“I’m glad they have told you so much, Kari. We, my brothers and I, have come today because we also have some family history to share with you, some history we think you have not yet heard.”
Matthew was still staring at her, rather fixedly, and Kari was as confused as ever as to why her visit should garner so much family attention. Nevertheless, she responded, “All right. I look forward to it.”
Matthew, then taking possession of Kari’s hand, introduced her to the others in the room. “Jacob and Ellen? This is Kari. Kari, this is my brother, Jacob and, his wife Ellen, and our other brother, Luke, and his wife, Thea.”
Jacob and Ellen shook Kari’s hand, studying her as intently as Matthew and Linda had. Luke, though, just smiled and squeezed her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Kari,” he whispered.
Finally? Kari was lost.
She turned and found Søren right at her shoulder. “You’re doing fine, Kari,” he whispered. “Why don’t you sit down?”
He led her to a chair and Kari saw that someone—Ilsa, she assumed—had rearranged the furniture in the over-large room into a much more intimate configuration. Kari sat down and looked for Clover and Lorene. They and Owen had taken seats a little behind her. Matthew, Jacob, and Luke were facing her. Their wives and Ilsa, Søren, and Alannah were seated behind them, just as Clover, Lorene, and Owen were behind her.
She was face-to-face with the three O’Dell brothers.
Matthew spoke first. “We asked Søren and Ilsa not to say anything ahead of time about our visit, Kari, because we didn’t want you to feel too uncomfortable about our coming,” he said gently. “Say, would you happen to have Grandma’s journal nearby?”
“Yes. Just in my room, there.” Kari pointed. She stood up, squared her shoulders, and added, “I’ll get it for you.”
During the short trip she prayed, Lord, please don’t let them take it! And I don’t understand what is happening! Why are Clover, Lorene, and Owen here?
Staring at Kari’s back, Matthew’s mouth parted just a little. “Amazing,” he muttered.
Linda, at his elbow, nodded her agreement. “Yes, quite. How many times did we see Grandma Rose and your mama square up their shoulders and face whatever must be done just like that? So much like both of them!”
In her room Kari held Rose’s journal in her hands and remembered what Søren had asked her: “Whatever happens, will you trust God, Kari?”
Yes, Lord. I will trust you.
She returned to the living room and, with shaking hands, gave the precious volume to Matthew. Then she realized that his hands were shaking, too.
Jacob and Luke peered over Matthew’s shoulder as he opened it and read the inscription inside.
Rose Thoresen
My Journal
“It’s true,” Jacob breathed. “This is her missing journal!” He cut his eyes toward Kari again, this time with what looked like wonder in them.
Matthew turned to the back and paged forward until he reached the last entry. “Her last entry is dated April 12, 1911.”
All three of them looked up and stared at Kari.
“What?” she whispered. “What does that mean?”
Matthew closed the journal and stood to return it to her. “Thank you, Kari.”
Kari swallowed. “I can keep it?”
“As far as I’m concerned, yes,” Matthew replied. “God saw fit to lead you to it and then lead you to us. I consider the journal to be yours.”
He took a deep breath and looked around at his brothers, who both nodded. “Kari, I said earlier that we, too, had some family history to tell you.”
He took his seat again so that the three brothers and Kari were quite close. The stillness of the others in the living room was palpable.
“Kari, you have read Rose’s journal, haven’t you? Did she write about Mei-Xing Li’s disappearance?”
“Yes. Su-Chong Chen kidnapped her and held her prisoner for months. When Edmund O’Dell—your father—found her, Su-Chong was dead. O’Dell returned Mei-Xing to Palmer House but . . . but she was pregnant. With Shan-Rose.”
“Very good. Then do you know, too, that Su-Chong was an only child? Do you know that Su-Chong’s mother, Fang-Hua Chen, plotted to steal her son’s child from Mei-Xing?”
“I—that is, Rose wrote that she and the others thought it was a possibility and they took a lot of precautions . . .” Kari’s words trailed off.
Matthew nodded and smiled. Kari was again struck by the kindheartedness in his eyes.
