Magnolia Nights

by Ashley Farley

  Once they got on I-26 heading toward Columbia, he shared with Ellie the details of his conversation with Louisa. “I pressed her hard, to the point I made her cry. But I have a right to be angry with her. She lied to me, and she lied to your mother. She should’ve told me Ashton was pregnant with my baby.”

  “But Mom made her promise not to tell you.”

  He nodded. “And that was Louisa’s defense.”

  A wave of sorrow washed over Ellie. “How different things would’ve been for all of us if she’d told the truth. You and Mom would’ve gotten married. And Mom might still be alive.”

  “I said that very thing to Louisa. I blamed her for a lot of things, all of which she’s guilty of. And I asked her why she told Ashton that rumors were going around about me cheating on her. That’s when she started crying.”

  Ellie said, “I still don’t understand why she would’ve lied about that.”

  “I always thought Louisa was a little off.” Abbott tapped his head. “She was obsessed with your mother. Ashton would buy a new dress, and Louisa would go out and purchase the very same dress. Your mother could never see it. She always made excuses for her.” He took his eyes off the road and looked over at Ellie. “But listen, sweetheart. I’ve had my say with Louisa. We’re not going to bring any of this up again when we see her tomorrow. Harping on it won’t help us find your sister.”

  “I agree, Dad. I’m fine with letting you take the lead.” Ellie didn’t trust herself to keep her emotions in check. She’d never felt such animosity toward someone she’d never met. “What did Louisa say about the letters?”

  “She admitted to receiving a letter from your mother a few months after she left New York, when she wrote to say she wouldn’t be returning and for Louisa to find a new roommate. But she claims to know nothing of the other letters.”

  “Did you explain who Maddie was and that she’d witnessed the exchange of letters?”

  Keeping his eyes on the road, he said, “I told her your mother had used Maddie’s as the return address.”

  “I don’t get it,” Ellie said, tossing her hands in the air. “Why not just say they were exchanging recipes or birthday cards instead of denying the correspondence altogether?”

  He lifted his hand off the steering wheel in a your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine gesture. “I caught her off guard. Maybe she didn’t know how else to respond.”

  Ellie shifted in her seat toward him. “Tell me what else you remember about Louisa.”

  He thought for a minute before responding. “She had a pretty face, but she was too chubby to ever be a model. Once she gave up on that dream, she focused all her attention on advertising. She was driven and talented. She was hired as an administrative assistant, but when she got the opportunity to write copy, her career took off. She was made partner in just a couple of years and was put in charge of the whole creative team.”

  “From what I’ve read and what you told me, it sounds like she and Mom were pretty good friends.”

  “I think Louisa was the first true friend your mother ever had,” Abbott said. “The only true friend she ever had.”

  Ellie pulled her sunglasses down and looked at him over the rim. “I doubt that’s true, Dad. Mom went to an all-girl college.”

  “You’re probably right. We may never know for sure. Ashton always gave me the impression she didn’t have many friends.” He stopped talking while he passed a tractor trailer. “If you want to know the truth, I think Louisa was jealous of your mother. Ashton was living Louisa’s dream. But she was careful never to let that green-eyed monster show. Most of the women I knew back then were always catfighting with their roommates. But not Louisa and Ashton. They were considerate of each other. And loyal to each other.”

  Ellie held her tongue. Why had her mother chosen an obsessive pathological liar like Louisa as her best friend? She’d add that to the list of questions she’d never get to ask her.

  Abbott stroked the stubble on his chin, a faraway look on his face. “Your mother refused to go out and leave Louisa home alone. Not that that happened very often. Louisa always had plenty of dates. I wonder if she ever married. If she did, she never changed her name.”

  “Or reclaimed her maiden name when she divorced,” Ellie added.

  Abbott merged onto I-95 and exited at the next truck stop for gas. When they got back onto the highway, he adjusted his seat and drove with one hand resting casually on the steering wheel. He spoke about her mother as though desperate to express his feelings. He’d kept his love for Ashton suppressed for way too long. The more he talked, the more it became clear that he’d never stopped loving her.

