The Devil Has Dimples Read Free Page B

Everything was so
ordinary.  So perfect.  Every one of those people knew who they were.  And
where they belonged.
    Slowly, I began to speak. “Mr. St. Romain, I want to know
who my birth parents were.  Why did they give me up for adoption?  Why didn’t
my parents ever tell me I was adopted?  Why wait until now to let me know the
truth?  And why not tell me the whole truth?”
    Grant rose from his chair and walked to the window and stood
behind me.  His presence calmed me for some reason I couldn’t explain.  His
deep whiskey voice soothed my strung-out nerves.  I wanted to fling myself into
his arms, and get that sense of peace and quiet that I received earlier.
    “I don’t know.  Maudie surprised me when she told me she had
a daughter.  She knew your mother died.  I told her that she should contact you
then, but she was hesitant and said she didn’t want to interfere with your
life.”
    I turned around to face him.
    “She gave me life.  Once both of my parents were dead, why
wouldn’t she contact me then?”
    He seemed grim.  “If you want to find out any answers, you
need to follow the conditions of her will.”
    I looked at him directly in the face.  “That’s a stupid
idea.”
    I returned to the chair and sat.  Here I was in a no-name
town, talking to a part-time wrestler in pink socks and boxers, thinking what a
hunk he was, while he’s discussing the will of a mother I never knew about. 
And he thinks I should drop everything in my life to follow her wishes.  Right.
    But my life was on hold while I settled my mother’s
estate.  I wasn’t scheduled to return to work until after the Christmas break. 
If I wanted to pursue my past, now was the time.
    Grant walked back to his desk and sat down.  “Then all you
have to do is get out of that chair and leave Boggy Bayou.  In a month, all of
Maudie’s things will be sold.  But then, you’ll never have the answers to your
questions.”
    “Surely someone in this town knows the truth and is willing
to tell me what happened.”
    Grant finger-brushed his hair back.  “I hate to tell you
this, Sara, but absolutely no one ever knew that Maudie gave birth to a child. 
Everyone here in town is related to each other, and they all talk to each other
and about each other.  There was never a hint or a guess that Maudie had a
daughter.  No one has any answers.  Except Maudie, and she’s no longer here. 
But she left a lot of things, both in her apartment and her store.  Perhaps
your answers are there, in her belongings.”
    “There has to be some other way than spending time here to
find out the truth.”
    “I doubt it.”
    My hands tightened into fists.  Who was this woman who so
freely gave away a baby?  She was dead, so what difference should it make to
me?  I grabbed my purse off the chair and headed for the door.  As I turned the
knob, I said.  “I won’t do it.”
    “It’s your decision.”
    I hurried out of his office and my vision blurred.  I felt
Alice’s stare bore into me as I walked past her.  I didn’t care.  I felt like
hell.
    I had been lucky to find a parking place in front of the
office earlier, so I pulled open the door and got inside.
    Then the overpowering feeling of regret crushed me.
    What should I do?  Who was I?  I didn’t know anymore.  My
parents were not my birth parents.  Why didn’t they ever tell me I was
adopted?  I wouldn’t have loved them any less.  They were all I had known.
    But apparently I didn’t know them at all.  I didn’t even
know myself.  No wonder I stood out like a sore thumb at family reunions.  The
only redhead in a brunette clan, the only one with hazel eyes, the only one who
was exceedingly tall, even as a child.  The whispers that would stop whenever I
was around.  The sidelong glances.  I didn’t belong there.  They knew it, but I
didn’t.  But maybe deep down, I did know.
    Was that why my mother slapped Aunt Sally when she was drunk
and began to say