“Kari, on April 12, 1911, Rose took little Shan-Rose and her infant grandson Edmund for a walk in a park near Palmer House. She took her journal and her Bible with her. That is where she wrote the last entry in the journal you found.”
“Oh!” Kari imagined her penning that last entry and smiled.
Matthew did not return her smile. “Kari, Rose was accompanied by two very reliable and experienced bodyguards. Nevertheless, men hired by Fang-Hua attacked them in broad daylight as they left the park. The two guards were shot and killed. Fang-Hua’s men also shot Rose.”
“No! No, they didn’t!” Kari was horrified and looked to Søren to deny it—only for him to nod his head. “But she didn’t die, did she? She died years later, right?”
“Yes; that’s right. She survived the shooting. But . . . the men Fang-Hua hired . . .”
“They took Shan-Rose?” Kari was confused.
“No, Kari,” Matthew whispered. “They took Edmund.”
Kari felt the blood in her body—like a crashing wave of icy water—rush to her feet. “They took Edmund?”
Matthew looked at the floor. “It was a mistake, Kari. The men had been told that Mei-Xing had given birth to a baby boy. When they saw two babies in the pram—a girl and a boy—they didn’t look closely at them or think. They simply took the boy.”
“But . . . but they got him back, didn’t they? Joy got her baby back, didn’t she?” The horror of it engulfed Kari’s heart.
Poor Joy! O Lord, why did she have to suffer so many heartaches?
She realized that Matthew had not answered her. “Matthew? They found Edmund, didn’t they?” Her question was no more than a strangled croak. “Didn’t they?”
Instead of responding, Matthew asked, “Did Rose write in her journal about a man named Dean Morgan, Kari?”
“I . . . she mentioned him. He . . . wasn’t he the man who owned the . . . houses of evil in Corinth? The journal starts the day after he was arrested. But then later he and Su-Chong escaped together from the jail in Denver?”
“That’s right. What you might not know is that, although older than Su-Chong, Dean Morgan grew up with Su-Chong in Seattle. He was well acquainted with Su-Chong’s mother, Fang-Hua Chen.”
The images in Kari’s head were spinning, colliding. “And so . . .”
“And so Fang-Hua sent Morgan to steal Mei-Xing’s child for her.”
“She sent Morgan. And so . . . he mistakenly took Edmund?”
“His men did, yes. What Grandma may also not have written in her journal is how much Dean Morgan hated our mother, Joy.”
Kari stared at nothing and said nothing. The stillness and tension in the room seemed to grow.
Matthew cleared his throat again. “Our father, Edmund O’Dell, was a Pinkerton man and conducted most of the investigation into Edmund’s abduction. Morgan hated Dad as well as Mother. He hated Dad because Dad had helped Mother close down the houses in Corinth.
“We know Morgan was the one who took Edmund because he left a note for Dad. The last line of Morgan’s note read, Sorry about taking the wrong child, O’Dell.”
“But if it was a mistake—”
“It was a mistake, but he decided to keep Edmund because . . . because it was the most painful way to punish Mother . . . and Dad.”
“They never . . . they never found Edmund . . . ?” Kari thought her heart would break, so hard did it clench in her chest. “They never found him?”
Matthew sensed that
he was losing Kari to her emotions. “Kari, if you can, please stay with us. I have more to say.”
She nodded, but he could see how distracted she was.
“Mother and Dad never gave up looking for Edmund, Kari. No one in the families did—the Thoresens, the O’Dells, the Carmichaels, and the Liángs. Rose, Mother, and Dad, Isaac and Breona Carmichael, Mei-Xing and Yao Liáng—and many friends—vowed that they would never give up.
“And we, their children, have never given up. Our families made a pact before God, you see: We bound ourselves in a solemn pledge to never stop searching for Edmund and to never stop trusting that God would restore him to us, whether in this life or the next. Our families vowed that we would hold to our faith in The Lord—to the firm belief that wherever Edmund was, until he returned to us, God had him and would keep him safe.”
Matthew grew emotional as he spoke so Jacob placed a calming hand on his shoulder and stepped in to continue the narration. “Mother married Dad in 1915 and our family grew—first Matthew, then me, then Luke, and finally Roseanne. We grew up knowing we had a brother named Edmund and that someday our great God would bring him back to us.
