Shadow of Suspicion (Haunted by the Past) (8 page)

“I don’t feel like dealing with this
today after all.” She hated the fact that her voice trembled. Where was all her
confidence and pride? It seemed to have dribbled out of her along with her good
sense!

Callie tentatively peeped at him over
her shoulder. Jason’s expression was unreadable. She’d never seen a face as
blank as that before. Had he not been affected by their encounter at all? Somehow
that made it all the worse.

She swallowed hard. “If it’s
permissible to you and your father, I’ll come back another time to sort out my
car.”

“How about I drop the quote to you
tomorrow? I have to swing by that area after work anyway, so it wouldn’t be a
problem.” She caught a strange flicker in his eyes. Something told her that he
wasn’t being entirely honest.

Callie had the distinct impression he
was hiding things from her. Anger warred with the sexual awareness still
thrumming through her. She wished her emotions weren’t so messed up right now,
but it was impossible to think straight. She didn’t trust herself around him. She
needed distance and time alone to think things through.

“If you’re sure it’s no trouble.” She
didn’t really want to see him tomorrow or any other day for that matter, but
the B&B might be safer. She’d talk with him in one of the public rooms.
Hopefully there would be other people around and she wouldn’t make a fool of
herself.

“It’s no trouble.” Jason picked up
the office phone. “I’d best make those calls so I can finish this quote for
you.”  

Callie knew when she was being
dismissed. Normally she’d go to town on someone for such a tactic, but this time
she just wanted to get as far away from him as possible. She opened the office
door and stepped through the portal. “I’ll expect you tomorrow then.”

She closed the door behind her and walked
slowly from the garage. Her legs shook uncontrollably from the whole
experience. She’d not gone more than a few steps beyond the building when a
hand grabbed her elbow. A small shriek exploded from her lips and she spun
around. The young mechanic that had stared at her so strangely earlier, stood
behind her.

“What do you want with Sandra?” He
eyed her darkly.

“What’s it to you?” Callie glared
back at him. She was sick of being bossed around by pushy men.

“She means a lot to me and I won’t
have someone upsetting her.” His lips thinned. Callie tried to pull her arm
from his grip, but he held her tightly.

“I really don’t see that my business
with Sandra is anything to do with you.” She stuck her nose in the air and
stared him down. Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t intimidated.

“Sandra is family, so it has
everything to do with me if you’re causing her grief.” He stuck his face into
hers.

Callie’s eyes widened, shock freezing
her in place. “You’re a relative of Sandra’s?”

“I’m her nephew.”

Callie swallowed hard. She gazed at
him with new eyes. His short brown hair held hints of red through it when she
looked at it close enough. She could see gold flecks in his light brown eyes.
She could hardly believe she’d just met her cousin.

Had Jason known who this guy was to
her? He had to have! No wonder she’d felt he’d been hiding something from her!
Anger burned in her chest. He’d deliberately withheld such important
information from her. What right did he have to deny her the chance to know her
family?

“Then that makes us cousins,” she
informed the angry young man in front of her. She was satisfied when his jaw
fell open. His shock mirrored her own. “I happen to be Sandra’s daughter.”

“You’re lying! Sandra has no children”
he snarled. He grabbed hold of her other arm and shook her. “If you’re trying
to extort money from her, you will find yourself in a whole heap of trouble. We
Fullers won’t take it lying down!”

Panic surged through Callie at his
rough handling. She pushed at his chest and kicked him in the shin. He let out
a grunt of pain and released her. He rubbed his shin with one hand and glared
at her darkly. Callie stepped back several paces from him and swept her hand
down her form.

“Don’t I take after her at all? Can’t
you see any family resemblance in me?” She hoped she had something of Sandra in
her appearance that would convince him she was telling the truth. Callie wanted
the chance to bond with him. She’d never had any blood relatives in her life.
She couldn’t lose this opportunity.

His entire countenance burned with
anger. “That doesn’t mean anything. There are plenty of con-artists that can
fake family connections if they know what they’re doing.”

