by Madyson Grey
The Perfect Burn
A Thrilling Romantic Suspense
Madyson Grey
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Book 5 Sneak Peek
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
About the Author
Also by Madyson Grey
Copyright © 2018 by Dungeon Media Corp.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
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Chapter One
“Not my mother!” Victoria gasped. “What do you mean, she’s not my mother?” She stared open-mouthed at Lieutenant Mobry.
“There is no DNA match whatsoever between you and Marian Thornton,” he repeated. “David Thornton was your father, but Marian was not your mother.”
Victoria looked questioningly first at Rafael, who just shrugged his shoulders and looked as bewildered as she did, and then at Lena, who just sat there, her face turned a deep red. Victoria sensed that she knew something about this bombshell that had just been dropped on her. But Lena kept her mouth shut, waiting to hear what the officer would say next.
“So if Marian isn’t my mother, who is?” Victoria asked the lieutenant. “Do you know?”
“Yes, I know,” he said solemnly. “Your mother is sitting right here with you. Lena Ericksen is your mother.”
Lieutenant Mobry unconsciously held his breath waiting for Victoria’s reaction to his revelation. Rafael and Victoria both were frozen with shock. Lena sat quietly twisting her hands in her lap, afraid to look at Victoria.
As soon as she could speak, Victoria turned to Lena and asked, “Is this true, Lena? Are you my mother for real? How … uh, why … uh, you and my dad?”
Victoria couldn’t quite form the question that was burning in her mind. Had Lena and her dad been lovers? For how long? Did Marian know?
Lena finally straightened her back, looked Victoria in the eyes and said, “Yes, I am your mother. It’s a long story, honey. Are you ready to hear it?”
“I, I think so,” Victoria said hesitantly, wondering just what the story could be.
“Excuse me, but I’m finished here,” the lieutenant said. “So if I’m not needed anymore, I’ll go so you three can talk.”
Rafael stood as the lieutenant did and reached to shake his hand.
“Thank you for coming,” Rafael said. “I think.”
He grinned slightly at the lieutenant, who understood and nodded slightly.
“Yes, thank you for all you have done over the past months,” Victoria said, also rising to her feet to shake hand with the officer. “I guess we won’t be needing you anymore. At least I hope we won’t. But we appreciate everything you have done. You’ve been kind and helpful during this awful time.
“Just doing my job, ma’am,” he said. “But, you’re welcome. I’m glad to have been of service. I hope my news doesn’t cause a rift here between you and Miss Ericksen.”
“No, not as far as I’m concerned it won’t,” Victoria said. “I just need to hear the story. That’s all.”
After Lieutenant Mobry was gone, Victoria and Rafael settled back down to listen to Lena’s story. She fumbled a bit trying to find a good place to start the story, but then found it and began.
“David and Marian were married while she was still caring for her ailing parents. David moved her parents into the house with them and hired a woman to cook for them, and hired Nancy—you remember Nancy—to be the housekeeper.
“Marian’s parents, the Smiths, also had home health nurses who came in to help Marian care for them. But, as you can imagine, their care was a constant strain on Marian. She was young and had been their sole caregiver for nearly six years. She tried to juggle their care with being a wife to David, but it was just too much for her. I know that now. Back then, all I heard is that she was often short with David, cross with Nancy and the cook, and simply wasn’t what I considered a good wife to David.
“I was a young receptionist, just out of high school down at your dad’s office. One day I needed a ride home and he offered to take me. We sat and talked in his car for a while that first day. A few days later, he took me home again. Then he began coming to my apartment to talk and to just escape the stress of Marian and her parents. One thing led to another, and eventually we, uh, we, well, you know.
“It only happened a few times. David felt so guilty about it afterward that he would avoid me for a week or more afterwards. He didn’t mean to be unfaithful to his wife, but he was lonely and felt neglected. After all, they were still basically newlyweds. But then he would take me home again, and we’d just talk for several evenings, and then it would happen again.
“What he didn’t know, and I never let on, was that I had fallen head over heels in love with him. I was certain that I loved him far better than Marian did. He was aware that I cared for him, but I don’t think he knew just how much I loved him. Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to learn that I was pregnant.
“Soon after I got pregnant, the Smiths both died, one soon after the other. Now, you have to realize that all this took place within the first year or so after David and Marian were married. It seemed like a long time then, but in retrospect, it really wasn’t. After they died, Marian turned more of her attention to David, so he quit coming to see me. I was still working at the office and seeing him every day, but he stopped coming to my apartment.
