“It was blue,” she whispered, shock still pressing so hard on her chest it actually hurt. “With a bunny on the cover. I remember the book.”
How is this possible?
Both Jack and Libby laughed, a little nervous and excited, but Grace couldn’t even smile. She couldn’t even think. Looking for help, she glanced at Alex, who seemed to have taken a few steps back, his gaze moving from one to the other as he, too, tried to take in this news.
“Why don’t I let you three talk?” he suggested. “I’ll take the dogs, and you can go sit down and…catch up.”
“On twenty-five years?” Bitsy asked on another laugh. “That’s a lot of catching up to do.”
“I need answers.” The words tumbled out of Grace’s mouth, rough and serious, making all the laughing stop.
“Of course, I—”
“Now.” She held up her hand to make her point. “Were you in foster care? Why were we separated? How long have you known? And why did a grandmother I don’t remember essentially arrange to give me this winery? And how did you find me when I couldn’t find you?”
“Grace.” Alex put his hand on her shoulder, the touch warm and welcome. “I’m sure they’ll tell you everything you want to know and then some.”
“We have the answers,” Jack said. “You might not like them, but we’re here with pictures, documentation, letters, and explanations. You deserve all of it and more, Gracie. Some terrible and unfair things have happened to you.”
She blinked, surprised that her eyes were dry and that the rushing blood had finally leveled off in her head. Thinking clearly for the first time in a few minutes, she turned to Alex, the echo of their conversation still fresh in her mind.
“Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “I want you with me.”
His gaze softened, and he melted into a smile. “Of course.”
She slipped her arm around him and faced the others, almost expecting a fight. “Alex is my…” Partner? Lover? Do better, Gracie. “My boyfriend.”
“Then, by all means,” Jack said, putting a brotherly hand on Alex’s shoulder. “You should hear this, too.”
“Let’s find a table on the terrace,” Alex said, leading them that way.
Somehow, Grace took steps, followed, and found the next breath. Somehow.
“It’s a darling winery,” Bitsy mused as they walked, the comment reminding Grace that not only were these two strangers the very children of her foggiest memories, they were the heirs to the Carlson Woods Winery fortune.
The very thought slowed her step. How did that happen? How was that even fair?
“I know, I know,” Bitsy whispered, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’ll tell you everything. Just brace yourself.”
As they found a clean table on the terrace and made small talk about the wedding that was hosted there the night before, Alex got the puppies inside and came back with cold drinks for everyone. Grace gave him a silent look of gratitude, taking his hand when he sat next to her.
Once settled, Jack leaned forward and flattened his hands on the table. “You, Grace Hunnicutt Carlson, have been the victim of a very bad man.”
She blinked at him. “Grace…Carlson?”
“That’s your name,” Bitsy said. “After your mother married our father, you became a Carlson, even if the adoption never happened officially. You’re a Carlson to us.”
“What?”
“Wait a second,” Alex said, squeezing Grace’s hand. “Start slow and clear and from the beginning.”
Jack inhaled and exchanged a look with Bitsy, who nodded. “I’ll try not to interrupt,” she promised. “But I’m excited, and I want you to be, too, Gracie.”
Grace felt the first smile since…since she’d been entangled and naked with Alex a few minutes ago. As much as she ached to go back to that sweet moment and life-changing conversation, she knew this one would change her life, too. But Bitsy’s enthusiasm was infectious and seemed genuine.
“So, I’m guessing you know nothing,” Jack said to Grace. “Blank slate?”
So, so blank. “All I know is that the Hunnicutts lived here and had a daughter, Celia, who had a baby, Grace, who I guess…is me. Celia disappeared with her baby, presumably on a search for my father, a harvest worker. At some point, I was put in foster care, told my parents were dead, and all access to any files was locked down.”
Jack let out a deep, disgusted sigh. “You can thank my grandfather for that.”
“From the beginning,” Alex insisted, his frustration evident.
