by Tina Martin
“Okay.” She reached for the door handle, finally stepping out of the car.
He got out, too, then they headed to the front entrance of the bank.
“This is a small bank, but a busy one,” Bryson observed.
“Looks that way,” Kalina said. Walking up to the customer service desk, she asked the gentleman where the safe deposit boxes were.
“First, I’ll have to check to make sure your name is on the permission list to access the box,” the man said. “I need your I.D., please?”
Kalina took her wallet from her purse, sliding out her driver’s license. “Here you are,” she said, handing it to him.
The man looked it over. “Thank you, Ms. Cooper.” He returned her driver’s license to her and said, “Right this way.”
As if by instinct, Kalina clutched Bryson’s hand, holding on tightly to it like it was her lifeline.
Bryson looked at her. He could feel the nervousness flowing through her veins – through her hands to his. She was already frazzled and scared, afraid of what she might discover in the box. Maybe it was a family heirloom her father wanted to pass down to her. Or it could’ve been old mementos of his that he only wanted her to have.
“Sir,” the man said looking at Bryson.
“Yes?”
“I’m going to have to ask you to wait here. Only one customer can be back here at a time.”
“But he’s with me,” Kalina said. “We’re together.”
“I understand that, but we can only allow one customer back here.”
“Okay,” Bryson said. “That’s fine. Go ahead, Kalina. You’ll be fine.”
She continued on with the guard, watching him pull the entire box out from the slot. He walked it over to a table, set it there and said, “Here you go, ma’am.”
He walked back to the door and stood outside of it, giving her privacy to view the contents of the box. The only thing is, Kalina’s hands were shaking so badly, she could barely put the key in the keyhole to unlock it.
Okay, Kalina. You can do this.
She pulled in a deep breath and braced herself, finally steadying her hands enough to unlock the box. She slowly opened it and removed a white, letter-sized envelope. That was the only thing in the box – an envelope. She slid it inside her purse, quickly leaving the room and thanking the guard for his time.
In the lobby, she met up with Bryson again, told him she was ready to go and when they were sitting in the car, he asked, “So?”
Kalina looked at him.
“What was it?” Bryson asked.
She unzipped her purse, removed the envelope and said, “This was the only thing in there.”
“You didn’t open it yet?”
“No. I’m too nervous to open it. Why would he write me a letter and keep it in a safe deposit box, Bryson?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Kalina—”
“Here,” she said, handing the envelope to Bryson. “You open it.”
He took it from her grasp. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Open it.”
“Okay.” He slid his thumb underneath the flap that sealed the envelope together and slowly tore it open at the seam. When he had fully opened it, he immediately noticed a gold, diamond ring. He took it out and said, “Here’s something.” He handed the ring to her. “Must be an heirloom.”
Kalina took the ring and analyzed it while Bryson removed the folded letter from the envelope. He unfolded it, noticing it was almost a full, typed page. He looked over at Kalina and said, “You want to read this.”
“No. Read it to me,” she told him.
“Kalina, your father went through the trouble of getting a safe deposit box for this letter. It was meant for your eyes only, dear. I think it’ll be best if you read it.”
“No. I want you to read it. Please, Bryson.”
Bryson sighed. He didn’t want to read her deceased father’s words, but if this would help Kalina, he would do it. “Okay. It looks like he typed this letter eight years ago.” Bryson cleared his throat and reluctantly began reading:
To my dearest daughter,
I want to start this letter off by saying that I love you very much and I’m sorry for how things turned out between your mother and I. I was sick for years, but then the cancer went into remission. That’s when I met your mother. Boy was she a beautiful sight. I knew she was the one when I first laid eyes on her, and we were inseparable. Then something happened – she became pregnant. Pregnancy changed her. She told me right out the gate that she never—
Bryson stopped reading and turned to look at Kalina.
“Keep reading,” she told him.
—she never wanted to have children. She wanted a career. She wanted success without a child being in the way so that’s what divided us. You. I wouldn’t let her give you up for adoption. I fought her tooth and nail and when that wasn’t enough, that’s when I knew I had to tell Madeline what was going on.
“Wait…what? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Eyebrows raised, Bryson said, “I’m reading it exactly as it’s written, Kalina.”
“I know you are, but it doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Okay, well let me keep reading and maybe it’ll start making sense. Alright, so where was I…oh, here we go.”
I wouldn’t let her give you up for adoption. I fought her tooth and nail and when that wasn’t enough, that’s when I knew I had to tell Madeline what was going on. It took a lot of courage on my part, because I knew I had done wrong and I knew it would break Madeline’s heart for me to tell her what I had done, but I confessed that I’d had an affair with her sister and she was pregnant. I told her that Edi—
Bryson’s voice trailed off before he could say Edith’s name because, now, he knew why her father had placed the letter in a safe deposit box. Madeline wasn’t Kalina’s birth mother. Edith was. When he looked over at Kalina and saw tears traveling down the length of her face, he knew she’d figured it out as well.
