Bianca's Joy: Rose Island Book 3

by Kristin Noel Fischer

  Vicki brought muffins and coffee for everyone in the waiting room as well as the hospital staff. Anna filled us in on their temporary orders to leave Germany for Rose Island.

  “Does that mean you’ll be asking for your old job at the salon?” I teased. “All the booths are filled, but I could probably find you another station.”

  She shook her head. “No. My days at the salon are over. Between flying and taking care of my family, I don’t really have time to cut hair.”

  “Of course, you don’t,” my mother said, squeezing her hand.

  I winked at Vicki and Jillian. “Guess who just moved into the role of favorite daughter?”

  My mother scoffed. “You’re all my favorite daughters. Every last one of you.”

  I rolled my eyes, and everyone laughed, even Jillian. She seemed especially happy today. I guess Keith knew what he was doing when he planned the surprise party, certain it would boost her spirits.

  My mom inquired about Joy’s health, meaning her diabetes. “I’m doing really well,” Joy said, not appearing to be bothered by the question.

  My mom heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s good. That’s really good.”

  Thankfully, Joy was saved from further scrutiny when Claudia called me via video chat. The connection was perfect, and I was able to introduce her to Anna as well as Daniel’s brother, Enzo.

  Enzo was a funny character. While he and Daniel were identical twins, Daniel had taken better care of himself over the years. Plus, Daniel had a sweetness about him that Enzo seemed to lack.

  Not that Enzo wasn’t nice. In fact, when everyone but the two of us went to get coffee, he told me I was good for his brother.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I think he’s good for me as well.”

  “So, how did you two meet?”

  I told him about meeting Joy and Daniel at church four years ago and how being stiffed by my first contractor had led to Daniel renovating my kitchen. Enzo listened intently, then he told me about his girlfriend, Wilma.

  “How long have you been dating?” I asked.

  “About seven years. She wants to get married, but I don’t know.”

  I stared at him, incredulous. “You don’t know?”

  He shrugged. “I imagine we’ll eventually get married. Just not right now, you know?”

  “Oh, I know all right,” I said, recalling all the women from the salon who’d dated his type.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re never going to marry that poor girl.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is true. You may love her, but if you’ve dated her for seven years and still don’t know if you want to marry her, then the answer is no.”

  “How can you say that? You don’t know me.”

  “Maybe not, but I do know that you need to let this woman go so she can find someone else.”

  “But I love her.”

  “Then marry her. But stop making her wait. It’s not fair to let her waste her best years on you.”

  He stared out the window. “Well, Bianca, why don’t you tell me what you really think?”

  I laughed. “Sorry. I’m not trying to run your life, but the older a woman gets, the harder it is for her to find someone. Trust me. And if she wants kids, well, that window of opportunity isn’t open forever, you know.”

  He studied me closely to the point that I felt uneasy. He must’ve sensed my discomfort because he apologized. “Sorry, you just remind me of someone I know.”

  “Who?”

  He shook his head and didn’t answer my question. “You may be right about Wilma, but—”

  “Of course, I’m right.”

  He laced his fingers together, placed them on top of his head, and leaned back in his seat. “I like you, Bianca. You speak your mind, which is probably why Daniel’s so crazy about you.”

  A thrill skittered through me. “You think Daniel’s crazy about me?”

  “Yeah, I can tell by the way he looks at you.”

  I grinned, feeling happy and secure that everything was going to work out. As if to prove my point, the surgeon entered the waiting room with a huge smile on her face.

  Chapter 52

  Claudia

  Although Claudia enjoyed video chatting with Bianca and Joy, she didn’t regret coming home early. Not only had she been able to help her mother with the party, but Clark had said she was the best sister in the world. Clay had given her the privilege of being the first person to sign his cast, and Nona said she was proud of her.

  That night, after the boys fell asleep, Claudia went into her parents’ room where they were both reading in bed. “Hey, sweetheart,” her mom said, looking up from her book.

