Unbreakable (22 page)

We head into the next bedroom and it's big
also, but was probably a kid’s room. The next bedroom over is
locked and sealed with some sort of caulking all around the
edges.

“Wonder why this one is sealed off like
this,” Luke says giving us a puzzled look.

“I guess we are going to have to break in
here also,” Jacob states since the door is firmly locked and sealed
tight.

“Good thing we are getting really good at
this,” Luke says to him laughing as they study the door.

“You guys could be professional burglars,”
Emma laughs with them. I force a chuckle, but I’m just not in the
laughing mood right now. This house makes me feel so sad.

They decide mutually that the best way to
get into this room is with brute force, and at the same time. They
both kick at the door. It flies open breaking the doorknob off.

“Smooth,” Emma teases as she walks in the
room. I follow behind her and I gasp. It’s a nursery. Pristine,
clean, and everything is in its place. It’s as if it has been
freshly painted. There’s a crib, a changing table, and a rocking
chair in the corner. The closet is lined with baby clothes hung
carefully on little pink hangers. I open the drawer of the dresser
and it too is full of pink, purple, and yellow baby clothes.

“How's this room so clean when the rest of
the house is covered in dust?” Jacob speaks what we are
thinking.

“It’s been sealed off.” Luke points at the
boarded up windows that have been sealed airtight.

“It’s almost like,” Emma starts to say and
then stops to look at me.

“It seems like the baby never came home,” I
finish her sentence. “None of this stuff has been used,” I say
picking up the unopened bottles of baby powder and baby lotion with
more unanswered questions.

“What if this room was supposed to be,” she
stops again and I stare at her not wanting her to say it. It can’t
be. This room was not meant for me. This is a room of someone who
wanted their baby, not for one that was given up.

Luke grabs my hand and brings it up to his
lips. “Just another piece in the puzzle, and we will put it
together,” he brushes his lips on the back of my hand. “Let’s go
out and search the grounds. A little fresh air will do us some
good,” he says and it seems as though we are all a little on
edge.

We walk in the backyard wading through the
weeds and tall grass looking for we don’t know what. I can’t help
but think about that room. Some woman loved her baby and was
anxiously awaiting its arrival. It’s so sad that the baby never got
to sleep in that room. There was so much love put in there. Luke
keeps a tight hold of my hand as we walk the grounds. We come
across a wishing well made of stone with a stone bench that
encircles it. I feel that this place was such a happy loving home
in its day.

Jacob and Emma start shouting our way that
they found something. They are far from the house in front of a
large overgrown tree line.

“Come on, you’ve got to see this!” They
shout, as we get closer to them. We see what they are shouting
about. Another wrought iron fence, but this one houses something
different. It’s a small cemetery with rows of gravestones in the
front and behind them are five large mausoleums that line the back
of the fence. The gravestones are obviously much older and they are
in poor shape. JAMES is formed in the metal of the gate that leads
into the cemetery.

“This must be the family cemetery,” I say
thinking how creepy it is that they buried their family so close to
the house, but I have heard of this sort of thing before. This is
what they used to do a long time ago, especially very wealthy
families who had their own cemeteries.

In the center of the graves, is a dogwood
tree all by itself. Its red flowers are in bloom and it seems
peaceful as it cast a shadow on the graves.

We walk inside the graveyard and start to
read the names on the tombstones.

Gerald P James, Born Eighth day of February
1806, -- Died twelfth day of November 1860.

We move from stone to stone reading what we
can make out. Then we head to the back toward the crypts.

We see one is for Joseph K James, Born
October 22, 1932—Died February 3, 1987. Joseph’s wife, Ceila
Bellevue James, born January 30, 1934—Died July 7th, 1965.

“Well, I guess we know Ceila Bellevue was
not your mom because she died way before you were born,” Emma says
clearing up that mystery.

As my eyes move over the names, I notice how
young she was when she died. The next crypt has tall grass covering
the name. I swipe the grass away with my hands and what I see makes
me feel faint. I drop to the ground with my mouth wide open in
shock. Luke rushes over to me and all I can do is point to the
crypt.