Jack nodded. “Celia Hunnicutt is your mother—and ours—and she ran away from here with you and went to California to find a man whose name no one has ever known. He was your father, and yes, he was a harvest worker. Her search took her to Carlson Woods in Napa, where she met our father, John Carlson, the sole heir to the winery business. They had a whirlwind romance, eloped, and less than a year later, Celia gave birth to twins.” He made a gesture that included him and Libby. “Elizabeth Deanna and John Carlson the Fourth.”
“Bitsy and Jack,” Grace whispered.
The fancy house. The many toys. Was that the Carlson Woods mansion in Napa Valley? She’d seen pictures in Architectural Digest and driven past the winery many times on trips to the wine country. She’d never visited, though.
“JJ and Deanna, our paternal grandparents, were not happy with this turn of events,” Jack continued. “JJ especially didn’t approve of the marriage, despised our mother, and did his level best to hide you from the world. Grandmama Dee might not have agreed, but she never went against JJ’s wishes.”
“He…hid me?” Something cold and ugly crawled up Grace’s chest and lodged in her throat.
“JJ felt you were…tainted.” Jack cringed as he made the admission.
“Oh, cut the crap, Jack,” Bitsy interjected. “JJ Carlson was a raging, appalling, horrific racist who believed Grace wasn’t worthy of the name Carlson because her father was an Argentinian harvest worker. He hated you, Gracie. Could barely stand our mother, but since she procreated Jack…” She flipped her hand and held it out dramatically to her brother. “She produced the male Carlson heir that he wanted. So, he tolerated her because our father, John Carlson the Third, worshipped the ground Celia walked on. And he loved you, Gracie,” she added. “My grandmother told me our father loved you very much.”
Her head was whirling with all the names, information, and stunning revelations.
“Your grandmother is Dee Carlson? The socialite?” Grace dug into her mental files about the world-famous family and winery. Easily pushing eighty, the woman was revered and respected in the oenology industry, known for her philanthropy and largesse.
“She didn’t agree with any of her husband’s decisions,” Bitsy said. “But the one thing my grandmother lacks is a backbone and the will to fight anything her husband and his powerful family wanted. He was the boss, the last say in everything. And then our parents were killed in a car accident when we were two years old and you were five.” Her expression softened with sympathy. “Our grandparents became our guardians, and any protection you had disappeared.”
“JJ—your grandfather—is the very bad man you talked about?” Grace asked Jack.
“He was.” Jack looked at her directly. “Grandpapa JJ died about a month ago, and Grandmama Dee finally came clean about exactly what he’d done.”
“And that’s when we learned we have a sister,” Bitsy said. “Which is the most thrilling thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Grace wanted to hold on to that comment, but the earlier one stuck in her head. “What exactly did he do?”
“When Mom and Dad died, JJ disowned you, put you in the foster care system as an orphan he claimed was ‘left’ at the winery, the illegitimate offspring of an unknown harvest worker. He changed your last name, and he paid off so many people to seal files and shut mouths and not ask questions that he financed a small industry. But money talks, and he had millions and millions and millions of
dollars.”
She felt all the blood chill in her veins. “Why did he do that? What the hell was wrong with him?”
Jack’s eyes shuttered. “He made every decision based on what he thought would further the success of Carlson Woods Winery. He believed that you might have someday inherited the winery over me. He thought your background could ruin our name. He…”
“He sucked donkey balls,” Bitsy interjected. “And I hope he’s frying in hell this very minute.”
Grace nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I hope he is.”
“He made sure you never got adopted,” Bitsy added. “He paid people to freeze the process and stop it. Every time a family wanted to adopt you, he made sure the ‘system’ wouldn’t allow it.”
Grace tried to gasp, but the air caught in her throat. “What?” The word came out as a sob, tearing at her.
“I’m sorry,” Bitsy said, reaching to put her arms around Grace. “I’m ashamed to carry his name. I’m sorry.”
For a moment, Grace couldn’t talk. All she could do was let this news wash over her while she clung to Alex’s hand. A man she’d never met—but, freakishly, admired professionally—had prevented her from being happy. He’d stolen every chance for her to have a family.