“Do you want me to finish reading this, Kalina?”
She nodded.
“Okay.”
I told her that Edith didn’t want the baby and with tears running down her face, she told me that we could adopt the baby. You were that baby, Kalina. Madeline raised you like you were her own daughter. She never did restore her relationship with Edith. They were never close from the start, but the affair pushed them even further apart. In a way, I think you were more of a blessing to Madeline because she couldn’t have children and she desperately wanted a child. In some weird, twisted way, you ended up being a blessing to her.
I know I looked like a coward when I left after finding out about Madeline’s illness, but it was for your own good. I knew that when the cancer came out of remission, I wouldn’t have long to live and I also knew the road Madeline was going to face with Alzheimer’s so I decided to leave. I didn’t want you to see the two people closest to you die one after the other. I see now how poor of a decision that was because I lost many years with you. I’m sorry, daughter. I really am. I know I should’ve told you this a long time ago but it was a struggle to tell you that the woman who raised you wasn’t really your biological mother. Still, that didn’t prevent her from loving you like a mother.
I left a ring in this envelope. It was your grandmother’s wedding ring. She passed it down to me and I was supposed to pass down to my firstborn, so now it’s yours. I love you, Kalina and again, I’m sorry.
Bryson glanced over at Kalina watching her wipe her eyes and, when she lowered her hands from her face, he touched one of them and held it, not knowing what to say. “Um…that was it.”
Kalina broke her hand away from him, dabbed her eyes again and said, “Can you take me to my car?”
He didn’t want to do that. In his opinion, she was too distraught to drive or do anything else. “Kalina, I don’t—”
“Please, just take me to my car, Bryson,” she cr
ied, sniffling.
“How about we go somewhere, sit down and have breakfast—?”
“Look at my face, Bryson.”
He looked at her, feeling stabs to his heart. Her eyes were a reddish color and puffy, filled with tears. Her face was a teary mess.
“I’m not going to a restaurant to have breakfast like this! I’m not.”
“Then I’ll order breakfast and we can sit in the car and eat or go to a park or something, Kalina, but there’s no way I’m going to let you drive like this. No way.”
Kalina dug around in her purse for some tissue and when she found some, she dabbed her eyes and blew her nose.
Bryson folded the letter, slid it back inside the envelope and placed it in the center console. He started the car. Using his GPS, he found a restaurant, called in an order for the two of them then drove there and waited in the parking lot.
Kalina was quiet during the ten minute drive. She couldn’t believe what her father had written – that Edith was her real mother. How could Edith deceive her like this? Did she not have a heart? A conscience? What kind of woman gives up her child because she doesn’t want to be bothered? Doesn’t want her success to be hindered by the care and attention it would take to raise a child?
Bryson looked over at her again. He wished they weren’t sitting in the car so he could hold her close to his chest and ensure her everything would be alright, but he couldn’t do that now. “Kalina, are you okay?”
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know how to feel, Bryson. This…this betrayal is on so many levels, I just want to walk away from it all and disappear…go somewhere where no one can find me.”
“What would that solve?” he asked. “It would still leave you with anger.”
“At least I’ll have my sanity.”
“Would you have your sanity?”
Kalina grinned through tears.
Bryson reached over, squeezed her thigh and said, “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
While Bryson ran in to get the food, Kalina took the letter and reread it. She shook her head. How would she bring this to Edith? Should she say anything at all?
“Here we go,” Bryson said, opening the door. He handed Kalina the coffee tray before sitting. Then he gave her a food tray. “Eat.”
She opened it, reached for a French toast wedge, taking a bite.
Bryson felt comfortable eating now that he saw her attempting to eat, so he took a bite of toast as well. “So running away is not an option, sweetie,” he told her. “I suggest you sit down with your aunt, well, mother and give her the opportunity to tell you the truth. Who knows, maybe she wanted to tell you all along. That’s probably why she took you and Madeline in after Stanley left. Guilt.”
“I can’t believe she would do that to me. All these years she’s been pretending she was my aunt…it never crossed her mind to tell me she was really my mother? Like how do I even begin to forgive someone who would do that to me, Bryson?”
Bryson shook his head. “It’s going to take a lot…a whole lot, Kalina, but you have to face her. You can’t deal with all of this on your own.”
“I know.” Kalina took a sip of coffee. “Thanks for convincing me to stay for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, and that’s decaf coffee, by the way. You need to start drinking more decaf...leave that dark, double-shot stuff alone.”
“Why?”
“Because your hands tremble a lot when you’re upset, scared or nervous about something and I don’t like it.”
Kalina turned to look at him. “You think you know me so well after what…”
“About a month and a half and, in that time, I’ve watched you drink more coffee than water.”