  “I worked with a lot of models back in my day, but your mother was the one true beauty I ever met. And I’m not just talking about the way the light bounced off the golden streaks in her strawberry-blonde hair, or her milky complexion, or classic facial features. Her real beauty came from within. She had an innocence about her that was as mysterious as it was mischievous. The camera absolutely loved her. I seldom had to retouch my photos. She was more in tune with the camera than any model I ever worked with.”

  “She mentioned in her journal that she’d never modeled before. Was it possible for someone to become an overnight sensation back in those days?”

  He chuckled. “You mean back in the ice age? In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago. People became stars overnight with far less talent than your mother. Your mother was a natural. She was shy at first, for about five minutes.”

  “Was she that way with all photographers or just with you because of the chemistry you shared?”

  “I can’t answer that. I never attended any of her other shoots. We worked together most of the time, but we were by no means exclusive.” He checked the rearview mirror before easing into the right-hand lane. “Your mother loved being the star attraction. We went out nearly every night to trendy restaurants, nightclubs, and parties at tiny apartments crammed with creative people smoking marijuana and snorting lines of cocaine off any flat surface they could find.” He winked at her. “Don’t get me wrong. We were never into illegal drugs, although plenty of our friends were. Your mother’s drug of choice was attention.”

  “The person you describe doesn’t sound at all like the same person who wrote these journals.” She placed a hand on the tote bag on the floorboard that contained her mother’s journals. “You talk about her as though she was so full of life. This seemingly helpless person”—she patted the bag—“fell easily into the role of victim.”

  He risked a glance at the tote bag. “But remember that person had a heart condition. And I’ve only scratched the surface of your mother’s complex personality. She also had a dark side that I sensed stemmed from her past. She once told me that her past was a closed chapter in her life and told me not to mention it again. That’s when I stopped asking.”

  “I guess we know why now. She adopted a fake name for a reason.” Ellie knitted her brow and pursed her lips. “What did Mom do when you went home for the holidays? Did she go with you?”

  Abbott shook his head. “I never went home for the holidays. I wasn’t that close with my family, even back then.”

  Ellie had met her paternal grandparents only a couple of times when they were passing through San Francisco on one of their many trips around the world.

  “Your mother and I spent the holidays together. Thanksgivings were Friendsgivings for us. We invited anyone over who wanted to cook a turkey dinner and watch football. On Christmas Eve, we dragged a small tree home from the corner lot, decorated it with strings of popcorn and cranberries, and camped out in front of the fire for two days.”

  “At whose apartment, yours or hers?”

  “Mostly mine, because I lived alone. Unless, of course, we were entertaining Louisa. We lived in the same neighborhood. We went back and forth a lot.”

  Ellie rested her head against the headrest. “None of this makes sense to me, Dad. You were already living like a married couple. The enga
gement ring was in your pocket, and you were flying back to New York to pop the question. When she suspected you were having an affair, why wouldn’t she at least have given you a chance to explain?”

  His expression grew serious. “Because she was stubborn as hell. If your mother got it in her mind that the world was flat, then the world was flat, and there was no convincing her otherwise.”

  Ellie smiled. “She inherited that particular trait from my grandmother. I may be hardheaded, but I’m not unreasonable. At least I don’t think I am.”

  “You may see your mother when you look in the mirror, Ellie, but that’s where the similarities end.” Taking his hand off the steering wheel, he reached across the console and pinched her cheek. “You have her spirited personality, to a manageable degree, but you’re also creative and pragmatic like me. There is no point in trying to figure out why your mother made the choices she made. What’s done is done. We need to focus on the matter at hand.”

