He closed his eyes a minute, then reached into his left pocket and pulled out a plain gold band. Slowly he slid it on his finger. “I was so scared that first day. We were so happy, then you left and disappeared. It looked like something really bad happened at the house. When I saw the police cars and everyone there, I put this in my pocket. Every night it goes on my nightstand, and every morning it goes back in my pocket.”
She touched the ring and thought of hers downstairs.
He held her until she asked to be alone again. She wanted to be with him, but she couldn’t think clearly with his arms around her.
Later, when Trent came to her door and asked if she wanted dinner, she declined. She wasn’t sure if he cooked or ordered in, or even left. An hour or several passed, she wasn’t sure, when the phone rang. She rolled on the bed and picked it up, her heart jumping when she heard Karen’s voice.
“That hello didn’t sound good, how’s it going?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve found out a lot, but now I’m more confused than ever. Will you come over?”
Without pushing for an explanation, Karen agreed and arrived within twenty minutes, coming up to Molly’s room. Molly was still sprawled across the bed, so Karen flopped on her stomach next to her.
“Where’s Trent? I didn’t see him downstairs.”
“I’m not sure. I asked to be alone to think about things.”
“Okay, so spill. Did you guys have a fight?”
Molly rubbed her eyes, feeling tired now. “No, not really. I’ll get to that. First, let me tell you the other outrageous events that have happened today. I found out my mother was married and divorced before she met Arnold. Or I assume she was divorced when they met. Anyway, her first husband was named Kenneth Webb, and it looks like he was my actual father.”
Karen gasped. “But how?”
Molly raised an eyebrow and asked, “You don’t know about the birds and the bees?”
Karen rolled her eyes and waited, her face looking serious and business-like with her shoulder length brown hair framing it.
Molly sat up and explained about the divorce date and her birth date and ended by spilling all her doubts about her parents. “I just wish they were here to explain.”
“I can imagine.” Karen gave an exasperated sigh. “But Trent can verify all this for you.” She didn’t miss the way Molly’s eyes averted the other way at the mention of Trent’s name. She noticed it wasn’t a shy I-like-him look, either. Karen pulled herself to a sitting position. Four years of being friends had woven a strong bond between them, and Karen had felt protective of Molly since the beginning. “What happened?”
“It’s not anything you’d think of.” Molly toyed with the blanket. “We found something else with my mother’s divorce papers. She had a marriage license. Mine. Even the ring taped to it, for crying out loud.”
Molly’s shoulders shook as she spoke and her head collapsed down into her hands. Karen grabbed her in a fierce hug.
“Trent?”
Molly nodded through her crying.
“And he didn’t tell you? Did he intend to?”
Molly grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and tried to breathe normally enough to quote Trent’s explanation. She continued. “I found Trent, Alicia, their friends, and fell right in with them, felt at home. I trusted them right away. Now I don’t know what to think. Trent promised no one else knew about us eloping.”
Karen stopped Molly. “Don’t you think that’s weird?”
“The timing explains it, if you believe his story. I disappeared before we could tell anyone.” Except her parents.
“Well, he has had four years to work on it.” Karen looked skeptical, and Molly wished she weren’t. She wanted someone else to be supportive of Trent so Molly wouldn’t question him so much. Karen added, “But that doesn’t mean he’s not telling the truth. You know I’ll play the devil’s advocate, for your sake, but I think he’s the good guy.”
Molly’s head dropped again.
“Do you feel some of the old feelings for him?”
“I do. I’ve remembered events growing up, and he was there. There’s an old, long connection between us. I don’t have to remember everything to feel it, but I can’t act on it anymore without knowing everything that happened.”
Karen smoothed a hand over Molly’s back, comforting her. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you, talks about you. I think it’ll work out.”
“But what could have happened?” Molly asked, knowing Karen couldn’t answer that. And Trent promised he didn’t know anything else that he wasn’t telling her.
“Is Trent finding out who and where Kenneth Webb is?”
Molly shivered, wondering if she really wanted to know, to meet him. “He called Mark Stone, his partner, back in Ridge City to look into it.”
Karen lay back on the pillows, eyes up to the ceiling, and wondered how all of it tied together. “You found a lost husband, a lost father, but you don’t know why you lost your memory. Do you think you knew Kenneth before?”
“Wouldn’t that be even weirder since they never mentioned him?”
“So you rate the different degrees of weirdness in all this?” Karen laughed, but stopped so quickly that Molly half sat up on her elbows to look at her and see why. “What if finding out about Kenneth caused your amnesia?”
They looked at each other, both thinking, before Molly said, “That doesn’t seem drastic enough.”
“But he has to have something to do with it.”
That’s exactly what Molly had been thinking. “Maybe he came and harassed my parents in Ridge City and that’s why we moved without telling anyone.”
“Hmm.” They both knew they were looking at a picture with holes in it and gave up the conversation.
Just then Trent knocked and opened the bedroom door. “Mark called back. Mind if I take your car to the nearest police station?”
The women shot each other a glance and Molly asked, “Do you know something?”
“He’s faxing a picture, background information.” They couldn’t ignore the weight of this news, couldn’t pretend it wasn’t a big deal. “Do you want to come?”
