His shoulders drooped when he heard that.
“Besides,” I added, “the police already know that Abbey’s my real mother. I told Sam everything.”
I had the baby monitor with me and I heard one of the twins starting to cry.
“Come on Mom, let’s go check on the girls.” Abbey and I left them staring daggers into our backs.
We got the girls settled back down and just about the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, the front doorbell rang. I answered it.
“Hi Sam.” I gave him a big hug.
“Hi sweetheart. So what’s so important that I needed to drop everything and get out here?”
“Sam, this is my mother, Abbey.” I gestured toward my mother who had been standing a few feet away. Sam hadn’t even noticed her there.
He looked over at her. “What? You’re Abbey? Wow, when did this all happen?” There was no denying the surprise on his face.
“Just a few hours ago,” I replied.
“Hi Sam, it’s nice to meet you. I hear you’ve been looking for me.” Abbey reached out and shook his hand.
“Adam and Sarah want to talk to you,” I told him as we all walked toward the study.
When we walked in, Adam and Sarah both looked away in shame. They had so much guilt on their faces.
“Dad, tell Sam how you gave me to Abbey. She didn’t steal me,” I demanded.
Adam hesitated. He looked over at Sarah, who couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. She was not going to help him then. He knew he had no choice.
“Fine. Yes, I gave Madison to her. She was not kidnapped. We lied. Sarah is not her biological mother, Abbey is.” He had been standing, and kind of fell back into his chair at that point.
“I see,” Sam said. “I will need both of you to come to the station and make an official statement about the events that went on. I guess there is no law against giving a baby to her biological mother. But, claiming there was a kidnapping is making a false statement to the police. And, there was a massive, expensive manhunt that followed. You will have to be held accountable for all of that. But, let me see what I can do. This family has been through so much already. Come down to the station tomorrow. Bye, baby girl.” He looked at me and walked out.
“I like him,” Abbey said.
“Me too, Mom. Me too.”
Chapter 32
It took a lot of legal wrangling, but Adam and Sarah were not charged with anything regarding making false statements to the police. Sam was a really big help in the whole process. I suspect that all of it happened because of him. Adam did have to write a really fat check to pay back all of the agencies involved in looking for me, even though it was so long ago. I guess that was enough and the D.A. decided not to press charges. It obviously does pay to have friends in high places.
I decided that Abbey could stay with us as long as she wanted to. The house was certainly big enough for everyone. Adam and Sarah were unhappy about it, to say the least. But, they wanted me and the girls to stay and knew it was the only way that was going to happen.
My grandmother came to visit for a few days. Adam and Sarah didn’t like it, but I didn’t give them a choice. It was a tearful reunion between my grandmother and mother. They hadn’t seen each other since I was 2 years old. My grandmother told Abbey how devastated they were when she took off, and that they thought for sure she had been dead for many years. My mother apologized over and over. We all knew she was young and stupid and made a lot of bad choices. Grandma forgave her. We all spent days catching everyone up on what our lives had been like over the years, and we spent a lot of time talking about Grandpa. That was one of the toughest parts of the whole thing. My mother never got to see him again, and he never knew that she was still alive. So sad.
A few days later, Grandma said she didn’t want to outstay her welcome. She knew my parents didn’t want her there, so she said good-bye and promised to be back soon. We all missed her the second she walked out the door.
After that, things were certainly tense with all of us living under the same roof. I had to play referee between Adam and Abbey more than once. Sarah and Abbey just didn’t talk to each other at all. In some weird way, that seemed worse. At least Adam and Abbey got out their hatred of each other by yelling. I was afraid Sarah and Abbey would just explode one day with all of the pent up hatred they had for each other.
Then it happened. The worst thing that I could imagine, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Even though I wasn’t in the room at the time, here’s how the story goes:
A few weeks after Abbey moved in, she went into the study to find a book to read to the girls. She didn’t realize Adam was in there. They had both been trying hard to avoid each other. Apparently he just sat there at his desk watching her, and she was oblivious, concentrating on which book she wanted.
“So why are you still here?” he blurted out. Abbey jumped about ten feet off the ground.
“Good god, where did you come from?” she said, while gasping for air.
“You are in my study. I should be asking you that question.”
“I thought you were out. I just wanted to get a book to read to the twins. I’ll come back later.” She started to walk out.
“No, wait.”
“Wait for what? You and I have nothing to say to each other.” Abbey kept walking.
“Abbey, stop. I want to talk to you. This is important.” It was more of a question than a command.
Abbey stopped and turned around. “What?”
“You need to leave.”
“I was trying to and you stopped me.” She sounded annoyed.
“That’s not what I mean. You need to leave this house, permanently. You are not wanted here. Madison doesn’t love you, she just loves the novelty of you. It won’t be long until you are back to your old self and will disappoint her in some way. Then she will have the unpleasant task of kicking you out. Do you want to do that to your daughter?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no intention of disappointing her. I love her. I’ve changed. I’m no longer a stupid teenager and I’m not going anywhere.” Abbey was no longer afraid of Adam, that was clear. The discussion was over and she turned to leave.