  They didn’t talk for the next hour. Turning up the volume on the classic rock music, Abbott focused on driving while Ellie sat back in her seat, closed her eyes, and shed silent tears for all her family had lost. They used the drive-through at the Char-Grill in Benson and ate their burgers in the car on the road. Instead of bypassing the city and spending the night in a seedy roadside motel, they took the longer route through Richmond and splurged on rooms at the Jefferson Hotel. The ambiance at the historic hotel and a scrumptious dinner at Lemaire whetted Ellie’s appetite for more, and she vowed to return to Richmond when she had more time to explore. After a quick breakfast at TJ’s in the lobby of the hotel, they checked out and got back on the interstate heading east toward the Chesapeake Bay.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Abbott

  They’d been on the highway for about an hour when Ellie pointed at her built-in navigation system. “Where are we exactly? It seems like we’re out in the middle of the country somewhere, but we’re surrounded by water.”

  “Welcome to rural Virginia, honey. The bodies of water you see are rivers that flow from the Chesapeake Bay.”

  A surprised look crossed her face. “How do you know so much about the area?”

  “A friend of mine owns a house near Matthews, off the Piankatank River. I’ve been down here a couple of times with him bird-watching.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Bird-watching. I should’ve guessed,” she said in a teasing tone.

  Exiting off Highway 33 toward Urbanna, they drove through the small charming town on Virginia Street, took a left onto Cross Street, and continued five minutes outside of town until they reached a row of houses that fronted the Rappahannock River. He turned into the gravel driveway of a renovated farmhouse and parked beside a late-model 4Runner. He turned off the engine and handed the keys to his daughter. “I’ll say this again. I know you’re upset with her, but antagonizing Louisa won’t get us any closer to finding Lia.”

  “I know, Dad,” Ellie said as she opened her car door. “That’s why I’m going to let you do all the talking.”

  When she saw them standing in her doorway, Louisa’s large body slumped, like the air deflating out of a balloon. She’d gained at least a hundred pounds since he’d last seen her. She wore a sleeveless tent that exposed more of her flesh than Abbott cared to see.

  Louisa gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth when she caught sight of Ellie. “You look just like her.”

  “That’s what they tell me,” Ellie said. “She died so young, I don’t remember much about her.”

  Abbott heard the accusatory tone in his daughter’s voice and elbowed a warning jab to her side.

  Louisa turned back to Abbott. “You’ve wasted your time in coming here. I told you everything I know yesterday.”

  “What a spectacular view.” Ellie pushed past Louisa and marched through the small foyer to the living room. Abbott pressed his lips together to hide his amusement. His daughter wasn’t interested in the view of the river. She was interested in the family photographs arranged on the mantel above the fireplace.

  Louisa hurried after Ellie as fast as her bulky body allowed, leaving Abbott to close the door behind them.

  Ellie removed a framed photograph of a teenage girl who looked so much like Abbott it could only have been Lia. “Look, Daddy.” She held the photograph out for him to see. “Louisa has a photograph of Lia. Didn’t she tell you yesterday she’d never met my sister?”

  Sweat broke out on Louisa’s brow, and her ample bosom heaved as she inhaled several deep breaths.

  Abbott sunk a hand into the flesh on her back. “Are you all right? Maybe you should sit down.”

  “I just need a minute to collect myself. Make yourselves comfortable”—she waved a flabby arm at the sitting area—“while I get us some refreshments.”

  Ellie returned the photograph to the mantel and took a seat on the sofa. “Be nice!” Abbott said as he sat down next to her.

  She curled her upper lip and bared her fangs at him with a little hiss. He chuckled in response. His daughter was out for blood.

  “The view is amazing,” Ellie said, staring out the sliding glass doors at the colorful sailboats racing up and down the river. “I wonder if this is where Lia grew up?”

  Louisa was gone so long Abbott was beginning to think she’d sneaked out of the back door when the aroma of coffee wafted in from the adjoining kitchen. She waddled into the room and dropped the tray of cups and saucers on the coffee table with a rattle. She flopped down into a nearby armchair. “I didn’t know there were two of you until I spoke to your father yesterday. You look nothing like your sister.”

