Page 97 of Deception

She climbed out of the SUV and grabbed the box of papers.

“Let me have those,” Clayton said and took them from her.

When the housekeeper didn’t answer the knock at her door, Madison tried the doorknob. Locked.

“She’s probably in your grandfather’s kitchen.”

That was exactly where she found Nadine—making coffee and using a pie server to cut one of the pies church members had brought. “You shouldn’t be working.”

“Pssht,” Nadine said, brushing her off. “I am fine. Would you like coffee and chocolate pie?”

Madison’s stomach growled, a reminder that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and that was a long time ago.

“I think I want a sandwich first.” She turned to Clayton. “Would you like a snack to hold you over until we meet my father?”

“Let me go check with Hugh first.” He motioned to the box. “Where do you want me to put this?”

“In my bedroom.” She told him where her bedroom was located.

Clayton gave her a thumbs-up and disappeared down the hall to the stairs.

Nadine laid the pie server down with a clatter. “You are meeting your father?”

“Yes. He wants me to meet Margo.”

“Does he not know you have enough on you right now?” She waved her hands. “Oh, but we are dealing with Mr. Gregory, aren’t we.”

Madison bit back a smile. Nadine had never liked her father, and she was sure the feeling was mutual.

“You haven’t told me about this woman who looks like you,” Nadine said. “Is she your blood sister?”

She gulped, not sure she wanted to share Dani with anyone other than Clayton just yet. But this was Nadine ... “Actually, my identical twin sister.”

Nadine stood very still. “She looks just like you, then?”

“Very much.” Madison eyed the older woman. She knew more than she was telling. Why had she never asked Nadine about her adoption? Probably because Madison didn’t think she would tell her anything. The housekeeper believed in minding her own business. That’s why she and her grandfather got along so well. But Grandfather was gone.

“What do you know about my birth mother? Do you know why she gave me, us now, up for adoption?”

Nadine took both of Madison’s hands. “I know nothing for a fact, only that your grandfather was instrumental in the adoption. Anything else I might tell you would be the ravings of an old woman.”

“Did you know I had a twin sister?”

“No, chère. Your adoption was a subject your grandfather and I did not discuss.”

“How about my adoption papers? Do you know where they might be?”

“Let me think about it.”

The papers weren’t at the house in Memphis. Her father had delegated Madison to clean out her mother’s bedroom and office, and there was nothing in either related to the adoption. She needed to ask Dani what she knew about her adoption.

She hugged Nadine. “My sister’s name is Dani, and I’m bringing her here when she gets out of the hospital. We can get to know her together.”

Madison turned toward the door as footsteps sounded in thehallway and Hugh and Clayton entered the kitchen. “That coffee smells wonderful,” Hugh said. “Pie looks pretty good too.”

“Help yourself,” she said as Nadine took out sandwich meat. “I can make you a sandwich, if you’d like. Any answers to what happened here earlier today?”

He waved off the sandwich. “Plenty of prints, but so far only those that should be there—yours, Clayton’s, Nadine’s, your dad’s. Whoever trashed the room and put Nadine in the closet wore gloves.”

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