Lies That Bind

“I’ll just pop in to say hi,” Eliza said as they walked down the hospital corridor. “Then you’re on your own.”

April wasn’t sure what she would say, but her nervousness fled when they entered the room, and she saw Maddie. The woman had aged, as Eliza had said. Her hair was gray and thin, her cheeks hollow, her skin wrinkled and parchmentlike. But Maddie’s eyes were bright, and they seemed to light up when she saw April. One side of her mouth rose up in a smile and garbled sounds came out.

“Hi, Maddie,” April said softly. How could she have been worried about seeing her foster mother again?

She leaned over and gathered the older woman into a hug, squeezing gently. “I’ve missed you so much,” she said, blinking back tears. It was true, April realized. She had missed Maddie. And Eliza and Jo. Only now that she was back could she admit it to herself.

It was good to be home.

Dear Reader,

Family has always been important to me. I was lucky enough to know my great-grandparents and grandparents. I “know” earlier generations through family history research. I even have one great-aunt in good health at age 104. The memories, family stories and feeling of connection are all precious.

How difficult it would be for someone to not have a single idea of her background. What if a woman had no identity except what was given her by Social Services? April is just such a person. All the time she was growing up in foster care, she tried to find a clue to where she came from, who her people were. But she ran into brick walls and unresponsive bureaucrats.

A dozen years later she’s returning to her childhood home, and another opportunity to restart the search--this time with the help of a man who loves to unravel mysteries. But there are no guarantees.

So maybe instead of searching the past for her family, April has to realize she has a family with the foster sister and foster mother who had once meant so much to her. And that she can make her own family present and future—if she can convince the man she loves to make that future with her.

To you who are blessed with family, cherish them. For those who don’t know your past, may you be able to accept the present and make your own future full of love and family ties, however you care to make them.

Happy reading!

Barbara

Lies That Bind

Barbara McMahon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Kay Polk, friend, fellow genealogist and family historian.

Let’s find those connections!

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

APRIL JEFFRIES HUNG UP the phone and crawled back into bed. She was more miserable than she’d ever felt in her life. Pulling the covers up to her ears, she closed her eyes, and tried to ignore her aching body and focus instead on the phone conversation she’d just had.

What a shock to hear from Eliza Shaw! They had been closer than sisters while growing up as foster children in the small Mississippi town of Maraville. Separated when they were teenagers, they’d had no contact in twelve years. April had put her childhood memories in storage—the good and the bad—and left the United States seven years ago to embark on a new life in Paris.

She’d thought she had it all back then, a wonderful husband, promising career, glamorous lifestyle.

One out of three wasn’t bad. She’d made it to the top in an increasingly competitive field. A well-known model who commanded high fees to showcase the latest creations of the world’s leading designers, April had to partially credit her playboy second husband, Jean-Paul Sartain, for her success. At least he’d done her some good before he’d broken her heart by turning to another woman.

Restless, she pushed away the covers, wishing someone was around to fix her some hot soup. But her friends all thought she was still in Marrakech. She should have called someone when she got back to Paris a couple of days ago.

But there was no way she was going to feel sorry for herself, not when Eliza had called her. There had been several messages on her answering machine when she’d returned home, and at last they’d actually talked to each other. The years had dropped away as if they’d been together only yesterday.

April smiled despite feeling so ill. It had been wonderful to hear from her foster sister. Not that Eliza’s news had been good. Maddie Oglethorpe, their former foster mother, had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. While her doctor was cautiously optimistic, Maddie was still at risk for a second stroke. And recovery would be a long process.

Eliza had urged April to return to her former hometown. April’s initial inclination was to say no. Even under the best of circumstances, she had never envisioned herself returning to Maraville. She’d never felt she belonged there. But as Eliza kept talking, memories came rushing back. Maddie, Eliza and Jo, Maddie’s third foster child, were the only family April had ever known. Because of Jo’s lies, the family tie they’d tenuously shared had been broken. Now Eliza wanted them to reconnect.

