Mischief in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #2)(65)

“So something happened to her between New Orleans and Gulfport.”

“That’s what everyone thought, which is why the police didn’t even concentrate on New Orleans with their search. If there was an announcement on the news, the nuns wouldn’t have seen it, and since my parents were poor, the only photos of me were as an infant and my mother from her high school yearbook. They didn’t even have a wedding photo.”

“So no one would have recognized you from the photos, even if they’d seen a news story.”

“Not likely. The police searched every bus stop between New Orleans and Gulfport, but they never found a thing. She’d simply vanished. Finally, they assumed we’d been taken by a person or persons unknown and the file was shoved to the back of the cabinet in favor of others that had more evidence and might be possible to solve.”

“So you had to give up?”

“No. I talked extensively to my father about my mother’s behavior before that trip. Something could have happened to her, certainly, but her leaving me with the nuns was deliberate. My father spoke of her erratic behavior—drinking, paranoia, said she always felt like someone was watching her. It sounded like a mental breakdown to me. And I figured that’s what she meant when she told the nuns she wasn’t fit to take care of me. So I started looking at mental health facilities around Louisiana.”

“Smart,” Sabine said. “And the perfect explanation for why she never returned.”

Beau nodded. “That’s what I thought, too. It took another two weeks before I came up with anything, but finally, I found a nurse that had worked at a facility in Monroe. She remembered a woman who’d come to the home at around the time I was asking about. The woman couldn’t remember her name and had no identification. A full medical exam had revealed that she’d given birth, but when they asked her about the baby, she became confused and always insisted that she didn’t have a child. Finally, they decided that the baby must have been stillborn and that perhaps that was what had sent her over the edge.”

“She didn’t remember. That’s so sad.”

“I thought so, too. The woman stayed at the home for three years. She never regained her memory. Finally, the state issued her new identification and the home assisted her with finding a job and a new place to live, as she was otherwise quite competent to take care of herself. She went to work at a local library and, as far as the nurse knew, was still working there. Only you would understand my excitement, the thrill of knowing that the thirty-year-old mystery of who I was would finally be solved.”

Sabine nodded. “I understand.”

“I couldn’t find a listing for her in the local phone book, so I called the library and found that the woman I was sure was my mother would be at work that afternoon. Four more hours and I would have all my answers. Then I called my father with the news and he was elated. I waited for her in the parking lot of the library, certain I’d recognize her, and I did. She was older, of course, and her hair was starting to gray, but I could still clearly see the woman from that high school photograph.”

Sabine put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Beau, what a moment in time.”

Beau grimaced. “Yeah. It was a moment all right. I started walking toward her and she looked at me. I could tell by the look on her face that she knew exactly who I was. She shook her head and said ‘Please leave. Leave and pretend you never saw me.’ I knew then she’d been pretending amnesia all those years. I opened my mouth to ask why. I deserved a reason. That’s when a car squealed into the parking lot. It was my father. She looked at the car and her face went completely white, filled with fear.”

Sabine sat upright and stared at him. “Oh no!”

“I immediately knew why she’d left—why she’d given me away, and why she’d stayed hidden all that time. My father jumped out of the car and took her out with a single shot to the head, then he turned the gun on himself.”

Tears ran down Sabine’s face and she wrapped her arms around him. Beau hugged her tightly, choked with emotion. “I’ve never told anyone all of that, until now.”

Sabine pulled back a bit and looked at him. “Why did you tell me, Beau?”

“Because I need you to understand how family can hurt you. Biology doesn’t make people care. Please, Sabine, I’m begging you, let this thing with your family go. Stop all contact with them. Have an attorney draw up papers stating that you relinquish any part of the estate you might be entitled to.”

Sabine pulled away from him. “I can’t,” she whispered.

Beau rose from the bed, his heart breaking in two. “What in the world could possibly be worth your life? Please explain to me why these people, these strangers, mean more to you than everyone who loves you?”


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Sabine looked at the pain so clearly etched on Beau’s face and her mind raced trying to find a way to erase it. Right now he must think her incredibly shallow, or greedy for the possible inheritance, because from his standpoint, there simply couldn’t be a valid enough reason to keep oneself in such danger. She had to tell him the truth. Even if he was angrier at her than before. “My life,” she began, “is worth so much to me that I’m willing to risk it in order to save it.”

He stared at her for a moment. “That makes no sense.”