My Destiny
Page 21
Destiny sat up.
Miles leaned forward to bend back as flap of the box to look inside.
“It also has a lot of his Army stuff,” she added.
Destiny looked at Miles. “I didn’t know your father was in the military.”
Miles nodded. “He fought in Vietnam.” He shrugged. “Once, he thought if he was going to die young he might as well die fighting for his country.”
Destiny shifted, uncomfortable with the conversation drifting toward “the family curse.”
“Actually, I don’t think this box belonged to your father. I believe it was your grandmother’s stuff. I seem to recall when she passed away your father put some of her things in the attic.” Violet reached inside the box. “There are a lot of baby pictures and letters written by her. And there are these.” She pulled out a small stack of papers.
“What are those?” Destiny asked.
“Adoption papers.”
Destiny was confused. “Adoption papers?”
Violet nodded and handed them to Miles before reaching for something else. “And there’s this, too.”
Destiny took the weathered piece of paper and looked at it. “It’s a birth certificate for a Richard Kendall.” She looked up at Violet. “I don’t understand.”
“At first neither did I, but then I started putting things together. I mean about the Stafford curse.”
Destiny’s apprehension increased. “I thought you said that you didn’t believe in the curse.”
“I don’t.” Violet stiffened, but failed to maintain eye contact. “But things sometimes float in the back of your mind.”
“You mean like the question of what if you’re wrong and there really is a curse?” Destiny asked, knowing exactly what her mother-in-law meant.
Violet’s smile wavered at the corners. “I’m sure you two have dealt with the same questions.”
“Only all of my life,” Miles answered, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“But don’t you see? This settles it for once and for all.” Violet inched closer to the edge of her seat. “If these papers are legitimate, and I don’t see any reason why they’re not, then you’re not susceptible to the Stafford curse because you’re not a true Stafford—neither was your father. And according to that birth certificate, Richard was actually older than he thought.”
Miles blinked, and then stared back down at the papers he held.
Destiny’s heart bloomed with hope.
“But Dad died,” Miles tried to vocalize his jumbled thoughts.
Violet’s expression softened. “We’re all going to die, sweetheart. But Richard’s death had nothing to do with a curse. It was an accident—nothing more, nothing less.”
Destiny and Miles digested this information and looked at each other. The revelation remained on their minds well after they’d checked on Miles Junior and retired for the night.
“So what do you think?” Destiny asked, easing comfortably into the crook of his arm.
“It’s a lot to take in,” he admitted honestly. “I wonder why my grandmother never told my father that he was adopted or if she had why he had never told us.”
Destiny nodded and watched her husband’s frown deepen. She reached up and kissed him gently.
Miles savored her lips and when she broke away, he smiled down at her. “What was that for?”
“Do I have to have a reason?”
He turned and pulled her pliant body toward him. “Then I guess I don’t have to have a reason to do some things to you, either.”
She giggled and pulled away. “You better not. Your mother is in the next room. We can wait until we return to our own bed tomorrow night.”
He chuckled and nibbled on her ear. “I’m sure she’s fast asleep.”
Destiny’s body melted at the feel of his warm breath against the nape of her neck. All thoughts of a curse vanished. And on their tenth, twentieth and thirtieth wedding anniversaries the curse was nothing more than a comical memory.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459241336
Copyright © 2003 by Adrianne Byrd
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