Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (61 page)

Carissa reached for Hope’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “We have a two-and-a-half-hour drive ahead of us. We should make it by one o’clock.”

Hope nodded. Her mouth had gone dry.

Twenty minutes from Jefferson City, Hope’s phone rang. Carissa shook her head before Hope answered the phone. “Don’t tell him what we’re doing. Not yet.”

Hope nodded, then answered. “Hello, handsome.”

“I called your shop. Your mom said she was covering for you today. Are you okay?” There was a hint of worry in his voice and she didn’t like it.

“I’m fine. Carissa and I are spending the day together. You know, girl stuff.”

“Sounds nice. I had some man time myself last night. Cost me fifty bucks. Hurts more when you play cards and lose to your own father.”

Hope laughed. She was missing him terribly. “When do you get in tomorrow?”

“Ten. I know you’re working so I’ll either get a car or a cab.”

“Dad said he’d cover for me. I’ll be there. I’ve missed you too much not to be waiting for you.”

“I never thought I’d have someone who longed to pick me up from the airport.”

“You have me,” she said softly then said goodbye as Carissa took the exit from the highway that would lead them toward the bank.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” Carissa instructed as she slowly drove down the street in search of the bank. “Some of these buildings weren’t here twenty-three years ago.”

“So, seriously, there was enough money for you to go through school on?”

“Seriously. There was over a hundred thousand in the account when I closed it. I never told Dad just how much was in there. I put a lot of it away, paid my way through school, and when I was ready to open the school I used the money I had left to put a down payment on the building.”

That was a lot of money for a woman who’d lived in a cheap motel.

“There it is,” Carissa said as she made the turn into the parking lot.

Hope’s heart rate picked up as they neared the bank. “I’m afraid to go in here.”

“Why? She can’t hurt us know.”

Hope nodded and turned to her sister. “What do we do if we find something?”

“Then we deal with it.” She covered Hope’s hand with hers. “Whatever we find is only material and belongs to someone who didn’t care about us. Let’s go see what it is.”

Hope nodded in agreement and then raised her hand to the charm that hung from her neck. The Saint Nicholas medal had kept her mother, sister, and her safe for years. She gave it a squeeze, hoping it would still work even though she was grown.

Peter Westfall met them in the lobby of the bank and escorted them to his office.

“I have her death certificate as well as the power of attorney papers with me,” Carissa said as she laid them on his desk. “She had an account here that I closed, about twenty-three years ago.”

“But you didn’t close out the safe-deposit box?”

“I didn’t know about it until we found the key. I don’t even know if it’s from this bank. It was just a place to start.”

“The number you gave me this morning on the phone did match a box we have here. Do you have the key with you?”

Hope reached into her purse and pulled it out. She set it on the desk and Peter Westfall nodded.

“Wonderful. Well, let me get the other key and we’ll go into the vault and get your box.”

He left them in the office while he went for the other key. Hope grabbed for Carissa’s hand. “Why am I so scared?”

“It’s okay. Maybe the box is empty,” Carissa offered as Peter returned to the office and they followed him out.

They followed the man into the vault, passing a security guard at the door. Peter put in the key from the bank, and Carissa, with shaky hands, inserted the other key into the box. Each of them turned their keys and the box slid into Peter’s hands. He handed the box to Carissa.

Carissa shot Hope a glance and she knew it wasn’t empty.

Peter showed them to an adjacent room where they could open the box and go through it in private. He left them to the contents, shutting the door behind him.

Both women stood and looked down and the closed box. Hope didn’t want to be the first to see what their birth mother was hiding.

“Okay.” Carissa blew out a breath. “Here we go.”

She slowly slid the lid from the box and Hope held her breath. Inside the safe-deposit box were stock certificates. Carissa pulled them out and laid them to the side. There was another bundle of money and a letter addressed to “My Daughters.”

Carissa lifted the letter out of the box and her hands, unsteady and shaking, rattled the envelope.

They exchanged glances again.

“Open it. Fast,” Hope said, her own lip quivering.

