August: Calendar Girl Book 8 (9 page)

“Is that enough for you, or do you need more?” His question was directed at Sofia.

“Anyone can fake a license.” She waved a hand at the screen, seeming utterly put out.

“Okay, then, Exhibit B. Mia Saunders’s social security card proving her name and her citizenship. Shall I continue?”

Sofia huffed and responded haughtily, “By all means. You’re doing such a great job. Though I haven’t seen anything that couldn’t be refuted in a court of law.”

The next slide stole my breath. Tears built and threatened to fall. I tapped the corners of each eye and stared at the screen, lost in a tornado of memories.

“That is a picture my father had of my mother holding me, next to a picture of Mia. The resemblance is uncanny,” he croaked and cleared his throat.

How could that be? That image was absolutely my mother, much younger, but her nonetheless. I would know her anywhere. And in the picture, she was holding a toddler, perhaps around a year old with blond curls like a halo around the baby’s head. I shook my head, and the tears fell unchecked.

The volume of chatter had reached a fevered pitch.

Sofia’s voice was strained yet she plowed ahead. I had to give it to her. She was the definition of tenacious. “A lot of people look alike, Max.”

He nodded. “True, but there’s more.” He held a hand out to the smart-looking woman and waved her over.

“Members of the committee, my name is Ree Cee Zayas, and I’m the attorney for the late Jackson Cunningham and Maxwell Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham hired me to prove the legitimacy of Mia Saunders’s birthright and familial lineage.” Her voice was cool, calm, and educated. I liked her instantly, but immediately feared the next words she was going to say.

“If you will look at the screen, you will see a copy of Maxwell Cunningham’s birth certificate from Dallas, Texas next to Mia Saunders’s birth certificate from Las Vegas, Nevada. As you can see, the woman listed as mother—one Meryl Colgrove and her social security number, shown clearly on both legally binding documents—is exactly the same. This document would be binding in a court of law and proves that Maxwell Cunningham and Mia Saunders share the same birth mother.”

The room went silent. Absolutely nothing could be heard. A shockwave of sensations hit me hard. I stopped breathing and trembled under the proof staring me in the face. Unaware of the tidal wave of emotions battering me into a loopy mess, the tears poured down my cheeks. Maxwell heard the shift in my voice as I swallowed a sob. He crouched next to me, one knee on the floor, clasping my hands painfully. I didn’t care. I was numb, shaken to my core.

Max placed his lips over my hands and kissed the tops over and over again. “I should have told you the truth,” he whispered. “For-Forgive me.” His own feelings overwhelmed the words so much that he stuttered with the effort to get them out.

I was incapable of responding, but that wasn’t the end. No, the beautiful woman I would later come to think of as the “dark angel of life-changing events” didn’t stop there. “Due to the extreme nature of the birthright and the monetary amount at stake within the company, I felt it prudent to go deeper and a DNA test was done. A sample of hair was taken from Ms. Saunders’s hairbrush and the results were compared to the results from Mr. Cunningham. You’ll see on the screen that the results are conclusive: Maxwell Cunningham and Mia Saunders share identical maternal genetic markers that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are indeed half brother and sister, issue of the same mother.”

That’s when I lost it, as did the rest of the room. I couldn’t hear myself think over the roar of conversations at the table. I just sat there, unmoving, trying to pull the pieces of my life into something resembling a reality I could understand. Nothing came. No amazing bouts of wisdom, no perfectly placed analogies to explain away how the little boxes and lines on the screen in front of me had ultimately changed my life…forever. I was no longer Mia Saunders, the girl who raised her baby sister, whose mother left her at ten, with a father who was a knock-down drag-out drunkard. I wasn’t just the woman who was ass-over-tits in love with a man far better than she was. It was all becoming clear to me that I was more.

I, Mia Saunders, was Maxwell Cunningham’s biological sister. A man at the helm of an empire and family I knew absolutely nothing about. The documentation could not be denied. Max was my half-brother.

“Mia, Mia, sugar, please, say something. Anything,” Max pleaded from his position on his knees in front of me. I looked down into the exact same pale green eyes that my mother gave to me, to Maddy, and also to him.

“You’re my brother.” The words came out of my mouth on a gasp.

Max nodded. “I am.” He scanned my face, as if he were looking directly into my soul and seeing a piece of himself.

“My
real
brother,” I repeated.

“Yes. And you, you’re my baby sister.” He swallowed and licked his lips. The lines around his eyes seemed more pronounced, under the weight of what he’d been keeping hidden inside.

