Page 74 of Leave It to Us
Yvonne rose slowly. “I’m going to go take care of my sister,” she said. Then she pushed the incriminating letter across the table until it was once again in front of Sallie. “I don’t know what else to say about this tonight.”
Sallie shook her head. “I don’t need you—any of you—to say anything. I just thought it was time the truth was out.”
There was a moment of silence before Yvonne gave a curt nod. Leaving Tami there to sit and stare at this woman who now claimed to be her sister.
“So your parents just stayed married even though everyone knew your father was in love with my grandmother?” Tami asked. She was determined to get more answers, even if Yvonne chose to be the immature one and run away this time.
Sallie had stared after Yvonne and Lana for a few seconds before replying. “Yes. People from that generation weren’t big on divorces. It was easier to agree to accept certain things and let go of others, I guess. My mother seemed content as long as my father continued to handle his financial responsibilities.”
While Tami’s mother had never seemed content a day in her life. “I know you understand that this is a lot for us to take in.”
Sallie’s fluffy curls moved as she nodded. “Just as tough as it was for me to find out when I did. And believe me, I don’t wish this feeling on anyone. I told myself to let it all die with Ms.Betty. But then y’all inherited this place, and instead of selling it and staying away from ’Fuskie, you came back here.” She laced her fingers together and thennervously pulled them apart. “I probably could’ve continued to keep the secret if I never had to see you. But when you showed up, it was just like all the years you’ve always come down, with everybody falling all over y’all like you were royalty, and them same people choosing to forget that I belonged in this house too.”
“You mean all the people on the island who knew?” Tami asked.
“That’s right. So many of them knew. Especially all the old folks. ’Fuskie’s too small to keep a secret like that, and nobody ever saw my mama pregnant. They knew,” Sallie said.
And for that, Tami’s heart broke for her. Because despite how horrible Freda was the majority of the time to Tami, there’d never been any doubt that she was her mother. And even for the short time she’d had Daniel in her life, he’d shown Tami all the love and devotion a father should have. She’d had her biological parents, with all their flaws, and her sisters, with their different personalities, while Sallie had a lie.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sallie stood to leave.
“I want to know the full story. Do you think your father would talk to us?”
Sallie picked up her box, hugging it close to her chest. The corner of her mouth lifted in a small smile, and for just a second, just a quick flash, that smile resembled Daniel Butler’s.
“Even though she’s dead and gone, that man would still do anything for Ms.Betty,” Sallie replied. “If her granddaughters have questions, I have no doubt he’ll answer.”
Chapter 26
LANA
“I love you too,” Lana said into the phone as she lay in bed the next morning. Isaac had called to tell her that Jimmy had been paid in full.
It was Friday, one week after Isaac had come to the island and broken into the summerhouse. After her pregnancy announcement and Yvonne’s generous offer, he’d stayed with her the remainder of the weekend and was on the first ferry to start his trip back to Boston on Monday morning. When his flight had landed, he’d called her to say that Yvonne had wired the money to their account. And Lana had found her sister in the backyard, wearing goggles and gloves and attempting to use the table saw—with Deacon supervising, of course. She’d hugged and thanked Yvonne again before leaving what she and everybody else in that house knew was a budding romance alone.
Now the debt that had been looming over her marriage was paid. In addition to that news, Isaac had also called to tell Lana that his first therapy appointment was on Tuesday. With a sigh, she dropped the phone to her bed after they ended the call and let her hand fall to her stomach.
There was a baby growing there. Her and Isaac’s baby. A smile ghosted her lips, and she closed her eyes. How long had she waited forthis day? How many times had she prayed for her and Isaac to start a family? How many times had she hoped that having a child would save their marriage?
With that last question, her eyes popped open, and she stared at the ceiling. Sunlight was already streaming through the sheer curtains at her bedroom windows, giving the room a bright, golden glow. Birds were up and chirping, and she suspected her sisters would be stirring in their own rooms as well.
Her sisters. Yvonne and Tami.
And Sallie?
Another heavy sigh followed, and she continued to rub her hand over her stomach. How could a mother just drop her child off and walk away? How could a father see his child three months out of the year and not claim her? And how the hell were they supposed to deal with this information now?
Had their father, Daniel Rutherford Butler, lied to them? Obviously, that would’ve been a lie by omission, because never once in all the years her father had been in her life had Lana ever thought to ask him if he had other children. Daddy was an English professor at the local community college, but he was there every day when she came home from preschool. And when she was in the first grade and had started learning to read, he would sit at the kitchen table and help her make letters into words. Lana was seven when they divorced, but Daddy still came to see her and her sisters two nights out of the week and took them to stay at the new house they’d helped him pick out every other weekend. The summers were his and Grandma Betty’s because that had always been their tradition, and Mama had agreed because she always worked year-round, so it was easier to have them out of her way for a few months than add the expense of summer camps to entertain them.
Sallie was a year younger than Lana and four years older than Tami. What had Sallie done all year? Did Grandma Betty check on her, make sure she was getting everything she needed the way Lana knew hergrandmother always did with them? As she grew older, she could recall Mama being so upset anytime Grandma Betty would call their house and ask her about them. She’d always yell, “They’re your son’s children too—ask him how they’re doing. You don’t have to call me.”
But Grandma Betty still called, and Mama only seemed to get angrier and angrier when she did. This was all after the divorce, after Tami had been born. After, Sallie said, Mr.Cab had told Daddy that Sallie was his child.
Her stomach roiled, and Lana hurriedly pushed the covers back, jumped out of the bed, and ran into the bathroom. Forty minutes later, her stomach had basically settled to a low threat, and she’d brushed her teeth twice, showered, and dressed for the day. She unwrapped her hair and combed it down, swiped some gloss over her lips so she didn’t look totally like the walking dead, and went downstairs to the kitchen.
She was first to arrive, which was what she’d hoped. Each morning, both her sisters came into the kitchen for coffee or orange juice and whatever pastry or quick breakfast item they had on hand. This morning, Lana wanted them to sit and have a full breakfast. She needed food in her stomach, not just something sweet and quick, and they—the three of them—needed to talk.
“Mornin’,” Yvonne said when she walked in just as Lana retrieved a box of buttermilk biscuits Mama Jo had sent via Deacon yesterday from the refrigerator.
