Chapter 17
LEAH
"Let me get this straight," Whitney said slowly, cutting the occasional glance toward the bar. "He's your stepbrother and he's working for Connor and his dad."
"That's right," I said. "Connor thought he could take over as manager so Brooks is here, learning how to pull beer.
" He'd been busy all night, running back and forth, serving customers.
The Frosty Brew was packed full of locals and visitors.
There was barely enough room to turn around, but Brooks looked like he was loving every minute of it.
"And Brooks is one of your boyfriends now too?" Holly asked.
"We haven't talked about it, but it seems so," I said. "We're going to see how things go."
"And Josiah as well." Fiona looked impressed. "Woman, you are goals." She raised her glass to me.
"You can say that again," Holly agreed. "Where do you sign up for this program?"
We all laughed.
"I guess I got lucky," I said. "Four boyfriends and three best friends. What more could a girl want?"
Fiona opened her mouth, glanced at the other two women and closed it again.
I could guess what she was thinking. A girl could want results for the DNA test. I took in a long breath and blurted out as much about Coral Clarke as I could before I ran out of air and had to inhale.
Whitney and Holly both stared at me.
"Are you kidding me?" Whitney asked. "Of all the things I thought you might say, that wasn't even on the list."
"Me either," Holly said. She raised a hand. "You're going to have to give me a minute or two here."
"I'll take three or four," Whitney said. "Wow." She blinked a couple of times and shook her head. "You knew about this?" She said to Fiona. "You don't look surprised."
"I only found out the other day," Fiona said. "For the record, I'm still trying to process it. But I'm glad you both know now. No offence, Leah, but I hated keeping secrets from them."
"So did I." I drank a gulp of wine to steady my nerves. They still might tell me I was out of my mind. "It's a difficult conversation to bring up, you know?"
Whitney leaned over to put a hand on my forearm. "Hey, it's okay. We get it. We're not judging you for holding out on us. Right Holly?"
"Yeah. I mean, I guess so," Holly said slowly. "It still might not be true, though. You don't know for sure?"
"No," I admitted. "I don't. I felt like you should know in case it is. So I'm not dropping a bombshell on you later."
"I was just recovering from the four boyfriends part," Holly said. "I can't decide if I'm too drunk or too sober for this conversation." She ended the last word on a laugh.
"Me too." I took another gulp of wine. "I'm still trying to make sense of it all myself." If that was even possible. Some day I might look back and this would be nothing, but right now it was…everything.
"You remember some things about Aurora Hollow," Whitney said slowly. "Do you remember any of us?" She gestured around the table.
"I don't know," I said. "My earliest memory is my mother yelling at me for dropping a cupcake on the carpet." I frowned. "I couldn't figure out why she was so angry. That was in Vancouver."
"You would have been at school here for a little while," Whitney said. "Maybe in the classroom where you helped me out that day, with the art class. You don't remember that place?"
I frowned deeper and thought back, but eventually shook my head. "No, I don't. It seemed familiar, but it looked like every other classroom I've been in."
"Right," Whitney said thoughtfully. "But you might have been there long enough to be in a class photo."
I sat up higher and stared at her. "I might have." Why hadn't I thought of that? "Do you know where I could find one?"
"My mother would have some, but they're probably right in the back of the attic," Fiona said regretfully.
"We don't have any, we had a house fire," Holly said softly.
I shot her a sympathetic look and a faint smile which she responded to with a shrug.
"It was a long time ago."
"The school would have them," Whitney said. "Come on, let's go and look." She hopped down from her stool.
I stared at her. "Now?"
"You really want to wait until Monday?" She cocked her head at me. "I have keys. It's only a five minute walk now the snow has all melted again."
"I…" I was eager, but scared at the same time.
Scared of what I might see in those photos, or what I might not see.
Although, this could put the whole matter to rest tonight.
I might not need the results of the DNA test. An hour from now, I could know more about my past. Another piece of the puzzle in place.
"Let's do it," I said finally. I finished the last of my wine and followed her toward the door, waving at Connor and Riley who sat at a table with some of their friends, to let them know I was leaving.
Connor nodded and let his gaze linger on my mouth before returning to his conversation.
"I feel like a secret agent," Fiona said from behind me. "Sneaking out on a secret mission."
Holly, who was right behind her, giggled. "Super secret, sneaking out in front of all these people."
Fiona snorted. "Hey, don't ruin the moment." She was smiling at the same time. She hurried to catch up, so all four of us were walking together, in a line.
"We definitely aren't subtle," Whitney said. "All of us are too cute to be subtle."