“Abbey, you are going to leave, one way or another.” He sounded menacing.
Abbey turned around to continue the argument, when she saw that he had a gun in his hand. He was only a few feet away. All the blood drained from her face.
“Looks like I’ve got your attention now.” He was smiling.
At that exact moment, Sarah walked in. “What the hell..” was all she had a chance to say.
Adam turned his attention to Sarah, and Abbey was quick. She ran at Adam and knocked him down. He lost control of the gun and it went skidding across the floor about ten feet from where they were laying on the ground. Abbey jumped up before Adam had a chance to even realize what had happened. She grabbed the gun and aimed it at Adam’s chest.
“Don’t come near me or I’ll shoot. I swear I will.” Abbey was a little shaky with the gun, she had never shot one in her life. Never been around them really, even when hanging out with her ‘party friends.’ Adam could see how unsteady she was and decided to call her bluff.
He started screaming and lunged at her. She fired. Adam went down.
Ethan and I heard the gunshot from our room, then we heard Sarah scream. The nanny was with the twins, so we ran down to the study. We found Adam laying on his back, bleeding profusely from his chest. Sarah was kneeling down over him and sobbing. Abbey was still standing there holding the gun. She dropped it when we looked at her.
Ethan was already heading toward the phone on the desk to call 911. I knelt next to Sarah to check on my dad. He had a weak pulse, but was still alive.
“Maddie.” His voice was barely above a whisper, so I bent over to hear him better. “I love you more than anything I’ve ever loved in my life. Please always remember that.”
“I know, Dad. I love you too. You’re going to be fine. Th
e ambulance is on its way.” I was trying really hard not to cry. I didn’t want him to know how bad it was. But, there was so much blood.
He closed his eyes. “Dad, Dad, talk to me!” I yelled.
But it was too late. He was dead. It was painfully obvious. I broke down and started sobbing. Sarah and I hugged each other. Ethan tried to console me, which didn’t work. Then he went outside to wait for the ambulance.
“I’m so sorry, Madison,” was the only thing Abbey said and she sat down to wait for the police.
“What the hell happened?!” I screamed at her, almost hysterical.
“I just came in here for a book to read to the twins. I didn’t do anything to him. He came at me with a gun. He threatened to kill me. I got the gun away from him and then he tried to attack me, so I shot him. What else was I supposed to do?”
She and I both looked at Sarah, who nodded. “Yes, that’s what happened. He would have killed her.”
After the ambulance left with my father, the crime scene people were already swarming about the estate. We were asked to stay out of their way, and were especially forbidden from entering Adam’s study.
It only took minutes after the body was taken away for Sarah to start in on me.
“Why didn’t he say anything to me before he died? He only talked to you. I don’t understand,” she wailed.
“I don’t know, Sarah. He really didn’t have much time.” I tried to calm her down.
Then she turned on me. “It’s all your fault that this happened. It’s your fault that Abbey was here in the first place! Why did you have to let her stay? She’s a terrible person, a terrible mother. Then after she shot him, you didn’t give him the chance to talk to me.” She wasn’t letting up.
“Sarah, just let it go.” I was very calm. My father had just died and I didn’t need her jumping on me like that so soon.
“I heard what he said. He told you that he loved you more than anything else. He didn’t tell me that! You didn’t let him!” She was getting hysterical.
“It all happened so fast, Sarah. If he had more time, I’m sure he would have said the same thing to you. There just wasn’t time.” I was starting to lose my patience.
“I hate you! Why did you have to come back? I wish you were the one that was dead!” she screamed at me.
“Whoa, hold on a minute there,” Ethan jumped in. “You have no right to talk to her like that.” It wasn’t like him to get in the middle of things, but Sarah was way out of line.
“I’ll talk to her any way that I want to! Mind your own damn business,” she spat at him.
“Madison is my business,” he said back a little more loudly. “And you need to back off lady.”
I guess that was enough for Sarah, because she stormed out and headed upstairs to her room. We didn’t see her much at all for several days. She came out only for my father’s funeral, but then she pretty much stayed in her room as much as she could. She even had the cooks bring her meals to her. I was completely fine with that. I had no reason to see her face for a while.
Jackson went up to visit her from time to time, but no one else wanted to have anything to do with her. I did make sure that Jackson understood that my daughters were to have no contact whatsoever with her. He didn’t fight me on it. He hadn’t been there when Adam died, or even right after, because he was out of town. But he heard all about it and all about the scene Sarah made afterward. I think he actually agreed with me about keeping the girls away from her. Sarah had turned into a horrible person and we didn’t want her influence on our girls in even the smallest of ways.
The police did a thorough investigation of the shooting death of my father. Abbey was not arrested, but was told to stay put while they sorted through all of the evidence and witness statements. I promised that I would make sure she didn’t go anywhere. I knew she wasn’t a flight risk.
About a week later, Abbey was cleared of all charges related to Adam’s death. The investigators determined it was self defense. Mainly Sarah was to thank for that, much to her disliking. She didn’t want any part of helping Abbey, but she had already told Ethan and me that Abbey was telling the truth. Kind of hard to back pedal after that.