“I am not a con-artist!” Callie
planted her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you simply talk to Sandra? She knows
who I am. She’ll tell you that we are family!”

He straightened up and stalked
forward, limping slightly. He stabbed a finger at her chest. “Rest assured, I
have every intention of speaking to my Aunt. If you are lying, you are going to
be very, very sorry!”

Callie swallowed hard. “And if I’m
not?”

He stared at her for several moments
before he walked away without any further comment. Callie stared after him,
unsure for the first time in her life. Had she just made an irreversible
mistake? Dread clutched at her stomach and nausea twisted her insides.

 “
It’s too late now. Far too late
to turn back
!” The mournful whisper filled Callie’s ears. She shivered and
wrapped her arms around her middle. What had she done?

Callie’s pencil flew over the page.
The image in her head rapidly transpired to her sketchbook. Her eyes flicked
back and forth from her work to the breakfast room where she sat. Late
afternoon sunshine drifted in through the large glass windows and lit the area
with a soft golden light. The entire atmosphere was peaceful, with not a soul
in the place to disrupt her creative flow. A blissful sigh escaped her lips,
her mind’s eye easily seeing how the room would look when it was finished.

A prickling sensation gradually drew
her awareness. Callie glanced to her left, as if she was drawn by a magnet. Her
gaze collided with a woman standing in the doorway watching her. The pencil in
Callie’s hand stopped moving and dropped from her nerveless fingers with a soft
thud upon her pad.

Her stomach lurched as their eyes met
and held. Callie rose to her feet, hardly aware of what she was doing. She knew
instinctively that the woman was Sandra. Her eyes feasted on the delicate shape
of Sandra’s jawline that exactly matched her own. She could see herself
reflected in the shape of Sandra’s eyes and mouth, even her frame but their
colouring was completely different.

The young mechanic from the day
before held a stronger resemblance to Sandra than she did. Her heart twisted in
her chest. It didn’t seem right somehow. Callie hated the feeling of jealousy
that burned through her. It was stupid and completely irrational, but she
couldn’t stop it.

“Well, it seems you’ve managed to get
your wish.” Sandra moved slowly forward and held her arms out to the side. “I’m
here.”

Callie stared at her mother, stunned
at her complete indifference to the monumental moment they were sharing. Did
she mean that little to her own birth mother?

“You say that like I should be
grateful.” Bitterness crept into Callie’s words and she hated Sandra for it.

“It’s what you’ve engineered, isn’t
it? You insisted on not leaving as I requested,” Sandra placed her hands on her
hips, her gaze spitting sparks at Callie, “and then you told Mitch who you were
yesterday. You knew it would come back to bite me. Why else would you do it,
except to push me into this meeting?”

“I wasn’t trying to push you into
anything.” Callie swallowed hard and held onto her temper by a thread. “And
while we’re at it, don’t you mean that I didn’t leave as you
ordered
?
There was no
request
made that I could see.”

“Don’t get pedantic with me.”
Sandra’s tone sharpened. “I don’t want you here and I didn’t want to meet you.
Why couldn’t you just beat it when Doug told you? It would have been best for
both of us.”

Pain lanced through Callie as if her
mother had stabbed her in the chest and twisted the knife. It had been hard to
hear the words from Doug that her own mother didn’t want to meet her. To hear
them from Sandra herself was pure torture.

“As I explained to Doug, I contracted
for work here. I won’t just abandon my client on your say so. I’m not like
you.” Callie swept her gaze over her mother, letting the contempt she felt drip
from every word. “I don’t just abandon my responsibilities.” She was proud that
her voice didn’t give away how hurt she was inside.

Sandra snorted and folded her arms
over her chest. “I did what was best for both of us by giving you up for
adoption. You have a mother and a father. Just be content with that.”

“I didn’t come here to replace them.”
Callie shrieked, and stabbed her finger at the ground. “I came here for answers
they couldn’t give me.
You
could
never
be my real mother. As you
say, I already have one of those and you’d be a poor choice compared to her.”

