "No," I said. "I haven't even tried."
    Faye laughed. "At least you're honest about it," she said. "I have a couple of things to tell you. First off, you don't have to worry about the house and the bank and mortgages. Turns out Budge and Crystal rented. I had a nice talk with Harry Norris—he owns the house—and he said the police are all through with it, and since the rent's paid up till the end of the month, you have plenty of time to go there, look through the things, and make up your mind about what you might want. He said the police did a pretty good job cleaning up, but you can tell something awful happened, so you should be prepared."
    "I don't want any of their things," I said.
    "Still, you should go through it," Faye said. "Budge's grandma will probably track Trace down so he can get his share, but you're here, so you might as well take what you want. Harry's going to drop the key off later and you can go over tomorrow."
    "All right," I said, and Polite Willa kicked in. "Thank you."
    "You mentioned wanting to go to your grandparents' grave," Faye said. "I can't get away from the office, so I asked Erma Jenkins to take you. She was good friends with your grandma and grandpa. She knows right where their graves are, so you won't get lost. She'll be dropping by in a few minutes to get you."
    "That's very nice of her," I said.
    "Well, she's kind of curious about you," Faye said. "Because of your momma, and Erma being friends with the family for so long. I told her you're the quiet type and upset about things so she shouldn't plague you with questions. She said she understood and she thought it was right Christian of you to want to visit your grandparents' graves. The two of you should hit it off just fine."
    "Did she know Budge?" I asked.
    I could hear Faye sigh. "Honey, this is a small town," she said. "Everybody knows everybody one way or another. If you want to know if she
liked
Budge, well, that's a whole other thing, and you'll have to ask her yourself. Not that anybody's about to say they did."
    "No," I said. "Of course not."
    "I got an e-mail from your momma," Faye said. "She and Jack are flying down to Orlando for a couple of days. They'll bring the girls back home on Wednesday. Jack thought it would be a good idea for Terri to be out of town until things cool off. She said she'd call you after she and Jack get settled in to a motel."
    I pictured Mom alone in the motel while Jack had dinner with Val and their daughters. It didn't matter. She'd probably be so knocked out by sedatives, she wouldn't notice.
    "I'd better get back to work," Faye said. "Sam's still digging around, trying to find out what's rightfully yours. Now you be nice to Erma and I'll be home around five to hear all about it."
    I said goodbye and hung up. My family really had vanished. I couldn't imagine a time before when Mom and Jack might have taken off for some place, any place, without letting me know first.
    "Well, I hope they'll all be happy in Orlando," I muttered. I pictured them in a Sears photograph, Jack with his wives on either side, Brooke, Alyssa, and Mickey Mouse seated in front of them.
    I laughed. Curly gave me a look and that made me laugh