“Why?” she croaked. “Why stop an adoption?”
“He thought a family might want to really dig for your past and maybe find out too much, or even pay someone more than he had.” Jack shook his head. “He lived in fear that someone would find out the truth and come after those millions. He lived in fear that you would.”
“Corrupt son of a bitch,” Alex muttered, his voice thick with contempt.
“He was,” Jack agreed coolly.
“But not Grandmama Dee,” Bitsy added. “She had no spine, she couldn’t stand up to him, but she did follow you your whole life. She knew everywhere you lived and when you moved. She knew everything, without telling her husband or us.”
Grace leaned back with this new assault of information. “She…followed me?”
“She tracked you, using PIs and such. She kept an eye on the Hunnicutts, too. When Bib died, she secretly contacted Bonnie to tell her where you were so she could find you and be your family.”
“Why did she wait so long to contact Bonnie?”
“Fear of being caught by her husband. But her sources told her that Bib wasn’t the only one seeing an oncologist regularly. She suspected Bonnie was sick, and guilt ate away at her, so she reached out.”
“But Bonnie didn’t reach out to me,” Grace said, trying not to let this new offense hurt too much.
“I have the letters between them,” Bitsy said. “You’ll understand when you read them. Bonnie knew she only had a few months to live. After putting Bib through chemo and all the treatments, she opted to follow him without a fight. But she didn’t want you to go through the pain of finding her, then losing her right away.”
“And this winery?”
“Grandmama Dee told her you had been looking at wineries—she knew because of the PIs. So that’s why Bonnie contacted an attorney and arranged for you to buy this one for a song.”
With every new piece of the puzzle that fell into place, Grace grew more and more stunned by the picture that emerged. “My whole life, I’ve been…manipulated,” she whispered. “And watched. And changed. And broken.”
“Grace, please.” Bitsy grabbed her arm. “We just found out, or you would have never been put through this! We have a sister! Can you imagine how we felt?”
“Yes,” she whispered, searching the other woman’s face and seeing…family. “I can imagine.” She bit her lip, looking at Jack. “I didn’t dream you,” she marveled. “All these years. Bitsy and Jack. I thought…I made you up. Like imaginary friends.”
“Nope, we’re real,” Bitsy said with a huge smile, but Jack’s expression was far more serious.
“Grace,” he said. “I know this has to be…shocking. Appalling, even. We’re appalled at our grandfather. All we want to do is make it up to you.”
Alex snorted softly. “Not sure you can give the woman back the twenty-five years she spent wondering who she was and why no one wanted her.”
“I realize that,” Jack said, looking at him. “But we mean to try.”
Bitsy leaned forward. “Come to California, Gracie,” she said. “Live near us, with us. I run the day-to-day operations of Carlson Woods, and Jack is now the CEO. You have a degree in oenology, and that qualifies you as our head vintner. Grandmama Dee told me how smart you are and how young you were when you graduated.”
Grace’s stomach took an unexpected turn that this virtual stranger knew so much about her.
“You want me in California to help run one of the largest wineries in the world?”
Bitsy nodded, beaming at her. “We are fully prepared to divide the company into three pieces, since Jack and I are in line to split everything fifty-fifty. You are one-third of the Carlson heirs.”
She looked from one to the other, one more shock wave going through her. “Divide it? You’d do that?”
“For our sister?” she exclaimed. “We couldn’t spend that much money in our lives if we tried, and we don’t want to. It’s yours.”
“But you’ll have families of your own,” Grace said. “If you don’t already.”
“We don’t,” Jack told her. “But you had a family, Gracie, and it was taken from you. You have every right to sue us and smear us and make JJ Carlson look like the demon he was. But we’re not doing this to protect the brand,” he added quickly. “We’ve talked about it for three weeks. Libby—er, Bitsy—and I want you, Gracie. We want the big sister who was taken from us.”
