Page 3 of Somewhere You Belong

From the law offices of Timothy McDonald, Carrington Cove, North Carolina.

“Looks like junk mail. I don’t recognize this name or place.” I try to hand it back to Katrina, but she doesn’t move to take it.

“The courier said you might say that, but he assured me it is meant for you, Willow Marshall. He even confirmed your age before leaving it.”

My age? What the heck?

My eyes scan over the writing once more as I run my thumb over the crisp, white envelope. “Well, okay then.”

“I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.” Katrina leaves my office as my mind begins to spin with questions.

With absolutely no idea who this could be from, I run my finger under the seal, breaking it open to extract the paper folded up inside. I momentarily debate if I should be more cautious, especially given my public status. But my gut tells me if someone wanted to sabotage me, they wouldn’t do it with a hand-addressed envelope.

As I take in the words on the paper, utter shock slams into me as my heart rate climbs. My eyes race across each line and it suddenly feels hard to breathe, my mind spinning as flashes of memories infiltrate my mind.

I never imagined a piece of my past would come hurtling into my present.

But it has.

And it’s calling me to Carrington Cove.

***

“I’m sorry. You’re headed where?” Shauna, my best friend, asks for clarification as I continue to cruise down the highway, well more than halfway into my drive. When I called the law office to clarify the intentof the letter, the attorney explained that all matters were best discussed in person, so here I am, driving to this town I’ve never heard of.

“North Carolina.”

“And you said it’s for some inheritance?”

“That’s what the letter said. I don’t even know who this man is, Shauna, but he said he knew my parents. Am I crazy for driving down there? What if it’s a scam?”

Given the magnitude of my company’s success, I’ve grown wary of people wanting to get close to me for the wrong reasons. And a long-lost friend of my parents sounds like the perfect con to back me into a corner, especially since they died when I was two and there’s hardly anyone left who knew them. I have no other family except for Mandy and Jason, my godparents who took custody of me per my parents’ will.

But Mandy, who practically raised me on her own after she and Jason divorced, never mentioned the man behind this letter. I figured I would wait until I knew more before asking her about it. No sense in stirring up old memories for nothing. Besides, Shauna is the first sounding board I turn to when I need to talk, and I know she’ll tell me what I need to hear.

We met at UNLV and bonded quickly over our love of sarcasm and shared disinterest in dating. My focus was on my degree to kickstart my business, while she navigated a breakup with her high school boyfriend. From then on, it was us against the world—well, until she ended her engagement last fall and returned to Newberry Springs to reconcile with her high school sweetheart, Forrest. Now, she's happily expecting their son.

“You said you confirmed the law firm is legitimate, right? So the letter most likely is too, Willow. They wouldn’t risk their reputation on a scam.”

That right there. There’s the logical perspective that I needed.

“That’s true.”

“And it could be some sort of mix-up, but if there’s a connection to your parents, you owe it to yourself to find out.”

Shauna is the only person I’ve ever been honest with about how losing my parents has affected me. I might not have been old enough to remember them, but that loss has haunted me and left a giant hole in my chest I’ve never quite filled. Add on a lack of a stable family unit and less than stellar luck in dating throughout my life, and it just became easier to shut off my feelings about my past than try to deal with them.

But with every mile I drive, it feels like someone is widening that hole, digging roughly into the hard surface I’ve built to cover old wounds as the anticipation of what awaits me intensifies.

“I know. I just…I don’t have time for this. Business is so crazy. The holiday season is coming and there are so many accounts we have pitches and campaigns to get ready for. Oh! And you won’t believe what happened the other day.”

“Well, you have time and so do I waiting for this baby to come out, so spill all the details.”

I spend the next several minutes recounting the morning wake-up call of a dick on screen three days ago.

“Do you think he was jacking off during the meeting, then?” she asks through her laugh.

“I mean, that’s what it looked like. Perhaps the dog food campaign they were working on really got him fired up and horny?” Shauna cackles as I switch lanes. “But if stuff like that is happening, it just goes to show that the last thing I should be doing right now is following a wild-goose chase.”

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