by Sharon Sala
A few moments later the door opened. Hank was back, followed by a man he assumed was Wade Tiller. He was burned brown by the sun, making his blonde hair appear whiter than it already was. His features had been passed to both of his sons – and as Justin looked closer, his heart twisted – on to Callie, as well. It was shocking to see his daughter’s eyes looking at him from this man’s face.
Demon Jealousy raised its ugly head, but Justin wouldn’t acknowledge the presence. He stood up and extended his hand. “Mr. Tiller, I’m Justin Caulfield from-“
“I know who you are.”
Justin froze.
Wade Tiller picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Penny. I need you back at the office. Yes, I know your lunch hour isn’t over, but it’s important. Tell Paul and Tommy to get to the house and tell Suzy to make extra. I’m bringing company.”
Hank and Ben frowned. Their interest in Justin had suddenly increased.
“What the hell, Dad?” Hank said.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Then he looked at Justin. “Mr. Caulfield, we’re going to my house for this discussion. It won’t put you out any because it’s just across the street.”
Justin felt a little like Alice must have felt when she fell down the rabbit hole. Nothing was as it seemed. As they crossed the street in tandem, he couldn’t get past the feeling he was walking under guard. The fact that his presence might be received as a threat had never occurred to him and he was wishing he’d told someone where he was going. He couldn’t afford to leave Callie an orphan – not when she was so young and so sick.
To his surprise, the two-story white house across the street was not only pleasing from the outside, but the inside was warm and inviting, as well. As they entered, he smelled something tasty.
“Yum, stew,” Hank said.
“Show Mr. Caulfield to the bathroom so he can wash up. I’m going to the kitchen to talk to Suzy,” Wade said, then left the room.
It was obvious Wade wasn’t afraid or upset. More like fatalistic, as if he’d expected this might one day occur.
“This way,” Hank said, and pointed to the last door on the right down a wide, airy hall. “When you’ve finished, follow your nose to the kitchen. Dinner’s waiting.”
“Okay, thank-“
But the words went unheeded. Like their father, he walked away, leaving Justin on his own. A couple of minutes later he walked into the kitchen and then stopped.
Wade saw him. “You can sit here,” he said, pointing to a chair at his elbow.
Justin laid the envelope on the sideboard and sat.
“This really isn’t necessary,” he said. “I just need to-“
Wade shook his head. “This is how we do everything in this family. We share food. It’s harder to pick a fight when your belly is full. And there are no secrets. Everyone knows what’s going on at once. Secrets tear family apart.”
Tears welled, shocking Justin into silence. The man was right about one thing, secrets were destructive.
Wade had not expected to see tears. His estimation of the man shifted somewhat slightly to the good, but he reserved the right to change his mind.
“Mr. Caulfield, you’ve already met my two oldest sons, Hank and Ben. That’s Paul at the far end of the table and Tommy just to his right. Tommy is a senior in high school. Paul is a freshman in college. The two oldest have already graduated college and this fine woman on my left is my sweetheart, Suzy. She runs this house like we run the body shop. Neat, clean, and with no backtalk, right honey?”
Justin eyed them curiously. Wade Tiller had certainly put his mark on them. It was like looking at four different versions of the same man. The pretty, middle-aged woman sitting on Wade’s right smiled. The smile never reached her eyes.
“Nice to meet all of you,” Justin said.
Wade picked up his spoon. “The stew smells good, Suzy. Hey Paul, pass the cornbread,” and so the meal began.
Conversation was awkward, but it eased as the meal progressed. The brothers chided each other about everything from girls and phone calls, grades and goofs on the job, to who ate the last piece of pecan pie last night. Justin could hardly eat for watching, wishing he’d grown up in a family like this instead of the sterile, polite environment of his youth.
Finally, the meal ended, the table cleared, and coffee and cookies were passed around. At that point, Wade gave the floor to Justin with a look.
Justin didn’t mince words. “It’s obvious you know who I am.”
“Deborah’s husband,” Wade said.
Again, Justin felt side-swiped. Everyone had known about the affair except him.
“How is she?” Wade asked.
Ah, so he didn’t know everything after all.
“Deborah died in a car wreck more than six years ago.”
Wade paled. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“So were we. As I was saying, it’s obvious you know who I am. I, however, did not know you existed until a few days ago.”
Wade’s surprise showed, but he said nothing as Justin continued.
“I found out during a fight with my mother. It was a shock, in more ways than one.”
“I can imagine. Do your parents know that you’re here?”
“My father’s been dead for several years. My mother was shot and killed two days ago.”
The collective gasp that went around the table shifted the energy again. Justin was gaining empathy, which was good considering what he’d come to ask.
“Really sorry to hear that,” Wade said. “Was it a robbery?”
Justin reached for his coffee cup, unaware his hand was shaking. He took a sip, and then looked up.
“No secrets at this table, right?”
Wade nodded.