But return to Maraville? April wasn’t sure she could face the ghosts.

She had told Eliza how sick she was. When she felt better she would make a decision. But how long would it take to get over this bug she’d picked up in Marrakech?

If she did go back to Maraville, she wouldn’t have to stay for long, a few days at most. Catch up with Eliza, pay a few visits to Maddie. Much as April had railed against the rules her foster mother had laid down when the girls were teenagers, she couldn’t deny Maddie had done her best for the three of them. April could make a quick trip and then resume her life in France.

For years she’d missed Eliza and Jo. Granted, she now had plenty of friends in Paris and Cannes, but not old friends who had known her as a child. Not close friends to whom she could tell anything.

And if she were honest, she missed Maddie, too. The thought surprised her. April remembered the endless arguments she’d had with Maddie about her hair, her clothes, her makeup. Maddie had been older than most of her friends’ mothers, and April had constantly brought up the age difference. Maddie was from the dinosaur age. She didn’t have a clue what everyone was wearing.

April had also resented Maddie for a deeper reason. When she was very young, April had blamed the woman for taking her mother’s place. April didn’t know who her parents were, but she’d believed that if Maddie hadn’t taken her in as a foster child, maybe her own relatives would have stepped up to claim her.

As an adult, April could see that possibility was unlikely. One foster home was as good as another to the state of Mississippi. If she hadn’t been sent to Maddie’s, she would have gone elsewhere.

April cringed a little as she thought back to arguments. Maddie had done her best in dealing with girls who resented her kindness and fought against the system, Maddie and even each other from time to time.

In retrospect, April had to admit that often Maddie had been right. She would have regretted dying her blond hair purple, or piercing her nose.

Snuggling back down beneath the warm duvet, she frowned. Living with Maddie had not been awful. There were a lot of fond memories. Slowly she let the images unfold. The happy times when the three girls were younger, their early years in school, picnics along the riverbank, learning to ride a two-wheeler.

No, it hadn’t been bad, and April might have been happier if she hadn’t focused so much on yearning to discover who her real family was instead of appreciating the one she had. She had desperately wished that one day a happy couple would drive up in a luxury limousine and claim her. They’d tell her the separation had been some horrific mistake, and they’d been searching for her all her life. How many hours had she spent dreaming that fantasy? And resented Maddie for keeping her from her parents.

ELIZA HAD KNOWN her parents were dead. Her mother had died when Eliza was four, and her father before that. Jo’s parents had been druggies, her father in jail for attempted murder of her mother. Maybe it was better to have the fantasy than reality, April thought.

She’d been abandoned as an infant, and Maddie had taken her in when she was only three months old. Taken April in and raised her until the State of Mississippi had abruptly moved the three girls to separate foster homes.

April had missed Eliza and Jo so much when they’d been separated. She rubbed her fingertips, remembering the day they’d become blood sisters. Whose dumb idea had that been? Yet it had sealed their own friendship as nothing else could have. How could she have let so many years go by without making an effort to find them?

Despite the close tie with her foster sisters and her reluctant respect for her foster mother, April had always felt a compelling need to find her biological family. She was registered with several Internet sites of adopted children looking for biological parents. Not that she’d been adopted, but if there was a chance her mother might be looking for her, she wanted to be out there.

It was harder to do research from France. Her schedule was hectic, and beyond the adoption sites, her knowledge of tracing people was very limited. Over the years, she’d learned to deal with the disappointment of reaching dead ends, but always in the back of her mind was the question of why her parents had left her behind.

Maybe it was time to go back to Maraville and reconnect with the only family she had known. Now that she’d talked to Eliza, April longed to see her again.

Of course, if she decided to visit Mississippi, she’d have to rearrange her schedule, have her agent clear her calendar so she could spend a few weeks in the U.S.