“Oh my God. I can’t…” I sucked in a breath. “Maddy!” Tears fell down my cheeks, and he cupped my face and wiped them away with his thumbs, caressing my cheekbones.

“Yes. Now you understand why it was so important to get her here. She deserves to know the truth.”

I closed my eyes and thought about Maddy and what this information would do to her, to our family dynamic. In a flourish, I pushed back the chair, Max’s hands going to the floor to catch the weight of his large frame. Standing, I scanned the area for the nearest exit.

The need to flee was strong, a prickly, painful sensation, like an exposed nerve being zapped with electrical pulses, and I realized the full severity of the situation. This was no longer pretend. Max had brought me here because he’d known this information all along and waited until we were in front of all of these strangers to disclose the truth.

I’d wanted to be Maxwell’s real sister. Had contemplated it several times over the past ten days. At that moment, things were so jumbled up in my brain I wanted to scream, scratch, and howl until everything, my life, but more importantly, the truth was put back together and Pandora’s box closed tight and buried never to be found again. I bolted out of the room with the single thought—
be careful what you wish for, because it might come true and leave your entire world hanging in the balance
.

T
he hood
of the truck was cool to the touch, chilling my palms as I leaned against it, bending over at the waist, looking down at my feet.

Just breathe. In…Out…In…Out. Repeat. It will all make sense soon.

I repeated the mantra over and over until the sound of gravel crunched underfoot behind me and a pair of black cowboy boots entered my vision. He didn’t speak for a long while, which I appreciated. Eventually the jack hammering of my heart dulled to a normal rate, and I stood and turned around, allowing the front of the truck to hold me up.

Max stood before me, shoulders slumped, and a deep frown marring his otherwise handsome face. His eyes, mirrors of my own, were cloudy and uncertain. “Mia, I—”

I held up a hand to stop any further excuses. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me.”

He inhaled, brought both hands in front of him, and cracked his knuckles. “There’s no excuse. It’s just I wanted to get to know you, spend time, maybe allow the truth to come out naturally…”

“Naturally, as in a room full of fucking strangers when I can’t react! What the hell were you thinking, Max?” I yelled, not holding a lick of anger back. “Right now, all I can think is why would you want to hurt me?” I sucked in a harsh breath as the tears threatened again.

Max lifted his hands and walked over to me. I couldn’t back up or flee as his arms bracing me in against the hard metal of the truck prevented further movement. “Mia, I’d never willingly hurt you. That wasn’t supposed to come out like that. I didn’t know Sofia was going to ask all those questions, and it all happened so fast.” He shook his head. “Christ on a cross. You’re my sister. Sugar, I already love you.” His pale eyes turned dark and stormy as his jaw clenched, and a muscle at the dip of his chin ticked. “Mia, I’d die before intentionally allowing anything to hurt you.”

I closed my eyes, not able to watch the honesty break us both. He loved me. My brother. I had another living, breathing sibling. Holy shit, this was intense and I didn’t know the first fuck how to handle it. All I knew is that I had to get out of there. “Take me home.”

“To Vegas?” His voice broke.

“No. God!” I blew out a breath. “Back to the ranch. I need time. And I need to figure out how the hell I’m going to tell Maddy about this.”

Max nodded, unlocked the truck door, and opened it for me. He got in and started up the truck. When we were about ten minutes from the ranch, he covered my knee with his hand. “I know this doesn’t mean much right now, and I know you’re trying to digest all this, but I’m really glad you’re my sister. After Dad died, before we found his will, I was completely lost. When I found out I had a sister, someone who shared my blood, it gave me a new purpose. Something good and right to focus on. When I saw your picture on that site, looking exactly like my mother… I knew it was all going to come together as it should. That finally, I wouldn’t feel alone.”

“But you have Cyndi and Isabel, and soon, your son. You’re never alone.” I covered his hand over my knee and squeezed, the ice in my heart melting at his admission.

He nodded. “Yes, and they are the most perfect part of my future. But there’s something special ’bout sharing a parent. Like we’re two sides of the same coin. I also had this feeling, like I told you. Then when I saw you and remembered that we’d met a couple times a long time ago, I just knew it was true.”

I licked my lips and stared out the window. “My entire life I’ve dreamed about you. Well, I didn’t know it was
you
, but a boy who played with me at a playground.” Then I laughed, remembering the hunt we’d been on. “And how we walked around looking to find you a new mommy.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I’ve thought about that first time a lot, wondering whatever happened to that woman Dad seemed to be taken with and her daughter. Now it makes more sense. The way I see it, Dad was chasing after our mother when she didn’t want to be caught.”

I huffed and crossed my hands over my chest. “Yeah, well, my pops couldn’t hold onto her either. Do you know where she is?”

