Part 25 (1/2)

Beth Ann Wolcott, the woman who had adopted her and cared for her for twenty-five years, was also the woman who had abandoned her twenty-nine years ago.

Destiny didn't have three mothers. She only had two.

Destiny looked ill. Her mother looked ill. I couldn't see myself, but I'm sure I looked ill, too a” I felt sick enough. I'm surprised I didn't faint. I think it's a testament to my coping ability that I managed to stay on my feet.

After what seemed like hours, but probably was only seconds, we all started speaking at once.

”Kris, this can't be!” Destiny said in a voice that absolutely broke my heart.

”I'm so sorry, Destiny.”

”Destiny, I'd like you to meet Kristin Ashe, a Jehovah's Witness who stopped by a”” her mother started to say.

And then it dawned on her that Destiny and I already knew each other. ”But how do you two know each other? Have you met?”

”G.o.d, no, Kris, G.o.d no!”

”Destiny, I'm sorry!”

After much jostling, I finally managed to get in the door, past her protective mother. I took Destiny in my arms and held her tight. Without sound, she was sobbing. I could feel every emotion in her body.

Over her shoulder, I said to Beth Ann Wolcott, aka Liz Greaves, that Destiny was the one who had hired me.

At that, Destiny's mother fainted. She managed to get herself into the living room and onto a sofa before she actually pa.s.sed out, which was fortunate, because I was in no position to offer her a.s.sistance. I was too busy propping up Destiny.

As soon as it seemed safe to walk, I helped Destiny into the living room and put her on the sofa next to her mother, then I went in search of the kitchen. When I found it, I located two gla.s.ses, filled them with water, and brought them into the living room. I gave Destiny hers and then tried to revive her mother.

”Destiny is my real daughter?” were the first words she spoke when she woke up, and they were spoken more from a place of horror than joy.

”She is. The Kenwoods were the couple who adopted her from you, and as you know, they died in a car crash four years later.”

”I never knew their name,” she gasped.

”I'm sorry for what you've gone through,” I said and I was.

I didn't like Liz Greaves. From the minute Destiny described her, I disliked her for her overbearing control and her inability to love Destiny. But Beth Ann Wolcott, that was a different story. She had made the choice to give up her child, but what a choice! When I was young, I'd thought there were good choices and bad choices. As I grew older, I came to realize that many of life's choices were between a bad option and one that was worse. That was the sort of choice Beth Ann had faced.

No wonder she was unable to love Destiny.

”I don't know what to call you,” I said, which may have been a stupid thing to say under the circ.u.mstances, but it was all that came to mind. Liz? Mrs. Greaves? Beth Ann? Ms. Wolcott? What would it be?

”Liz. My formal name is Elizabeth Ann. Beth Ann's a nickname my family used. Beth Ann died the night it happened.”

She never said what ”it” was, but I knew she was referring to the rape. Destiny probably thought she was referring to the night she had to give up her daughter.

Destiny was lying in a fetal position on the couch, her body turned away from her mother, not saying a word.

”I'm so sorry, Destiny,” her mother said and reached to touch her daughter's legs, but Destiny pulled away from her.

Wiping at the tears streaming down her face, Liz Greaves turned to me but clearly directed her words to Destiny.

”I thought this would be the happiest day of my life. I never thought I'd see my daughter again. It was especially painful for me when you started looking for your real mother, Destiny. I felt worse than ever, very sorry for myself. I was jealous of you. I've always wanted to look for my daughter, from the day I gave her, gave you, away, but I knew I never could. When Sister Frances called, I thought it was a miracle... and now this!”

Neither mother nor daughter seemed happy to have found each other, and I can't say I was thrilled that I was the one who had made all this possible.

Without a word to me or her mother, Destiny got up and left the room. I started to follow her, but her words and the coldness in her tone stopped me.

”Don't come, Kris. I want to be alone.”

I sat down, or more like fell down, on the part of the couch she'd just vacated, not knowing what to do. Some people say they want to be alone when in fact they really need and want someone to be with them. Other people say they want to be alone and that's exactly what they mean. I wasn't sure which kind of person Destiny was, so I sought her mom's opinion.

”Should I follow her?”

”She's too stubborn. She always has been,” her mother said with a trace of disdain.

”I don't think she should be alone right now. Maybe I should go after her.”

”Give her a few minutes head start, that's what her father and I used to do, then follow her. I know exactly where she's going,” she sniffled.

”Where?”

”There's a park a few blocks from here. When she was little and she ran away from home, which was quite often, we always found her at the park.”

”Could you give me directions.”

Liz Greaves gave me directions but then wouldn't let me leave.

”I wanted to keep her you know, but my family wouldn't permit it.”

”Yes, Fran Green told me that,” I said with perhaps not enough sympathy.

”It wasn't my family, though, not really.”

”I know. Fran told me everything,” I said, hoping to cut her off because I didn't think I could bear to listen to what was about to follow.

”She couldn't have told you everything,” she said in a singsong voice. ”She didn't know everything. I didn't tell her what it felt like to be violated, to have him constantly thrusting himself at me, over and over again, until I suffocated inside. She couldn't have told you that because I never told anyone.”

”I'm sorry, Liz.”

”Beth Ann Wolcott did die that night. And even though I couldn't bear to look at a child that was from his ugly seed, I never stopped missing my baby. She was mine, too. No one seemed to understand that. I gave away an evil man when I gave her away, but I gave away some of me, too.”

”I'm sorry for you and for Destiny. I truly am.” I stood up to leave. Awkwardly, I said, ”I think I should be going now. I'd like to be with Destiny.”

”Don't go yet.”

”I think I should.”