Thoughts crashed into her mind at the same time. What would she say to Trent while alone in the car? How would she feel about seeing her birth father? What if it didn’t do anything, or what if she remembered him? “Ahh, I think I’ll wait here.”
“I’ll bring the information back, okay?” He gave Karen a nod and left.
They listened to the muffled, somehow sad, sound of the car pulling out of the driveway, then Karen suggested lunch. “I’ll fix something, or we can order in.”
“The cupboards are pretty bare.”
“Alright, I’ll call someplace.” Karen rose while adding, “I thought you might like to call your friend in Oregon and tell her what happened.”
“Call Alicia? I should,” Molly agreed. Karen smiled and left, adding she’d use her cell to order lunch.
Molly called and got a cheery hello from Alicia. “Did the drive down go okay?”
“The drive, yes.” Molly searched for words now. “The call from Bev, no.”
The phone line seemed to freeze.
“Molly, why did she call you?”
Once again, Molly spilled, sharing about the conversation with Bev, not pausing to hear what Alicia had to say about it until she reached the end. “Is it true about David?”
“Yes.” Molly’s heart sank before Alicia went on, “And he told me about his fiancé for the first time, while drunk, actually.”
“Is it true he doesn’t want us to be friends? Bev said I’m ruining your marriage.”
“You should know better than that! She makes everything sound worse than it is.”
“Well, forget about what Bev said, I want to hear from you. Do you think I’m causing you problems?”
“We’ve talked quite a bit, and he told me everything about why he’s been so cautious of you. But he doesn’t feel like that anymore. I promi
se. We’ve worked it out.”
Molly started breathing again. “And Trent? He’s your brother. Am I messing his life up?”
“Don’t you know you’re all he’s ever wanted?”
She’d heard it from him and seen it in his eyes, in his actions, but she was still human and had doubts.
Alicia said, “I think my dislike of Bev reached a new level just now. She gets into everything. I don’t know why she wants to hurt everyone around her.”
Molly didn’t get it either. Maybe she shouldn’t worry about it anymore. “Could she still be mad about Trent?”
“Seems petty.”
“It is. So let’s not waste another breath on her.”
“Okay, how’s the investigation going?”
“I’ve got another can of worms for you.” More like a six pack of worm cans. “It starts with my neighbor watching my house. Then someone shot at Trent outside a restaurant when we went out for lunch.”
“What?”
Molly tried relating everything from Justin Atwood getting Trent riled up to the shooting.
“Okay, I think I’m following all that. That’s scary.”
“That’s not all,” Molly actually felt nervous and happy about this news. “Right before I disappeared, Trent and I eloped. I found the ring and license in the basement here.”
“Did not!”
“Yes, we’re married. But it sounds like we spent just a couple of days together before ...I vanished.”
“Wow. Married. I’ve been pushing Trent to tell you that you two were engaged.”
“So I never confided anything like that to you?”
“No, never. We just knew about your engagement. I was helping you with the wedding plans and going over bridal magazines.” She almost asked if Trent explained why he had never told anyone, but her words caught in her throat as she realized she shouldn’t put doubts in Molly’s mind. She said instead, “You’ve got a lot to adjust to.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about my engagement?” Molly asked.
“Trent asked me not to. He wanted you to hear it from him. I really had no idea you were married, though.”
“Alicia, this will sound silly, but I feel left out of my own life.”
She heard Alicia whisper her name. “We used to tell each other everything. You wouldn’t believe how much I miss that.”
Molly couldn’t answer.
“And there is something I want to tell you.” Alicia paused, and Molly thought she heard her smile. “I’m pregnant.”
Molly sucked in her breath. “Pregnant? I’m so happy for you. When are you due?”
“The middle of December, but I’m hoping for a Christmas baby.”
“I hope so too.” Wow, a baby. She could have missed that and never even known about Alicia and her life.
“I found out right before David came home and told me about losing his fiancé. So I didn’t tell him that day. I wrapped the pregnancy test in Saran Wrap and put it in his lunch the next day.” She stopped abruptly. “I’m so sorry, I’m going on about myself, after you found out – found out so much.”
“I don’t mind a bit, I’m glad you’re telling me.” Molly had listened with a big smile on her face. “And I’m so happy I get to be a part of it!”
“So, when are you coming home?”
“Soon, I hope. I don’t know. There’s so much to sort through, figure out.” It’s such a mess here. “You’re so lucky. I mean that in a good way, I’m so happy for you.”
“What about you? You and Trent were made for each other.”
Molly felt tears spring up and run down her face. Maybe they were, but what if they were and they couldn’t be together? She still didn’t know why she lost her memory. What horrible event could do that? Now that she’d found her old life, she didn’t want to lose it all over again.
Chapter Twelve
Inside the local precinct, Trent met Harry Quinn, the detective Mark had spoken with, and followed the shorter man toward his desk to brief him on the case. Harry Quinn had a hard face and a round gut, but he didn’t waste time.
“Mark Stone didn’t find a Justin Atwood at that address. We have three ‘Atwoods’ to check into though. I think Miss Anderson’s neighbor must be using an alias.”
