Blood Debt (Touched Series Book 1) (2 page)

“William
Strayer
from Charleston,
South Carolina
?”

“Yes.”

“You are the only one I found in information.  Have you ever been to San Diego?”

“Well, yes.  I travel there
,
but I don’t know an Angela Benning.”

“Not even one you knew
twenty-three
years ago?”
 
Silence answered me back.  I wasn’t sure if he had hung up the phone,
if
the connection had been dropped
,
or if he was too stunned to answer.  “
W
ill
iam
, are you still there?”

“Yes.  Yes, I’m still here.  I did know an Angela in San Diego
.  S
he was a bartender in a hotel.”

“That’s right.”

“
Camille
, how old are you?”

I did have the right person
,
and at least I didn’t have to draw the connection out for him with big purple crayons. 
“I’m
twenty-two
.”

“
Twenty-two
?”

“Yeah, my birthday was last month.”

More silence
. . .
I could feel him doing the math in his head.
  This was a bad idea.  I braced myself for him to deny he was my father, that I was some leech after him for money.
  His voice
spoke softly
,
“
Camille
, I don’t know what to say.  Your mother is an incredible woman.”

“Was.
” I corrected, “
She
was
an incredible woman.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.  What happened?”
Sincerity was wrapped in his
voice.

“She died of breast cancer a
few
weeks ago.  Right before she died
,
she told me how I could contact you.”

“So, you’re my. . . I mean she wouldn’t have . . . if you weren’t mine.”

I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. 
“Right.  I don’t need anything.  I just
. . .
I guess I wanted to talk to you.”

“Camille, you have to believe me, if I had known I would have . . . I didn’t know I had a daughter.”

“That’s okay,
W
ill
iam
. 
I knew I had a father
– I mean from a biological perspective
, b
ut
M
om would never tell me anything about you
, well, not until the night she died.
”

His voice sounded heavy, “
C
all me Will
.  E
veryone does. 
So, she didn’t want you to contact me?”

“I guess not, well . . . she never
told
me
anything a
bout you.  I never knew your name until
the night she passed
.”

“You said that was a few weeks ago?”

“Yeah, she went into the hospital the week after my birthday.”

I heard hopefulness in his voice
that
I didn’t expect when he said,
“
When can I meet you?”

This was a question I wasn’t really prepared for.  All those practice conversations had more to do with introducing myself
and
convincing him that I was his daughter
.  I thought I
had prepared for every possible response.  I never considered that he would want to meet me.  “Uh, maybe the next time you come to California?”

“Camille, I’ve got a lot going on for the next month
.  G
etting out to
the west coast
would be hard. 
Would you consider flying to South Carolina?”

My heart started doing cartwheels.  Not only did I have a real father
-
he wanted to see me!
  Trying not to gush at his suggestion,
“
Um, maybe
.  I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’ve got to take care of.  You know, estate stuff for
M
om
,
and
a
job
.”

“I could
arrange for
a lawyer to take care of that for you.  Camille, I don’t want to put this off.  I . . . I could make arrangements now
.  Y
ou could be on the red eye tonight.”

“
W
ill, you don’t know anything about me.
  I’ve got a job
. 
I can’t just get on a plane.
”

“You’re my blood
,
Camille.  Angela was a magical woman, I . . .
I had no idea
. 
If you can’t come to me, I’ll
juggle some things around.  I have to meet you
.” 

Huh, that’s the same thing
M
om had said about him
:  t
hat he was “magical.” 
I had googled him
a few
weeks
ago.  I
knew he was somehow involved with finance and investments
and ran a firm in Charleston
.  Since my job was working at a department store
as a cashier
, reality was that
it
would
be
much
easier
for me to leave my job for a
few days
.  As I looked around
the
apartment, there was too much of
her
here.  Not that it was a bad thing, but given the last several months, it might be nice to have a change of scenery
,
for a
few days
.

I took a deep breath,
“Okay, I can call into work and have someone cover my shifts.  But I don’t have the cash for a plane ticket or motel or anything.”

“I’ll take care of it.  How soon could you be on a plane?”

“I guess tonight
.  D
o you need to talk to your wife or anything?”

“Gretchen will be happy to have you as a guest.  She’s always wanted a daughter as much as I have.”
  I felt a warm glow in my chest.  The emptiness of losing my mom would stay with me forever, but
I wasn’t alone.  I had a father
.
  We exchanged email addresses so we could coordinate the flight.  I wondered if this was some sort of a dream.  I had run a background investigation on him within days of finding out who he was. 
All I really knew about him was
h
e paid his taxes
, h
e owned several properties
, h
e had never been arrested, and
he
hadn’t had a
traffic
ticket or a
n
accident in the last seven years. 