Carissa started to run her finger through the envelope that bared the name of the bank. She pulled the letter from the envelope and the letterhead had the name of the bank as well.

She cleared her throat and began.

To My Beautiful Daughters,

As I write this, I am sitting in a little room at the bank filling this safe-deposit box that I hope someday you will find. I know that I will never return here.

I am seven months pregnant with a baby that I know will be a girl. I am headed to Kansas City to give birth to her and convince a wonderful man to raise her. I have done all I can to ensure that he will be able to take her without problems. I have changed my name to match his, and if I can convince him to be her father, he will only have to carry her out of the hospital and give her a wonderful life.

I was told that if I carried the baby to term I would die. I feel weak and I’m sure this to be very true. I have stopped taking my medications because after she is born, I do not want to live.

I have chosen a path for my life that has left me unhappy. I have disgraced my family and have lost all connection to them.

Carissa, if you are reading this, please know that I did love you. You were an amazing gift to me that I didn’t respect.

She stopped reading, took a breath, and wiped her eyes. Hope gave her a nod and urged her to continue.

I know since I walked away from you, leaving you with your father, you’ve blossomed into a beautiful woman. I’ve heard you play your cello and I’ve seen you turn into a beautiful woman. I’ve never been too far away.

“Oh, God!” Carissa handed the letter to Hope. “Finish this,” she said.

Hope nodded and took the letter.

The baby I am carrying is your sister. And I hope that you and your father will consider raising her so that you will be together. This baby will need her family. I will be gone, and her father does not know about her.

I’ve done something I’m not proud of. I had an affair with a married man. He’s someone I’ve known my whole life. He was my father’s business partner.

Hope looked up from the letter, realizing Mandy had told them who her birth father was. Even without a name they had somewhere to start looking.

He gave me the stocks for the company because he felt I was owed them after my father died. I hope they will be worth something to you someday. The other money that I have put into an account, and what I have stored here, was given to me by his wife to stay away from him and never mention the baby. I have sunk low enough to have accepted her bribe and to have run away. I was afraid that if I didn’t disappear, she would have had me killed and that would have killed my baby too.

I know I will die, but I want my baby to live.

Hope stopped and put her hand to her chest. “She was protecting me.”

Carissa nodded. “She’d cleaned up. I know her conscience played a big role in her giving you to us, but I didn’t know someone had paid her off to do it.”

“I’m glad they did,” Hope said, covering her sister’s hand with her own. She took a deep breath and continued to read the letter.

Carissa, I’m sorry for everything I have ever done. To have been fair to you I should have told David about you from the start and let him have you. He wanted to keep you and I lied to him. I hurt you and I’m so very sorry. I hope you can accept my apology.

Please take care of my baby and love her. She is your sister and I know that will mean something to you.

I love you both. I’m sorry I will never get to know the baby that grows inside of me. I’m sure if all goes well and she is raised a Kendal she will be perfect too.

Love, Mandy

They both sat silently. Hope tried to hold back the wall of tears, and watched as her sister did the same, but eventually they broke through.

Carissa blew out a ragged breath. “She didn’t even sign the letter, Mom,” she said with a shake of her head. “Let’s get out of here.” She took the stocks and cash and slid them into her purse.

Hope took the letter, put it into the envelope, and carried them out with her. It was the first time in her life she felt a connection to Mandy Marlow, and she wasn’t sure what to do with the feeling.

They drove home in silence. Hope tried to make sense of the words of a woman who had been dead for twenty-three years. And from Carissa’s tapping of her fingers on the steering wheel she assumed she was doing the same.

Hope had counted the cash that Mandy had left in the box. There was ten thousand dollars. Neither of them had staked claim to the money or the stocks. Hope was sure she didn’t want the responsibility of Mandy’s last gift.

Trevor put his suitcase into his mother’s car and stood at the curb waiting for her. In a few hours he’d be in the arms of the woman he loved. He’d never have thought he could miss a woman so much, but he missed Hope completely.

