Page 10 of Spilling the Tea

He lifted a brow. “None?”

“None.”

“But how do you know about this place?” he asked, seemingly confused. “Earlier, you said that you thought you’d spent time here. That would have been before the accident, right?”

“Yes.” She took another sip of her tea and said, “A little over a year ago, I began having dreams, which were always about the same thing. My parents and I are spending time on a ranch.”

Zoey couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips. “I recall there were cows, horses, and the big red barn they were kept in. Other dreams were about picnics we had near a lake on the ranch.”

When he didn’t confirm whether there was a lake on his property, she pressed on by saying. “There are some nights the dreams appear so vivid and real. Then there are other times when they are like several snapshots focusing only on certain things at the ranch.”

He was staring at her with an intense look on his face, one filled with questions, but obviously, he was willing to let her tell her story. She was grateful for that.

“I told my aunt, who raised me after my parents’ deaths, about my dreams. I was hoping it was a sign my memory was returning. However, she insisted that my parents never owned or visited a ranch. That left me assuming my mind was just coming up with dreams of my own making. Wishful dreams, you might say.”

He nodded. “But that wasn’t the case?”

“No, that was not the case.” She figured by now he detected the anger in her voice that was at odds with the smile plastered on her lips. “A month ago, my aunt died of a heart attack. Then, while going through her belongings, I found a bill of sale. My mother had inherited a ranch house from her parents—this musthave been before she married since the deed was in her maiden name. The date on the sales document indicated my aunt sold the ranch less than a year after I went to live with her, which had to be around twenty years ago.”

He didn’t say anything, and neither did she. She was letting him draw his conclusions about what she’d said. It didn’t take long before he stated them out loud. “That means your aunt lied about your parents owning a ranch. Why?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea.” And she honestly didn’t.

At first, she’d thought her aunt might have needed the money for Zoey’s medical care, which must have been expensive. However, Zoey had discovered that wasn’t the case when she’d visited her aunt’s attorney a week before she’d left for Boston.

Jed Thornsley had been her aunt’s attorney for years. He’d given Zoey papers to a bank account her aunt left for her that represented the proceeds from the sale of her parents’ Boston home. There was also a trust her parents had established for her to receive on her thirtieth birthday. Over the years, both had accumulated an extremely high amount of interest.

Mr. Thornsley knew nothing about the sale of a ranch house in Texas. When she’d shown him the documents, he’d seemed as baffled as she’d been. When she’d suggested that perhaps her aunt had sold the ranch to help pay Zoey’s medical bills, the older man assured her that was not the case. He stated that all her medical care had been taken care of by her parents’ life insurance proceeds, along with a medical policy her parents had on her.

It surprised Zoey that her aunt hadn’t used any of her funds. Although Aunt Paulina never said or insinuated that she had, Zoey always assumed she did, and that was the reason Zoey had felt indebted to her aunt all those years and had never made waves about anything.

“Am I to assume this is the house?” Chancellor asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“Yes. It’s the same address. Although that huge oak tree has never appeared in my dreams, something about it is familiar. The same thing with the swing on the porch. I doubted my parents lived here permanently since they worked and lived in Boston, but I imagined they came back here often to see my mother’s family.”

She drank the last of her tea and then said, “I felt lightheaded after entering your home because of this room. Some of the same furniture was in my dreams.”

He said nothing momentarily, then noted, “I bought the house already furnished except for new bedroom furniture for the master suite and appliances I had upgraded. The furniture was in good shape, and I saw no reason to replace it. The people who sold me the house felt the same way.”

He then asked, “What was your grandparents’ surname? The ones you believe left this house to your mother?”

“They were the Martins. I don’t remember their first names. The only reason I know that much is because my mother’s maiden name was Martin.”

“And your aunt never told you anything about your maternal history?”

Zoey paused a moment before answering. “No. She refused to tell me anything about my mother’s family. They’re deceased since Aunt Paulina was my only living relative.”

He became quiet, and she figured he was drawing his conclusions about what she wasn’t saying, and he was probably right in his assumptions. Time passed for a minute or two, and then he said, “I bought this property a few years ago from Henry and Rosalie Johnstone. I understand they had lived here for close to fifteen years. Did that bill of sale state who your aunt sold the property to?”

She shook her head. “It didn’t show a name—just a bank. The Houston National Bank,” she said.

“That would mean it was a private sale. That’s not unusualaround these parts. It keeps developers from hounding you about selling your property.”

She nodded. “Did you know the Johnstones?”

“No. I never met them. I understand they were an older couple. I can only assume that caring for this spread became too much for them. They moved out months before I bought the place.”

She nodded again. “So, as you can see, Chancellor, this entire thing is a big mystery to me. I am not questioning the legitimacy of the sale of the house to you or anyone. The only reason I’m here is that I’m hoping that perhaps I’ll see something that will stimulate my memory. Do you know anyone I can speak with, who has lived in this area a long time and might have known my grandparents?”

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