Chapter 9 #2
“I know. Just a few days ago I wasn’t even sure I would contact the lawyer to begin with,” he shared, “and here I am. I already feel … committed.”
“Committed,” Timber repeated, with a nod.
“Absolutely, and I think that is just the status of life for you right now. Remember that you can’t go forward until this situation is resolved in some way, no matter what that means.
You don’t want to drag around uncertainty anymore.
Just go with the flow, get your answers, and do what seems right to you.
Clearly your cousin is not your responsibility, but how would you feel if you sat back and did nothing, and something happened to her? ”
“I would feel like shit forever,” he stated.
“Which is why you have a chance before you to see it from an outsider’s perspective.
With any luck Chelsea can move on with her life, and this will be nothing, and it all comes out in the wash,” Timber suggested.
“If it doesn’t, you and I both know what life can be like out there for a single female.
” Sterling swore at that, and Timber nodded. “Exactly.”
Taking Timber’s advice to heart, Sterling hopped into the vehicle, picking a new route away from the skunks and back to the roadway, so he could head for town.
Just as he got close to town, he came upon the gas station where he stopped and filled up.
He looked at his list of places to pick things up and started to get some semblance of a route mapped out.
When Lindsey called him a little later, he said, “Hey, I’m just in town doing errands.”
“Oh good,” she replied.
“I was wondering about asking you to introduce me to Chelsea.” At her pleased cry, he added, “I’m not really ready for this, yet she may be in real trouble, and we should help her.”
“I know, and I think she really needs somebody right now.”
“Have you talked to her since?”
“No, but I couldn’t sleep last night for worrying about her. I texted her this morning to ask if she was okay, and I just got a thumbs-up, but I don’t know. It doesn’t sit well.”
“So, what will you do to get her to meet with me?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“What are your options?”
“I mean, I can call her and see if she answers this time.”
“Why don’t you do that?” he said. “In the meantime, I’ll knock out some of the stops on my list. Then maybe we can meet up somewhere.”
“Okay, but, fair warning, she may not want to meet up.”
“I know, and I don’t want to blindside her or to make her feel as if she’s been set up in any way,” he shared, “but the whole thing just doesn’t feel good.”
“No, it really doesn’t,” Lindsey agreed. “I just wish there was an easy answer to getting her to open up.”
“It depends on what happened in her world that led up to all this,” he noted. “So just go easy, give her a call, use your innate accountant’s skills, get her to trust you. Tell her that somebody wants to meet her, if she’s up for it, and maybe set up a place for coffee.”
“I can try,” she muttered doubtfully, “but I’m pretty sure she’ll ask a whole pile of questions.”
“She may, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give her answers. I’m just saying that she may not come if she knows it’s me.”
“What on earth has happened to our world that would have somebody feeling that way?”
“Well, look at her mom not wanting to talk to my lawyer,” he noted. “So I really don’t want Chelsea thinking that you’ve set her up in order to help me.”
“No, I wouldn’t want that either,” she agreed. “Leave it to me, and I’ll see how receptive she is. Then I’ll get back to you, but no guarantee that she’ll be cooperative.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Just do what you can, and, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I’m in town for the next hour or so, and, if I need to come back tomorrow or another day, I can do that too.”
He ended the call and carried on with his chores. By the time he finished all but one of the errands, he looked down at his phone but still saw no message from Lindsey. He had one more stop, and, just as he was pulling out, Lindsey texted him.
Are you up for coffee right now?
He texted her back. Yes, where? And with that location punched into his GPS, he managed to pull around into the parking lot of a small coffee shop that was on his way home. As he hopped out, Lindsey came out and met him.
“She’s not here yet.”
He nodded. “Is there any reason to expect she won’t show?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “She seemed a little perturbed.”
“Did you tell her who I was?”
“No, but I did tell her it was family.”
“So, she could be thinking it’s bad family.”
“Oh crap, that never occurred to me.” She stared at him in shock. “All I was thinking of was getting her some help.”
“We’ll see what she does,” he suggested.
Just then another vehicle drove in, and Lindsey smiled and pointed. “That’s her right there.” She walked over to where Chelsea parked, smiling at her. “Hey, glad you decided to come.”
“I’m not sure why I’m here,” she grumbled, as she hopped out, following Lindsey. She walked over toward him, and Chelsea stopped when she saw him.
He looked at her with interest and then held out his hand. “Hi, my name is Sterling.”
