Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
She turned over and snuggled closer to Zale instead of turning away from him the way she normally did. She would talk to Mitzi about her memories of Avril and then let Zale know what she’d remembered. It was such a relief to finally get to the bottom of her fears.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Four thirty in the morning came early, especially since Vienna had spent most of the night making love with Zale. The Airbnb they’d rented was about twenty minutes from Red Rock because they planned to climb and bike as well as visit the coffee shops. Unfortunately, that put them nearly an hour from the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino, where they were to check in with their guides, who would shuttle them in vans to the launch area with the others coming on the kayak trip on the Colorado River.
The guide company had all the necessary permits and was responsible for checking their IDs to take them out to the Hoover Dam. Vienna thought it was so cool that on part of the trip, one shore of the river would be in Arizona and one side Nevada and yet they would be traveling on the Colorado River toward Lake Mead.
Vienna waited until they were on the road before she brought up her nightmare. These were her best friends. “I honestly didn’t remember my birth mother, although I should have. It’s weird how I remember everything else so easily, yet it’s almost as if I blocked her out. Her name was Avril, and I didn’t even remember that.”
“It’s possible the memories of losing her were too painful,” Harlow suggested.
“Maybe,” Vienna mused. “I don’t know. But I even suppressed the way she would tell me men aren’t to be trusted and that they are liars. She would whisper that to me every time she held me. It’s like a subconscious suggestion I can’t seem to overcome. I can accept Zale’s work and his being gone for long periods of time, but I have this doubt that he’ll stay with me, that what he says is real. These men are so good at saying or doing whatever they need to in order to get what they want if they’re on a mission.”
“But you aren’t a mission,” Stella pointed out.
Vienna chewed on the side of her lip for a minute and then rubbed at her eyebrow to smooth her frown away. “I wish Mitzi had talked to me about Avril. It would have made it so much easier for me to understand things. I don’t know why she didn’t.” Her eyes met Raine’s. “I know you had to do background checks on all of us. Do you have any information on Avril and Mitzi? Anything at all?”
Raine looked uncomfortable. “Mitzi was friends with Avril. They grew up together. I don’t know a lot, honestly, which is surprising, although I’m working on it. Avril apparently came to Mitzi sick and pregnant and Mitzi took her in. You said you remembered Avril saying the father had signed away his rights, allowing Mitzi to formally adopt you. That wasn’t true. The father hadn’t signed his rights away. Avril lied to Mitzi and then lied to the authorities and said she didn’t know who the father was when she turned you over to Mitzi to be raised after her death.”
Vienna realized at once the mess Mitzi would have found herself in. It wouldn’t have been so easy for a single woman, especially a lesbian, to adopt a child. She would have to try to track down the father and then free her of his parental rights in court if he continued to refuse to give up his rights to her.
“It’s possible your father doesn’t know you even exist,” Zahra ventured.
“Maybe,” Vienna conceded. She went over her birth mother’s voice when she spoke to Mitzi about the man whom she’d loved—the one who’d wanted her to have an abortion. She didn’t sound as if she were lying. She sounded completely brokenhearted. Shattered. “I think Avril did tell him. I believe he was focused on his career and told her to have an abortion. She refused and went to Mitzi. Why she made up the rest about signing away his rights, I don’t know, but I can understand why Mitzi wouldn’t want to open that can of worms when she realized Avril had lied.”
Harlow nodded in agreement. “Mitzi would have been so afraid of losing you. She had the legal right to raise you and that had to be good enough, even though she was never able to formally adopt you.”
“How old was I when Avril died?” Vienna asked Raine.
“Avril died when you were five. The cancer had slowly spread through her body and Mitzi took care of her mostly at home, with the help of friends who were nurses. Mitzi had a circle of friends in her community who were very supportive of her throughout Avril’s illness, and they helped her care for her—and you.”