Page 71 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“I want to be clear, Juanita, I’m off duty right now, and this is unofficial. You do not have to answer me. But…I know you had a baby twenty-eight years ago.”
She met Willow’s eyes, and to her surprise, nodded. “I did.”
“Was Vincent de Lorean the father?”
All her breath went out of her. She paced out of her garden, across her small back lawn, and sat down on the concrete steps at her back door. Then she peeled off her soil-stained gloves.
“Yes. I lied to you about that, I’m afraid. I fell hard for him when he stayed at the Inn. But then to find out he was a criminal, and I was a teenager. I was so ashamed.”
“Juanita, you were a kid. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I’d arrest him for child rape if he was still alive.”
She took a shuddering breath at the words. Then, “My mother told me he must never know about the baby, that she would never be safe from him if he did, nor would I, she said. So…I couldn’t keep her.”
Willow’s hopes had been climbing with every word of the story right up until the end. “You…couldn’t keep her?”
“My mother helped me arrange a private adoption.”
“Oh.” Crash. “And you haven’t seen her since?”
The sad look left Juanita’s eyes, and her smile then chased away the shadows that had briefly clouded them. “Oh, no, I see her all the time. I didn’t for a while, but when she was thirteen, she asked and her parents helped her find me. I’ve been to very birthday party since, and a lot of the holidays, too.”
Willow’s roller coaster ride slowed to a halt. “It sounds like a happy endin’.”
“It all worked out okay,” Juanita said. “She’s had a beautiful life.”
She looked as if she meant it. Willow said, “Do you think she’d mind you givin’ me her contact info? Even just an email?—”
“I have one of her business cards inside. You want to come in while I get it?”
“I’ll wait, out here.” She’d intruded enough. Too much. But she was glad she knew more of the story now.
As Juanita headed inside, Willow thought about her decision to give her daughter up for adoption. It seemed all three women who’d given birth to children fathered by Vincent de Lorean had given them up. And two of them had died right after.
But something was niggling at her.
She emerged from her house with a business card, and handed it to Willow. Elena Montrose, M.D.
Elena Montrose? She was Juanita’s daughter? Ethan and Jeremiah’s sister?
“I’ve met her, your daughter,” she said. “There was some vandalism at her house.”
“She told me. Some local kid brought up badly, she thinks.”
“So she’s a doctor.”
“Sí, and married to a lawyer, gracias a Dios.”
“That’s wonderful. You must be so proud.”
“Oh, I am.” She lowered her head. “Elena…she doesn’t know who her father was. It’s unfair of me not to tell her. Especially now that she’s married.”
Willow nodded. This was getting sensitive. She needed to let Jeremiah and Ethan know they had a sister.
“I agree with you that telling her the truth is the right thing to do. And…well, it’s likely to come out. I’m surprised it hasn’t already. You should be the one to tell her, Juanita, not the Quinn County grapevine. Besides, she has two half-brothers she knows nothing about.”
Juanita blinked slowly. “Can you wait to tell them about her? Give me time to tell her?”
“I don’t want to force anything on you that you’re not ready to do.”
