Bloodlines Read Free Page A

phone began to ring.
    â€œI’ll get it,” she said.
    Marcus stood up and followed her out of the room. He was in the hall and heading toward the library when he heard Olivia raise her voice to the caller on the other end of the line.
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, and hung up the phone. There was a frown on her face as she turned around.
    â€œOlivia…darling…what’s wrong?”
    â€œThat was weird,” she said. “Some reporter wanted to know if I had any comments regarding the headline in the morning paper.”
    â€œWhat headline?” Marcus asked.
    Olivia shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen a paper, have you?”
    Marcus pointed down the hall. “Rose probably put them in the library with the accumulated mail. Let’s go see.”
    Rose had laid the mail on Marcus’s desk, with theoldest on the left and the most recent on the right. The newspapers were in a stack with the most recent on top. Marcus saw the headline even before he picked up the paper.
    â€œWhat the hell? Sealy connection to skeletal remains? What does that mean?” He tried to read the smaller print, then squinted and patted his pockets. “I need my glasses.”
    â€œHere, Grampy, let me,” Olivia said, and took the paper out of his hands and scanned the story, frowning as she read.
    â€œWhat’s it about?” Marcus asked.
    Olivia’s frown deepened as she looked up.
    â€œSome people up at Texoma were renovating a house they just bought. They found a suitcase in a wall, and when they opened it, it contained the skeletal remains of a little girl about two years old.”
    â€œGood Lord!” Marcus said, and reached behind him for a chair. He sank into it with a thump. “That’s horrible, but why would they link the discovery to us?”
    Olivia’s hands were shaking as she handed him the paper. “Because the coroner said she was born with two left thumbs.”
    Marcus let the paper fall to the floor as he reached for Olivia’s hand, unconsciously rubbing the tiny scar where her second thumb used to be.
    â€œWe’re not the only family with such anomalies. Why would they single us out again?”
    Olivia pointed to the paper, then had to clear her throat before she could say it.
    â€œThey’re putting the homicide at about twenty-five years ago…which was the time of my kidnapping.”
    Marcus’s hand stilled momentarily; then he clutched Olivia’s hand firmly.
    â€œSee, that just proves that tragedies happen to all of us,” he said gruffly.
    There was a long moment of silence between them, and when it was broken, it was Olivia who spoke.
    â€œGrampy?”
    He spoke absently, his mind still turning over the facts of what she’d read. “What, darling?”
    â€œWere you sure?”
    He started, then looked up. “I’m sorry…what were you saying?”
    She said it again, this time putting emphasis on the last word.
    â€œWere you sure? ”
    â€œSure about what?”
    â€œMe…when the kidnappers turned me loose. You knew for sure it was me, didn’t you?”
    Marcus stood abruptly and took Olivia in his arms.
    â€œOh, Olivia, of course I was sure. You were my grandchild. Your father and mother ate Sunday dinner with me every week. You and I fed the fish in the goldfish pond every Sunday afternoon. I remember the day I let you pick all the blooms off your mother’s prize begonias because you liked the way they felt against your skin. I knew you, darling…just as I know you now. Never doubt that we are of the same flesh. Never.”
    Olivia blinked back tears as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
    â€œI’m sorry for asking. It’s just that we never talk about it, and I wasn’t sure if—”
    Marcus took her by the shoulders and pushed her back until she was forced to meet his