Maxwell shook his head and maneuvered the car around a dead skunk on the road. “Never tried to look for her.”

“With your money and connections, I’d imagine it would be pretty easy for you.”

He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes but kept his focus on the road. “It would. Only problem, sugar, is that when a woman up and leaves her baby and then remarries, has a family for a decade, and up and leaves them too, she obviously doesn’t want to be a part of any of their lives or she wouldn’t have left. Sometimes people just don’t want to be found, or they wouldn’t have run away in the first place.

I rolled the logic around in my head as we drove up to his ranch. He definitely made sense, but the lingering feeling I had about the way Mom left, especially after recalling it in the dream last night, made me consider another alternative.

“Do you ever think that maybe she wanted someone to come running after her?”

Max turned off the truck, removed the Stetson, and ran his fingers through hair. “You know, I never thought of it like that. What do you think?” He turned sideways in the truck. We stared at one another for a few moments.

“I think our mother screwed up a lot. When someone is used to screwing up, a lot of times they don’t want that trouble to taint the only good things they have in their lives. Maybe she loved us more than we ever thought possible.”

Max closed his eyes and frowned. “If that’s the case, maybe we should at least look into it.”

“I agree.” Decision made. Max would use his resources, and we’d track down our mother. I had a few choice questions to ask her. Number one being why she never told us we had a brother.

T
he moment
the limo door opened and my sister’s blond hair went flying in the breeze, I lost my ability to breathe. Madison Saunders, my baby sister, was a vision in cropped pants, wedge heals, and a simple tank. Maddy held out her purse, and Matt barely grasped it when she was off at a run toward me, arms as wide as her smile. I braced and waited for her weight to hit me. When it did, it was like a cloud of love had wrapped its arms around me and filled my entire being with joy.

Maddy squealed in my ear. Usually I’d spin her around and play the goofy big sister, but this time I held on so tight it would take a crowbar to break me away. The sense of fear that came with letting her go, not having her close, swarmed around me in a thick fog. The girl had always been my everything, and I knew as excited as I was to see her, there was the burden of information and truth weighing this visit down.

Easing out of my arms, Maddy frowned, cupped my face, and pressed her forehead to mine. “What’s the matter? Why are you sad?” She brushed the wetness from my cheeks, wiping away tears I didn’t know were there.

Clearing my throat, I took a slow breath. “Just missed you is all.” I attempted to pacify her.

Her eyelids narrowed into slits. “You’re not being honest with me. I don’t like it, but I’ll grill you when we’re alone.”

I half-laughed half-snorted. “Okay, baby girl. Let me look at you!” I held her at arm’s length, and she brightened like the sun peeking out on a cloudy day. “Most beautiful girl in all the world but…”

“Only when she smiles,” Matt chimed in. He tugged her waist, pulling her to his side and out of the comfort of my arms. He’d pay for that move.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s my line!”

He chuckled. “I know.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Maddy has told me that a million times! I can’t wait to hear her say it to our children one day.” He nuzzled noses with my sister, and I wanted to gag and hug him in equal parts.

A booming voice behind me cleared his throat or cursed. I wasn’t really sure.

“Maddy, there’s uh, some people I’d like you to meet.” Turning around, I found Maxwell holding his wife Cyndi. Isabel was jumping up and down the porch steps behind them lost in her own world, as was the way of most four-year-olds.

Max’s eyes were huge, his mouth open unattractively. Cyndi’s eyes also had that deer-in-the-headlights look, only she had a hand covering her open mouth. Neither of them said a word as I clutched Maddy’s hand and took her closer.

“Uh, guys, hello?” I waved my other hand in front of both of them, and they seemed to snap out of it at the same time.

“Jesus…” Max whispered.

Cyndi gasped a throaty, “Oh. my god.”

I turned to Maddy. “They’re usually not so weird, but this is Maxwell Cunningham and his wife, Cyndi. Guys, this is my baby sister, Madison Saunders, and her fiancé, Matt Rains.”

Maddy’s eyebrows rose as Max and Cyndi continued to stare. Maxwell’s eyes didn’t leave her face. It was as if he’d been stunned with a Taser, his mouth slightly ajar, his eyes bouncing around unusually slow.

Cyndi spoke first, but what she said wouldn’t make any sense to Maddy. “She looks… Jesus, she looks exactly like you.” The statement was made as if she had also been struck with the stun gun.

“It’s unreal,” Max finally said, his head tilting to the side.