Emma pushes the grass over putting one foot
on the grass to keep it down. She gasps at what she sees also.

Samantha K. James, Born
July 7
^th
1965 -- Died May 5
^th
1990. Loving Daughter
and Loving Mother.

She was born on the day her mother died.

All of us just stare in silence at the crypts
engravings. I look up at Luke who is staring at me with
concern.

“This doesn’t mean anything, does it?” I
steady myself on my feet. “I mean, it’s not like Samantha is not a
common name,” I exclaim trying to make sense of this. “It doesn’t
mean anything that she died four days after my birthdate.” I stop
for a second searching their faces for answers. “Oh not to mention
that my father bought this place and boarded it up never mentioning
it to anyone,” I start ranting some more, “and that some crazy
woman called me Samantha. It’s all a coincidence right?” I search
their faces some more. “Will someone please say something,” I
plead.

“Look, Lil,” Emma finally speaks and grabs
my shoulders. “Calm down, we are just starting to piece this
together okay? None of this changes anything,” Emma reiterates. “We
are all here for you and you are loved very much. We will figure it
out! No matter what we find out we will always be here, your
family,” she says as she nods at me. I take a deep breath and tears
start flowing. I don’t even know why I’m crying. Everything Emma
said made me feel better. Was the woman they found in the woods
burned my mother, and what did Ted have to do with it?

“Is this my mother?” I say as I gasp for air
sobbing and pointing at the stone. Luke grabs my waist and holds on
tight as I become unsteady on my feet again.

“Is this her? Is this why I’ve spent my
whole life with a horrible woman because my mother is dead?” I say
as tears are rolling down my cheeks.

“It’s just some more pieces of the puzzle,”
Emma soothes. “We don’t know anything for sure and we will get
answers I promise.” She grabs me and hugs me tight.

I stand there staring at the crypt thinking
how sad it is that Samantha’s mother died in childbirth and that
she never knew her mother. I feel that I can relate to her.
Everyone is close to me, but not talking. They let me process the
new information.

“It’s getting late, we better be heading
back,” Jacob says now standing by my side. He puts his arm around
my shoulders kissing the top of my head.

“Let’s go, okay,” Emma says now in front of
me blocking my view of the mausoleum, since I can’t seem to take my
eyes off of it. She wipes the tears from my cheeks and gives me
another hug. “We’ll get this place cleaned up and then we’ll come
back and find out some answers.” I nod to her and Luke grabs my
waist again. We make our way back to the truck.

Chapter 27

The truck is silent as we make our way home,
everyone in deep thought from the day. Thinking about Simon again,
to get my mind off of all the information now swimming in my head,
I break the silence, “So, when are you going to fire him?”

“It’s already done,” he admits not looking
at me. “Dad did it this morning,” he says rubbing his hand on his
forehead. He still won’t look at me.

“Didn’t waste any time on that one, did
you?” I’m upset again, and it seems like it was going to be done
with or without my permission anyway.

“It seems like he was going to be fired even
if I hadn’t agreed.” I look at Luke and then back to Emma and Jacob
who won’t make eye contact with me either.

“It’s done so we can just drop it now,” Luke
says still not taking his eyes off the road.

“No, I want to know what’s going on. Did the
background check come back?” I turn to face Jacob who seems nervous
and looks away from me. I can tell he is making eye contact with
Luke in the rearview mirror.

“Let’s just say he has a past, and our
feelings about him were right,” Jacob says as if that is the end of
it.

“NO!” I shout, “How about you let me in on
the big secret?!” I’m furious at this continuous charade of lets
protect Lilly because she is so fragile.

“Look, Lilly, everything’s fine and it’s
nothing you need to worry about,” Emma pipes up and this makes me
even more mad because she’s in on it also.

“Damn it guys, tell me right now or I’m
going to hire him back!” I shout at the window not wanting to look
at any of them right now.

