What They Left Behind

The letter left Gennie absolutely devastated. It had never occurred to her that her mother could have been alive and well. She had always believed the story her father told her. Everything she knew was a lie. Gennie felt as if the earth had fallen out beneath her. The worst was knowing that not only did her mother abandon her, she never wanted her in the first place. If it wasn’t for her dad, she never would have been born. Tears slid down uncontrolled across her face. Her mother never had the same feelings for her that Gennie had about Michele and Jamie-Rae. She couldn’t understand it. Bryan was right--she should have never poked her nose in places where it didn’t belong. If she never came up here, she would still be happy in L.A. with Peter and the kids.

  What was she going to tell Ben? Like her, he idealized their mother. She didn’t think he’d be able to bear the truth.

  She was so upset she was shaking, so she tried to take a couple of deep breaths. Okay, she thought, what’s the good part of all of this? Umm…well…I have Dad and now he’ll be surrounded by movie stars in a much warmer climate. I can visit him every day now if I want. Oh god, poor Dad…he must have felt like crap when he read that letter. No wonder he wasn’t interested in dating…and the lengths he went to protect us. He spent several hundred dollars on a plot and a headstone just so it would seem believable when he told us she was dead.

  She realized something else. Bryan could have told them at any time about this. He never listened to anything Dad said, so why did he keep this a secret? Gennie supposed the lie was so powerful it seemed like the truth.

  I guess that’s another good thing. All this time I thought I didn’t have a mother, when in reality, I did. Maybe when she wrote that letter, she was in a really bad mood or something. She might be different now…I mean, she would be seventy-two years old. She probably totally regrets what she did, but thinks it’s too late to take it back. Maybe she spends her nights wondering what we look like, what we’re doing, if she has grandchildren…

  She wondered if she had ever passed her on the street and didn’t know it. There was no return address, so she had no idea where she lived. She shook her head. It probably didn’t matter anymore. The letter was decades old. By now, she might be in Arizona or Florida in some retirement community.

  She looked at herself in the rearview mirror. Her face wasn’t noticeably red or swollen from crying. If she put on a smile, nobody would know.

  When she arrived back at the motel, looking at the bed made the idea of a nap awfully tempting. She needed it after the horrible day she had. She took off her shoes and lay down on the full size bed.

  Chapter 74: June 2