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“I don’t want anything from you.”

“It’s already yours. Alex’s estate meeting was last week. The day you turned eighteen, Alex changed his will and left you that land. You own that one-hundred acre piece of property. It’s worth a lot of money now, Amy. It could change your life. When the investigation was dropped, and I knew you and your mother were out of that house, I thought it was over. Then, David found out at Alex’s estate reading that Alex left you that land. He was so angry. When I overheard his conversation with someone on the phone about heading to a ranch to take care of some business, I knew he was coming after you. He wanted that land.”

She pulls an envelope from her purse and hands it to Dillon. “Dillon, he also left a donation for the ranch in the amount of $500,000. Ray had mentioned all of the wonderful things you wanted to do with the ranch.”

“Holy shit.” Dillon hesitantly takes the envelope from her. “I’m not sure what to say.”

She glances back and forth between me and Dillon. “I think Alex knew somehow that the two of you would find each other and this is his way of making things right. Amy, I also have your birth certificate and social security card.”

I take the papers from her and stare at the eight digit number that is me. I have identification. It’s just a piece of paper, but I’m overwhelmed.

She stands to her feet and uses her tissue to gently blot her eyes and her nose again and sniffles. “I loved your mother, Amy. As if she were my own daughter. My hands were tied. Alex and David were both very powerful men. I can’t change the past, but if you’d let me, I’d love to be a part of your future. You’re my granddaughter.” She smiles weakly.

I have no words for her. It’s too much to process. I sit on the couch stunned as Ray walks Ellen out. I sift through the papers and read my name typed across the pages of the deed to the property. My prison. I own it now.

“Amy, are you okay?” Dillon asks as I lean against him for support.

“Yeah.” It’s all I can manage.

“How are you sweetheart?” Ray asks as he comes back to sit on the other side of me, resting his hand gently on my knee.

“I’m a little overwhelmed.”

“I have something else to tell you,” Ray says. “Dillon’s been asking me about that property for months and when he told me about seeing you there, I didn’t put two and two together. When I got the call from Ellen about her son coming to the ranch to look for you and that he was dangerous, I couldn’t believe it. Alex and I had been friends since high school. I was best man at their wedding. I was there when David was born. I started to think back to the few times I visited them in Denver and then I remembered seeing a young girl there. Dillon was about two years old. Alex was doing some legal work for me when I started publishing.” He pauses for a moment to think. “So that was about twenty years ago. She was about fourteen?”

“I know she was sixteen when I was born so that sounds right.” My hand flies to my mouth when I think about what he just said. “Dillon met my mother?”

“Yes. She actually kept an eye on him while we worked. She was a sweet girl, Amy. She was troubled, but she was a sweet girl. She just never got the help she needed.”

My eyes tear up and I look up at Dillon. My mother cared for Dillon before I was even born. He saw a glimpse of the young girl that I never got to see. The young girl that had a troubled past that needed to be saved. The young girl that was trying to get better before the devil took her to hell. The connection I have with him feels even deeper now somehow, and now that I know what my mother endured and what she went through to protect me, I don’t feel angry or resentful toward her like I have all of these years. I feel sad. I feel sad for her.

“I want to see my mother.”





CHAPTER 25





Amy



It’s a three hour drive to the hospital my mother is now calling home. Dillon called to make sure I can see her. The staff assured him that my mother is lucid and has been stabilized on the correct doses of medication and that she is no longer a danger to herself, but that she is still very ill.

The cold stark hallways of the hospital sends chills through my body. Dillon tightens his grip on my hand as we walk towards my mother’s room.

“Name please?” a nurse dressed in white asks as she holds her pen to the clipboard waiting for my answer.

“Amy Frank and this is Dillon Andrews.”

She turns and knocks on the door behind her and then pokes her head in. “Allison, you have visitors.”

My heart starts pounding in my chest. I have to take a few deep breaths before Dillon and I walk hand in hand into the room where my mother sits near a window looking out over the park that is right behind the hospital. Her room is no better than the trailer we lived in. The walls are concrete. It’s cold. There is no color. She turns to me from her chair and I watch a small smile slowly form on her face.