Bitsy sidled up closer, practically draping herself on Grace. “I love you already,” she said. “You look like all the pictures I have of our mom. Your mom. You look just like her, and I…” She blinked teary eyes. “I never want to spend another day without you as part of my life. We can be close for the rest of our lives, working together, living in Napa, traveling, building the business, and, eventually, having families that love each other. Wouldn’t you like that, Gracie? Wouldn’t you?”
She opened her mouth to say, Are you kidding? but glanced at Alex, and suddenly that answer wouldn’t sound quite right.
“California…” She whispered the word and saw him nod imperceptibly.
“It’s far, Gracie.”
“Then you come, too,” Bitsy insisted. “Are you guys serious? Been together long? Grandmama Dee didn’t know about a boyfriend, so I guess she didn’t know everything.”
“She didn’t know anything,” Grace said quietly, pushing up because she just couldn’t sit there and have her world turned upside down and inside out for one more minute. “She didn’t know how many nights I cried because I didn’t even know who I was. She didn’t know what it felt like when yet another mother or father looked at me and told me that going away was ‘for the best.’ She didn’t know how I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered two little babies that I knew were connected to me but couldn’t find.”
“And now we’re here,” Bitsy whispered, looking up as tears started to roll down her cheeks. “Trying to make up for the sins of our grandfather. Please, Grace. Jack and I want to make it up to you in some way.”
Grace just stared at her, her entire being ripped in half. “I need to think,” she whispered. “I need some air. Some time. Excuse me.”
Without waiting for any of them to say a word, she took off, darting down the stairs and breaking into a run toward the vineyard. The air rushed over her ears, quieting the volcano of emotions that threatened to send her to the ground, weeping for everything she’d lost and, suddenly, inexplicably, found.
“Grace! Gracie!” At the sound of Alex’s voice, she slowed her step, but didn’t stop, because facing him would cause just as much turmoil. He’d confessed his feelings, bared his soul, and brought her to the brink of a feeling she hadn’t even thought possible.
But…her siblings were h
ere. They wanted her. They ached for her, too.
“Grace, please.”
The pain in his voice broke her stride, and her heart. Catching her breath, Grace stopped and turned, watching Alex close the space between them with long strides.
“Not alone,” he said, barely huffing from the run. “You aren’t going to spend one minute of this storm alone.”
“Oh, Alex.” Her chest cracked with gratitude as he took her in his arms, pulling her so close she could feel their hearts beat in wild and perfect rhythm. “I can’t even process what they just told me. In my craziest imaginings, it was nothing, nothing like this.”
He held her tight, stroking her back, soothing her with a calming hush.
“It’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever heard,” he said. “I’m so furious. I can’t even imagine how mad you are.”
Mad? Maybe. Sad and deeply disappointed, too. She leaned back to look him in the eyes. “I can’t change the past, Alex.”
“But you can change the future.” He couldn’t hide the hurt, or fear, in his voice. Changing the future meant leaving here, starting a life three thousand miles away, and throwing herself into a brand-new family.
“What should I do?” she asked on a broken breath.
“Not make a decision standing out here, that’s for sure.” He grazed his thumb over her cheek. “You keep talking to them. You find out your history, your family, your roots. Don’t turn them away, don’t make any rash decisions, and don’t worry about me.”
“How could I not? What you said in the cottage when you—”
“Shhh.” He put a finger over her lips. “I’m not in this equation.”
“Of course you are.” She tightened her grip on his arms. “I feel the same way you do. You said you want to be mine. You want to plan things together…to…” She shook her head. “I can’t remember your exact words.”
“That’s because you’ve had another, far more memorable, conversation since then.”
“Not more memorable,” she said. “Alex, I really care about you.”
He nodded, shushing her again. “You need to concentrate on them now, Gracie. Your brother and sister. They’re genuine. They’re real. And they are the family you’ve wanted for years. And…wow.” He gave a dry laugh. “They’re offering you a life that has to be something you’ve dreamed of. One of the biggest wineries in the world? The best job in the world for you, and a fortune to boot.”
Three Dog Night (The Dogmothers Book 2) Page 24