Page 70 of Home Body
“You’re welcome.” She backed away to let him leave.
“Dalia, is there anything I can do for you today to help with telling your mom about Llayne O’Brien?”
“No. It’s something I have to do myself. But thank you for caring. Now, go save the town.”
“Will do.”
Dalia stood and watched until the last speck of dust his truck riled up settled onto the road. When she turned back to the house, the gravity of the conversation she must have with her mama hit her. She’d do anything to spare that woman any consternation. But she might not be able to do that.
As soon as she entered the kitchen again, the wall phone rang. Kenyon had called to tell her what they suspected was true. Dalia thanked her and hung up, her heart heavy with the task ahead.
“Rose, love, I’m thinking Rover wants to go check on his sheep,” she said.
“Yeah, I think so, too.” Finished with her breakfast, Rose hopped off her chair and charged outside with her best friend.
Dalia sat down, pushed her uneaten plate away, and said, “Mama, I have something I need to tell you.”
Despite her food only being half eaten, Mamie pushed her plate away, too. “Yes, boo. You know you can tell me anything.”
“That was Kenyon on the phone, confirming something we discovered yesterday but weren’t sure about. It’s something we never in a million years imagined when we started out.”
Slowly, she explained the entire series of events. She told her mama about the note she’d found in the lockbox, the professor who’d helped them, the visit to Amberton and the nice folks they’d met there, and the shocking result of their meeting with Nellie Franklin.
When she explained what the felonious obstetrician and nurse had done for so long all those years ago, Mamie gasped and clapped her hand to her chest. “No! Who could do such a thing?”
“Unfortunately, it’s been done before. There was a famous case back in the thirties and forties. Same kind of scheme on an even larger scale. It was finally stopped in 1950.”
“Oh my word, I remember that. The whole country was horrified. So, boo, you’re telling me you were one of those babies?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“That means you have a mother out there who thinks her baby was stillborn?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find out who that mother is?”
“Yes.” Dalia took her mother’s hand. “But first I want you to know that no one will ever be my mother but you. No man will ever be my father but Butch. We are family and always will be.”
“Of course, love. We may not have been your birth parents, but we always considered ourselves to be your parents in our hearts and souls.”
“And mine, too. That can never be undone. I’m the luckiest girl alive to have found you to be my family.”
“Dalia, is your birth mother’s identity troubling to you?”
“No, not exactly. It’s just an unbelievable coincidence. You see, we know her.”
“And she is?”
“Kenyon’s mother, Llayne O’Brien.”
Daughter and mother clutched hands, each afraid to look away lest their deep bond be broken. Dalia slid off her chair, fell to her knees, and put her head in her mama’s lap as she’d done countless times as a child.
Mamie stroked her daughter’s hair as they quietly absorbed what this meant. The spell was only broken when Rose burst into the room shouting, “Shelda got out!”
Dalia stood up and kissed her mama’s forehead. “Back to real life.”
“Yes, boo. Life goes on.”
