Page 70 of Take Me Slowly: part 2
"Susan lost a child," Felicity said. "At least, that was what she told me. I felt sorry for her. Let her hold you." Her voice wavered.
"The day we were supposed to go home, you went missing. One minute you were lying in your little plastic crib. The next minute you were gone. At first, I thought one of the nurses tookyou to do some sort of check before we were discharged. But then no one knew where you were. You vanished. And Susan was gone too. She told me her name was Jenny. She took you from me."
Her words were met with a stunned silence.
My blood went cold. "She took me to Aurora Hollow."
Felicity drew in a slow, shaky breath through her nose. "It took years to find her and you. She'd told her husband you were his and they planned to raise you. But then the police finally tracked down Jenny. We think someone tipped her off, because she ran right before they found you and returned you to me."
"That's why she was bundled into the back of the car," Josiah whispered. "That's why the police didn't really look for her."
"Because they knew who she really was," Riley said. "But why did they say she'd run off? Why did they say she was dead?" His brow was heavily creased with confusion.
"Because they didn't want people saying Gavin stole her," Josiah said. "When she left, he broke. No one wanted to think he went along with kidnapping a kid. So they covered it up instead."
"And they blamed you for it." Was it too late to find out who did that and stab them in the eyeball with a toothpick?
"I could have gone along with their lie," he said with his eyes glazed as he thought back. "They were trying to protect Gavin." As if somehow that made everything all right.
"Do you think he knew?" I asked. "Do you think he kept me from my biological family?"
"Gavin adored you," Josiah said. "Maybe he did know and maybe he didn't, but he loved you. He would have done anything for you. Even give you back."
I moved over to sit beside my mother and put an arm around her. "I'm sorry. I know this has dredged up a lot of pain. You must have been beside yourself all those years. Wondering where I was and if people were taking care of me."
She swallowed hard and nodded. "It was pure hell. You were the first thing I thought about when I woke up in the morning and the last thing at night. When I heard they found you, I was over the moon. But then…"
"But what?" I prompted.
She dropped her head. "You were happy up there. When you came back here, you hated it. You hatedme. You'd cry and scream and beg to go home. All night long you'd sob and call for your daddy until you finally fell asleep. I felt like… Like there was nothing I could do to make you happy. I even thought about taking you back. But then, I couldn't. You were my baby. I thought if I kept trying, eventually you'd understand. But you didn't. You never wanted to be with me."
"Mom…"
Was she right? I'd always thought she was distant. Could it have been me who was the distant one all along? It couldn't have been easy to bring a kid home when they didn't even remember you. When they only knew one, happy home. It seemed like I hadn't made this easier on her. It wasn't her fault any more than it was mine. It wasn't anyone's fault except for Susan Clarke.
"I don't remember any of it," I whispered.
"You probably put it out of your mind because it was too traumatic," Brooks said. "This explains a lot, though. I've always thought Leah was a brat." He was holding back a smile.
I smirked at him. "Takes one to know one." I turned back to my mother. "I'm sorry you went through all of that. I'm sure kid-me didn't mean to be difficult."
"Of course you didn't," she assured me. "We could have handled the transition differently. Let you spend time with Gavin while you got to know me. We didn't and that was a mistake. One I can't go back and fix. If I had, I think it would have changed… Everything. But I was so happy to find you again.I insisted that we take you home then and there." Her long sigh was filled with regret.
"Leah has that effect on people," Connor said. "One look and we're hooked." He favoured me with a faint, lopsided smile.
"I don't blame you," I said to my mother. "You did what any mother would have done. You couldn't have assumed Gavin was innocent in all of this. I'm not sure I would have left my kid and hoped for the best."
"Right, he might have skipped town," Brooks said.
"Not a chance," Josiah said. After a moment he added, "But I get it. You didn't know the guy."
Felicity cleared her throat. "What kind of man is he?"
"He's a good man," Josiah said. "He took good care of Coral— Leah. If he knew she wasn't his, he never treated her any different. All he ever wanted was for her to be happy. He adored her and she loved him. He did a good job with her."
Felicity nodded, visibly relieved. She must have wondered all these years what I'd really gone through. Never having a way to know. Only seeing how hard it was for me to adjust to life back here. Brooks must have been a breeze in comparison. Not that I'd tell him that.
"That's what all of us want for Leah," Riley said. "For her to be happy."