Too exhausted to worry about details, she turned over and drifted to sleep, thinking about Maraville. Whoever would have thought she’d feel nostalgic for a place she’d never liked.

TWO WEEKS LATER April stepped off the airplane in New Orleans, the closest airport to Maraville. Walking into the terminal from the gate, she glanced around. Eliza had said she’d look for her at the baggage carousel.

“April!” An excited voice called her name.

A smile lit April’s face as she turned and recognized her old friend, the sister of her heart.

“Eliza.” April rushed over to hug her. The years dropped away instantly, and they were once again like two teenagers, hugging, pulling back to look at each other, squealing. April felt close to tears.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re finally here,” Eliza said. “You don’t look any different from the last time I saw you. You’re gorgeous! It’s so good to see you.” She hugged April hard.

“What have you been doing all this time? I like your shorter hair. You look fabulous. I can’t believe I’m here, either.” April felt like laughing and dancing and holding on to her friend so they’d never be parted again. They had had several transatlantic telephone calls to catch up on the highlights of their lives, but that hadn’t been enough. April knew they’d be talking for days.

“Welcome back to Mississippi,” a deep male voice said.

April looked beyond Eliza and saw Cade Bennett. He’d been Eliza’s main squeeze when they were in high school. That had ended right before the three teenagers had been separated. Now they were back together.

“Cade? Cade Bennett!” Releasing Eliza, she reached out to hug him. “You’re looking fine.” She’d always thought he was one of the best-looking guys in their high school. Eliza had been lucky to date him back then.

He hugged her back, then let go. A slow smile lit his face as he looked at Eliza.

“I drove Eliza in to get you,” he said.

“We’re engaged.” Eliza flashed a diamond ring in April’s face.

“I thought you said—”

“As of a couple of days ago,” Eliza broke in. “Let’s get your luggage and head for home. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

“Glad you’re sparing my ears,” Cade said, taking Eliza’s hand in his, lacing their fingers.

When they were on the highway heading for Maraville, April leaned forward from the back seat. “Tell me about Maddie. Your last phone call said she was out of the ICU and into a regular room. How much longer before she gets out of the hospital altogether?”

“A few weeks, according to her doctor,” Eliza told her. “They’re still trying to find the right dose of blood-pressure medication to reduce the chance of another stroke. The physical therapist is working to get her mobile again, and she also has a speech therapist. She really can’t talk at all, only garbled sounds. It’s called aphasia,” Eliza explained. “But she seems to understand everything we say.”

“She’s doing better than originally expected,” Cade added.

“I know,” Eliza agreed, “but it’s still awful to see her so ill. Remember how indomitable she seemed?”

“Of course, General Attila,” April said drily.

Eliza smiled. “She’s older now. Seems frail. You’ll be surprised when you see her.” She squeezed April’s hand. “But tell me about you. Are you better?”

April leaned back and sighed softly. “Not entirely. I have no energy. The doctor said I’m fine, but what does he know. Anyway, I figure I can laze around and do nothing here as easily as Paris. My agent rearranged some of my assignments, got me out of a couple due to illness. I may have to take a few naps. Darn it, I hate being so lethargic all the time.”

“There’s not a lot to do here except visit Maddie,” Eliza said. “It’s when she comes home that I may need help. So rest up. You can stay awhile, right?”

“For a few weeks anyway. When are you two getting married?”

“When I know Maddie will be okay on her own.”

“Unless we move up the date and take care of Maddie together,” Cade said.

April watched as Eliza gave him a loving smile. For a moment envy struck. She had never had that kind of devotion from either of her husbands. When Cade’s sister committed suicide, something had driven Eliza and Cade apart, but it looked as if that rift was totally mended.

April couldn’t picture anyone else with her friend. She wondered what had happened to Eliza’s fiancé from Boston as she let her head fall back on the seat cushion and closed her eyes. She smiled to herself. Maybe being married twice wasn’t any more egregious than being engaged to two men in the same month.