"Amen to that," Fiona said.
"Whitney over there speaking truths," Holly agreed.
"Whitney always speaks truths," Whitney said. "Whitney is very wise."
"Whitney is talking about herself in third person," Fiona pointed out. "Some people would say that's weird."
"Some people can fuck off," Whitney laughed. "We all know how cool I am."
"Yeah, we do." Holly tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and Fiona had to grab her to stop her from falling. "I think I might be on the 'too drunk' side of things after all." She giggled.
I grinned. She'd had more to drink than I did, which was probably a good thing given we were about to enter a school.
"We're not breaking and entering, are we?" I asked.
"Nah." Whitney reached into her bag and pulled out a set of keys. Before she put one in the lock, she turned off the alarm system with a code, tapped into the screen beside the door. "See, all good, eh." She pushed the door open and stepped inside, leaving us to follow.
The whole place was quiet and dark, our footsteps echoing on the floor as we walked toward the front office.
Whitney pulled out another key and unlocked the door before flicking on the light.
"They keep them organised by years," she said. "You'd be two years below me." She stepped over to a wall of shelves, each with its own box labelled with past years. There must have been thirty years of boxes here, with room for another decade.
She pulled out one and carried it over to a table. Sliding off the lid, she set it aside and started to rummage through the contents.
"They keep all sorts of random things in here." She pulled out a yellowed flyer, announcing a school dance for the older kids in the school.
"I'm starting to feel old." Fiona squinted at the flyer before putting it back down on the table.
"Here we go, class photos. Grade five. Grade four…" Whitney put them to one side before saying, "Okay, here we go." She held up an envelope, opened one end and tipped it up, letting the photos slide out.
"It's me." Fiona caught up one and held it for us to see. She had pigtail sticking up to either side of her head and a huge grin on her face.
"Awww, so cute," Holly said. "Hey, there's a class photo." She eased it out from under the others and we all gathered around to look.
"That's me." Fiona pointed. "And that's Holly. There's Connor, hiding behind everyone else like he doesn't want to be seen."
He was adorable, with short hair and a scowl on his face. Right beside him, I recognised Riley. He was looking at something in front of him, not at the camera.
"That's Coral," Fiona said softly. She pointed at a little girl sitting right at the front, wearing a purple T-shirt with a unicorn on it. Her hair was up in a braid and she was smiling, sitting beside another girl.
"Holy shit," Whitney whispered. She looked from the photo to me and back again. "That's definitely you. Same face shape. Same hair colour. Same eye colour."
I had to agree. If I wasn't Coral Clarke, I was the spitting image of her. But there was more to it than that.
"I have photos of me at around that age and I look the same," I also whispered. "Except in those photos, I'm not smiling." This little girl looked happy. Like she had no idea what was about to happen to her.
"I think that settles it," Whitney said. She took out her phone and took a photo of the class photograph before sliding it back in the envelope and putting it back in the box.
"What do we do now?" Holly asked. "Do we tell everyone?"
"I think I'd like to wait for the DNA test to come back first," I said. "If we show people that, they might think we're reaching. Just because she looks like me doesn't mean she is me."
"I think that's a good idea," Fiona said. "Once you have proof, we can explain things to everyone. Don't worry, we've got you." She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. "Whatever happens, we'll be here for you."
I squeezed her back. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you three." Or my four boyfriends.
"Saturday nights would be a lot less interesting." Whitney slid the box back into place and turned off the light. "We should get out of here before someone comes."
"I thought you said we weren't breaking and entering," Fiona said, following the rest of us out of the office.
"We're not. That doesn't mean we should be here," Whitney said. "They don't usually like teachers sneaking around the place in the middle of the night on a Saturday." She locked the door behind us and re-engaged the security system.
"Tell them you were preparing for class on Monday," Holly said, half joking. "They'll think you're conscientious."
Whitney barked a ha. "They know me better than that. I love my job, but I wouldn't be here on a Saturday for no reason. Especially Saturday night. Especially when Morgan Hardwick is in town. Speaking of him, we should get back to the pub. He usually plays a set when he's around."
"The country singer?" I asked. He was ridiculously famous. According to the gossip pages on the Internet, he had a house around here somewhere, but I didn't realise it was in this town. Or that he performed at the pub.
"Hell yeah I do." Whitney hooked an arm through mine and another through Fiona's. Walking like that, we made our way back to the Frosty Brew, ready to have some fun, even though my head was still spinning from looking at that photograph.
There didn't seem to be much doubt now. I really was Coral Clarke.
Wasn't I?