  “Funny thing about fraternal twins,” Ellie said.

  Abbott laced his fingers together and propped his elbows on his knees. “Start talking, Louisa, and don’t leave anything out.”

  She sat up straighter in her chair and placed her hands in her lap. “Nettie wrote to me a few years after she left and told me she was ill, that she had a heart condition that was worsened by her pregnancy. We exchanged several letters.”

  Ellie’s hands were clasped so tight her knuckles were white. “What did you talk about in these letters?”

  Louisa exhaled a deep breath. “After Nettie left New York, I married the first guy that came along. Out of loneliness or boredom, maybe a combination of both. We were having marital problems at the time, and I’d recently discovered that I was infertile. It was comforting to have a friend to pour my heart out to.”

  Abbott had a difficult time summoning any sympathy for this woman. “I’m sorry for your troubles. Can we move on with the story?”

  “I’m getting to it.” Louisa took her time dumping three spoonfuls of sugar in one of the mugs. “Late one night the following January, I received a call from a woman claiming to be a friend of Net—. I mean Ashton’s. She told me Ashton had passed away. According to this woman, Ashton made a deathbed request that I raise her daughter as my own. She said Ashton was broke and had no other family to look out for the child.”

  Ellie’s mouth fell open. “But Mom didn't die until years later."

  Louisa lifted a beefy shoulder. “I had no way of knowing that. In hindsight, I was so desperate for a child, I didn’t ask too many questions. And I was distraught over losing my friend, especially at such a young age.” She locked eyes with Abbott. “I would’ve done anything for Nettie. You know that.”

  “Me, too, Louisa. I wish I’d been given the chance.”

  The room fell silent for an awkward moment. “Do you remember this woman’s name?” Ellie asked finally.

  “She never told me her name, not even when I flew to Charleston to get Lia. We met at the airport. We hardly spoke. She was visibly upset about parting with Lia.”

  “What did the woman look like?” Abbott asked.

  Louisa paused before answering. “Heavyset, black, probably in her early sixties.”

  Abbott exchanged a look with his daughter. Sally Bell.

  “Tell me about Lia’s emotional state.”
Abbott thought back to the day he came to pick Ellie up from Charleston. “Did she seem afraid?”

  Louisa sipped her coffee. “She might have been a little frightened. She was going off to live with a stranger. But overall she seemed like a perfectly well-adjusted three-year-old.”

  “I find that hard to believe,” Abbott said. “Ellie was a mess when she came to live with me, and understandably so considering she’d never been outside the house before.”

  “Are you calling me a liar?” Louisa’s blue eyes darted back and forth between them. “I didn’t know any of that at the time, otherwise I might have been more concerned about her emotional state. I’d never been a parent before. Maybe I missed some of the signs. But I provided for Lia the best way I knew how.”

  “No need to get upset, Louisa. No one’s calling you a liar.” Abbott got that same old sense that Louisa’s brain was not firing on all cylinders. He needed to find out as much information from her as he could, while he had the chance. He’d piece it all together later. “Where were you living at the time?”

  “I was still living in New York. I hired a nanny to look after her while I was at work. When the weather was nice, Bridget took Lia to the neighborhood park. They often had playdates with other nannies and their charges, but for the most part, Lia led a sheltered life.” Louisa popped a cheese biscuit in her mouth and swallowed it whole with coffee. “New York, back in those days, was no place to raise children. It’s not much better now, if you ask me, although the city is much cleaner and the schools are more competitive.

  “When the time came for Lia to start kindergarten, I decided I needed to make a change. I’d grown tired of the long hours and cutthroat environment in the advertising industry. I sold my share of the partnership and moved down here. I wanted somewhere quiet to live near the water where I could write. I’m a romance writer.”

  “I’ve read my share of romance novels. How come I’ve never heard of you?” Ellie asked in a suspicious tone.

  Abbott applauded his daughter her frank manner of questioning. She’d make a good detective if she ever decided to give up painting.