Trent pulled a zip lock bag containing a pair of sunglasses out of his shirt pocket. “I’m fairly certain Justin left these on Molly’s porch when he came to greet us. It looks like a good print on the lens.”
Quinn took the bag. “We’ll run the prints.”
“What about extra patrols?”
“We started yesterday after speaking with Stone,” Quinn said. “This case has had a funny feel to it all along, but we didn’t have any reason to keep investigating. A dead couple, a girl with no memory. So I appreciate your notes and information.” Quinn handed him a packet of paper. “This is your fax, what Stone came up with for Kenneth Webb. I’m also keeping a copy here in our file. We didn’t have any suspects before, or any reason to think the accident was foul play. Now we have two persons with some connection.”
“Thank you, sir, and thanks for your time.” Trent shook Quinn’s hand, agreed to keep in contact, and headed back to the car to look over the information. So far all of his leads had produced more questions. Why did the Andersons run? Why did they keep Molly’s past from her? There couldn’t be any way for them to cause her amnesia, but they sure did everything they could to keep her in the dark. So he knew they hid things from her and kept her here, maybe for her own protection from Kenneth Webb.
He waited till he was sitting inside the car to open the file and instantly saw the resemblance to Molly in the bone structure of her birth father’s face. He didn’t like calling Kenneth Webb her father. It felt disrespectful to Arnold.
“Kenneth Webb, who are you?” He muttered under his breath and started reading. Two pages later he closed his eyes, wishing he could throw the paper away, make the information it held disappear forever. He wanted to protect Molly, but he knew how she felt about his protection. As hard as things had been on her, she didn’t want him hiding anything. Sighing, he turned the key and started back to her house in the late afternoon light.
He called her on his cell, wanting to prepare her.
“Trent?” she sounded happier now, excited even. “I was going through the photo albums again and it’s starting to make sense.”
“What is?”
“My life, you know. It’s starting to get in order. My childhood.”
“Good, good. Remember how Karen said that would come back first? Maybe the rest will follow soon. And we’ll get to the bottom of this.” He felt light and suddenly determined, not so lost in all these endless facts that didn’t answer anything. She didn’t say anything. “Mol?”
“It might. It might come back, who knows.”
Getting her meaning, he decided to back off. “No pressure. It’ll happen when you’re ready.” That’s where he paused and had to force himself to speak. “I have that fax. That’s why I called. It’s got a lot to go over. We can wait if you like.”
“No.” Her answer came quick. “We need to work on this.”
“Alright, I’ll be there in a min.” Their goodbye felt tense. How could he prepare her for this? Kenneth Webb had been in and out of mental institutions ever since his divorce to Ellen. She had a restraining order against him, so that explained why Molly hadn’t known him. He assumed she didn’t, since she never mentioned Kenneth Webb to Alicia or him before she disappeared.
Kenneth’s last release date had been a year before Molly disappeared, and after that he didn’t check into another hospital or leave any trace at all. He seemed to disappear like Molly. Or with her?
Could the information in this file mean anything to her? And now she’d pieced together her childhood, maybe she was ready to get past that final block. Fear of something had kept those last memories locked away. He almost didn’t want to unlock that door.
He drove slowly and felt heavy as he pulled
up to the garage, and found her alone in the kitchen, waiting. Molly’s eyes gazed into his and he felt sure she saw what he was trying to hide.
“Maybe you should sit down to read this.” He held out his hand and she took it before they walked into the living room together.
They sat on the couch where he handed the papers to her. Trent had purposely put the page containing the picture on the bottom. He watched her eyes as she read thoughtfully. He hoped she wouldn’t think anything she read reflected on her or made her different. Most of the pages listed dates Kenneth had checked into, then out of, different mental institutions, painting a sad picture. Plus there was the restraining order against him.
Near the bottom of the stack, he saw her eyebrows rise as she pulled in a deep breath and turned the page.
“Oh my gosh.” While staring at the picture, her eyes went hazy. “That’s him,” she whispered.
“You knew Kenneth?”
“No, he’s that man.”
“But that’s Kenneth Webb.”
“The man at the house.”
“Your house in Ridge City or here? Where, Molly?”
She reached up to her head and mumbled about fighting downstairs. She seemed to be watching the scene unfold before her, happening all over again. A second later she gasped.
“Molly?” They sat in a silence that rolled painfully on and on except for Molly’s shallow and rapid breathing. Her eyes darted around and he swore he could tell her memories were flooding back.
When he couldn’t take it anymore, he gently touched her arm. Her head jerked up to look at him, like she had forgotten he was in the room with her.
With a sharp scream, she was on her feet and rushing from the room. She ran up the stairs, leaving him staring after her. The bedroom door shut loudly before he could jump up and follow.
“Molly?” Trent knocked, waited, knocked, and finally opened the door. She was stretched out stomach down on her bed, her face buried in her pillow. She raised it enough to say, “I just want to be by myself.”
He didn’t like it and didn’t leave. No, she wasn’t sending him away now. Instead of leaving, he crossed the room to her bed saying, “I don’t want you to go through this alone.”
License to Love: Holiday Box Set (Contemporary Romance) Page 27
