Thirty and a Half Excuses
Page 33

“Not Joe?”
Pursing my lips, I shook my head. “No. I hired them after he left. He doesn’t know yet.” I suspected he wouldn’t approve either.
“What are their objections?”
“Neely Kate worried they wouldn’t get anything done. Violet said the same thing, and she also thinks they’ll steal the church blind.”
“Do you think they’ll steal?”
“No. Call me crazy, but I don’t. I trust Bruce Wayne to keep his word.” We reached my car, and I looked at him over the hood. “Do you think I’m foolish?”
“No, definitely not. I’ve recently learned to go with my instincts. If your instincts tell you to trust him, listen to them.”
“And did your instincts tell you Bruce Wayne was guilty? You were the one prosecuting him.”
His eyes clouded. “My instincts were clouded by extraneous circumstances.”
My eyebrows rose. “What does that mean?”
“It means I needed someone to remind me that everything isn’t always as it appears. I knew it, I just needed reminding.”
We got into the car, and I rolled down my window. The day was cooler and the air conditioner wasn’t working as well as it had in the beginning of the summer. I asked Mason if he thought it would hurt the trade-in value of my car.
He shook his head with a smirk. “No offense, Rose, but this car is so old, I bet we could take it in on cinder blocks and still get you the same deal.”
“Oh.” My heart fell a bit with that news. While I knew the car was old, it still had sentimental value.
He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “It’s probably a good thing I’m going with you to negotiate. I’m not sure you could get a good deal in town on your own.”
Indignation rose. “Why? Because I’m a girl?”
“No, because the town thinks you have money.”
I pulled to stop sign at the town square. “What?”
“Word got out that you put a lot of money down on the business.”
My breath came in short pants. “That’s personal information. How does anyone know?”
“It’s a small town, Rose. People talk.”
Didn’t I know that firsthand? My hands gripped the steering wheel. “What are they saying?” I shot him a glare. “And don’t sugar coat it.”
He paused. “They say your mother left you a bunch of money, and that you stole it from your sister. You’ve opened the nursery, but you’re forcing you sister to work there, taking advantage of her vulnerable state.”
I took in several deep breaths. This must be what Violet had alluded to the day before we opened the nursery. “Do you believe that?”
“Are you really going to insult me by asking that question?”
“Part of it’s true, but it’s not what they think. Momma left the house and everything else to Violet. But she left me the contents of a wood box.” I sighed. “The contents of that wood box got me into trouble with Daniel Crocker, and now it looks like it’s getting me into trouble again.”
“What was in the box?”
I looked at him. “The truth.”
He didn’t answer, waiting for me continue.
“My momma wasn’t my birth mother. I was adopted.”
“Oh.”
“But it’s more complicated than that. My father was my birth father, but he left my momma for someone else, Dora Middleton. She got pregnant with me, but she died in a mysterious accident when I was a baby, and my momma raised me. Everyone in town thinks I’m hers.”
“Oh.”
“I didn’t know until I opened the box. I was so hurt when I found out she left everything to Violet. Violet was always her favorite. Momma hated my visions. She was sure I was demon-possessed, but it turns out she hated me even before I started seeing things.”
“What was in the box besides the truth?”
I shot him a half-hearted grin. “You’re perceptive.”
He shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“My birth mother’s will was in the box. She left me her family farm and some oil stock. But my uncle had taken over the stocks and had made me over a million dollars by the time I found out. Turns out I had more money than Violet.”
“So you funded the nursery.”
I nodded. “But my uncle set my finances up so that I can only take out chunks at a time. After I buy this truck, I’ll have used up my allotment for the next several years.”
“How are you dealing with all of that information? Finding out your mother wasn’t your birth mother?”
“Honestly, I try not to think about it.”
“Rose.” Mason’s voice was low and serious. “You can’t push this out of your head. What you discovered was earth-shattering. Life-changing. You have to face that and deal with it before you can move on with your life.”
I gaped at him. He was the first person to ever suggest such a thing. Everyone else seemed okay with me sweeping it under the rug. And by everyone, I meant Violet and Joe. But when we found out, Violet had been terrified that I’d no longer think of myself as her sister, even though we’d been raised together and we shared a father. And Joe, maybe Joe never thought I needed to deal with it because he seemed to be running from his own past.
But the problem was that I could see the truth in Mason’s words. I knew I had to face the truth and wrestle with what it really meant. I just wasn’t ready to do it yet.