Authors: Kristen James
“Well, now that you’ve found these, you can keep going over
them. I’m sure more and more will come back to you.” He spoke over his shoulder
now as he looked through other boxes and stacks.
“You’re right.” She decided things were moving along better
now, and she remembered her decision not to try too hard. “It’s when I’m not
trying to remember that something just clicks back on. I won’t push so hard.”
She picked up the albums to place them back in the box and saw a paper lying in
the bottom.
“Trent, come look at this.” She held it out. “Cindy Talbert,
and it has a number. Think this could be the Cindy Dean who left the house to
me?”
“Let’s call and ask.”
“Just like that? She could lie. Shouldn’t we check into her
or something?” Molly knew Mark would do research for Trent. She didn’t want to
mess this up - their first real lead.
“I can identify myself with the police department. I think
we should jump on it now.” As he spoke, Molly saw the large packet of papers he
held in his hand.
“What did you find?”
He motioned toward the step and she sat down and took the
stack.
“But where? You looked in the cabinet already?”
“No.” He sat down next to her. “That’s the weird part, it
was under the cabinet. I saw a corner sticking out.”
“Looks like legal papers.” She looked over the first page
and flipped through quickly, then returned to the front of the divorce papers.
“I don’t understand. I mean, this doesn’t make sense.”
“It might explain some of this.”
“This is about my mother. And a man I’ve never heard about,
that I know of. He must have been her first husband.” The information sounded
almost too strange to be true. “Mom married Dad when they were both young, our
age. Imagine how young she must have been when she married this man.”
“Seventeen, I think it says.”
Molly shook her head. Her mom had so many layers and
secrets. She hurt again, missing her, and wishing she could get to know her,
not just the memory of Ellen.
Ellen’s ex-husband was named Kenneth Webb, a name that meant
nothing to Molly. Her parents hadn’t mentioned it, but she couldn’t say if she
knew about her mother’s previous marriage before she lost her memory. She
flipped through the settlement, knowing Trent’s trained eyes would see more
than hers, but she felt compelled to read it. From the corner of her eye she
saw Trent sitting, leaned back on the door frame. She felt he was waiting for
her to see something, whatever it was that caught his eye.
That’s when it clicked, hit her like a giant fist to the
chest. The dates. The papers were dated one year after her birth, unless her
parents had lied to her about her birth date.
Kenneth Webb wasn’t a stranger. He could be her father.
Tears in her eyes, she looked up to see Trent intently watching her, ready to
come to her side once he saw she would let him. Just before her tears spilled
onto her cheeks, he pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair.
“It doesn’t change things – about your parents, your family,
growing up. This man wasn’t a part of your life, Arnold was your father.”
“You’re right, it’s just a lead,” she said the word to
convince herself. “Speaking of leads.”
She glanced at the paper in her hand with Cindy Talbert’s
number and suddenly started upstairs. Startled, Trent followed and took the
phone she handed him. She was covering, he knew. Pushing ahead so she wouldn’t
have to think about it right now.
Molly decided they were one step closer to the truth. Two
steps, really, because Kenneth Webb and Cindy Talbert were two leads. She
watched Trent call and introduce himself as Detective Trent Williams from the
Ridge City police department. “I’d like to talk to you about Arnold and Ellen
Anderson.” After a minute, Trent said, “I’m not investigating their deaths. I’m
helping their daughter, Molly.” Another minute later, after a couple ‘yes,
ma’a
ms,’ Trent hung up.
“What happened?” Molly thought they had rushed things and
the women had hung up on him.
“She asked if we’re here, and wants to come talk in person.”
“Now?”
“Yes, apparently she lives a few miles from here.”
Molly turned and went to the living room to sit down. They
still had the job in the basement, but what else could they find?
Someone knocked, they locked eyes, and Trent went to the
door. He welcomed Cindy inside while Molly stood back.
Cindy Talbert entered silently. She stood much shorter than
Molly, but the only thing Molly noticed was her dark hair that looked just like
mom’s. The older woman hesitated as well as she searched Molly’s face. Cindy
stared at her and Molly felt so close to knowing something. Finally Cindy
asked, “Molly, did your mom tell you about me?”
