Shadow of Suspicion (Haunted by the Past) Page 8

  She closed the door behind her and walked slowly from the garage. Her legs shook uncontrollably from the whole experience. She’d not gone more than a few steps beyond the building when a hand grabbed her elbow. A small shriek exploded from her lips and she spun around. The young mechanic that had stared at her so strangely earlier, stood behind her.

  “What do you want with Sandra?” He eyed her darkly.

  “What’s it to you?” Callie glared back at him. She was sick of being bossed around by pushy men.

  “She means a lot to me and I won’t have someone upsetting her.” His lips thinned. Callie tried to pull her arm from his grip, but he held her tightly.

  “I really don’t see that my business with Sandra is anything to do with you.” She stuck her nose in the air and stared him down. Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t intimidated.

  “Sandra is family, so it has everything to do with me if you’re causing her grief.” He stuck his face into hers.

  Callie’s eyes widened, shock freezing her in place. “You’re a relative of Sandra’s?”

  “I’m her nephew.”

  Callie swallowed hard. She gazed at him with new eyes. His short brown hair held hints of red through it when she looked at it close enough. She could see gold flecks in his light brown eyes. She could hardly believe she’d just met her cousin.

  Had Jason known who this guy was to her? He had to have! No wonder she’d felt he’d been hiding something from her! Anger burned in her chest. He’d deliberately withheld such important information from her. What right did he have to deny her the chance to know her family?

  “Then that makes us cousins,” she informed the angry young man in front of her. She was satisfied when his jaw fell open. His shock mirrored her own. “I happen to be Sandra’s daughter.”

  “You’re lying! Sandra has no children” he snarled. He grabbed hold of her other arm and shook her. “If you’re trying to extort money from her, you will find yourself in a whole heap of trouble. We Fullers won’t take it lying down!”

  Panic surged through Callie at his rough handling. She pushed at his chest and kicked him in the shin. He let out a grunt of pain and released her. He rubbed his shin with one hand and glared at her darkly. Callie stepped back several paces from him and swept her hand down her form.

  “Don’t I take after her at all? Can’t you see any family resemblance in me?” She hoped she had something of Sandra in her appearance that would convince him she was telling the truth. Callie wanted the chance to bond with him. She’d never had any blood relatives in her life. She couldn’t lose this opportunity.

  His entire countenance burned with anger. “That doesn’t mean anything. There are plenty of con-artists that can fake family connections if they know what they’re doing.”

  “I am not a con-artist!” Callie planted her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you simply talk to Sandra? She knows who I am. She’ll tell you that we are family!”

  He straightened up and stalked forward, limping slightly. He stabbed a finger at her chest. “Rest assured, I have every intention of speaking to my Aunt. If you are lying, you are going to be very, very sorry!”

  Callie swallowed hard. “And if I’m not?”

  He stared at her for several moments before he walked away without any further comment. Callie stared after him, unsure for the first time in her life. Had she just made an irreversible mistake? Dread clutched at her stomach and nausea twisted her insides.

  “It’s too late now. Far too late to turn back!” The mournful whisper filled Callie’s ears. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle. What had she done?

  Chapter Ten

  Callie’s pencil flew over the page. The image in her head rapidly transpired to her sketchbook. Her eyes flicked back and forth from her work to the breakfast room where she sat. Late afternoon sunshine drifted in through the large glass windows and lit the area with a soft golden light. The entire atmosphere was peaceful, with not a soul in the place to disrupt her creative flow. A blissful sigh escaped her lips, her mind’s eye easily seeing how the room would look when it was finished.

  A prickling sensation gradually drew her awareness. Callie glanced to her left, as if she was drawn by a magnet. Her gaze collided with a woman standing in the doorway watching her. The pencil in Callie’s hand stopped moving and dropped from her nerveless fingers with a soft thud upon her pad.

  Her stomach lurched as their eyes met and held. Callie rose to her feet, hardly aware of what she was doing. She knew instinctively that the woman was Sandra. Her eyes feasted on the delicate shape of Sandra’s jawline that exactly matched her own. She could see herself reflected in the shape of Sandra’s eyes and mouth, even her frame but their colouring was completely different.

