Page 113 of Deception

“I’ll check, and tell her you’re not going to the hospital now.”

He found the girl in the kitchen with Nadine, and she readily agreed to help.

“Tell Madison not to worry. We will take care of it.” Nadine turned to Bri. “Come, I will show you where the linens are.”

He returned to the bedroom and relayed Nadine’s message. “Will you need rooms for Buddy and his family?”

“No.” She opened the bottom dresser drawer and rifled through the items in it. “He called yesterday to tell me he wouldn’t be here. Seems he fell off a ladder and broke his leg and can’t travel.” She scanned the room again. “Where could that key be?”

“I keep mine on my key ring,” Clayton said.

Madison snapped her fingers. “Of course.” Then she frowned. “What did I do with my grandfather’s keys that Pete Nelson gave me?”

“You put them in your bag.” He picked up the purse she’d dropped near the door and handed it to her.

“You’re a lifesaver.”

If only she really believed that. Clayton was afraid he’d blown it with her at Emerald Mound. But he couldn’t take his actions back. Remembering the way she returned his kiss, he didn’t want to. He squared his shoulders. If God wanted them to be together, he’d work this out.

She pawed through the bag and held up a set of keys. “Here it is.”

“Why don’t you get dressed for the funeral, and we’ll stop off at the bank on the way?”

The look on her face said she hadn’t considered him going with her.

“What are you going to do with the papers you find in the judge’s safe-deposit box while you’re at the church? The gun safe in my SUV would be more secure than your purse.”

When she agreed, he hurried home to dress for the funeral. Forty-five minutes later, Clayton followed Madison into the vault that held the bank’s safe-deposit boxes. After she dated andsigned the form, the bank clerk compared her signature to the one on file, then found the box that matched the number on the key.

“Here we go.” She inserted the bank’s key, then Madison’s, and pulled the box out before she pointed to the corner. “You can go through the box at that table. And once again, I’m very sorry about your grandfather.”

“Thank you.”

Clayton carried the box to the table. Madison sat at one of the chairs and he took the other. Her hand shook as she reached to open the lid. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous.”

“With all that’s happened lately, being anxious is understandable. You want me to open it and look inside?”

Madison hesitated. “No. It’s just that when Grandfather added my name to the account, I didn’t expect to be doing this so soon.” She took a breath and opened the box and peered inside. “Thank goodness—there’s the will.”

She laid it aside. A velvet jewelers bag came next, and she looked inside. “Grandmother’s pearls.” She smiled softly. “He always said they would be handed down to me.”

Madison laid the velvet bag aside as well, then took out a collapsible cloth bag that she’d brought. “I think I’ll just put everything in here to look at after the funeral.”

She scooped up the envelopes from the box and stuffed them in the bag. One envelope slipped out of her hand and landed on the table. He caught his breath at the same time that Madison gasped and her fingers gripped the edge of the table.

“Madison’s Adoption Papers” was printed in bold letters.

59

Madison stared at the envelope. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

Even though the dizziness she’d experienced when she saw the wording on the envelope had faded, Madison’s face still felt icy. She loosened the death grip she had on the table edge and picked up the envelope that held answers to questions she’d had all her life.

“You want to wait and deal with this after the funeral when Dani will be with you?”

Madison had forgotten for a minute that she didn’t have just herself to consider. Would it be better to wait? “No. I want to open it now and at least skim over the papers. Then when Dani and I are together, we’ll examine what’s here in depth.”

She took the pocketknife he handed her and slit the envelope that contained a thick sheaf of typed papers and one handwritten letter. Madison immediately recognized her grandfather’s handwriting. She folded it and placed it in her bag to read later.

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