“APRIL?” Eliza shook her gently. “Wake up, we’re home.”

Slowly April came awake and looked out the window. They had reached the old house she’d grown up in. She stared at the place, noting the peeling paint, the riotous flower gardens, the freshly mowed grass. Surprisingly, tears came. She was home.

“It needs work,” Eliza explained when April climbed from the car and cast an appraising glance at the front of the house. “Especially to get the clearances and approvals we need to open the home for unwed pregnant teens that Cade and Maddie are planning. Renovations have started inside. Not on the bedroom floor yet, but downstairs. It’s a mess, but Cade assures me it’ll look great inside and out when the work is finished.”

Eliza had told April in one of their phone calls that Cade had a successful construction firm. “I hope he knows what he’s talking about,” April said a few moments later as she stepped over drop cloths and dodged scaffolding. The front room and hallway were crammed with construction tools, wood and paint. “You said Maddie took out a loan to look for Jo and me. Couldn’t she have used some of the money to keep this house up?”

“I think finding her girls was more important,” Eliza replied. “Come on, you have your old room. It didn’t take much to get it ready for you. Seems Maddie kept our rooms pretty much the way they were. Yours will soon have a bathroom between it and Jo’s room. In the meantime, we have to share the one bath at the end of the hall.”

“Just like the old days,” April murmured, following her up the stairs.

Once April’s suitcases had been deposited in her room, Cade pulled Eliza aside. “I’m heading out. You two can visit to your heart’s content. I’ll call you later.”

“Don’t leave on my account,” April said. Despite the nap in the car, the bed beckoned.

“I have things to do. And I know Eliza’s been dying to talk to you. You two will do better with me gone.”

“You just don’t want to listen to us reminisce,” Eliza teased.

“That, too.” He kissed her—a hot, erotic kiss, definitely that of one lover to another.

April looked away. It had been a long time since anyone had kissed her like that. She had been very popular with the boys in high school and had enjoyed a healthy physical relationship with her ex-husbands. But there had always been something just beyond her grasp. Something that Eliza and Cade had, she thought.

When Cade finally left, Eliza bounced on the bed and grinned at April.

“Okay, give. I want to know everything that you’ve done since we were separated.”

“After all our phone calls, you know most of it already, but I can fill you in on the details. And I want to hear your news, too. All of it.” She sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard. Unpacking could wait. She wanted to catch up with Eliza.

“Deal. I probably know even more about you than you think. Maddie hired that private investigator I told you about to find you and Jo. He succeeded with you. One of the things he was able to do was get clippings from the French newspapers. Maddie has a whole scrapbook devoted to you. Wait, I’ll show you.”

Eliza jumped up and left the room. April couldn’t help smiling. It was hard to believe twelve years had passed since she’d last seen Eliza. She hadn’t changed that much. She looked a little older, and her clothes were certainly nicer than when they were kids. But her shining happiness hadn’t dimmed at all. April wished she could be as happy.

Funny how three girls raised by the same woman could turn out so differently. She wondered where Jo was, and what she was doing.

Eliza had mentioned on the phone that Maddie was the only mother she really remembered. But at least she knew who her real parents had been. Maybe that private detective could help April find information about her own parents. Why had she thought she had to do it on her own? Given enough time and money, a detective could probably unearth anything. And money was something she had plenty of.

Eliza hurried back into the room, carrying a scrapbook. “Here, you can probably read it all. I can’t believe you speak French.”

“I took it in high school, remember? One of the few courses I did well in. I seem to have an ear for languages. Of course, there’s nothing like living in Paris to perfect your French. I also speak German, Spanish and a little Italian from trips over the years. German was hardest to learn.”

“I barely mastered English,” Eliza said, plumping a pillow behind her back and sitting beside April. “I took these to Tulane University to have them translated.”

