Page 22 of Eye of Her Storm

“Um… Yeah?” It wasn’t really a question. It just came out as one. Now wasn’t exactly the best moment to explain everything. River stood up and looked down at her pajamas then around the living room. She tried to gather her thoughts and figure out what she’d need to do before leaving. A note, clothes, shoes, her purse…

“River Jane Szuzman,” Paisley exclaimed, breaking into her list making. “Is there something you need to tell me and the rest of our family?”

“I was going to call you today?” River hedged. Again. The statement came out as a question.

Her older sister didn’t seem impressed by that answer. The noise she made on the other end of the line sounded distinctly disgruntled.

“Yes, I moved in with them,” River admitted. “It just sort of happened.”

“It’s about fucking time,” her sister answered.

“Is that your seal of approval?”

“I will neither agree nor disagree. I want details, but not now. How soon can you get over here?”

River paused. She shouldn’t be driving on her pain meds, but if she took all back roads, she probably wouldn’t run into anyone. No, she couldn’t jeopardize anyone else on the off-chance she wasn’t alone out there and not in as much control as she felt she was. “I need to find someone to drive me.”

Paisley was silent for a moment. “Oh… I forgot.”

Right. Just as she didn’t want to talk about their mom’s death, she didn’t want to face the reality of River’s fate and everything connected with it. Neither did River, but it was what it was. She was accepting that.

“How about if I ask Moon to swing by and pick you up? She’s on her way, too.”

“I’ll be ready. Just have her text me with her ETA.”

“Okay. Don’t lose your phone again,” Paisley said then hung up.

River looked around the living room. Pressing her palm to her forehead, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing thoughts. What to do first? She had to find paper…

Going to the desk on the far side of the room, she took a sheet of paper from the printer, found a pen then scratched out a short note to the guys, letting them know where she’d be. After leaving it on the table in the entryway, she headed upstairs to get ready to meet her long-lost father, Leo Szuzman.

And what was going on with that whole situation? Her mother had told all four girls that he was dead. Obviously, it was a lie. Her mother, Jemma, couldn’t have been misinformed. Could she? No, it wasn’t possible. Though Jemma had been flighty, she’d also been a stickler for details. She wouldn’t have been misinformed. In retrospect, so many things made sense now and clues clicked into place. Moving constantly, homeschooling mixed with so many different schools, the backwater communes, never going to Leo’s funeral after his sudden death, the different last name… So many oddities twisted and curved through her childhood.

Fifteen minutes later, River was dressed and waiting for Moon to pull up to the house. Shortly after the phone conversation with Paisley, River’s twin had called. She’d been nearby, and she was on her way.

As soon as River was in Moon’s car, Moon turn to her. “Can you believe it?”

“No.”

“Me, either. Where do you think he’s been all this time?”

“Well, obviously having another family.”

Moon put the car back in gear and pulled around the circle drive to head back to the main road that led off the ranch. “Do you really think it’s as easy as that?”

“No. I just don’t know what to think.” It was true. River could barely comprehend that the father they hadn’t seen in some twenty-three years was suddenly alive and well and here in Daly.

“Yeah, it’s weird.”

“So… We have a stepmom. And more sisters.”

“Freaky, huh?”

“A little, I suppose.” River stared out the window as they finished the journey to the Laurel Ridge Ranch. Mostly, she felt cheated. Cheated of time to know her dad and her other sisters, and maybe even her stepmother if she wasn’t the evil Cinderella type.

They both fell silent as Moon drove, each nervous and overwhelmed by this weird news. River’s thoughts conjured fuzzy images of what her father had looked like back then. She barely came up with anything, most of her recollections based on a picture she’d seen once. Her mother had ripped up the photo and thrown it away as soon as she’d caught the girls with it. It had been the only keepsake of their father. Even now, River remembered how she’d cried after that. No one knew she’d rescued a tiny square of the picture. It contained part of his face, and she’d always kept it. Even now, it was in her wallet.

“Do you think…?” River trailed off, not wanting to make an accusation against their mother. But she couldn’t stop her questions. She knew the answer before she even spoke her thoughts. She just couldn’t believe. “Do you think she ran away with us? That he didn’t know where we were?”

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