Chapter 13 #2
“Sí. We had dinner together. She was angry at first, but quickly forgave me for keeping such secrets. And she’s excited to meet her brothers. I told her you’d be calling tomorrow, and she was happy.” Juanita sniffled. “She was happy. Two hours ago, she was excited and happy and now…”
“We’ll be there,” she said. “I’m so sorry, Juanita. Please hold on, we’re coming.”
Willow disconnected and turned to see Jeremiah standing on the porch behind her. “Juanita?” he asked. “Would that be Juanita Lopez of the former Bluebonnet Inn?”
She nodded. “Yeah. She made me promise not to tell you until tomorrow but now—”
“Tell me what, Willow?”
Willow sighed heavily. “The eight pounds and three ounces of solid gold, that wasn’t literal,” she said. “It’s a baby weight. I knew it as soon as I read it—”
“Read it how?”
“It doesn’t matter how.”
“Orrin was in my father’s diary. I thought you weren’t gonna invade my privacy again, Willow.”
“First, I never said that, and second, this was before I never said that, and third, it was a wadded up page on the floor near the trash—right in the open, he wasn’t snooping, really, and fourth, it doesn’t matter right now.
You’re losing the storyline, Gringo. It was a baby.
You have a sister. You and Ethan have a sister. ”
He blinked, stunned, so she rushed on. “Juanita gave her up for adoption to protect her from de Lorean. She thought he never knew, but he must have, to have mentioned her in the diary.”
“There were newborn pictures in his safe deposit box,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I thought it was one of us, Ethan or I. Expected the dang box to have the gold, but—”
“She’s the gold,” Willow said. “Elena Montrose. But she’s hurt. There was an accident tonight, and she—”
“Wait, how long have you known this?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me? And now…how badly is she hurt?”
She flinched under his scrutiny. “I don’t know, but it sounded bad. Juanita said you and Ethan should come to the hospital.”
He swore and it hurt her physically. “I can’t believe you kept this from me.”
“I gave Juanita my word. She wanted time to tell Elena who her father was herself. It was only for a day.”
“Maybe her last day,” he said. “How could you do that to me, Willow?”
Her tears were streaming. “It wasn’t my intent. I couldn’t have known—”
“You should’ve told me.” There was stark, bleeding hurt behind the anger in his eyes. “You should’ve trusted me.”
He picked up his clothes and slammed into the bathroom. When he came out again, dressed, he said, “Please stay with Beans, or if you have to leave, just—”
“I got it. Go on.”
He left without saying goodbye, or looking her in the eye, or forgiving her. She sat there, her heart, soul, and body naked on the floor.
Jeremiah was wounded deep, but the urgency of the situation kept him distracted enough to wade through. He had to drive to El Paso, find a parking spot at the hospital, find the right entrance, and then look around for Juanita Lopez.
She wasn’t hard to spot, and she was there with a couple, tall and lean, nicely dressed, both Hispanic, and a thirty-something blond male who was sitting in a chair biting his nails.
“Jeremiah, thank goodness.” Juanita came to him, standing on tiptoe to hug him as if they were family now. She was four foot eleven at best.
He hugged her gently and asked, “How is she?”
“We’ve heard nothing yet,” she said, and she looked around him. “Where is Ethan? And Willow, she promised she would come.” Then, “Wait, wait, Sophia and Miguel Rodriguez, this is Jeremiah Thorne, our daughter Elena’s half-brother.”
Miguel came and shook his hand, but his wife only sent a wan smile. She was seated, and looked rather limp and shaky.
“We’re Elena’s adoptive parents,” Miguel said, then he turned to the other man, the blond one, who’d finally risen to his feet. He looked like he must be an actor. “This is her husband, Richie,” Miguel went on.
“Richard Montrose,” he said, giving a firm handshake.
Jeremiah nodded, then turned to Juanita. “Does anyone know what happened?”
“It was a hit and run,” Juanita said, a cry in her voice. “She jogs every evening, out past the county line.” She choked out the final word with a fresh flood of tears.
He swore under his breath and Ethan came around a corner with bed hair and his shirt buttoned crookedly. Something powerful moved through Jeremiah when his brother came up beside him and clapped a hand to his shoulder. “Willow called. What do we know? I heard that last bit, about the hit and run.”
Juanita said to the others, “This is the other brother, Ethan. Ethan, we haven’t heard…”
A pair of white-coated individuals arrived, a man and a woman, each with MD after the names on their badges, which were Gray and Cantrell.
“You’re Elena Montrose’s family? Asked the male, Dr. Gray, who was the color of his name.
They all said yes or Si and he spoke while the female, Dr. Cantrell, wore a look of weary patience.
“Well, she has some broken ribs, and a bruised spleen, which is our chief concern.” Dr. Gray paused there, and every eye in the place shifted to Dr. Cantrell.
She said. “We think she’s going to be okay. But we’ll keep her here tonight, watch her closely, and reassess tomorrow.”
Juanita started giving thanks in Spanish, and the couple hugged. Elena’s husband lowered his forehead into his hand.
“You can see her,” Dr. Cantrell went on. “Just two at a time, though, and since there are so many, let’s say ten minutes each. She needs rest.”
“We’ll go last,” Jeremiah said. “You folks, you go on in, see your daughter.”
Sophia, the adoptive mother, took Juanita’s hand. “Mothers first,” she said firmly. “And if we take more than ten minutes, you can deduct it from the others.”
Juanita clasped her hand and they exchanged a determined look, pasted smiles on their faces, and marched down the hall to their daughter’s room.
Ethan and Jeremiah went over by the vending machines, away from Elena’s husband and father. “Willow called me,” Ethan said. “Can you even believe this? We had a sister nearby, all this time? And we didn’t even know?”
