Chapter Thirty-nine
That same afternoon, Noah sat at the kitchen table with Winona while Val got Bonnie ready to be moved over to their new home.
He’d noticed a photograph album sitting over to one side, and while Winona went to get them coffee, he slid it over and began to look at the pictures…
his curiosity piqued to see what Raven looked like as a child.
Suddenly, his hand froze. “Winona, who’s that in the picture with you and the baby.”
“Oh, that’s Raven’s mother, Cissy. Probably one of the only pictures I have with them together.
My wayward daughter took off when Raven was ten, left her with me and disappeared with one of her loser boyfriends.
She’d been a good woman when she married Raven’s father, but after he died on the job, she went all to hell.
I tried getting through to her, but she had a destructive streak that she couldn’t shake off.
Poor baby. I never heard from her again.
When Raven followed her dad into law enforcement, I thought she might try to find her, but she refused to try. So, Cissy’s been lost to me.”
Noah listened intently before he lifted his shaking hand from the picture and turned to let Winona see the tears in his eyes.
“Because she changed her name to Rhonda Williams. Your Cissy is my mother. We lost her a few years ago to cancer. On her deathbed she called out one name before she died… Mama.”
Shocked and heartbroken, Winona sat silent while tears poured down her face. “All those years since she left, I’ve felt her loss. Then suddenly, my heart knew she’d passed. What I didn’t know was that she’d had another family.”
“Just me. I never knew about you or Raven. She refused to talk about her past. I always sensed it brought her pain, so I stopped asking. She was a single mom who worked two jobs to give me the best upbringing she could. We didn’t have much, but almost every penny she could spare from the bills, she spent on me…
so I could have a good life. I loved her dearly. ”
He suddenly turned to her. “Know what? This means you’re my nana too.”
She wiped the tears flooding over her face and smiled at him so tenderly, he felt all the pain of the last year dissipate like clouds revealing a beautiful sunrise. “Yes. And Raven is your sister.”
“That is the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time. May I call you Nana?”
“I can’t wait to hear you say it. And Josh and Ami too. What a wonderful gift to an old lady who’s been fretting all day over her daughter.”
Stiffening, Noah stared into Winona’s eyes, searching for the truth. “You too? Something about her has been gnawing at me all day also.”
Winona’s expression changed to show her worry. “You know we talk every night, but when I tried to call her a while ago, the message went straight to voice mail. That’s not like her to ignore my call. It’s been a nightly ritual since she left.”
Noah stood to pace. He rubbed both hands over his head and clutched them together on his neck.
“Can you keep Val and Bonnie here for another night? I’m thinking to head to the city.
The helicopter is back now that the repairs are finished, and I’m hoping Henry doesn’t have any plans for it tonight. ”
“You can fly a helicopter?”
“Sure. I flew the birds in the army. Oh, I never told you about my two tours in Afghanistan, did I? Don’t much like to talk about that time with most people.”
Winona smiled gently and patted his hand. ‘Looks like I’m not just most people anymore.”
He hugged her close and kissed her check gently. “Nope… and I can’t wait for us to catch up on those lost years, but I need to leave now.”
“Yes, you do. Go. And let me know she’s okay. That all this worrying is just an old woman’s imagination playing tricks.”