“Then to tell this right, I need to go back over twenty years. My senior year in high school I had a sweetheart from the wrong side of the tracks. Her name was Sunny. We sneaked around to see each other until my parents found out then it hit the fan. I was the only child, born with the expectation that I would follow in the footsteps of all the other Caulfield heirs who’d come before me and carry on the family business. It was no big deal to me until Sunny. My parents told me I’d be disinherited if I didn’t drop her. I said I didn’t care. Then they begged, threatened, and finally played their trump card. If I left them, there would be no one to carry on the family name – to take up the business that four generations before me kept flourishing. I was a kid. I caved in. I have regretted it ever since, but that was that. We broke up and I left for college bearing all kinds of guilt.”
Wade nodded. “I see that, but I don’t know what it has to do with me.”
“You will. You wanted to know why my mother was shot, well it’s because the past came back to haunt her. After I left town, Sunny found out she was pregnant. My parents paid her parents off to keep it quiet. Years pass. I marry Deborah and come home to take over the family business from my ailing father, completely unaware of what had happened. Last week, Sunny died of cancer. I didn’t even know she was still in the city until I read the obituary. That’s when I had the fight with my mother. That’s when I found out about the daughter I never knew I had. At the same time, the man Sunny married found out about me. Ironically, he worked for my company and had just been fired. He went to my house to beg for his job back, but I wasn’t there. My mother stepped in and told him to get out. He threatened to tell everyone about the illegitimate child if he didn’t get rehired. She ran him off then sent her bodyguard to kill him.”
This time the collective gasp that went around the table was one of retreat.
“The morning Sunny passed away, the police were pulling her husband’s body out of the Little Man river.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Wade whispered.
“I’ve given you more details of my sordid family than I’m sure you care to hear, but it bears on why I’m here, so forgive me. Bottom line, I began to suspect what had happened and by then, Sunny’s daughter found out about me. The polic
e suspected me, but they didn’t know all I knew. I wore a wire and went back for a second round with my mother, during which time she admitted to what she’d done. I’m still trying to come to terms with knowing she killed a man who only wanted his job back. When the police came to arrest her and the bodyguard, the man decided to spare them both the shame and embarrassment of public trial and prison, by killing her and then himself right in the middle of the arrest.”
The room went silent, except for a faucet dripping into the sink and a cat fight in progress somewhere outside.
Ben cleared his throat then put a hand on Justin’s shoulder.
“Really sorry, man.”
Justin sighed. “And that leads me to why I am here. Deborah and I had a daughter. It’s been tough raising her without her mother, but she’s my life. I would do anything for her. But I have a problem my money can’t fix. Last year she nearly died before the doctors were able to diagnose her disease. It took months for them to cure it. In the process, the disease and the treatment destroyed her kidneys. She’s on the transplant list, but so far down it doesn’t count.”
“You can’t donate?” Wade asked.
“I only have one kidney,” Justin said. “But even if I had two, it wouldn’t matter. I found out during that fight with my mother that she’s not my child. She’s yours, Wade, and I’ve come to beg for your mercy and your help.”
The words were a sucker punch Wade didn’t see coming. He stood abruptly, then sat down, then stood again and began pacing from one side end of the table to the other.
“Oh, my God. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
Justin gut knotted. The words were an echo of his only days earlier. “Believe me, I understand.”
Wade moved down the table from one son to the next, touching a shoulder then a head - reading the varying expressions of shock on their faces. When he got to Suzy she reached for his hand and he grasped it like a drowning man reaching for a rope.
Justin got up, took the envelope from the sideboard and dumped all of the pictures he’d brought with him onto the table.
“Her name is Callie. She’s fourteen years old and the light of my life. She’s too weak from the disease to withstand the months of dialysis ahead of her as she waits to move up on the transplant list. She needs a kidney, and soon, or she will die.”
Wade sat back down, staring in disbelief at the little blond girl who had his eyes. He went from photo to photo, lingering on the ones with Deborah and the child, but it was the photo Justin had on his phone, the one with Callie holding the bear, surrounded by her angels that signed the deal.
“I used to drink. I hope I’m still healthy enough to do this, but I’ll gladly be tested,” Wade said.
Justin shuddered. The relief was so great he couldn’t speak.
Hank was staring at the picture of Callie in her soccer gear.
“I’m way healthier than Dad. I’ll do it.”
“I’ll test, too,” Ben said.
Paul and Tommy looked at each other, then at their dad. “We will, too,” they echoed.
Tears were running down Suzy’s face. “And I volunteer to hold down the fort until you all get back.”
“There are no words to express what I’m feeling,” Justin said. “Grateful doesn’t cover it.”
“Does she know about you?” Wade asked.
“Not yet. It was hard enough telling her that her beloved Nana was dead, let alone how it had happened. She cried for hours then woke up more concerned about her new sister, the daughter I didn’t know I had. Her name is Poppy, and right now she pretty much hates my guts. In her eyes, I walked out on her mother, and got her father killed, even though she knows I helped the cops get to the truth. Callie is afraid her new sister hates both of us and she’s probably right.”
“Are you going to tell Callie about us?”
“Yes. Like you said, secrets destroy. There have been too many secrets in my life already. We need to start from a clean slate.”
Hank punched Ben. “We’re finally going to get that little sister we always wanted.”
Paul and Tommy looked a little more anxious. “Is she going to live with us?”