  The young mechanic from the day before held a stronger resemblance to Sandra than she did. Her heart twisted in her chest. It didn’t seem right somehow. Callie hated the feeling of jealousy that burned through her. It was stupid and completely irrational, but she couldn’t stop it.

  “Well, it seems you’ve managed to get your wish.” Sandra moved slowly forward and held her arms out to the side. “I’m here.”

  Callie stared at her mother, stunned at her complete indifference to the monumental moment they were sharing. Did she mean that little to her own birth mother?

  “You say that like I should be grateful.” Bitterness crept into Callie’s words and she hated Sandra for it.

  “It’s what you’ve engineered, isn’t it? You insisted on not leaving as I requested,” Sandra placed her hands on her hips, her gaze spitting sparks at Callie, “and then you told Mitch who you were yesterday. You knew it would come back to bite me. Why else would you do it, except to push me into this meeting?”

  “I wasn’t trying to push you into anything.” Callie swallowed hard and held onto her temper by a thread. “And while we’re at it, don’t you mean that I didn’t leave as you ordered? There was no request made that I could see.”

  “Don’t get pedantic with me.” Sandra’s tone sharpened. “I don’t want you here and I didn’t want to meet you. Why couldn’t you just beat it when Doug told you? It would have been best for both of us.”

  Pain lanced through Callie as if her mother had stabbed her in the chest and twisted the knife. It had been hard to hear the words from Doug that her own mother didn’t want to meet her. To hear them from Sandra herself was pure torture.

  “As I explained to Doug, I contracted for work here. I won’t just abandon my client on your say so. I’m not like you.” Callie swept her gaze over her mother, letting the contempt she felt drip from every word. “I don’t just abandon my responsibilities.” She was proud that her voice didn’t give away how hurt she was inside.

  Sandra snorted and folded her arms over her chest. “I did what was best for both of us by giving you up for adoption. You have a mother and a father. Just be content with that.”

  “I didn’t come here to replace them.” Callie shrieked, and stabbed her finger at the ground. “I came here for answers they couldn’t give me. You could never be my real mother. As you say, I already have one of those and you’d be a poor choice compared to her.”

  “Fine.” Sandra swept over to a seat opposite Callie. She sank down onto the chair and folded her arms over her chest. Sandra leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table. She stared hard at Callie.

  “Aren’t you going to sit down?” Sandra nodded at Callie’s seat with her chin.

  “Why?” Suspicion clawed through Callie. She didn’t trust this sudden acquiescence.

  “You said you want answers, so I’ll give you what answers I can. Then you can go home.”

  Callie hated the emotionless way Sandra was handling this whole meeting between them. How could she remain so unaffected when Callie’s whole world was rocked so violently? She sank into her chair and gripped the armrests tightly.

  “What do you want to know?” Sandra leaned back and crossed her legs. She seemed so relaxed that
Callie had the wild urge to say or do something to provoke a reaction. She reigned in her tendencies and focused on why she’d come here in the first place.

  “Who is my father? Why did you give me up for adoption? Did he know about it?” Callie bit her lip and forced herself to stop. One thing at a time. She’d waited twenty three years, a few more minutes wouldn’t kill her.

  Sandra’s mouth pursed. “Yes, your father knew about the adoption. He was all for it. Did you think he was kept in the dark and would want to know you?” She gave a nasty laugh. “He didn’t want to be saddled with a baby any more than I did.”

  Callie’s heart turned to stone in her chest. What had she expected? She bit her lip. Who was she kidding? She’d always believed that he hadn’t known. That if he had, he would have fought to keep her. Callie had wanted to believe that one of her parents would have wanted her. What a fool!

  “Who is he?” Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears. Her fingers grew numb where they still clung to the armrests of her chair.

  “I won’t tell you that.”

  Callie’s gaze snapped to Sandra’s hard face. “Why not? I have the right to at least know who he is.”