Kalina giggled. “I have to drink something to stay awake.”
“I know. You work so hard and you really need to stop and…you know…get your life in order. Especially after learning all of this.”
Kalina nodded. “You know what the crazy thing is? I asked Edith why she had no love interest in her life…why she never married, settled down and had kids. She told me it wasn’t for her…said she was success driven. So she gave me up because I didn’t fit into her lifestyle, and I’m following her footsteps. My entire life is nothing but work.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” Bryson finished up his food, closed the empty tray and said, “I want you to ride back to Wilmington with me, Kalina.”
“I can’t. I have to drive my car back, and don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Bryson released a worried sigh and said, “Alright, but I’m going to be following you closely. If I see you running all across the lines and swerving, I’m pulling you over.”
Kalina chuckled. “Yes, sir, Officer Blackstone,” she quipped.
CHAPTER 39
At home, Kalina kicked off her shoes, dropped her overnight bag at the door next to a few pairs of shoes and sat on the couch.
Bryson sat down too.
“Go home, Bryson,” Kalina said to him.
“I will after you get settled.”
“It’s going to take me a while to get settled. I have to do some work and—”
“All you need to do is relax. Don’t think about work.”
Kalina rubbed her eyes. She was tired but she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Out of nowhere, she said, “She doesn’t even look like me.”
“Who? Edith?”
“Yes.”
“That’s because you look more like your father…must’ve had some strong genes.”
Kalina turned to look at him and said, “How do you know how he looks?”
“I looked him up online.”
“Oh.”
“I feel so stupid for not doing that before I decided to go there on a whim.”
“Why did you go there?”
“I told Lizette I wanted to do an article about marriage and what happens when the husband, or the wife, gets a serious illness…I wanted to see what kind of feedback I would get from the story. I was curious to know how many people out there, especially women, have been deserted by a man who said he’d love them forever, but when they became ill, the man ran for the hills.” Kalina watched Bryson frown. “What’s wrong, Bryson?”
“I was thinking you could change the article around to make it more positive. How about doing a story on the men, or women, who didn’t desert their spouse, but stayed for the long haul?”
“I could do it that way, but I’m willing to bet there are more people who left than stayed.”
“That’s because you had a negative experience with it so you’re already assuming the worst about everyone else, especially men.”
Kalina shrugged. “Maybe you’re right.”
“So by your way of thinking, I should think all women cheat because Felicia was unfaithful.”
“You may not think that all women cheat, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be as trusting with women now that you’ve had the experience.”
“See that’s where you and I differ. I don’t judge people based on what other people have done to me. I take them for who they are…judge them by their actions towards me and draw my own conclusions about the person.”
“So you can honestly say you could trust another woman completely?”
“Yes, and don’t get me wrong, Kalina. When Felicia cheated, I was hurt and I didn’t pretend otherwise. Most men try to be all macho and pop their collars like it doesn’t bother them, but I was with this woman for six years. It hurt me to my core to think she would do something like that to me, but I knew I had to move on, just like you have to find a way to move on from the things your father did. And Edith.”
“I know. It’s just…” Kalina sighed. “The woman I’ve been crying over my entire adult life isn’t even my mother.”
“But Madeline is your mother. She raised you, didn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Then she’s your mother. Edith may be your biol
ogical mother, but she hasn’t earned any rights to be called your mother.”
“None, whatsoever.”
Bryson stood up and stretched. “Alright, sweetheart. I need to run by the office, check in, make sure everything is kosher and then I can come back—”
“No. Go. I will be fine, Bryson,” Kalina said standing. A few more steps and she was standing directly in front of him, close enough to lay her head against his chest and envelop her arms around him. Squeezing him. “Thank you for everything, Bryson.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, squeezing her just as tightly. He released her, then gently touched her chin with his finger so she would look at him. “If you need anything, call me.”
“I will.”
He leaned forward, taking a small kiss from her lips. “I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.”
With that, he turned away, walked out the door and drove away.
Kalina touched her lips, still feeling the warmth of Bryson’s lips there. She couldn’t deny she was feeling something for him. For a man to go all-out of his way for her was not normal and it felt good. She wasn’t in the dark about what was happening. Bryson already told her how he felt – that he loved her – but even after all he’d done, she couldn’t fathom giving her heart to a man, only to be disappointed in the end.
CHAPTER 40
She couldn’t sleep much last night. She’d reread the letter from her father over and over again, staring at the gold ring he’d left in the envelope. And when she was tired of thinking about it, she began working to take her mind off of everything.
When she was up in the morning, she called Lizette to let her know to work from home again today and afterwards, she drove to the hospital to visit her mother. She sat in a chair, watching Madeline rest. Since she’d last saw her, she appeared to have lost a little more weight and her hair had thinned out more.