Chapter 28
Addie leaned over the kitchen counter and studied the old photo. The tiny size of the baby. The grief on Jules’s face. She’d wanted to call Jules when they’d found the photo yesterday and ask her about it, but Noah wanted Jesse to look into it first.
She lifted her hot chocolate and sipped the warm liquid before glancing toward the hallway. Noah was in the shower. He’d tried to get into her shower, but she’d all but pushed him out. They needed to get to the bottom of this Jules stuff today—now.
Her phone vibrated with a text.
Cass: Hey. I just finished another therapy session, and I was wondering if I could come over and talk to you about the other day? Toby encouraged me to apologize in person.
Her brows lifted. Well, Toby may not have had an effect on Noah, but he seemed to be doing wonders for Cass.
If she was home by herself, she would have said no, but since Noah was here…
Addie: Sure. Stop over whenever you’re free.
She texted Cass Noah’s address, then her attention shifted back to the old photo. Why was Jules so sad? Did something happen to her baby? Is that why Jesse’s background check hadn’t found a child?
Regardless of why Jules looked sad in the photo, Addie was upset that the thing had gotten so damaged in the weather. The photo was obviously old and valuable. And if Jules didn’t have a digital copy, it made it irreplaceable.
Hang on, was it dated? Her parents always dated photos.
She turned it over.
No date. She was about to turn it back over when her thumb ran over a light indent in the paper. She paused before running her finger over the same place again.
Something had been written there. Maybe the rain had washed it away.
She needed a pencil.
She pulled open Noah’s junk drawer and started rummaging through it. Pens. Scissors. A ball of rubber bands in a knot. Her gaze landed on a lead pencil.
Gotcha.
She returned to the photo and gently shaded over the indentations.
It was a name…Alison. Then numbers. No, not numbers—a date.
Two, slash, four, slash…
She gasped at the last number.
The pencil dropped from her fingers, and she took a big step back, her hip hitting the counter behind her.
“Hey, I’m still waiting for Jesse’s call.”
She jumped at Noah’s voice and looked up to see him walking into the kitchen.
“She might have put the baby up for adoption,” he continued. “I can’t think of any other reason she’d have that photo and would have told you that she still has a daughter, when Jesse’s check came up with nothing.”
Adoption…the word made another rock drop in her belly.
Noah stopped in front of her, finally studying her face. He frowned. “What’s wrong?” He cupped her cheek, concern darkening his eyes.
“There was a date on the back of the photo. Noah…it’s my birth date.”
He glanced at the photo.
“There was also a name,” she continued. “Alison. And a few months ago, Jules called me Alison by accident.”
Noah’s eyes flared. “And you were adopted.”
The air suddenly felt thick in her lungs. “Do you think—”
“I think we need to find out what the hell is going on.”
Addie looked at the back of the photo. At her birth date. At a name that perhaps had been meant for her.
“Addie.” The softness of Noah’s voice combined with the warmth of his hand on her cheek had her looking back at him. “Are you okay?”
“I never looked into my birth mother because I never felt the need. I love my parents. I had a great childhood. If this is true, why wouldn’t Jules tell me?”
“We don’t know anything yet. I’m going to call Jesse and get him to organize a meeting with her. We’ll all be there. Okay?”
She nodded quickly, but a numbness had settled deep into her bones. Was Jules her birth mother? If she was, why come here, form a relationship with her, and not tell her? And was she involved in what was going on? None of it made sense.
“Addie—”
“Go. Call Jesse. I’ll wait here.” She needed a second alone to process everything.
Maybe he saw that on her face, because he nodded before kissing her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
The second he was gone, Addie lifted the photo again. There was a shake in her fingers now, and it took her a moment to turn the picture back over. And the second she saw it again, unexpected tears blurred her vision.
The photo looked different now. Jules looked different.
Addie had always felt so grateful to her birth mother for choosing her parents to adopt her. And because of that, her reasons for giving her up had never really mattered before. But now? Looking into Jules’s eyes? She suddenly wanted to know everything.
If it was true, it explained the instant connection. The motherly feel, like they were old friends.
A text came through on her phone, and she had to blink tears away to unblur the words.
Cass: Hey. Just coming to the door now. I’ll be holding brownies otherwise I’d knock.
Quickly, she scrubbed at the tears that fell from her eyes. Her head was a mess, and she barely processed what she was doing as she left the photo on the counter and moved to the door to find Cass approaching the other side.
“Hi.” She stopped at the door, a glass dish of brownies in her hands. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You’ve just caught me at a crappy time.”
“Oh. Is Noah here?”
“Yeah, he’s in the bedroom on the phone. Is it okay if we rain check?” Jules took up every inch of brain power she had. Addie needed to call her. Talk to her. Find out what the hell was going on. And until she did, she couldn’t focus on anything else.
“Oh. Okay. Um, is it all right if I use your bathroom though? I left Toby’s office so quickly I didn’t think to make a bathroom stop.”
“Sure. Of course.” She turned…
And that’s when she thought about the brownies.
If Cass had only decided to come here after her therapy appointment, how did she already have something baked?
She started to turn back, but something hard suddenly slammed into her head. Arms wrapped around her waist, catching her before she hit the floor, as her world turned black.
“She was adopted.”
There was a pause over the line before Jesse spoke. “Who?”
“Addie. She was adopted. And on the back of that photo, we found a date and a name… Jesse, the date is the day Addie was born, and the name was Alison, something that Jules has called Addie before.”
Jesse cursed. “That matches.”
“Matches what?”
“I was just about to call you. We found hospital admission papers. Twenty-two years ago, Jules Faber had a baby girl.”
“What happened?”
“At the time, she was suffering from significant mental health issues, the main one being schizophrenia. It was so severe that she’d been admitted into institutionalized mental health facilities three times before giving birth.
Her medical notes say that on day two in the hospital, she had a delusion and almost killed the baby.
I’ll save you the details, but if nurses had been a second later, the baby wouldn’t have lived. ”
Jesus Christ. “So she gave the baby up for adoption?”
“Yeah.”
“Now Jules has found Addie. And it looks like maybe she’s having more episodes.”
The rustle of movement sounded. “I’m going to her place now.”
“When it’s safe to do so, Addie will want to talk to her.”
“I’ll keep you updated.”
Noah hung up, fingers tight around the cell. He ran his fingers through his hair, giving Addie a few more seconds alone, knowing she needed some time to process what she’d learned.
Why? Why hadn’t Jules just been honest when she’d met Addie? And how was she involved in everything that was going on?
He took a breath before stepping out into the hall.
A cool breeze brushed over his face before he saw the open front door.
The fuck?
He sprinted forward, only to stop at the drops of blood on the wooden floorboards. He followed the drops outside. Addie wasn’t there. No one was.
No. “Addie?”
Nothing. Fuck!
Fear clawed at his chest, helplessness choking him.
He ran outside, following more drops of blood right to the empty street before grabbing at his hair. Gone. She was gone.
He pulled out his phone again. Jesse answered on the first ring. “Noah—”
“She’s gone.”
“What?”
“The door was open when I got off the phone, and now she isn’t here, Jesse. Addie’s gone! We need to find Jules, now.”