Matt looped an arm around Maddy’s waist and tugged her back a step. “What’s going on here? You two look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

He said the exact words I was thinking myself. Though, it had to be strange seeing your sister for the first time, especially one that looked so similar to you. I clutched at my fingers as the two sized up my sister awkwardly. I worried that they’d spill the beans without even trying to before I had a chance to tell her myself. Finding out she had another sibling needed to come from me.

Eventually, Isabel pushed between her parents’ legs and looked up at the new guest. “Wow! You’re pretty like a princess.” Isabel patted Maddy on the leg. She bent down to one knee so the little girl could see her face-to-face. Both Maddy and I had always been good with kids, but Maddy had special kid-friendly powers. They were attracted to her like a teenager to his game system. The little girl grabbed hold of a lock of Maddy’s hair. Her little eyes went big. “Yellow like mine and my daddy’s!”

I looked at the little girl’s face and saw the similarity between Maddy and the little girl, and then looked up at Maxwell with new eyes. Their hair was the same golden blond. Even their skin tone and the shape of their faces matched. If anything,
they
actually looked like siblings, whereas Max and I had some minor similarities. Side by side, these two were eerily alike.

Maddy glanced at Max and smiled. That’s when it happened. Recognition. Not only did the sizzle of familiarity buzz in the air around our huddle, but seeing little Isabel’s face next to Maddy’s, their twin smiles exact matches of the other, I saw a third in Maxwell. It was like looking into a microscope and reading genetic code, only this was live and in living color. Physically, Maxwell, Maddy, and his daughter Isabel shared the same smile, but not with our mother or me. I had been told over and over that Meryl and I shared the same exact smile. I’d always thought Maddy had some of Pops’s features, but at that moment, I couldn’t remember a single time I’d compared the two and found them similar.

Maddy petted Isabel’s head. “And what’s your name?” she asked.

“Isabel, but also Bell, too.”

Maddy tapped Isabel’s nose. “Well, I think you’re the prettiest little girl I’ve ever seen, so if you think I look like a princess, that must make you the queen!” She gasped and put her hand across her chest. Isabel giggled sweetly. “Maybe we can play some games while I’m here visiting, after I’ve gotten to know your mom and dad and spend some time with my sister. How does that sound?”

“So much fun!” she squealed and clapped her hands. Then like a shot in the night, she twirled around and ran up the stairs hollering, “I’ll get my crown!” as she clomped up each wooden step and slammed the screen door as she ran into the house.

Maddy chuckled and stood, putting out a hand. “Happy to meet friends of Mia’s. And thanks again for sending a plane and a limo. It’s the first time I’ve been in a limo!”She grinned.

Max shook his head as if he were shooing away flies. “The pleasure was all mine, sweetie. Come, come on in.” He held out a hand, leading the way up the porch. “Cyndi has a full spread of some of her best country dishes. Chicken fried steak, fried okra, homemade mac-n-cheese, and fresh baked pecan pie.”

Having spent the last two weeks eating Cyndi’s meals, my mouth started to water. “Seriously, her food is the best. Come on.”

“Lead the way,” Maddy responded.

I clasped hands with my sister and nudged her shoulder. “Thank you for coming. I missed you.”

Maddy leaned against my shoulder the way she had a hundred times before over the years. “Any chance I get to see you is one I have to jump on. Especially flying on a private jet!” She laughed. “Oh my God, you should have seen it. Matt and I were served champagne…on an airplane!” Her voice rose along with her excitement. “And they didn’t even check our IDs!” she whispered so only I’d hear what she said.

Sister secrets were commonplace between the two of us, only that was about to change. A pang hit my heart. Max was her sibling now too, and I had the huge, overwhelming responsibility of figuring out a way to tell her that.

It had only ever been Maddy, Pops, and me. The trio of lonely hearts whose wife and mother left them for God only knows what. Now I knew there was an entirely new part of us, a piece that had far reaching repercussions on who we were and what type of family we were going to be in the future. Even the addition of Matt had been something I hadn’t had a chance to get used to yet. I wondered if Maddy had even had that chance herself with her school load and all the recent changes to her life.

It was a lot for a young woman of only twenty to deal with. Her father in a coma, her sister gallivanting around the world as an escort, newly engaged, living with said fiancé, and now a brother comes into the mix. A sibling that she never knew she had. It was hard enough for me to wrap my head around it. I worried that it would be the tipping point for Mads. She was fragile in ways that I wasn’t. It was that part of her that made her special, though she often reminded me that she wasn’t a china doll and wouldn’t break every time bad news came her way. Only, it had been my job for the last fifteen years to protect her from all the shitty things life could throw her way. I still hadn’t figured out whether this was crummy news or not.