“No, not that I remember.”
“I think you’d remember. It seems like she’d explain about
me after you moved here. She told me a little about your memory loss, but we
still weren’t on the best of terms.”
“How did my parents know you?” Molly had so many questions
and didn’t know where to start.
“Ellen was my sister. I’m your aunt.”
Molly and Trent glanced at each other and back at Cindy.
“I probably have a lot to tell you, but first, how did you
meet a detective from Ridge City?”
Molly gestured to the living room and asked if Cindy would
like anything to drink. She declined curtly.
When they sat, Molly retold how she went to Ridge City
looking for answers and discovered her life there, and that her parents had hid
so many things from her. Trent must have sensed that she needed his support. He
sat close and took her hand. Cindy listened intently, nodding here and there
during the story.
“Your turn,” Trent said. “Are you Cindy Talbert and Cindy
Dean?”
“I’m afraid so. Two different failed marriages.” She didn’t
explain further.
“Why did you help the Andersons?”
Cindy sighed, seeming to weigh her options. “I feel I owe
Molly the truth, but I don’t want to get into legal trouble for helping my
sister.”
“I introduced myself as a Detective to make sure you’d talk
to me, but I’m helping a friend, not trying to arrest anyone here.” Trent said.
“We just want to know what happened.”
Molly leaned forward, not wanting to push for answers, but
she knew this was her best lead. Slowly Cindy nodded and looked out the window
for a minute. They watched Cindy fall into the past. After a long, thoughtful
pause, she said, “Well, I’ll tell you everything I know and we’ll see if it
helps. It started with a man named Kenneth Webb.”
Molly glanced at Trent. “Is he my father? Birth father, I
mean.”
Surprised, Cindy said, “Yes, she told you?”
“No, we just found her divorce papers in the basement.”
“Papers don’t tell the whole story,” Cindy said. “Don’t be
mad at her.”
“I don’t know what I should feel about all of this,
especially since I don’t know much of my life or why all this happened.”
Trent scooted closer to Molly, resting a hand on her back,
and told Cindy, “Start from the beginning. Did you know Molly?”
“No, I have to say I didn’t. Ellen and I had a stupid fight
during her first marriage. I didn’t want her to marry Ken, she thought I was
jealous. An age old story, I suppose. Well, there’s more.” She stopped and
fidgeted, clearly torn about sharing this part.
“It’s okay,” Molly tried. “It’s the past. I just want to
understand everything.”
“Fine, okay. They split up for a while, before they got
married mind you, and Ken and I got together, just for a few weeks. He didn’t
tell her until later on, during their marriage, and that caused even more
problems in a rocky relationship. Things really fell apart for them. And of
course she wouldn’t forgive me. Or trust me, so she didn’t want me around her
family at all. I knew from my parents that Ken got violent after that. He
didn’t think it was his fault, or anything he could control. He didn’t take his
medicine all the time.”
“Medicine? For what?”
“He got crazy ideas. That’s all I know. He was normal when
we dated, but I think he took his meds then. With Ellen, he wasn’t doing so
well. He’d accuse her of cheating on him, or turning him into the government.
All kinds of crazy things. Ellen became scared enough to leave him while she
was pregnant. She thought he might hurt the baby,
you.”
She wondered why her mother needed to hide all those things.
Was it out of shame?
“Then she met Arnold?” Trent asked.
“Yes. It was several years before we started speaking again.
She didn’t want to hear ‘I told you so,’ and I didn’t actually want to say it.
I just tried to help her, but it took time. We never did visit each other, but
we called. I would have come, but she didn’t want to remember the past.” Cindy
spoke with an apologetic expression, her eyes soft and almost shiny. Yet Molly
was thankful she told the story truthfully. Cindy added, “She started fresh
with Arnold and they didn’t want Molly knowing about Kenneth.”
“How did my family end up here, in your house?” Molly asked.
Cindy looked around
and half smiled.