“Do you have everything?” Violet asked as she locked the front door.

“Yeah.”

“Is she picking you up when you get there?”

He smiled. “Yes. Her father is watching the store so she can be at the airport.” He walked to the driver’s side of the car and opened the door for his mother.

“You are bringing her here to meet me, right?”

“Of course. For your birthday.”

With a rise of her brows she looked at him over her sunglasses. “That’s only a few weeks away. You’ll be flying in then too?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Not at all,” she said, patting his cheek with her hand as she slid into the seat, and Trevor shut the door.

At the airport, Violet pulled to the curb and met Trevor at the back of the car.

“I feel like this goodbye is so permanent.” Her voice cracked, and it gave a tug at Trevor’s chest.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

Violet slapped him on the shoulder and took off her sunglasses. “I’m your mother. I’m allowed to feel the disappointment of losing my only son.” She took a deep breath, lifting her shoulders and dropping them again. “But my baby is in love.” She clasped her hands to her chest. “He’s in love.” This time a smile brightened her face.

“I am.” His grin was so huge it hurt. “She’ll love you too.”

“Of course she will.” Violet kissed her son on the cheek. “Be happy.”

“I will.”

“Be careful.”

On a sigh he said, “I will.”

Trevor picked up his suitcase and the box that Ruth Marlow had given him. He kissed his mother once more and disappeared into the airport to make his journey back to Hope.

Just as he passed through security and found his gate he opened his phone to call Hope, but it rang in his hands.

“Jacobs,” he answered as he set the box down on the seat next to him.

“Mr. Jacobs, it’s Ruth Marlow.”

“Mrs. Marlow, I didn’t expect to hear from you.” He sat up in the seat. “How can I help you?”

“Well, after you were here I did some looking around. I got to thinking about Delores Buchanan.”

“And you remembered something?”

“Yes.” He heard her take a deep breath. “When my husband died, Donald Buchanan bought back my husband’s shares of the company from me. I had no use for them. My husband had set us up to live nicely through retirement. So I sold them to him. But when Delores cornered me in the antique store last month, she asked me about my stocks for the company.”

Trevor’s heart began to race. “She didn’t know her husband bought them back from you?”

“That’s how it sounded. But that was a very long time ago. Maybe she forgot. Anyway, I just thought I’d let you know I remembered that part of the conversation.”

“I appreciate it very much. Again, if you think of anything…”

“I’ll be sure to let you know.” She didn’t say goodbye right away, and just as Trevor took a breath to speak Ruth asked, “Are you on your way back to her?”

“Yes. She’ll be picking me up at the airport.”

“I assume she and her sister are beautiful. My Mandy was beautiful once. Drugs and alcohol changed how she looked, but once she was very pretty.”

“Both of her girls are beautiful, Mrs. Marlow. In fact, if you don’t mind my saying, when I saw you I could see a lot of Hope in you.”

“Really?” Her voice lifted.

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m glad they had a nice life.”

“Mrs. Marlow, are you sure you don’t want to meet them?”

There was a pause and Trevor thought perhaps she’d changed her mind. “No. Take care of them, Mr. Jacobs. I know you love her very much, and that will be nice to know. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Mrs. Marlow.” He closed his phone just as they called for his flight.

Quickly he dialed Hope’s phone, but it went straight to voice mail. He closed it again and boarded the plane. In only a few hours, he’d be in her arms.

Twenty minutes until closing, the door to Hope’s store opened and the bell rang. David looked up from his crossword puzzle and smiled at the woman who sauntered in. He’d hoped to get away with helping Hope out and not having to have talked to any customers, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

“Good afternoon. Nice day, isn’t it?” he asked with a smile, but the woman coolly looked him over.

“Where is the woman who owns the store?” Her red-painted lips were pursed.

“She had an errand to run. I’m her father. Can I help you with something?”

The woman snorted a laughed and jaunted out her chin. “You are her father?”

“Yes.”

He watched as she ran her tongue over her teeth and considered him.