“Soon after her folks died, Marian went to the doctor for a pregnancy test. She had skipped a couple of periods and thought she was pregnant. But in doing the testing, the doctor discovered that not only was it a false pregnancy, but that Marian was sterile and could never have children. I think she was actually relieved to learn that. But David was sorely disappointed. He wanted children, but she really didn’t.
“During the last couple months of my pregnancy, David approached Marian with the idea of adopting a baby. He didn’t tell her about me at all. It took him several tries to talk Marian into adoption, but when he did, he arranged things so that when you were born, he and Marian came to the hospital to take you home. David and I agreed to insist that this was a closed adoption. That they would never know whom the birth mother was. Of course, David knew, but that prevented Marian from finding out.
“When you were about two months old, the cook they had quit. David asked me if I would be interested in the position. He knew from the time he had spent with me that I loved cooking and was pretty good at it, even being so young. I said yes, and so he hired me without a word to Marian as to the fact that I was really your mother.”
All the time Lena was talking, Victoria sat on the edge of her seat taking in every word, trying to visualize, to understand the situation that both her dad and her mother, well, Marian, had been in at the time. Rafael had his hand on her back, lightly massaging it to convey his love and support through his fingertips.
“So I moved into that upstairs apartment and began my life working for your parents. I also took care of
you a lot, as Marian really didn’t cotton to being a mother. She was busy trying to break into the right social circles and didn’t have time to be bothered with a toddler. I was thrilled to be able to care for you, my own baby. I had seriously hesitated in giving you up. David had to talk long and hard to get me to agree. He promised that as soon as he could figure out how, that he would hire me into some position in the house so that I could at least watch you grow. The cook’s resignation was very fortuitous, allowing him to hire me sooner than I had dared to hope.
As you grew into a little girl, Marian began commenting on how curious it was that you bore such a strong resemblance to David. He tried to make a joke of it, saying things like, ‘I ordered a baby that would look like me,’ or ‘Who do you want her to look like—Santa Claus?’
“You were about eleven or twelve and had appendicitis—remember?”
Victoria nodded.
“They took blood samples from both David and Marian to see if either of them were a match to you, just in case of an emergency. David was a match. You’re both B negative, which is a fairly rare type. That really set Marian on edge, and after they got home, she raked him over the coals about it. David held out for several weeks, but Marian kept badgering him about it, hammering home the fact that you look like him and then to have the same rare blood type was just more than she could accept as coincidence.”
“David held out on her for months. Marian would get involved in her social activities and forget about it for a while, then something would set her off again, and she would make snide remarks, or grill David again about you.”
“Funny, I never heard any of these arguments,” Victoria said, interrupting Lena’s story. “I thought I heard all their spats. But I missed this one completely.”
“Oh, honey, you didn’t hear half of their arguments,” Lena said. “As far as this goes, I will give them both credit for never allowing you to hear any of their discussions about this subject. That was one thing that David told me that he put his foot down hard on. He told Marian when they first adopted you that you were to never know that you were adopted. He wanted you to know that you belonged to them, no questions asked. Marian agreed, because she was just selfish enough to want you to never wonder who your birth parents were and go looking for them.
“Anyway, eventually she wore him down and he confessed that you were really his child, and mine. When she threatened to tell you the truth, he bribed her with money, which she fell for.”
“So was that what those cash withdrawals from Daddy’s account that I can’t account for were?” Victoria asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lena said. “That was when she started being mean to me, too. Not overtly mean, but little jabs here and there, giving me extra work to do, criticizing my cooking, questioning my shopping habits. You know, just little things to try to make my life miserable. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have left long ago. But just being able to be with you and watch you grow made all of her insults and meanness worthwhile.”
“It looks to me like, then, that every time Daddy gave her more money was probably when she would threaten to expose him to me,” Victoria guessed.
“I imagine that’s right,” Lena agreed. “Obviously, I didn’t hear every argument they had, nor was I privy to all their business. But that is true to Marian’s form—to blackmail David into giving her more and more money.”
“Now I know why I have always thought of you as my mama,” Victoria said. “I thought of Marian as Mother, but you as Mama. You always treated me more like I thought a mother should treat her child. Marian was so stiff and cold with me. She tried hard to make me over in her image, and to be a proper lady to fit into her social circles. I tried to comply, because I wanted to please her and I was taught to be obedient. But I really hated it. I much preferred being with Daddy or with you. You both let me be a kid, not a miniature adult.”
“I never knew that you thought of me as your mama,” Lena said, tears forming in her blue eyes. “I knew that you loved me, but not that you thought of me in that way.”
“I’m not sure I could have articulated that feeling back when I was a kid. It was just more of a sense of being loved and being treated like other kids said their moms treated them,” Victoria said.
Victoria turned to look at Rafael and said, “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that life could be so complicated as it has been ever since Daddy died.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Rafael agreed.
