“Like hell you are. You are going to stay right here and hear him out. You are also going to tell him about Lucy. You’re not a coward and leaving now is just as bad, if not worse, than what he did. He has a right to know about his daughter, and more importantly, she has a right to know about him.”
Standing up, I look at him, instantly pissed off.
“Are you fucking kidding me? He has a right to know after what he did? He left me!”
“Yes, he did leave you, Shayne. But there could be a good explanation why. Damn it, he didn’t know you were pregnant. I know for a damn fact that if he did, things would have been different.”
“You don’t know that, Adam.”
“What I do know is that you owe it to yourself and to Lucy to stay here and hear him out. You’re jumping to conclusions and acting like you already know the outcome, and you don’t. You have no idea what he’s going to say, you have no idea how he’s going to react. There may be more going on here than you realize.”
For some reason, Adam’s words piss me off even further.
“Oh, I suppose you know best after all the excellent decisions you have made?” I ask, my voice escalating. “Like the decision to keep from me the fact that Luke has been back for two fucking years?”
Adam raises his voice to match mine.
“I didn’t tell you he was here for the simple fact that I was trying to protect you, and you know that!”
A long silence stretches between us. Finally, Adam gets up and goes upstairs, returning with what looks like a shoebox under his arm. His face is solemn as he sits back down beside me.
“Okay, Shayne. It’s time for me to finally tell you something, and I need you to listen.” He sets the box between us. “Like I said, when Luke came over here two years ago to tell us he was back, we were stunned. He wanted to see you, but Mom wouldn’t let me tell him where you were. After he left, she came and sat in this very same spot and just started crying. I’ve never seen her so distraught, Shayne.”
He pauses and tears form in his eyes.
“Adam, what happened? You’re scaring me here,” I say as chills run down my spine.
“I have never seen mom act the way she did that night. For several minutes I tried to get her to tell me what was going on and why she was crying. After she calmed down, she went upstairs and brought me this box and said all the answers were in here.”
Adam hands me the box and I take off the lid. There is a stack of letters inside. I pick them up and flip through them. The majority of them are addressed to me, but toward the end there are some with Aunt Judy’s name on them.
I take one of them out of the box and out of the envelope. I gasp, feeling all the blood drain out of my face as I see what is on the paper.
Shayne, it says. If you know where your boyfriend and his family are, it would be in your best interest to give them up. It would be a shame if you got caught up in something that doesn’t concern you, but accidents happen. Tell us what we want and no harm will come to you.
The letter ends with a phone number, but no signature or name to show who it is from. I throw it down and open another, and another, and another until I’d read them all. I sit there stunned. All of these letters are threats directed at me, starting from the time Luke and his family disappeared all the way up until a couple of years ago. However, the last letters are the most terrifying.
You tried to hide her, but we know where Shayne is, and we know she has Luke Schavone’s kid. It would be unfortunate if anything happened to that precious little girl. If you want to keep her safe, you will get in touch with us if you receive any contact from the Schavone family.
Tears well up in my eyes.
“Oh, dear God. Adam. They threatened my baby.” I look at the first of the envelopes. “A lot of these came before I ever moved to Texas. How did I not know about this?”
Adam puts his arm around me.
“Mom was trying to protect you, Shayne. She told me that after the first letter came, she made sure to check the mail before you could see it, so that you would never know. When you went to her and told her that you wanted to get as far away from here as possible, she was so relieved. You know if it wasn’t for these threats, she would have tried her best to convince you to stay.”
I think back and it makes sense now. It had been much too easy to talk my aunt into letting me move so far away, especially with me being pregnant. Her love for me was unconditional, but despite my extreme heartbreak, the Aunt Judy I know would have made me stay and face my pain, not allow me to run away from it. I was so upset at the time that I never questioned that there might be another reason for her unusual reaction.