Discovering (Lily Dale #4)(50)

“She did do it, though, Gammy.”

“How do you know?”

“She wrote about it. She asked him, but he lied again. And he left Lily Dale not long after that. Do you remember?”

Odelia nods sadly. “He broke Stephanie’s heart. I tried to convince her that she was better off, but I couldn’t get through to her. Eventually she left, too. Went away to graduate school, met your father, got married, moved to Florida, had you . . .”

“You used to visit us when I was little.”

“Yes.”

“Then you had an argument with Mom. About the baby. After all those years.”

“I can’t believe you remember that, Calla. You were so young.”

“I do. I remember and I . . . I dream about it sometimes.”

“About the argument?”

“Yes.”

“It was a bad one. I should never have brought up the baby to Stephanie after all that time had gone by. But every now and then, I would still have a dream. I just always had the feeling that I had another grandchild out there somewhere. I told your mother to look into it again, but she refused. I don’t know if she was still trying to protect Darrin, or if she was trying to protect herself, or you and your father.”

Odelia wipes tears away with the bell-shaped sleeve of her pumpkin-colored top.

“You told Mom that you thought the lake should be dredged, didn’t you, Gammy? To find the baby’s body.”

“Yes. She got so angry with me. Mind you, I really didn’t think they’d find anything. I had spent all those years living on the shore of the lake. I think I’d have sensed whether my own flesh and blood was buried in it.”

“But you told me never to set foot in that water.”

“Because . . .”Odelia shudders. “There was always a chance I could be wrong. Even now, every time I look at that lake, I wonder.”

“But you don’t have to wonder anymore. The baby lived and she was illegally adopted, Gammy— by Sharon Logan.”

It takes a moment for the name to register. When it does, Odelia gasps.

“She killed Darrin,”Calla goes on, “after he showed up on her doorstep asking about the adoption. Then she killed my mother, too. And then she came after me.”

“We have to tell the police.”

“I know . But Gammy, I’m afraid to tell them— or anyone. Then Dad will find out about everything.”

“He deserves to know the truth, Calla.”

“It’s going to hurt him.”

“Maybe not. Maybe he’ll be glad to know that Stephanie lives on in another daughter—and that you have a half sister.”

“I doubt that.”

“Don’t underestimate him.”Gammy touches Calla’s cheek. “How about you? How do you feel about all of this?”

“About having a sister?”Just saying the words out loud sends a little jolt through her.

A sister.

She actually has a sister.

“I don’t know how I feel,”she tells her grandmother. “I mean, I guess I won’t, until I find her and meet her.”

“Do you know anything about her?”

“Her name is Laura.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

It is. Laura.

“Like the former first lady.”

Laura Bush.

Suddenly, she realizes something.

“Gammy, that day at Ramona’s—”

“I know . I just remembered.”Her grandmother nods. “That magazine that flew off the table in the guest room—”

“Laura Bush was on the cover.”

“Yes. That was no accident.”Her grandmother shakes her head. “Spirit could have been a little more specific.”

An image flashes into Calla’s head as she speaks.

She sees a young girl wearing a calico dress and sunbonnet: Laura, from the Little House books Calla read and loved as a child.

Pieces begin to fall into place.

The same books are on the shelf in Mom’s room upstairs.

That image of Mom lying on her bed reading one of them.

Even the dream Calla had about being on an airplane and seeing a pioneer girl standing on top of a tall building.

“We need to call Detective Lutz,”her grandmother decides.

“When? Now?”

“It’s the middle of the night. I think it can wait until morning.”

“But . . . what about school? And my trip with Dad?”

Her grandmother looks at her for a long time. “Your life is going to change again, you know . When all of this comes out. You’re going to want to find your sister, or she’s going to want to find you—or maybe not. I don’t know .”

“I don’t, either.”Suddenly, Calla is nervous about what lies ahead. “I was kind of just looking forward to a normal school day tomorrow, and going away with Dad.”

“Then that’s what you should do,”Odelia says firmly. “I’ll speak to the detectives after you leave. We’ll let them do their thing. Then when you come back, you’ll have had more time to get used to all of this, and you’ll know what you want to do about it.”

“You mean, about finding my sister.”At her grandmother’s nod, Calla asks, “Why wouldn’t I want to find her? She’s my own flesh and blood.”