Page 77 of Leave It to Us
Clutching her younger sister’s fingers between her own, Lana said, “She didn’t hate you, Tami.”
“I couldn’t tell,” Tami said with tears forming. “I mean, I could never do anything right in her eyes. No matter how hard I tried.”
“None of us could,” Lana told her. “That wasn’t just you.”
“So we’re going with the idea that Daddy didn’t know about this child until she was, what? Five or six years old? Then he finds out and still ignores her and his responsibilities?” Yvonne asked. “And on topof that, our mother learns about his infidelity and this outside baby—then, instead of leaving him, she has her baby and prolongs the inevitable for another year before she’s finally had enough? Then everybody just goes on with their life after the divorce as if all of this is normal?”
Lana shook her head. “But wasn’t it, though?” she asked. “I mean, remember we went to Aunt Esterene’s funeral when you were in high school, and in the obituary, there were two mothers listed?”
Yvonne nodded. “And Mama explained to us that Aunt Gail had raised Aunt Esterene as her daughter but that Aunt Mabel was really her mother, and she’d given her sister her baby because she’d already had six kids and couldn’t afford to raise any more.”
“Right,” Lana said. She’d been in middle school then, but she recalled being flabbergasted by that for weeks after the funeral.
“All I knew was that Aunt Esterene used to bake the best yeast rolls,” Tami said. “So I cried my little eyes out at that funeral.”
Lana grinned. “Yeah, you did. Then you ate so many yeast rolls at the repast that you got a stomachache, and we had to take you upstairs and stay in Aunt Gail’s bedroom with you in case you needed to throw up.”
They all grinned at that but then went silent again.
“She said she doesn’t want the house,” Tami said.
“Good, because she can’t have it,” Yvonne declared. “It’s already in our names; she would have to take us to court to lay any claim to it. Then I’d request a DNA test, and this could go on and on.”
Lana nodded. “You’re right.”
“Maybe she really did just want us to know,” Tami said. “And now we do.”
“And now we do,” Lana replied.
“I told her we’d meet her at her father’s house—well, Mr.Cab’s house—today at noon,” Tami continued.
“You did what?” Yvonne spoke in that dangerously low tone that sounded just like Mama’s.
Tami pursed her lips. “There’s no running from this, Yvonne. Just because you got up and walked out of the room last night didn’t mean we didn’t wake up this morning with a new sister.”
“I didn’t wake up with anything,” Yvonne snapped.
“And denial doesn’t make it go away either,” Tami continued. “So I decided last night—without the two of you—that the three of us would go over to Mr.Cab’s house, where we can all sit down and talk about this.”
“Talk about what, Tami? Because you can’t make those decisions for me.”
Lana held up a hand to intervene. “I don’t think the intention was to make decisions for us,” she said. “It was to present a united front—you know, like we always try to do, regardless of our disagreements behind closed doors. If she’s really our sister, don’t you think we all deserve to know the truth?”
Yvonne ran her hands down her hair and closed her eyes. She breathed slowly, as if she were trying to relax. Tami tossed a knowing look in Lana’s direction, and Lana shrugged.
“We all know how big this is, Yvonne. Just like we all know it’s not going to go away just because we don’t want to face it. Don’t you think that’s what Daddy and Mama—and hell, even Grandma Betty—tried to do all these years? And look, Sallie still waltzed in here last night, finally being the one bold enough to just release the secret.”
It was another few seconds before Yvonne opened her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go and I’ll listen. But don’t expect anything else from me. Don’t expect me to open my arms and heart to this woman, who has barely spoken a kind word to us since we’ve been here.”
“She wasn’t unkind last night,” Tami said, and Lana nudged her. “What? She wasn’t.”
Yvonne rolled her eyes. “I’ll be ready at noon,” she said before, once again, leaving her sisters alone in the kitchen.
Chapter 27
YVONNE
Cabell “Cab” Henderson was a single man in his midseventies. Yvonne knew his age after Tami’s rundown of her solo conversation with Sallie the night before. His house was medium size in comparison to the other older homes on the island. It had white siding and a sloped metal roof, a black door and matching window shutters. The house was situated between two huge old oak trees that were partially covered in Spanish moss.