  “Can I talk to you?” Claudia asked.

  “Of course.”

  She sat at the foot of their bed, remembering how she used to crawl in between them when she was a little kid. She’d long since outgrown that childhood practice, but she had fond memories of falling asleep while they read long into the night.

  “What’s on your mind?” her father asked, closing the cover of his iPad. “Is everything okay?”

  She nodded and looked down at the quilt Mom had made during her short-lived quilting phase. “I should’ve told you, but one of the reasons I went to Houston this weekend with Leland . . . well, besides meeting his grandmother . . .”

  “Please don’t tell me you eloped,” Dad said.

  Claudia groaned. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

  “Good because I’d be very disappointed if I didn’t get to walk my only daughter down the aisle.”

  She smiled. “I promise I won’t get married without telling you first.”

  “Okay, then whatever you did is probably fine.”

  Claudia blinked, suddenly overcome with emotion. “It’s just that—”

  “What is it?” her mother asked, concerned.

  “I found my birth mother. Well, she found me. I wasn’t looking for her. On my birthday, she sent me a letter saying she wanted to meet me. She lives on Rose Island, which is about an hour’s drive from Leland’s grandmother’s house.”

  “How was it?” Mom asked, her voice calm.

  “It was fine. She’s nice. Her name is Bianca Morgan, and she owns a hair salon called The Last Tangle.”

  “Cute name for a salon,” Mom said.

  Dad didn’t say anything, and the pain in his eyes made Claudia feel guilty. “I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid of hurting your feelings.”

  Dad shook his head. “Wanting to know where you came from is normal. I’m not hurt by the fact that you went to meet your birth mom. I just wish you would’ve told us that was the reason for the trip.”

  Mom nodded in agreement. “We always said we’d help you find her when you turned eighteen. In fact, Dad and I were talking about it the other day. We didn’t know whether or not to mention it to you first or wait until you came to us.”

  “I should’ve come to you. The whole time I was there I felt bad you didn’t know.”

  Dad shook his head. “Don’t feel bad. You’re an adult now, and being an adult means making choices, questioning those choices, and ultimately living with the choices you make. Honestly, sometimes being an adult is highly overrated.”

  Mom smiled. “Dad wants to buy a boat, but we discussed the budget tonight, and he’s a little disappointed.”

  Dad shrugged. “Like I said, sometimes being an adult is highly overrated.”

  Claudia smiled. Mom was all about the budget, something she’d never appreciated until Dad got sick and money became an issue. Thanks to Mom, they’d been okay.

  “So, what is your birth mom like?” Dad asked. “Is she kind and wonderful like you?”

  Claudia swallowed hard, then she told her parents about Bianca and the Morgan family. At first, she was guarded, but eventually her words gained momentum, and she told them everything—teaching Bianca how to play the violin, walking on the beach, dinner at the ranch, and helping decorate for the party at
the Rose Museum.

  At some point, she slipped in between her parents on the bed so she could show them her pictures, including the one she’d snapped of the framed photo taken by the nurse who may or may not have been Joy’s mom.

  “You changed so much once we got you home from the hospital,” Mom said, studying the picture closely.

  “That’s right,” Dad said. “We were concerned about how much weight you lost at first, remember?”

  “I remember.” Mom’s voice sounded wistful. “I had this idea that I’d try to breastfeed you, but when that turned out harder than I imagined, I put you on formula. And despite my guilt, you thrived.”

  “Why did you feel guilty?”

  Mom grinned and smoothed back Claudia’s bangs. “I just wanted the best for you. All the literature says breastfeeding is best, and it’s entirely possible for adoptive mothers to do it, but I couldn’t figure it out. I felt like a huge failure.”

  Claudia leaned her head against her mom’s shoulder. “It’s really okay, Mom.”

  “I know. It just felt like such a big deal at the time.”

  The three of them lapsed into silence, then Dad asked, “So, are you glad you went?”