“Of course, not,” Wade said. “Mr. Caulfield is still her father. I missed that right by not being the one who raised her. That’s what being a father is about. But maybe we can be extended family, if she likes us, and Mr. Caulfield doesn’t mind.”
Justin sighed. “I suspect she’s going to adore all of you, and I will gladly share her with the world to save her life.”
A look passed between Wade and Justin, and then the man extended his hand.
Justin took it.
“You don’t know how much I have dreaded this meeting,” he said. “I was afraid you’d resent a resurrection of the past. Afraid you’d be the kind of man who’d ultimately use her for the family money she will one day inherit. But I can honestly say, from one father to another, it’s been a pleasure to meet you.”
“Same here,” Wade said. “Tell us where to go to get tested and we’ll be there tomorrow.”
“Thank you, thank you so much, and for the record, Deborah’s parents were fools,” Justin said.
Wade shrugged. “No. I was the one in the wrong. I was married. I had no right to do what I did, but sometimes the heart wants what the heart should not have.”
Justin took a pen from his pocket and began writing info on the envelope. “I’ll call Callie’s doctor on the way home and tell him to expect you at Saint Anne’s tomorrow. This is his name and the name and address of the hospital. I’m also going to give him your contact info. His office can tell you exactly where to go. As soon as you’ve finished, I’ll find you and walk you to Callie’s room.”
Wade shook his head. “Oh my God.”
Hank frowned. “What’s wrong, Dad. Are you sorry? Are you changing your mind?”
Wade grinned. “Hell no, son. I’m just a little nervous. With you four, I had nine months to get used to the idea that you were coming. Less than twenty-four hours is pretty daunting.”
“It’ll be okay,” Justin said. “I’ll make sure this doesn’t scare her. She’ll need to understand that nothing will change between us, and that your family will be an addition, not a change in residence.”
After another hour of trading information, Justin headed back to Caulfield, leaving not only pictures, but a piece of his heart behind. This was terrifying, bringing people into his world who Callie might come to love more than him. But it was a price gladly paid knowing she now had a chance to grow up and grow old.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Justin drove home on a high. He called Don Langley, Callie’s doctor, and gave him the news about locating new family members. There was no need going into details. When Langley got the results back and saw the matching markers in the DNA, he’d figure it out on his own.
By the time he reached Caulfield, he was exhausted. More than six hours on the road, and the second most stressful day of his life had wiped him out. He wanted to go home, but didn’t know if he could face being there.
He pulled in to a gas station on the outskirts of the city, refueled, then pulled away from the pump before he stopped to use the phone. His housekeeper answered on the second ring.
“Lillian, this is Justin.”
“Oh, Mr. Caulfield, it’s good to hear your voice. I don’t know what to say except that I’m so sorry.”
“I know, Lillian. I am, too. Has the library been cleaned?”
“Yes sir, the restoration company left just after three this afternoon. Are you coming home now?”
“Yes, Lillian. I believe I am.”
“I’ll make dinner.”
“Something light. I’m just so very tired.”
“Yes sir. I’m sorry.”
He hung up, then folded his arms across the steering wheel and rested his head. The last few days had been about restitution and today was another step in that direction. He had guilt – so much guilt. There’s been a
time when he felt pride in being a Caulfield. Now it was a name he was going to have to learn to live down. The last thing still weighing on his mind was telling Callie.
“God help me get through this,” he prayed, then started the car and drove away.
****
Edison Funeral Home wasn’t the only funeral home in the city, but for whatever reason, tonight it was a hotbed of business. It had never occurred to Poppy how many people might die in any given week in Caulfield, but in a city of more than 50,000 people and with the surrounding countryside in the same need, she supposed it could be a good number.
John was outside talking to his boss in Atlanta. She knew he was antsy about getting back before he lost his job. At least now that they were able to bury their dad, there would be nothing left to cause another delay.
She wasn’t looking forward to living alone, but she had it better than most girls her age. Thanks to her family, she had a home free and clear and a job to go back to.
She looked up as the door opened, only to see another group of grieving family members enter. She quickly looked away. Even though she didn’t know them, within these walls they were all part of a very sad club.
The door opened again. This time it was John. From the expression on his face, he seemed satisfied. He crossed the foyer and slid onto the sofa beside her.
“Do they have Dad ready yet?”
She shook her head.
He gave her knee a quick pat. “We picked out casket at noon when we dropped off the clothes. Epperson told us to come back around five, but we’ve been here more than three hours. It can’t be much longer.”
She leaned over and whispered in his ear. “There are a lot of people here tonight. It’s so sad. I never thought about how many people lose loved ones every day. Maybe we should come back tomorrow.”
“We can if you want to. Oh, hey, here comes Truman now.”
Normally Truman Epperson was calm and collected, but not tonight, and it showed. His hair was a little messy and his tie was slightly askew. They’d kept bringing in bodies all afternoon and then another one just an hour ago. At the present, there were five bodies on the premises and he’d had a startling moment of his own back in the mortuary when he realized Jessup Sadler’s body was under a sheet on one work table and Amelia Caulfield and Oral Newton were on tables nearby.