“Mother said that her father, Jan Thoresen, had a saying while she was growing up. He told her that, ‘In God, the lost are found.’ Those words became our family’s catch phrase—our motto: Lost Are Found. We have used that phrase to remind ourselves that God will return Edmund to us—even if it is not until heaven.”
“Lost Are Found,” Kari murmured. “All those signs. That’s what they were really about?”
Jacob nodded. “Later Mother founded the organization she named ‘Lost Are Found’ to help locate the missing children of other families. But to our families? To us ‘Lost Are Found’ only ever meant one thing: In God the lost are found. He had Edmund and would return him to us one day.”
Kari sighed, grieving with him. “But you never found Edmund. And he would be older than any of you now.”
“No, we didn’t find him,” Matthew choked. “But we found his daughter.”
Kari blinked, not understanding him. She realized that most of the people in the room were sniffling. Ilsa was openly sobbing.
“What are you talking about?” she whispered.
“The journal,” Matthew answered, his voice cracking. “That day in the park, Grandma put her Bible and her journal under the blanket that covered Shan-Rose and Edmund. Afterwards, after Fang-Hua’s men had taken Edmund, her journal was missing. Her Bible was there, but the blanket and her journal were gone.
“It was thought that when the kidnappers picked up Edmund that they inadvertently wrapped the journal into the blanket at the same time. All these years, we have wondered what became of it—and we have hoped that wherever it was, it would someday lead Edmund back to us.”
Kari jumped up. “Wha-what are you saying?” she demanded. “What are you saying?” but Matthew could not respond.
Alannah answered for him. “Kari, Dean Morgan hired a wet nurse to care for Shan-Rose while they took her to Fang-Hua. Instead, Morgan and the wet nurse took Edmund and left Denver and were never seen again. Morgan took Rose’s journal with him.”
Owen stood. “Miss Kari? Once Morgan reached New Orleans, he had three birth certificates forged: one for himself, one for the wet nurse, and one for Edmund.” Owen turned. “Clover?”
Clover climbed to his feet next to Owen and, holding onto his arm, said, “Kari, Detective Carmichael here came to New Orleans last week. She showed me old pictures of Dean Morgan. I am possibly the only person still alive who could identify him. And Kari, I can say, categorically: Dean Morgan and Peter Granger were one and the same person.”
Alannah continued, “We know now that Peter Granger was Dean Morgan, and we know that Alicia Granger was the wet nurse.
“Which means,” she added softly, “that your father, Michael Granger, was Edmund Thoresen Michaels.”
Kari was still standing, staring at the floor. Matthew got out of his chair and went to her. He grasped her gently by the arms. “We didn’t find our brother Edmund, Kari, but we found his daughter. You, Kari, are Edmund Michael’s daughter. Grant and Joy Michaels are your grandparents. Rose Thoresen is your great-grandmother. And I am your uncle, Kari.”
Rose was my great-grandmother? Kari swallowed. Hard.
Tears running down his face, Matthew kissed her softly on the forehead. “God is faithful: The lost are finally found.
“Welcome home, KariAnn Thoresen Michaels.”
~~**~~
Chapter 24
Søren stood near Kari as the others in the room gathered around her. All of them were careful and gentle for her sake, but one by one they touched her and murmured their welcomes.
First, Matthew and Linda, followed by Jacob and Luke and their wives, embraced her. “You are our niece, Kari,” Jacob rasped, his voice rough with emotion. “I am your Uncle Jacob. We have been looking for you for a long, long time.”
“You are so much like Mama, Kari!” Luke added. “Tall, strong, beautiful—” He broke down and could not finish.
Then Clover and Lorene gathered her in their arms. “We only found out last week,” Clover whispered, “and knowing how difficult this revelation would be for you, we wanted to be here to assure you that it was true and to help you through the shock.”
Lorene embraced Kari, her familiar scent welcoming and soothing Kari. “Thank you,” Kari whispered.
Owen gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Kari nodded her thanks.
