Chapter 6
Tammy
Aunt Denise opened the door with a robe tied crooked and a pistol in her hand.
"Lord, Tammy. You could have called."
Rico, standing beside me on the porch, looked at the gun and then at me.
"Family trait?"
"Mind your business," I said.
Aunt Denise lowered the pistol when she saw my face. Something in her expression shifted before I said a word.
She knew.
Maybe not all of it.
Enough.
"Where are Mama's boxes?" I asked.
Aunt Denise stepped back from the door.
"Garage."
That easy.
No confusion. No why. No pretending.
The garage smelled like cardboard, dust, and peppermint oil. My mother used to put peppermint oil on cotton balls to keep mice away. I had forgotten that until the smell hit me.
Then I wanted to sit down.
I didn't.
Rico stayed near the door, watching the driveway, while Aunt Denise pulled down three plastic bins labeled Evelyn.
"Your mama told me if anybody ever came asking about a girl, I was to say I didn't know a thing," she said.
I opened the first bin. "What girl?"
Aunt Denise looked at me like she was sorry before the answer came.
"You."
My hands stopped.
She sat on an old cooler. "Evelyn showed up with you when you were little. Blood on her sleeve. Not hers, she said. She told me your name was Tammy Brooks and anybody saying different was lying. I didn't ask questions because sometimes questions get people killed."
I thought about my mother braiding my hair. About her singing in the kitchen. About every time she looked at me too long and I thought she was being sentimental.
She had been remembering what it cost to keep me.
In the second bin, under church programs and old tax folders, I found a sealed envelope.
For Tammy, when no one can protect the truth anymore.
My mother's handwriting.
I opened it slowly.
Inside was the other half of the birth certificate and a letter.
Savannah Elaine Vega.
That was the full name.
Mine.
I read the letter standing in my aunt's garage while Rico watched me like he was afraid I might vanish.
My sweet girl,
Savannah was your mother by blood. I was your mother by choice. Your name was changed to protect you. If Elaine ever comes back, run first and ask questions later. And if a King man finds you, make sure he is not like his father.
You were never unwanted. You were wanted too much by the wrong people and loved enough by the right ones to be hidden.
Forgive me if you can. Live even if you can't.
Mama.
The paper blurred.
I did not fall.
Rico took one step toward me, then stopped.
"Tammy."
I looked at him.
His face had broken open in a way I did not know what to do with.
"Savannah was my sister," he said.
"I know."
"Then you might be-"
"Don't."
He closed his mouth.
I held the letter against my chest. "I can't be what everybody needs me to be tonight."
His voice softened. "I'm not asking you to."
"Everybody is. Bishop. Elaine. Karl's letter. That room. This paper."
"What are you asking for?" Rico said.
I looked down at the name Savannah Elaine Vega.
Then at the letter signed Mama by the woman who raised me.
"I am asking everybody to remember that my name is Tammy."
Rico nodded.
"Your name is Tammy."
My phone rang.
Damian.
I answered fast. "Tell me you found Maya."
Gunfire cracked through the line.
Then Damian's voice, rough and close. "Tammy, stay where you are."
The line cut.
I looked at Rico.
He already had his keys out.
I loved Damian King.
And I was not about to let him die without me.