  “No, you don’t. Even if I gave you a name, what good would that do you?” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes on Callie. “Can you honestly say that you wouldn’t want to find him?”

  “What difference would it make to you if I did?” Callie couldn’t let it go. This was too important to her. She had to at least know her real father’s name.

  “Because he won’t thank me for telling you how to find him. I don’t want him pounding me out for you turning up on his doorstep. What if he’s married with other kids now? Did you ever think of that? Chances are he won’t have told them about you.” Sandra’s voice bit through Callie as if it were barbed wire. “He won’t thank you for disrupting his nice ordered world and I’m likely to be the one to pay the price. He’s a mean bastard when crossed. You’re better off not knowing him.”

  A tear slipped down Callie’s cheek. She swiped at it angrily. She didn’t want to show weakness to this vicious woman. Her throat tightened, but Callie was determined not to allow the giant sized lump lodged in it to get the better of her.

  “How can you know that? It’s been years since you’ve seen him, hasn’t it? People change. He may want to meet me now.” She clasped a hand to her chest. Her voice hitched as she spoke.

  “Don’t be stupid! If he did, he would have found you himself by now.” Sandra clicked her tongue and cast a mock pitying glance at Callie. “Just accept the fact that you were a mistake made by too young fools. Be glad we gave you up for adoption. Just go home and forget about us.”

  Sandra rose to her feet and stepped away from the table.

  “What about the rest of the family?” Callie jumped up and grabbed her mother’s wrist. “I have a cousin, Mitch did you say his name is?”

  Sandra pulled her wrist from Callie’s grip and snarled at her. “What does it take to make you go away? Mitch doesn’t want to know you. Neither do his parents, my parents or anyone else in the Fuller family. Just go!”

  “I don’t believe you. Mitch didn’t even know I existed. He struck me as a person that values family. I have the right to meet him properly, and my other blood relations. You can’t speak for them all.”

  “Then let me speak for them.” Callie gasped and spun round at the sound of a new voice.

  A tall thin woman with grey streaked red hair and golden eyes stepped into the room. She stared at Callie coldly. It was as if her very presence drained the entire room of any warmth. Her mouth thinned.

  “My daughter has told you plainly how we feel. Why are you still here? Did you think to extort money from us?” The woman’s voice held a steely edge. “I can assure you that you won’t get a penny from us.”

  Callie couldn’t tear her eyes from the face that stared so coldly into her own. She was sure, given another fifty years, she would look like this woman. It was like seeing herself at some future date, only she hoped she would never be as hard as this matriarch of the Fuller family.

  “Are you my grandmother?” she whispered, clutching the side of the table to keep from keeling over.

  “Do not call me that! I am Mrs Fuller to you.” She moved towards Callie with all the bearing of a queen. “There is not one member of our family that will acknowledge you, Miss Price. I suggest you leave today and never come back here again.”

  Callie swayed on her feet. She’d never dreamed of this scenario when she’d set out to meet her mother. What was wrong with these people? The hostility she was encountering seemed so extreme. If they lived fifty years in the past, she could understand it. This day and age, it was no big deal for someone to have a teenage pregnancy out of marriage.

  “I would leave if I could, but I have work here.” She drew herself up to her full height and glared at Mrs Fuller. “Also, my car broke down on the way here and I can’t go home until it’s fixed.”

  Mrs Fuller turned to her daughter. “I understand from Mitch that Jason has the vehicle in his garage?”

  Sandra nodded her head. “That’s right, Mama.”

  “Then I suggest you hurry him along.” She turned back to Callie. “I will also pay for the repairs. Mitch will give his time to help Jason fix your car with all speed. Once it’s done, I want you gone.”

  Callie didn’t care for the woman’s orders. “I’m sorry, I must have missed the sign that said this town belongs to you and your family.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I already told you, I have taken work here. I have no intention of leaving until I’ve done my job.”

  Mrs Fuller opened her mouth, but Callie cut her hand through the air and spoke over her. She was satisfied to see the woman’s eyes widen with shock and her mouth stayed hanging open. It made Callie feel so much better!