Oh, Rose! You are my great-grandmother? Oh, Rose! But how your words, the words of your journal, called to me, called to my heart! Across all these miles and all these years, God used them to call me to you? To my family? To himself?
A relief, a hope, an indescribable joy was bubbling within her, etching away at the years and years of loneliness—aching, unrelenting loneliness. Every fresh realization washed her with healing oil.
Joy and Grant! You are my grandparents? And Daddy! You were their precious baby boy? How they loved you! How they must have longed for you!
Alannah hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “We are cousins, Kari. Think of that! You are my cousin!”
Cousin! I’ve never had a cousin. I’ve never had anyone . . . and now? I am not alone? Kari couldn’t answer Alannah; she clung to her and they sobbed on each others’ shoulders. Kari could only repeat silently, I am not alone! I am not alone!
And then Alannah giggled and Kari, hiccupping, looked up and their eyes met. Joy bubbled up in Kari until it mixed with her tears and sobs and she laughed aloud.
“We’re cousins, Alannah? Truly?”
“Truly.” Alannah accepted a tissue from Ilsa and wiped her nose, laughing again. “From the moment you just showed up at the door to Palmer House with Rose’s journal in your hand—asking if Shan-Rose were Mei-Xing Li!—Kari, your appearance has rocked us—all of us—to our cores!”
“Really?” Reality was gripping Kari, making her wobbly.
“Poor Uncle Quan!” Alannah laughed and Kari’s uncles joined in. “If you could have heard him trying to repeat all that Shan-Rose told him on the phone the evening after you appeared! The uproar! The astonishment! The hope! The joy! And so many questions!”
Matthew chimed in. “Quan had to repeat himself three times when he called us. I-I just could not get my mind wrapped around it.”
“And trying to keep it all in?” Alannah laughed. “You have no idea how hard the last two weeks have been!”
“You think it’s been hard for you?” Søren demanded. “Ilsa and I have been waltzing around this secret for more than a week! Reciting Thoresen history to Kari, always leaving out Edmund’s kidnapping, always skirting the elephant in the room.”
He took Kari’s hand. “Kari, I wanted to tell you so badly, but your uncles insisted that they be the ones to tell you. I almost gave in once, but Ilsa about had a fit and—”
“I did not!” Ilsa shot back.
Everyone gathered in the room responde
d with good-natured amusement.
“Yes you did, Ilsa. Your disapproving glare practically drilled holes in my head one evening, and don’t you deny it!”
More laughter followed and Ilsa blushed.
“Kari, it was only right to honor your uncles’ wishes, but I need you to understand that I did not like keeping you in the dark.” Søren concluded, squeezing her hand.
Matthew shook his head. “And when Alannah went to New Orleans and confirmed everything? Well, we went to our knees in thanksgiving, all of us. The whole of our four families are praising God, Kari, and they are on their way here. They will be here tomorrow, and we are going to rejoice together!”
Alannah smiled and hugged Kari again. “Oh, Kari! God is so good!”
“They are all coming here?” Kari whispered.
“To meet you,” Matthew confirmed.
Kari sank into a chair. Abruptly, it was all too much. I’m not used to being so . . . happy, she realized.
“Let’s give Kari a little room to breathe, shall we?” Søren suggested, noting how pale Kari had gone.
Ilsa nodded and started herding their guests toward the kitchen. “I have coffee and dessert if anyone is interested?” A few moved in that direction; others remained in the room talking amongst themselves but giving Kari the space Søren had requested.
Kari stared straight ahead, replaying the revelations of the last half hour, trying to grasp and hold the many threads of them.
Edmund was kidnapped; Daddy is Edmund. Then she recalled Matthew saying, Rose was also shot.
Oh, Rose! Kari’s heart clenched.
They took Shan-Rose?
No, Kari.
They took Edmund.
She ached over those three words and pondered their implications. They took Daddy away from Joy and Grant. They took him and Grant died . . . without seeing his baby boy again before he died? Oh, Grant! Oh, Joy. I am so sorry.
And they lied to Daddy about who his parents were. Peter Granger and Alicia Granger lied to him—about everything. Daddy’s whole life was a lie!
Lost Are Found (A Prairie Heritage, Book 6) Page 29