“Fine.” Sandra swept over to a seat
opposite Callie. She sank down onto the chair and folded her arms over her
chest. Sandra leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table. She stared
hard at Callie.

“Aren’t you going to sit down?”
Sandra nodded at Callie’s seat with her chin.

“Why?” Suspicion clawed through
Callie. She didn’t trust this sudden acquiescence.

“You said you want answers, so I’ll
give you what answers I can. Then you can go home.”

Callie hated the emotionless way
Sandra was handling this whole meeting between them. How could she remain so
unaffected when Callie’s whole world was rocked so violently? She sank into her
chair and gripped the armrests tightly.

“What do you want to know?” Sandra
leaned back and crossed her legs. She seemed so relaxed that Callie had the
wild urge to say or do something to provoke a reaction. She reigned in her
tendencies and focused on why she’d come here in the first place.

“Who is my father? Why did you give
me up for adoption? Did he know about it?” Callie bit her lip and forced
herself to stop. One thing at a time. She’d waited twenty three years, a few
more minutes wouldn’t kill her.

Sandra’s mouth pursed. “Yes, your
father knew about the adoption. He was all for it. Did you think he was kept in
the dark and would want to know you?” She gave a nasty laugh. “He didn’t want
to be saddled with a baby any more than I did.”

Callie’s heart turned to stone in her
chest. What had she expected? She bit her lip. Who was she kidding? She’d
always believed that he hadn’t known. That if he had, he would have fought to
keep her. Callie had wanted to believe that one of her parents would have
wanted her. What a fool!

“Who is he?” Her voice sounded hollow
even to her own ears. Her fingers grew numb where they still clung to the
armrests of her chair.

“I won’t tell you that.”

Callie’s gaze snapped to Sandra’s
hard face. “Why not? I have the right to at least know who he is.”

“No, you don’t. Even if I gave you a
name, what good would that do you?” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes on
Callie. “Can you honestly say that you wouldn’t want to find him?”

“What difference would it make to you
if I did?” Callie couldn’t let it go. This was too important to her. She had to
at least know her real father’s name.

“Because he won’t thank me for
telling you how to find him. I don’t want him pounding me out for you turning
up on his doorstep. What if he’s married with other kids now? Did you ever
think of that? Chances are he won’t have told them about you.” Sandra’s voice
bit through Callie as if it were barbed wire. “He won’t thank you for
disrupting his nice ordered world and I’m likely to be the one to pay the
price. He’s a mean bastard when crossed. You’re better off not knowing him.”

A tear slipped down Callie’s cheek.
She swiped at it angrily. She didn’t want to show weakness to this vicious
woman. Her throat tightened, but Callie was determined not to allow the giant
sized lump lodged in it to get the better of her.

“How can you know that? It’s been years
since you’ve seen him, hasn’t it? People change. He may want to meet me now.”
She clasped a hand to her chest. Her voice hitched as she spoke.

“Don’t be stupid! If he did, he would
have found you himself by now.” Sandra clicked her tongue and cast a mock
pitying glance at Callie. “Just accept the fact that you were a mistake made by
too young fools. Be glad we gave you up for adoption. Just go home and forget
about us.”

Sandra rose to her feet and stepped
away from the table.

“What about the rest of the family?”
Callie jumped up and grabbed her mother’s wrist. “I have a cousin, Mitch did
you say his name is?”

Sandra pulled her wrist from Callie’s
grip and snarled at her. “What does it take to make you go away? Mitch doesn’t
want to know you. Neither do his parents, my parents or anyone else in the
Fuller family. Just go!”

“I don’t believe you. Mitch didn’t
even know I existed. He struck me as a person that values family. I have the
right to meet him properly, and my other blood relations. You can’t speak for
them all.”

“Then let me speak for them.” Callie
gasped and spun round at the sound of a new voice.

A tall thin woman with grey streaked
red hair and golden eyes stepped into the room. She stared at Callie coldly. It
was as if her very presence drained the entire room of any warmth. Her mouth
thinned.

“My daughter has told you plainly how
we feel. Why are you still here? Did you think to extort money from us?” The
woman’s voice held a steely edge. “I can assure you that you won’t get a penny
from us.”