I called my best friend in the world to let him know what had just happened.  He was so excited for me that he was at my door within twenty minutes. 
Daniel was like the brother I never had.  We looked enough alike that sometimes people assumed I was his sister.  He had dark hair, kind of that in between length – it was short, but shaggy.  His eyelashes were gorgeous
.  F
or a long time I teased him
,
calling him “
Maybelline
Eyes,” and he had this way of looking at girls that made them all melt – well, all but me.  Daniel was on the surf team in high school and even got a scholarship to surf
in college
, so there was never a shortage of beach babes looking to hang out with him.  We’d never been more than friends
,
and I knew we both liked it that way.  We each had a ready
-
made date for all the big social events, weddings, engagement parties, holiday parties, etc – but none of
the romantic attachments that came with it. 

Daniel
gathered me in a large bear hug and swung me around.  “
Y
ou talked to him?
  He wants to meet you?
”

“I did
!  H
e wasn’t freaked out about it or anything.  He’s flying me to South Carolina
,
tonight
,
to meet him.”

Daniel’s enthusiasm diminished in front of me,
“
Tonight?  Why the rush?”

I slapped his shoulder, “I’m his daughter.  He wants to meet me.”

“
Did he say why he never bothered to come see you?”

“I think my mom hid us from each other.  He didn’t even know that I existed until I called.”

“Just like that, he wants you on a plane?
  What about a DNA test?”

“He didn’t ask for any proof.  He said he remembered her.”
  I left out the part where he said she was magical – Daniel knew that’s what my mom
had
said about him.
 

“
That must have been some phone call. 
Are you sure he’s al
l
right?”

“I’m not stupid
. 
I did a background check.”

“That just means he’s never been caught.”

I punched
Daniel’s
arm
a second time
,
and he feigned pain.
  “I’m just saying, you don’t even know the guy.  He could be a serial killer for all you know.  There’s probably a reason your mom never let the two of you meet.”

“She told me who he was right before she died.  She must have wanted
me to find him
.”

“Maybe.  How about I go with you?”

“Um, I don’t know.   I think this is something I have to do on my own
, b
ut keep your cell phone
on you in case I need you.
”

He frowned with his eyebrows furrowed, “I don’t like it.  Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Stop worrying.  I’ll be back on Sunday.  If it gets weird
,
I’ll come back sooner.”

“If I don’t get a call every day, I’m getting on a plane.” 

“Right, to fly to South Carolina and do what?  I
’ll be fine.  He sounded nice
.”

“You’ve wanted to meet this guy forever.  Don’t get your hopes up.  Angela was a smart lady
.  S
he
must have kept you two apart fo
r a reason.”

“Maybe she just didn’t want the hassle of sharing custody.”  This was the l
ie I’d told myself when I was little.  My mom never had boyfriends
.  S
he always told me her life was full
,
and she didn’t have room for one more person in it. 

“Maybe, but maybe he’s a douche
,
and she didn’t want you to get hurt.”

My heart s
a
nk.  I didn’t have the strength to argue with him.  I knew he was right.  I knew
M
om
hid his identity from me, but I didn’t care
why
. 
Everyone needed
family, no matter how weird they might be.  I was willing to take a chance
: 
one crazy father was better than nobody. 

For the next fifteen hours, through two airports and the whole time I was in the air, Daniel’s words continued to echo in my mind, “She must have kept you two apart for a reason.”  Why would she have kept us apart?  Was she ashamed of him?  What did he do that made her not want him in her life?  She’d never, for as long as I could remember, had a boyfriend – had he done something to her?

Chapter
2

The wheels touched down at the Charleston
A
irport. 
Although I wasn’t a world traveler
,
I recognized that
i
t was a very small airport, two whole
luggage
carousels in baggage claim.
  I had been to San Diego’s airport lots of times
;
it was like a maze of endless signs and
was
seriously intimidating
even for the locals
.  Charleston’s was small and felt welcoming.
  I had found picture
s
of
W
ill on the internet
. 
I knew he was near fifty,
with
graying hair, distinguished face, brown eyes, and a nose that was slightly larger than his face required.  Not unattractive
,
but I doubt he’d ever been a huge heart
-
throb.  The pictures I found of him were all with suit jackets and ties, so I scanned the baggage claim area for a middle
-
aged man in a suit.  It was 10:30
a
.
m
.
on a Wednesday.   I saw a few people
who
had the right attire, but none looked like the
picture I’d downloaded of him
. 
I kept checking my phone for a message from him, but nothing.