Lacey drew a deep breath. “You’re right. It does.” She looked carefully at the woman before her. “I’m going to try to adopt Christina, if I can get the rest of my life straightened out. You might not want me working on her case until then.”
“I get worried about your behavior, I’ll tell you. Meanwhile, you need to get yourself well. There’s work to be done, and I’m not getting any younger.” She made as if to leave.
Lacey held out the envelope. “Here—you’ll want this.”
Louise winked. “Not my courtin’ gift, hon. I best be leaving it with you. Seems like someone in this room might want to thank the man properly.” She waved on her way out.
If only he’ll come back so I can, Lacey thought. If only I can dig past the remote stranger to find the real Dev.
Chapter Thirteen
When the tap on the door turned out to be Dev, Lacey’s nerves jittered. “Hi. Come on in.” She clutched the envelope to her breast. “Thank you for getting her here.”
He shrugged. “Happy to do it.”
Still so distant. So impassive.
“And thank you for this.” She indicated the envelope. “Louise says that Christina’s aunt can’t make her case now. If only…”
He frowned faintly. “If only what?”
She glanced away. “I don’t know if I’m the best person for Christina now. I don’t know how I’ll support her. None of what I thought was mine feels right to keep now.”
“They’re still your parents, Lacey. They wouldn’t want you to give up anything of yours. They still love you.”
“Do they, Dev? Why would you lie like that to someone you love?”
A spasm of pain crossed his face, and she regretted her words.
Before she could speak, he did. “Your birth family is nothing to be ashamed of. Those people are as deep-down good as anyone I’ve ever known.” Finally, the impassiveness gave way to strong feeling. “You need to meet them and find out for yourself.”
Just the idea made her uneasy. She could listen, though. Find out more. “Tell me about them.”
Dev thought for a minute, then a faint smile curved his lips. “You’d love Maddie. She’s funny and cheerful and about half-gypsy. And she’d understand, Lacey. She only found out a few months ago that her father lived under a fake name for her whole life.”
“What?”
“Thought you were unique, didn’t you?” A trace of a frown ghosted across his face. “Maddie thought she was the only one left. She’d never known grandparents, and both her parents were dead. I found her for Boone’s dad.”
“I don’t understand.”
Some of the strain on his face eased as he slid into the story. “Maddie’s father—your father—Dalton Wheeler, took the rap for a murder he didn’t commit. His stepfather, son of the most powerful man in the county, beat Dalton’s mother brutally, and she killed him in self-defense. Dalton confessed in order to save her from jail, then vanished with the help of one of her friends so that she couldn’t recant and sacrifice herself. He gave up his identity and the woman he loved—your mother Jenny—to save his mother. Jenny, like everyone else in Morning Star, thought he was dead.”
Lacey couldn’t take it all in. “They were married?”
“No,” Dev said. “But they’d been in love since she was fourteen. Dalton disappeared without ever knowing she was pregnant.” He looked at her intensely. “Maddie is absolutely certain of that. He never really loved another woman, not even Maddie’s mother, the way he loved Jenny. After she went away to have you, Jenny came back and married Sam Gallagher, but she was never the same after she had to give you up. Boone and Mitch and Sam all remarked on the fact that there was always this sadness she couldn’t shake. Until Maddie found her grandmother’s diary with its speculations about the months that Jenny was gone from Morning Star, no one knew why.”
“They never knew about me?”
He shook his head and took her hand. “She never told a soul. Both Boone and Mitch say she always talked about how much she wished for a daughter. But until I started looking, it was only a guess on your grandmother’s part that you even existed.”
Grandmother. The only one Lacey had known had been Margaret’s mother, stiff in her disapproval. “What was her name?”
“Your grandmother?” At her nod, he continued. “Rose. Rose Wheeler. Maddie’s middle name is Rose. You all have the same eyes. Dalton’s eyes, too.”
“What did—” Her voice failed her. “What did my mother look like?”