Divinity (19 page)

It was a small accomplishment, but to her it felt like a milestone. She had thought about selling the car over the past few days, but didn’t want to get rid of something that held so many memories of Alex. She shifted her focus to the drive and dinner.

Isabel had said that she would hire an investigator to locate Julia’s biological mother, Maria. She had also given Julia the key to the lake house. She wasn’t able to bring herself to go see it. It was uncomfortable, receiving something handed down in someone else’s family. The key remained in its box at the bottom of her purse. She guessed it had been Alex’s secret project during the last few months before his death and she figured he’d been getting it ready to ask her to move into it with him, but she wasn’t ready to go there yet.

She shrugged away the chill that crept across her skin and pulled into the driveway at Williams Manor. A wave of sadness clutched at her heart when she saw the tree Alex had once waited beside, smiling in eager anticipation of her arrival. The temptation to find the memory of Alex in that place was great, but Julia pushed it away. She was beginning to feel like a junkie—memories of Alex her heroin.

Isabel met her at the door, also dressed in black. Julia thought she could see her own sadness reflected in Alex’s mother’s eyes. Their hug held a tightness that spoke of mutual grief, and when they moved into their seats in the stately dining room, their eyes both fell to Alex’s chair. Each woman fought her own silent battle against the tears.

The silence seemed to become a physical thing, pressing down on Julia’s shoulders. The scraping of Isabel’s chair split the stillness.

“Let’s go,” Isabel said, plucking her wine glass and the bottle of Merlot from the table. Her tone left no room for argument. “Bring your glass.”

“Where are we going?”

“The kitchen table. A much better place for a family dinner, don’t you think?” Mrs. Williams led the way down a long corridor and into the massive kitchen. Brushed stainless-steel appliances complemented the hanging stainless cookware over the island that housed the gas stove. Deep green marble counter-tops gave the kitchen a warm yet pristine feel.

The table, only slightly less formal than the one in the dining room, was covered by white linen. It was set for two, one place at the head of the table and one beside it to the left. It was obviously planned for them to sit here, and Julia wondered why Isabel had bothered with the façade of first going to the dining room.

“I suppose a part of me needed to see you look at his chair,” Mrs. Williams said, as though she had read Julia’s mind. “I needed to see that you feel the loss as I do.”

“Why?” Julia’s voice crackled as she spoke. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“My dear, I am alone now. My beloved husband gone, and now my only child. I have no remaining family.” She filled her glass, then Julia’s, as she spoke. “Maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t want to be the only one who feels the way I do.”

Julia sipped her wine as she listened. It was drier than she liked, but had a smooth taste to counter it. When she met Isabel’s eyes, she wasn’t prepared for the vulnerability she saw.

“You aren’t the only one.” Julia set her glass down, reached for Isabel’s hand, and gave it a light squeeze.

“There’s something about you, Julia. I knew the first time Alex brought you to meet me. You were meant for each other.” Isabel leaned closer to Julia. “Don’t think for a second that I’m some old biddy who swoons over every romantic notion. I assure you I’m not. But there was something about the air when the two of you were together.”

Julia smiled, and for a second her heart lifted and a tear slid down her cheek. “There was something about Alex.”

Isabel returned her smile and they sat in a comfortable quiet. After a moment, Isabel frowned and took a deep breath.

“I have a confession to make, Julia.” Isabel sat back in her chair and reached for her wine glass. “I have been trying to figure out a way to tell you this. I’m afraid that you’ll walk away from me when I do. I don’t want you to do that. You are all I have left and I don’t want to lose you.”

Julia’s heart picked up its pace. It probably would be easy to walk away. They hadn’t exactly been close before, and the only thing they had in common now was their shared loss. But why would Isabel worry? What could she be hiding that would turn Julia away?

“I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Don’t say anything, dear, just listen.” Isabel took a long sip of her wine. She set the glass down and folded her hands in front of her. “When you asked how to find your birth mother and I offered to take care of it for you… Well, the truth is, I had already tracked her down.”

Julia’s mind raced with questions, and her breath seemed to catch in her throat. The heavy silence came crashing back onto her shoulders.

“Why?” Julia finally stammered. “Why would you track her down? And why wouldn’t you tell me? Did you find something horrible?”

“I kept it to myself because Alex would have been furious if he knew I had been nosing around. Every time I asked him questions about your family, he became so defensive. I simply had to find out what he was hiding. I didn’t realize he was only trying to protect you. Once we found her, we pieced together your family history.”

Julia’s eyes narrowed, her fingers entwined in her cloth napkin. “We?”

“The investigator and I.” Isabel raised her eyebrows when relief swept across Julia’s face. “Oh, no, not Alex. He never would have stood for it.”

“What did you find?” Julia’s mouth was dry.

“I tried to tell you both, that last family dinner we had.”

Julia stared at the woman across from her and let her mind drift back to that last dinner. Yes, Isabel definitely had been trying to steer the conversation somewhere, but Julia had panicked and fled.

Closing off the memory before the pain of Alex’s presence sucked her in, Julia returned to the present and searched Isabel’s eyes. The woman wasn’t lying. Julia knew that as clearly as she knew her own name. But she also knew there was more.

“Tell me what you found. Please.” Julia braced herself.

It was Isabel’s turn to evaluate Julia. After a moment, she gave a curt nod and began. “Your mother, Maria Samson, is in the Woodgrass Psychiatric Hospital in Dallas, Texas.”

Julia leaned forward. She knew her birth mother was in an asylum. Her adoptive parents had filled her in on that much. But to hear the location and name of the facility—it filled her at once with relief and dread.