She opened the book and April looked at the first clipping. It was six years old, when she was just starting out in modeling. Taped to the opposite page was a type-written translation.

“These clippings couldn’t have been easy to get,” she murmured, leafing through the scrapbook. “Some of them are ancient.”

“The detective is very thorough. That’s why he’s so expensive. Is there any chance you could lend Maddie some money? Cade and I paid down the overdue amount on her bank loan so she wouldn’t lose this house, but I’d love to get the whole thing cleared by the time Maddie’s out of the hospital.”

“I might,” April hedged. Over the years she had learned to be careful about money. “What’s wrong with just making regular payments?”

“I thought I told you on the phone. Maybe not. Remember the assistant vice president back when we were kids? Allen McLennon? He was dating Maddie right before we left.”

“Vaguely. Wasn’t he always staring at us? Like we had the plague or something.”

“I don’t remember that. Anyway, he’s now president of the bank, and he was going to sell the house and property to some consortium that wants to build a golf and country club on Maddie’s land. He’s against the home for unwed pregnant teens that Maddie and Cade proposed. The City Council has granted provisional approval, so Cade has to make sure he can do all that’s required to get final approval. We stalled foreclosure by bringing the overdue part of Maddie’s bank loan as close to current as we could. But I don’t have the money to pay off the loan and Cade’s money is tied up in his construction firm.”

“How much are we talking about?” April asked.

Eliza told her. April shrugged. It was a relatively small amount compared with what she’d banked over the years. “Sure, I can pay it off.”

Her friend stared at her. “You can pay it off? Really? That would be wonderful. But don’t run yourself short. I was able to get work here to make sure I had an income, but I don’t think there’s much call for super-models in Maraville.”

“Relax, I have enough. You said Maddie used the money for the detective. What did he do, gold plate every report?” She wondered how quickly the detective had run up the bills. Maybe she’d rethink hiring him to trace her parents.

“He’s been searching for you and Jo for three or four years. I think the overseas connection probably added a lot to the cost. I’m not sure why Maddie got so far behind on the payments. Anytime I try to bring it up, she gets agitated, so I’ve stopped asking her. It really doesn’t matter. Anyway, she can’t wait to see you. I thought we’d go to the hospital later this afternoon. She has physical therapy in the morning and takes a nap after lunch. Then we can stop in and visit.”

“I wouldn’t mind a nap myself,” April said.

“You’re in luck. The construction crew isn’t here today. When they are, it’s bedlam.”

“I bet. Still, the way I feel, I could sleep through anything.”

“Traveling all the way from Europe must be tiring. Tell me how you wound up in France. And how you managed to get married twice. Oh, I want to hear it all.”

“Too bad Jo isn’t here. We could take turns telling what we’ve done.” April remembered the day Jo reported to the authorities that Maddie had beaten her. It had all been lies, but when Jo finally told the truth, no one in authority had believed her. As a result, Maddie had lost her foster care license and the three girls had been sent to different homes throughout the state. Everything had happened so quickly and April still didn’t understand why. People in town had known Maddie all her life. How could things have turned as they had? Especially in light of Eliza telling her recently that formal charges had never been filed against Maddie.

April considered where to begin. “When we were separated, I got moved to Jackson. Where did you end up?”

Eliza told her briefly about her new foster parents in Biloxi, Mississippi, and how she’d moved to Boston with them when they were transferred. Even though Eliza had grown close to Al and Dottie Johnson, April could hear the old hurt in her voice. She herself had been inconsolable when she’d left the house on Poppin Hill for another foster home, in Jackson.

“I came back here when I read about Maddie’s stroke in the newspaper,” Eliza said softly. “To reconnect.”

April nodded. “I know how you feel. I came back the weekend after I graduated from high school. Maddie was less than welcoming. She said she didn’t know where you two were, so that was a dead end. I think I got on my high horse at her attitude and stormed away. I went straight back to Jackson and married Billy Bob Thompson.”