“Excuse me a minute,” Lena said. “I have something you’ll want to see.”
She got up and went downstairs to her suite and soon came back with a manila folder in her hand. She handed it over to Victoria, who opened it. Inside was her birth certificate listing Marian Thornton as her mother, and David Thornton as her father. There was the hospital birth record with her tiny footprints on it, her hospital ID bracelet, and the adoption papers.
Victoria looked over each document carefully, reading every single word. Nowhere on the adoption papers was Lena’s name printed. Instead, there were words to the effect that the identity of the biological parents was sealed and on file at the adoption agency. But Victoria didn’t need to see them. She knew now who her birth parents were. Both of them.
“All I can say now is that I’m glad that Daddy really was my biological father. Although maybe it wouldn’t matter. He would still be my daddy, whom I loved very much, whether or not he sired me. But if it had to be one of them who wasn’t my biological parent, I’m glad that it was Marian, and not Daddy,” Victoria said.
Lena put one work-worn hand on Victoria’s smooth one and asked timidly, “Does this change anything between us?”
Victoria looked at her with a sweet smile on her face. “Oh, yes, Lena—Mama—it does!” she exclaimed. “Now I have a mama, my real mama. I’m not an orphan. You are my mama and I love you now more than ever.”
Victoria threw her arms around Lena and hugged her tightly. Lena hugged her back, murmuring in her ear the words she’d longed to say for twenty-six years: “My baby girl, my sweet baby girl.”
Rafael waited respectfully for mother and daughter to have their hug time, as he thought of it. When the two finally pulled apart and wiped the tears from their eyes, he told them that there was one more thing that would now change. The two women looked questioningly at him.
“What, Rafael? What else could possibly change?” Victoria wanted to know.
“Well, do you really want your mama being your hired servant?” he asked dryly.
“Oh, my! I hadn’t thought of that yet!” Victoria exclaimed. “Of course not! That just can’t happen.”
“Then what’s to become of me?” Lena asked in a concerned voice.
“You’ll stay right where you are,” Rafael said firmly. “Unless you want your own place, that is. Otherwise, you’ll stay right where you are. You can cook if you want to, and if you don’t, tell your daughter here that it’s her turn to cook. You’ll still have your income, so you can do whatever you want, but your time is your own.”
“He’s right you know, Le–Mama,” Victoria said. “Oh, boy! I’m going to have to get used to calling you Mama now. But I couldn’t possibly have my mama working for me as a housekeeper and cook. That’s just not right.”
“But it’s all I know how to do,” Lena protested. “Besides, I enjoy doing it for you two. What would I do all day if I didn’t have some housework and cooking to do?”
“Anything you want,” Victoria said. “Go shopping. Go to the beach. Go anywhere you want. Read books. Draw. Paint. Crochet. Swim in the pool. Join a singles’ club and meet a handsome man and give me a new dad.”
“Hey, now, Girlie!” Lena said. “Let’s not get carried away here.”
The three of them laughed.
“Seriously, Lena,” Rafael said, “what do you want to do? Do you want to move out and get your own home and maybe a different job? Do you want to stay here? We certainly don’t want to tell you what to do, or make you fee
l like you have to make a decision right away. All we’re saying is that now that we know that you are really Victoria’s mother, we just don’t feel right about you being our hired help.”
“I know what you’re saying,” Lena said, “and I love you for it. Tell you what. Give me a few days to think on it. Meanwhile, let’s just leave things like they are. I’ll cook for you when you’re home, I’ll do the housework, but I’ll ponder my choices and let you know. How’s that?”
“That’s fair,” Victoria said. “And please know that you are completely free to come or go as you please. We would love to have you stay right here with us, if you want to. But if you choose to move out, we will support you one hundred percent. Also, no matter what your decision, we want to keep supporting you. Think of it as making up for all the pain and suffering you went through over the past twenty-six years. We can well afford it. Very well afford it. In fact, we should up it, shouldn’t we, Rafael?”
“Of course,” he agreed. “Cost of living raise. How does five grand a month sound? Not enough? OK, make it six.”
“My stars!” Lena exclaimed. “You must be joking! What would I do with six grand a month? There’s not that much work to do around this place to earn that kind of money.”
“You could always mow the lawn,” Rafael joked.
“Yeah, right!” Victoria said sarcastically. “Besides, that’s my pleasure.”
“Besides, this isn’t money earned. This is money gratefully given for the joy you bring to us and for the sacrifices you’ve made throughout my life,” Victoria told her.
“That’s right,” Rafael agreed. “You can’t earn a gift. I’ll set it up so the money gets direct deposited into your account the first of every month.”