  “You Fuller’s might be content to dump all responsibilities, but I’m not.” Callie ran her eyes scornfully over both her mother and grandmother. “Thankfully that’s something I haven’t inherited along with your nasty dispositions. And just to be clear, I can pay for my own damn car! I wouldn’t want to be accused of extorting money from you. Now, if that’s all you’ve come to say, I have work to do.”

  She turned her back on them. A bony hand grasped hold of her arm and spun her around. Mrs Fuller loomed over Callie, her face contorted with rage.

  “My family has very good standing in this community. We don’t have divorces or children out of marriage.” Her voice was clipped and sharp. Callie wondered if the woman ever lost control. “I won’t have you ruin that, do you understand? I can’t force you to leave, but I promise you a very hard time if you stay. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Are you threatening me?” Callie was incredulous.

  “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.” Mrs Fuller glared at her for several seconds longer. “Come, Sandra.”

  She let go of Callie and swept out of the room without as much as a glance in her daughter’s direction. Callie transferred her gaze to her mother. Sandra’s face had turned a stark white and she looked ill.

  “I told you it was best to leave. Now maybe you believe me.” Callie was shocked at the defeatist tone of Sandra’s voice.

  Sandra walked stiffly to the door. She glanced back at Callie and for a moment Callie thought she saw deep regret and pain in her mother’s eyes. Then Sandra was gone and the doorway stood empty.

  Callie sank into her chair, her legs no longer able to hold her up. She stared at the room, but she saw nothing. Her mind went over and over what had just transpired. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if her mother was acting on her own desires or that of Mrs Fuller.

  It seemed obvious to her that Mrs Fuller had been eavesdropping on their conversation. She must have been waiting for Sandra outside. Had her mother only told Callie what Mrs Fuller wanted her to? If that was the case, maybe she could break through to Sandra if she could catch her alone.

  Cal
lie stared sightlessly into thin air as her mind ticked over. She had to form a plan. One thing was for sure…………she would not let that tyrant run her out of town. Not before she found the answers to her questions. The truth this time, not what Mrs Fuller wanted her to hear!

  Chapter Eleven

  Jason parked his van in the car-park of the Lazy Boy B&B. He switched off the engine and grabbed the quote he’d drawn up from the passenger seat. The sooner he completed this business with Miss Price, the better. The woman wound him up worse than anyone else he’d ever met! He just hoped they could get through sorting out her car without resorting to another argument. He wasn’t in the mood to go another round with the stubborn redhead.

  Jason alighted the van and slammed the door shut. He locked it and crossed the car-park with long strides. His jaw set with determination. As soon as this business was over, he’d meet up with Lucinda. They needed to sit down and discuss their problems properly before things got completely out of hand. She’d avoided his calls for long enough.

  The sound of someone crying caught Jason’s attention the second he entered the foyer of the Lazy Boy.

  “Stop that racket, Sandra. Do you want the girl to hear you?”

  Jason recognised the voice of Rebecca Fuller. He’d only met the woman a couple of times, but he’d answered the phone to her enough times to know that caustic tone anywhere. He rolled his eyes heavenward. What had he done to deserve running into them?

  “You can’t expect me not to hurt over this.” Sandra’s voice sounded as if her heart was breaking. “She’s my daughter. It’s not that simple for me to hurt her this way. I’m not like you. This is killing me!”

  Fresh sobs broke out. Horrified, Jason realised they were headed in his direction. He debated whether to duck out of the B&B or hide behind the reception desk. They rounded the corner and spotted him before he could move even one step. Mrs Fuller’s eyes lit up as recognition crossed her features.

  “Oh, good. Jason, you’re just the person I wanted to see.” Mrs Fuller lifted a hand and snapped her fingers at him. Jason gritted his teeth. What did she think he was……..her servant? “I want you to make fixing Callie Price’s car a top priority. I will pay the fee and Mitch will give his time to assist you, so the thing can be taken care of with all speed.”