“I put it on the market, planning to sell it. Then Ellen
shows up one day. They took over the payments and stayed here. When they died,
I left it to you.”
“But what happened?” Molly pressed. “Why were we here?”
“I don’t know. Ellen wouldn’t tell me. They didn’t want
anyone knowing they were here.”
“Cindy,” Trent tried to keep his tone friendly. “Why didn’t
you check into it? At least find out if anything weird happened in Ridge City?”
Cindy rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t want to know. I
suspected they were hiding from Kenneth. Since it was a sore spot between us, I
didn’t push her to explain. She stressed she was keeping Molly safe – that’s
why I assumed it had to do with Kenneth. Didn’t it? Oh, you don’t know,
either.”
Molly shook her head, and Cindy said, “I guess I wasn’t much
help.”
“No,” Molly said, “You were. Now we have a good lead to
follow.” Her words brought on a long, awkward silence. How strange that she had
just learned about this Kenneth Webb and now it was possible that he caused all
or part of this.
Molly thought Cindy was about to rise and leave, but instead
she said to both Molly and Trent, “Do you think he killed them?”
How horrible. Molly didn’t want to answer. Cindy’s
question voiced their thoughts and that answered it,
along with their silence.
“Molly, I regret not being a part of your childhood. When
Ellen and I were girls, we talked about growing up and living next door to each
other, raising our families together.” Emotion crinkled Cindy’s face, her first
real emotional response since walking through the front door. “I’ve been
divorced three times, Ellen’s dead. I’m glad you’re looking for the truth, and
I hope you find it. Just remember the important things in life.” Her eyes went
toward Trent, and her plea touched both Trent and Molly, so much they couldn’t
speak. They walked her to the door, where Cindy turned and grabbed Molly in a
hug. “I’ll let you decide if you want to call me or not. You have my number
now. I’d like to hear about your life, and how this turns out.”
Molly nodded, unable to speak. “I’ll call you, I will.”
Trent shut the door after Cindy and pulled Molly into his
arms, surrounding her, holding her tight and caressing her back. She tried to
speak but only gasped before she started crying.
“I know, I know.” His hoarse whisper revealed his emotion,
his own state of near tears. “I know what’s most important to me, and I’m never
letting go again. I never want to let you out of my sight.”
She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, trying to hang onto him
even tighter. She didn’t remember this kind of fear. Molly knew what waking up
alone felt like, without any recollection of who or where she was. She spent
two years getting to know her parents, trying to remember them, but she never
thought she’d lose them, until she did. So now she felt consumed by the
knowledge that somehow she might lose Trent.
How much grief can one person endure? And why did she get so
much of it?
Trent kissed her hair, her forehead, and his lips found her
mouth. Knowing him like this felt so natural, she stopped caring if she
remembered the things before. She wanted him with her, and she had him, and at
that moment, that’s all she cared about.
He kissed her dizzy and it took concentration to realize
they were standing in front of the door. She tried to wave towards the stairs
but only succeeded in rocking that direction. “Upstairs,” she whispered.
Trent paused to look at her with swirling brown eyes, trying
to see through his glazed look.
“I don’t like standing right here.”
A smile started on one side of his mouth. He kissed her
between steps until they reached the bottom of the stairs. She grabbed his
hands, walking backwards, pulling him. They made it to the top, then embraced,
holding each other so tight they could both feel the other’s body heat through
their clothing.
Four years of loneliness crashed through her and any thought
processes ended right there. She heard him say her name between kisses, but she
didn’t stop to listen. He grabbed her face with both hands and stared at her
with wide eyes. She stared at his swollen lips instead of looking him in the
eye.
“Mol.”
She knew he was asking her a question, if only her mind
would kick back into gear and work. She tried to kiss him again.
“Mol, you know I don’t want you having regrets.”
“Trent, I—” Didn’t he see how much she needed him?
“Mol, I can’t forget all the things you believed, and I
don’t think that’s changed, even if you don’t have your memory.”
“I’m past reason.”
“You won’t want this later. You’ll wish you waited till you
knew more.”