“Over my dead body,” Luke barks and it
startles me. There’s something in his voice that scares me.

“Then tell me,” I say much softer now
looking at the side of his face. I can see his jaw is tense.

“Lilly, why can’t you just leave it alone,”
Jacob scowls from the back seat now leaning forward so his arms are
resting on his knees.

“Because I can’t, and I’m not going to leave
it alone. So someone, for the love of God, please tell me what’s
going on,” I plead with the occupants of the truck.

“Just tell her,” Emma scoffs behind me.

“He just got out of jail six months ago for
sexually assaulting a girl, all right. You happy now,” Luke spits
out the sentence extremely fast and it takes a minute for it to
sink in.

“When did you find this out?” I ask still not
quite getting the seriousness of the situation.

“After last night, Jacob went down to the
sheriff’s office and found it out. He saw the picture of the girl
and what he did to her. We still don’t have the full background
check back yet, but his buddy down there filled him in on what he
could,” Luke grates.

“So why the song and dance of getting me to
want to fire him if you knew all this” I’m confused as to why they
didn’t just tell me and then I wouldn’t have fought them on it.

“I guess we thought that if you agreed then
you wouldn’t have to know about the girl,” Jacob says annoyed, “but
you can’t just let things lie, so now you know.”

“What did he do to the girl?” I push.

“That’s enough! You know what you need to so
drop it!” Luke snaps at me, which makes me want to know even
more.

“I can handle it. I’m not as fragile as you
all think! Give me some credit already!” I snap back, “Dammit!”

“He stalked her for months, and beat her….”
Jacob starts to tell me.

“Jacob, please!” Luke interrupts him
angrily.

“She wants to know, she’s going to know.
After all, she can handle anything,” Jacob says
condescendingly.

“He beat her to a pulp, and when he was done
doing that, he violently raped her. She barely survived,” Jacob
finishes the description. It sends chills through my spine that the
man who did that has been in my house. They were right and I didn’t
want to know.

I notice Luke turning his head to me then
back to the road over and over. He is waiting for some
reaction.

“How long was he in prison?” I say trying to
keep my voice calm, when I remember the man outside my window last
night and wonder if it was Simon.

“Five years, he got out early for good
behavior,” Jacob scoffs at the ridiculously short amount of time he
spent in prison for his crime.

“So he’s gone then, did your dad have any
problems?” I ask still focusing on trying to keep my voice
calm.

“No, he went quietly. Jacob’s friend from
the Sheriff’s office was there when he did it just to make sure,”
Luke tells me still looking my way every chance he can to make sure
I’m okay.

Chapter 28

We ride the rest of the way home in silence,
which is fine with me. There’s so much in my head, which is making
me feel overwhelmed, and I don’t want to start crying again.

It’s dusk as we pull in the driveway, and I
can see Jeffrey’s truck is still here. Luke pulls the truck in the
garage and we all walk inside. Jeffrey is sitting at the kitchen
island talking to Miss Finnegan.

“How’d it go?” He asks seeing the exhaustion
on our faces as we sit on the stools.

“Are you hungry dears?” Miss Finnegan asks
and doesn’t even wait for our answer before she starts pulling food
out of the fridge.

“Starving,” Jacob and Luke say in
unison.

“I need a beer, anyone else?” I exclaim.
Jeffrey goes around to the fridge and grabs one for everyone. I
start to drink half of it in one swallow. “So have either of you
heard the name Samantha James before?” I ask looking from Jeffrey
to Miss. Finnegan.

“No dear, why do you ask?” Miss Finnegan
says not looking at me, and I can tell she is not telling me the
truth.

“Because she might be my birth mother and
she is dead,” I blurt out finishing the beer and heading for the
fridge for another. Everyone is still staring at me as I open
another beer and take another long swig. Luke fills Jeffrey and
Miss Finnegan in on what we found today.

“I just thought since you guys have been
working here since before I came along that maybe you might have
heard the name before,” I say accusingly, taking another long gulp
of the beer.