She nodded. “And you wanted to meet me, why?”
He gave her a lopsided grin. “I didn’t really know what family I had left, but apparently you are one of them.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how you figure that,” she said, with half a laugh. “As far as I know, I don’t have any family—not any that I want to be around.”
“My mother was Pamela,” he replied, “and your mother is my aunt.”
She froze as she stared at him. “Shit.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, you heard me right.”
She asked, “Have you been in contact with my mom at all?”
“I haven’t, but my lawyer has,” he replied, with a nod.
“Then Lindsey told me about meeting you, and she’s been telling me since I met her that I look like your family.
I was dumped into foster care when I was eight, after my grandfather passed, not long after my mom died,” he shared.
“So I didn’t really have any further connection with the family.
And, if somebody could tell me what really happened to my grandpa, I would appreciate that. I’ve heard conflicting things.”
Chelsea continued to stare at him.
He sighed. “My mother and my grandpa were my whole life back then,” he shared.
“I don’t know what happened. My mother died.
I stayed with him, then suddenly he died.
It was the foster home family who told me what happened to him.
I had no idea. I was taken from school that day and my life was forever changed again. ”
“He’s alive,” Chelsea stated.
Sterling stared at her, then at Lindsey. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” Chelsea confirmed. “He’s in a home, and I’m not sure what his mental capacity is right now.
I mean, I spent a fair bit of time with him over the years, and he was fine, but he didn’t get along well with my mother.
As a matter of fact, they had lots of pretty ugly fights,” she admitted.
“So I’m not sure how he would even receive you at this stage.
Sorry, but I’ve got to tell you, we all thought you were dead, including him. ”
He shook his head. “No way your mother thought I was dead,” he stated, “because she signed the papers putting me into foster care—at the age of eight.”
Chelsea made an odd sound and stared at him in horror.
He nodded. “And, yes, I have that documentation, so Aunt Penny knows perfectly well where I ended up. She took over my family home and property. She took my grandpa away from me. She took my life away from me,” he recounted, trying hard to keep the bitterness out.
“Nothing quite like spending a lifetime in foster care to realize who is worth having in your life or not. I’m sorry for springing this on you, and I certainly don’t want you to feel tricked into being here,” he explained, “but, as far as I know, we’re cousins.
Regardless, no pressure, and I’ll understand if you want nothing to do with me.
However, if you are in trouble, I would like to help.
” With that, he shrugged awkwardly, knowing that family, being what it was, he might not even be welcome in her life.
“Good Lord,” Chelsea muttered. She pushed the hair off her face as she continued to stare at him.
“You seem surprised.”
“I was not aware of your existence, … although, now that I think about it, I’m not terribly surprised.
I wasn’t aware that you were alive any more than I was aware that that property—” Then she stopped abruptly.
“Oh shit, so that’s what’s going on. You’re making a claim on the property, aren’t you? ”
“It was my mother’s, and it was supposed to be mine,” he stated in a low voice. “And, according to my lawyer, it may still be in my name.”
Her jaw dropped at that. “What?” she shrieked. He nodded. “Oh my God.” She continued to stare at him, not knowing what to say. She just kept shaking her head.
Lindsey felt a bit like a referee, with two good but confused people walking on eggshells around each other. She wasn’t sure how to make it any easier on them but knew that Chelsea had been in for quite a shock. At least Sterling had had some time to assimilate this new information.
Lindsey then took control of the conversation. “Come on. Let’s go inside and grab some coffee,” she suggested. “Obviously this has been a bit of a shock and can’t be easy for either of you.”
“Ya think?” Chelsea muttered. “Did you know he was my cousin?”
“Not at first,” Lindsey said. “I kept thinking he looked familiar somehow and finally realized that he looked an awful lot like your family. I used to shop at the organic farm you guys had.”
“Yeah.” Chelsea nodded. “Are you suggesting he looks like me?”
“Are you kidding? Look at him. And then when he mentioned that he used to have family here, I began to suspect that you could be related somehow.”
“Where’s Granddad at?” Sterling asked abruptly.
“Mom put him in a home against his wishes a while back,” Chelsea replied.
“It was the start of the falling out between Mom and me,” she whispered, her voice getting faint as they walked inside the restaurant.
“I mean, what are you supposed to do when your mom does shit you don’t agree with, and you don’t have any ability to fight her over it, much less stop her?
” she asked. She pointed out a table in the far corner, away from everybody. “Let’s go over there.”