“Do you know why? Who committed her?” Julia asked.

Isabel shook her head. “I was only able to find her location. The circumstances surrounding her admission to the hospital are not accessible.”

Now that she knew where the woman who had given birth to her was, what was she going to do? Show up on her doorstep? It seemed preposterous. Julia sat back, pondering her next move. She definitely wanted to meet the woman and ask her some questions. For example, “How did you sleep with an Archangel?”

“Julia?” The fine lines around Isabel’s mouth deepened as she pressed her lips together.

“I understand, Isabel.” Julia reached forward and rested her hand across the older woman’s. “You wanted to know who your son was getting involved with. I’d have done the same thing.”

“I did, and I make no apologies for that.” Isabel straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “But now I have no son to protect. You are all I have left. And there is no question that you would have been my daughter.”

Julia felt a wave of guilt as she thought about all the times she told Alex not to propose to her. She realized now it wasn’t because she didn’t want to marry him. She did. She just knew she wasn’t ready, and when he asked, she wanted to be able to say yes—to have that moment of romance where she could fling herself into his arms and be swept away by his kisses.

“I found nothing of your birth father,” Isabel said, pulling Julia from her thoughts.

“Oh?”

“Your original birth certificate simply says unknown,” Isabel said, wearing a pinched expression.

Julia raised an eyebrow. Maybe she should have been offended by the intrusion, but instead she was amused.

“That birth certificate was sealed by the court when I was adopted.”

“Yes, well,” Isabel said with a wave of her hand, “I’m usually very good at opening closed doors, dear.”

“I don’t doubt that for a moment,” Julia said with a laugh.

“Will you ask her when you meet her? Who your father is?”

“Oh yes,” Julia said, smoothing out a non-existent wrinkle in her slacks. “I’ll be sure to do that.”

“I went ahead and made arrangements for you to go to Dallas,” Isabel said. She lifted her napkin, revealing some tri-folded documents. She passed them to Julia, who leafed through them—airline tickets, itinerary, car rental documents, and hotel reservations.

“I don’t know what to say, Isabel,” Julia stammered. She wasn’t entirely certain she was ready to face her birth mother. “Why would you do this?”

“I was adopted.” Isabel took a sip of wine before she continued. “I was blessed with a good home and a strong family. Nevertheless, I still wanted to know where I came from. When I found my truth, it was less than savory and I was able to walk away cleanly. It wasn’t until I did that I felt complete.”

“Alex didn’t tell me you were adopted.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn’t have.” Isabel lifted her chin and straightened. “I did not share this secret with Alex. I wanted him to feel as though his family was whole, not waste time wondering about the grandparents he never met.”

Julia’s eyes welled up with tears. Whole. Something she had never had the luxury of feeling.

“You are a good woman, Isabel.”

“We do what we think is best, Julia. That’s all any of us can do.”

Michael stood watch side by side with Gabriel as Julia continued her dinner with Mrs. Williams. “I’d hoped I’d have more time with her before she made this journey.”

Gabriel nodded and kept watching the women as they chatted. “She is growing connected to this woman in an unnatural way. Should we be concerned?”

Michael arched an eyebrow and glanced at Gabriel. “It may seem unnatural to you, Brother, but it is definitely a natural thing for humans. And necessary to our cause to have the girl bond with the humans. Else, why would she stand for them?”

“But if she becomes too attached, she may choose to stay with them, and turn her back on us.”

“All of her natural bonds and family ties that might have been problems for us have been severed,” Michael said, lowering his wings.

“But now she will meet with her mother.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Michael said. “Unless something has changed with her situation.”

“True.” Gabriel hung his head, his straight, light hair falling over his eyes.

“Have you spoken with Ariel?”

“He appeared briefly in answer to your call,” Gabriel answered. He grimaced as the viewing hole at his feet closed up. “But he disappeared before I had the opportunity to speak with him. I have spoken with all the others regarding this abomination, and have spread the word to all the humans who are able to hear.”

“You have, have you?” Michael turned to look at Gabriel directly.

Gabriel met his glance and then looked away. Michael let the subject drop.

“Go. Find Ariel. I want him tracking the life of the human Clyde Warner. We must know when the touch of evil fell across his path.”

“Yes, Michael.” Gabriel lifted his wings up and extended them outward, in a form of salute, and then vanished.

XIX

J
ULIA
picked up her rental car at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and drove in through the city to the Woodgrass Psychiatric Hospital. It was a thirty-minute drive, according to her GPS, but traffic lengthened her trip to nearly an hour. She found a spot in the large, mostly barren parking lot, and stood outside, admiring the stately building and the grounds.

The main building had once been a farmhouse, though it looked more like a plantation house, with large white pillars on either side of the grand entryway and beautifully etched glass doors. An immaculately sculpted landscape surrounded the building, every bit as welcoming as it had appeared in the brochure.

Knowing her biological mother was somewhere on the other side of the door made Julia’s stomach turn somersaults, but she was determined. Her heels clicked loudly on the brick driveway and up the few stairs. She saw the red button on the intercom and paused for a moment before pressing it. The harsh sound of the buzzer was such a contrast to the serene setting of the place that she almost yelped.

There was a click of the lock being released on the front door, and a soft voice on the intercom invited Julia in. When she pushed the door open, the sterile smell of a hospital flooded her senses and she was comforted by the normalcy of it. She walked over to the reception desk and stated her name.

“Welcome, Ms. Samson. You’re here to see Maria? She’s enjoying some fresh air right now. John will be happy to escort you back to see her.” The receptionist waved her arm, indicating the burly, white-clad orderly standing beside the desk.