  Claudia nodded. “The trip was nice, and the Morgans are great, but I’m happy to be home. Besides, it kind of got awkward at the end.”

  “Awkward how?” Dad asked. “They weren’t rude to you or anything, were they?”

  “No.” Claudia explained about Daniel having to reveal he wasn’t Joy’s biological father after Bianca thought that Joy’s mom was the nurse from the hospital.

  “Was she?” Dad asked.

  “I don’t know. Apparently, Joy’s mom was a pathological liar, so it’s entirely possible.”

  “Yikes,” Dad said. “I’ve only encountered one pathological liar in my life, but it was rough because she literally lied about everything. Trying to figure out what was true and what she’d made up was nearly impossible.”

  “Well, Joy’s mom was such a skilled liar that she even falsified the paternity test Daniel took when Joy was a baby. That’s why Daniel didn’t know he wasn’t Joy’s biological father until this year when he took another test.”

  “That’s horrible,” Mom said.

  Claudia nodded. “When we saw the photograph of Joy and her mom, and Bianca said something about recognizing Joy’s mom as the nurse from the hospital, Daniel was kind of forced to tell Joy right then. I think he would’ve rather told her under different circumstances.”

  “Of course,” Dad said. “Secrets are always best revealed in private, but most people don’t confront them until they’re forced to do so.”

  “You picked me up from the hospital in South Carolina, right?” Claudia asked.

  “That’s right,” her parents said.

  “Did you ever meet the nurse Bianca was talking about?” Claudia scrolled through her phone until she found the picture she’d taken of the photograph of Joy and her mom. “Here, this is her.”

  Mom took Claudia’s phone and enlarged the image. Then, she showed it to Dad, whose eyes grew wide. “That’s the nurse the police questioned us about after the kidnapping.”

  “The kidnapping?” Claudia stared at Dad. “What are you talking about?”

  Dad glanced at Mom before explaining. “The day after we brought you home, we learned that a baby had been kidnapped from the hospital. The police questioned us, but we didn’t have any information for them. This nurse, Tiffany Johnson or Jackson or something like that—”

  “Jackson,” Claudia said. “At least that’s what Bianca said.”

  “Okay. Tiffany Jackson. Well, she was one of the suspects because she was working in the nursery at the time the baby went missing. Police thought she was involved because she had a baby, but her baby’s blood type turned out to be different from the missing one.”

  “Did they ever find the missing baby?” Claudia asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dad said. “One of the janitors came under suspicion because he’d lied on his application about having a prior arrest, but I don’t think anything came out of that. Honestly, I stopped following the story because it was so heartbreaking thinking about those poor parents when your mother and I finally had a child of our own.”

  Mom scrolled through her phone and shook her head. “I just looked up the case, and this article doesn’t say anything about the baby being found, but it shows a picture of the nurse. I’m pretty sure it’s the same woman as Joy’s mom.”

  They placed the phones side by side, and after comparing the pictures, Claudia and her parents agreed that Joy’s mom and the nurse were the same person.

  “Given what you said about her being a pathological liar,” Mom said, “it’s hard not to jump to the conclusion that she was somehow involved.”

  “But why would she kidnap a baby if she already had Joy?” Claudia asked.

  “Sex, power, money, or mental illness,” Dad said. “Those are four common motivations for people to choose evil over good.”

  “Well, according to Joy, her mother was definitely mentally ill, but it still doesn’t prove that she had anything to do with the kidnapping.”

  Mom shuddered. “It’s just so horrible. I can’t imagine losing a child, but not knowing where they are or what happened to them . . .”

  “I know,” Claudia agreed.

  Dad glanced at the article on Mom’s phone and typed something into his iPad. “Oh, whoa,” he said, staring at the screen.

  “What?” Claudia and Mom said together.

  When Dad didn’t answer, a sickening feeling took up residence in Claudia’s gut. Leaning over, she saw that her father was looking at a picture of a young girl with her parents.