“Apparently Elena didn’t know either. Not until last night when her mother told her. Willow’s known for I don’t know how long.”
“She only got confirmation yesterday,” Ethan said.
“And didn’t tell us.”
Ethan tipped his head to one side. “She gave Juanita a day to tell her daughter the truth about her parentage. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.”
“Would it have been reasonable if Elena had died tonight?”
Ethan frowned hard. “You’re really angry about this.”
“I am.” He took a breath, paced away, took another. “I really am.”
“You think maybe it’s about more than Willow keepin’ a secret for a day?” Ethan asked. “I’m not the therapist in the family, but—”
“I trusted her. She broke into my phone. I forgave her. She had Orrin take pics of my father’s diary. I’d forgive that, too. But then she kept my sister from me.”
A soft gasp made him turn to see Willow standing there in the hallway, only two feet away, having heard everything he’d said.
He lowered his eyes, shaking his head and walking away.
Ethan went to his cousin, hugged her, and started filling her in on the details while Jeremiah walked further down the hall to a coffee machine.
As he did, two Texas Rangers approached him, and he knew as soon as he met their eyes that they were there for him.
“Jeremiah Thorne?”
Feet tapped closer. Willow said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’m Quinn County Deputy Brand, what’s goin’ on here? What do you want with him?”
“We just have a few questions, Deputy. This happened outside your jurisdiction on a state highway. That puts it in ours. We can question him here or–”
“We’ll do it here,” she said quickly.
Jeremiah sent her a look that was meant to convey, “Oh, no, we won’t.”
“Here,” Willow repeated, letting him know this was happening. Avoiding it would make him look guilty. “There are some chairs by the window at the end of the hall, out of the way.”
The mothers returned, looking at them curiously as they went back to the waiting room. Then Elena’s adoptive father and husband went to take their turn at her bedside.
Ethan was right beside Willow, and he looked worried. The five of them, Ethan, Jeremiah, Willow, and the two rangers went to the alcove at the end of the hall with a padded window seat, but nobody sat down.
“Mr. Thorne, we need to know where you were tonight, about ninety minutes ago.”
“I don’t recall and I want an attorney,” Jeremiah said in a monotone.
“He was with me,” Willow told the rangers with an impatient look his way. “We were celebrating at the log cabin he just bought in Quinn. All night. Until the phone rang to tell us Elena was in the hospital.”
They looked at each other, looked at Jeremiah. “That right?”
He nodded but didn’t speak.
Elena’s two mothers had wandered closer, pretending to look at flyers stuck by thumbtacks into a corkboard wall.
“What made you suspect him, anyway?” Willow demanded. “Wait, don’t tell me. Anonymous tip?” She knew by the quick look they exchanged that she was right. “Male, disguising his voice resulting in a Batman-like raspy whisper?”
“How did you—?”
“Because he’s implicated Jeremiah in two other crimes we know for sure he didn’t commit. Jeremiah didn’t even know Elena existed until I told him tonight.”
At that, the cops reacted in blatant disbelief. One even rolled his eyes. “Oh, he knew, all right,” he said. “We aren’t here based on the tip alone, Deputy. Elena Montrose was contesting her birth father’s will, and Thorne was fighting it. How could he not know about her?”
“It was her?” Jeremiah asked, too shocked to maintain silence.
“That’s ridiculous.” The two mothers stopped pretending not to listen in and came closer. Sophia said, “We’d certainly know if our daughter was suing anyone.”
Juanita added, “She didn’t even know de Lorean was her birth father until I told her last night. She was shocked and shaken by the news, even angry that I’d kept it from her. She could not fake those things, not and fool me.”
Jeremiah decided maybe silence wasn’t the best option all the time after all. He said, “My lawyer did tell me someone was contesting the will. They were anonymous and I just let him handle it. He’ll verify that.”
“The lawsuit is filed in her name,” cop number two said. “Elena Montrose.”
“Well, who else could sue on behalf of Elena?” Sophia asked.
And just then, Elena’s dad and her husband came from her room and looked around at them as everyone stopped speaking.
Willow gripped the first officer’s arm and spoke low, and close to his ear.
“The Montroses had a brick thrown through their window. The husband, the only one on the scene, identified Jeremiah’s Jeep in the area when I know for a fact he was with me.
I’d love to compare his voice with those anonymous tips. ”
She said, turning to look at Richard Montrose as he stood in the hospital corridor. The cops looked at him, too, and he shifted his feet, and rubbed his forearm like it itched. His wife’s room was behind him.
“If he did this,” she said, for the rangers’ ears alone, “he nearly killed his wife, and he nearly killed me.” She reached for her handcuffs, and realized she wasn’t in uniform, so she yanked a pair from the nearest officer and strode toward Montrose.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
He turned around, all right, took off running. The two rangers looked at her, and she said, “Well? Go get him! Notify us when you do. Here.” She handed back the handcuffs, and the Rangers took off after the son of a gun.
“What in the world is going on?” Juanita asked. “What did Richard do?”
Everyone was lookin’ at Willow, like she had all he answers. She said, “I haven’t worked it all out yet—but I’m afraid he tried to kill Elena.”
Sophia pressed a hand to her chest, and her husband put his arm around her.
Juanita looked instantly furious, but she turned to Jeremiah and Ethan. “You should go see her now. I told her you were coming, and they gave her a shot for sleep, so hurry. But tell her none of this. Not yet.”
“No, she’s right,” Sophia said. “Let her have a night to heal. None of this makes sense now.”
Jeremiah and Ethan exchanged a look. Willow could see clearly that Jeremiah didn’t believe for a second that his half-sister hadn’t been involved in contesting the will.
But they both nodded in agreement, then walked down the hall with Juanita, two feet shorter, walking in between them to the correct closed door.