Callie couldn’t tear her eyes from
the face that stared so coldly into her own. She was sure, given another fifty
years, she would look like this woman. It was like seeing herself at some
future date, only she hoped she would never be as hard as this matriarch of the
Fuller family.

“Are you my grandmother?” she
whispered, clutching the side of the table to keep from keeling over.

“Do not call me that! I am Mrs Fuller
to you.” She moved towards Callie with all the bearing of a queen. “There is
not one member of our family that will acknowledge you, Miss Price. I suggest
you leave today and never come back here again.”

Callie swayed on her feet. She’d
never dreamed of this scenario when she’d set out to meet her mother. What was
wrong with these people? The hostility she was encountering seemed so extreme.
If they lived fifty years in the past, she could understand it. This day and
age, it was no big deal for someone to have a teenage pregnancy out of
marriage.

“I would leave if I could, but I have
work here.” She drew herself up to her full height and glared at Mrs Fuller.
“Also, my car broke down on the way here and I can’t go home until it’s fixed.”

Mrs Fuller turned to her daughter. “I
understand from Mitch that Jason has the vehicle in his garage?”

Sandra nodded her head. “That’s
right, Mama.”

“Then I suggest you hurry him along.”
She turned back to Callie. “I will also pay for the repairs. Mitch will give
his time to help Jason fix your car with all speed. Once it’s done, I want you
gone.”

Callie didn’t care for the woman’s
orders. “I’m sorry, I must have missed the sign that said this town belongs to
you and your family.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I already told you,
I have taken work here. I have no intention of leaving until I’ve done my job.”

Mrs Fuller opened her mouth, but
Callie cut her hand through the air and spoke over her. She was satisfied to
see the woman’s eyes widen with shock and her mouth stayed hanging open. It
made Callie feel so much better!

“You Fuller’s might be content to
dump all responsibilities, but I’m not.” Callie ran her eyes scornfully over
both her mother and grandmother. “Thankfully that’s something I haven’t
inherited along with your nasty dispositions. And just to be clear, I can pay
for my own damn car! I wouldn’t want to be accused of extorting money from you.
Now, if that’s all you’ve come to say, I have work to do.”

She turned her back on them. A bony
hand grasped hold of her arm and spun her around. Mrs Fuller loomed over
Callie, her face contorted with rage.

“My family has very good standing in
this community. We don’t have divorces or children out of marriage.” Her voice
was clipped and sharp. Callie wondered if the woman ever lost control. “I won’t
have you ruin that, do you understand? I can’t force you to leave, but I
promise you a very hard time if you stay. Do I make myself clear?”

“Are you threatening me?” Callie was
incredulous.

“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.”
Mrs Fuller glared at her for several seconds longer. “Come, Sandra.”

She let go of Callie and swept out of
the room without as much as a glance in her daughter’s direction. Callie
transferred her gaze to her mother. Sandra’s face had turned a stark white and
she looked ill.

“I told you it was best to leave. Now
maybe you believe me.” Callie was shocked at the defeatist tone of Sandra’s
voice.

Sandra walked stiffly to the door.
She glanced back at Callie and for a moment Callie thought she saw deep regret
and pain in her mother’s eyes. Then Sandra was gone and the doorway stood
empty.

Callie sank into her chair, her legs
no longer able to hold her up. She stared at the room, but she saw nothing. Her
mind went over and over what had just transpired. The more she thought about
it, the more she wondered if her mother was acting on her own desires or that
of Mrs Fuller.

It seemed obvious to her that Mrs
Fuller had been eavesdropping on their conversation. She must have been waiting
for Sandra outside. Had her mother only told Callie what Mrs Fuller wanted her
to? If that was the case, maybe she could break through to Sandra if she could
catch her alone.

Callie stared sightlessly into thin
air as her mind ticked over. She had to form a plan. One thing was for
sure…………she would not let that tyrant run her out of town. Not before she found
the answers to her questions. The truth this time, not what Mrs Fuller wanted
her to hear!