  “She looks just like our Claudia,” Mom said, her voice tight.

  The little girl did look just like Claudia. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s the Klines,” Dad said. “The family whose baby was kidnapped.”

  Claudia pointed to the daughter. “But she looks just like me. At least, that’s what I used to look like when I was her age. How can that be?”

  Dad’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I think it’s because—”

  “Do you think I’m the baby who was kidnapped?” Claudia’s heart pounded so hard her chest hurt. “But you adopted me. You didn’t kidnap me.”

  “No, of course not,” Mom said. “We adopted you from a legitimate agency. We didn’t take you from the Klines.”

  Nobody spoke for a minute, then Dad said, “Do you think maybe the babies got switched? Do you think that somehow we got the Klines’ baby and Bianca’s baby is the one that’s missing?”

  Claudia shuddered, thinking that was the only logical explanation.

  Chapter 53

  Bianca

  After dinner at Daniel’s house, I helped Joy clean the kitchen while Daniel sat in the living room, looking for a movie for us to watch. His ankle was propped on the coffee table, elevated and packed with ice per Dr. Martin’s instructions.

  When the doorbell rang, Joy went to answer it. As I dried the last dish, I could hear her talking to Kate Tate.

  “I’ve been out of town,” Kate said, coming into the house. “I came as soon as I heard. Daniel, you poor thing.”

  “It’s not too bad,” Daniel said.

  “You should’ve called me. I would’ve come directly from the airport.”

  “Oh, that wouldn’t have been necessary. Between Joy and Bianca—”

  “Bianca?” Kate said my name as if it were a joke.

  Smoothing down my shirt, I stepped around the counter, trying not to feel self-conscious about my appearance. “Hi, Kate. Is that tater tot casserole? Do you want me to put it in the refrigerator for you?”

  Her grip seemed to tighten on the dish as though she was afraid I might steal it and eat it on the spot. For a brief moment, my stomach knotted, filled with all the passive-aggressive insults Kate had ever tossed my way.

  Then, I let it go. I literally l
et it all go.

  Just like Yadira had told me, I couldn’t change the way Kate felt about me. I couldn’t even change the way she treated me.

  No, all I could do was be myself and try to love her. Regardless of her attitude toward me, God had called me to love my enemies, even Kate.

  “That’s so nice of you to bring Daniel dinner,” I said, sincerely meaning it. Or at least, trying to mean it. “I know tater tot casserole is one of his favorites. I’m not the best cook, so I’m sure he appreciates it.”

  She relaxed, realizing she had the upper hand. “Yes, everyone loves my cooking.”

  “I know they do.” I smiled as she reluctantly handed me the casserole dish.

  “Let Joy take it,” Daniel said, patting the seat beside him. “Come sit down, Bianca, and put up your feet. I’m sure you’re worn out from taking care of me all day.”

  “I’m tired, too,” Joy said.

  Daniel chuckled. “Okay, princess. Once you put away the casserole, you can take a break, too.”

  Joy took the dish into the kitchen, and I sat beside Daniel who took my hand and smiled up at Kate. “Bianca and Joy have done everything for me today. Joy obviously has no choice on account that she’s my daughter, but I guess this is what Bianca signed up for.”

  “There’s a sign-up?” Kate asked.

  Daniel laughed. “No, I meant when she signed up to be my . . .”

  Daniel didn’t say future fiancée, but that’s what he’d been calling me in private. It wasn’t official yet, but we’d made plans to go ring shopping as soon as he was up to it.

  “Your girlfriend?” Kate asked, finishing Daniel’s sentence.

  Daniel squeezed my hand. “Yes, my girlfriend.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize you two were dating, although that makes sense. You two are perfect for each other.”

  I didn’t think Kate was sincere, but I chose to give her the benefit of the doubt.

  “Well, I should probably get going,” Kate said, heading toward the door.