My father left a will. His attorney told us that he had it redone shortly after I came back into their lives, and had updated it again after the twins were born. Oh, I expected that he would leave me some money, maybe a car and one of the houses on the estate. But, I wasn’t prepared for what happened. No one was.
He left absolutely everything to me. Well, almost anyway. He left the house Jackson had been living in to him, and a good chunk of money.
He did leave Sarah a couple hundred thousand dollars, pocket change for my father. He also requested that she remain living in the estate. However, this was not a requirement of his will. I still had a choice to honor that part or not. The attorney explained that because my father owned everything before he married Sarah, that she had no right to it, unless he left it to her when he died. But it didn’t work out that way for her.
I was shocked. Everyone was. Sarah was furious, to put it mildly. I think I actually saw steam coming out of her ears. She honestly believed that it would all be left to her. I thought that too. I didn’t know how to react. I was instantly a multi millionaire. Some would say that I had been for a few years by then, since my father was rich. But, it was his money, not mine. When he was alive I had no direct access to it. So I was not rich. Now it was time to figure out what to do, how to act. I didn’t have a clue.
The second we left the attorney’s office, Sarah pulled me aside.
“Madison, this doesn’t really change anything. I know technically you own the house now, but Adam wanted me to stay there. I’m still the one in charge of how things run.”
I looked at her in disbelief. She was actually pulling that stuff the instant we read my father’s will? She was trying to bully me into cowing to her. No, not anymore. She was no longer in charge, I was.
“Sarah, my father left everything to me, not you. If you don’t like it, feel free to move out.” I was tired of taking her crap.
Then Jackson walked up to me. What now? I thought. I already had to deal with Sarah and her attitude. I didn’t need it from Jackson too.
“Hey, Madison. I just wanted to say that I’m happy for you. For what it’s worth, Sarah really did love Adam and should be allowed to stay.”
I gave him a look that said he better back off. He got the hint.
“But, it’s certainly up to you. You need to do what you need to do.” He then turned and walked out.
“Let’s go,” Ethan said. He was a smart man and knew when to keep his mouth shut.
Chapter 33
The very first thing I did after the reading of the will and going home was to call my grandmother.
“Hello.” I was so happy to hear her voice.
“Hi Grandma, it’s me.”
“Hi sweetheart. How are you? I’m so very sorry about your father.” She knew that the reading of the will was that day.
“I know. Thank you. I’ll be fine.” I was sad and I’m sure she could hear it in my voice.
“Why don’t you come visit me for a few days?” she asked. “Bring the whole family. I would love to see all of you.” I knew she was lonely. I hadn’t seen her as much as I would have liked to.
“Well that’s kind of why I’m calling. I do want to come visit you. And Charlie, of course. But, I have an ulterior motive.”
“What do you mean, dear?”
“I want to come and help you pack. I want you to move in with me,” I told her.
She hesitated for a moment. “Oh, I don’t know Madison. I don’t think Sarah will like that very much.”
“Well, you are right about that,” I said. “But it really doesn’t matter. She has no say so in it.”
“Madison, it is her house after all. I can’t just move in without asking her.”
“Yes you can, Grandma. It’s not her house anymore. Adam left it to me.
In fact, he left me almost everything. The house, the entire ranch, the money, all of it. Sarah gets to live here, but it’s not her house anymore.” I told her everything.
“What? You’ve got to be kidding. He left everything to you? Wow, congratulations Madison. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks. So, what do you say? Will you come live with me. With us. The twins would love to have their great grandma around to spoil them.” I was smiling.
She paused for just a moment. “Well, yeah, I don’t see why not. I’m here all alone now. No reason really to stay. I’ll start packing right away.” She sounded excited.
“I’ll send someone over to help you.” I then told her I would be there in a few days.
My next call was to Charlie. I knew he’d be happy to go help my grandma get ready for the move.
About two weeks later, Ethan and I drove to my grandmother’s house and loaded up everything she owned to bring back to our house. The twins stayed at the estate with the nanny for a couple of days. I loved them dearly, but it was actually nice to have a little free time away from them for a change. Grandma turned over her keys to the real estate agent, who told her it wouldn’t take long to sell. I was a little melancholy about that. It was the only home I had ever known, until the estate, of course. I hated to see it go. But, there was no good reason to keep it.
Grandma settled in at the estate very nicely. I wanted to put her in a first floor bedroom, so she wouldn’t have to deal with all those stairs everyday, but she refused. She wanted to be near the nursery where the twins were. The stairs didn’t seem to bother her at all. She had always been very active. So, I put her up on the third floor with the rest of us. Everyone was happy to have her there. Except Sarah, of course.
Not long after my grandma moved in, we had another wedding at the estate. Ethan and I wanted to keep it very small. We didn’t want an extravagant event like my first wedding. Just the immediate family was there, and of course, Charlie and his mother. We held it in the garden, my favorite place on the estate. It was just beautiful, and perfect for us. I finally married the love of my life and knew that I got it right that time. Jackson didn’t attend. We invited him, but didn’t really expect him to show up. Who could blame him?
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