Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

ago. The fact that she had been sitting there for quite an amount of time and how she was from California as well as the man in the ocean. I still wasn’t buying into it as much as Jack was. California was a huge state, so it could’ve been a mere coincidence. I raked my hand through my hair, knowing this was Jack’s way of trying to redeem himself for a crime I had made him feel guilty of for so long. One that I now knew wasn’t his fault. It took me years of heartache, blame, and eventually the demise of my marriage to come to that conclusion. I only hoped it didn’t take me as long to convince Jack of his innocence.

I arrived home with just enough daylight to allow Max and me a quick walk around the block. No matter what kind of day I had or how low I was feeling, he always managed to perk me up with his overexuberant greeting. He looked forward to our afternoon walk, and I made every effort to make it home before dark to not disappoint him.

“Okay, okay! Calm down!” I said as he danced around by the front door while I tried to hook his leash to his collar. He was getting bigger and stronger, but each day he was doing a little better with his manners on the leash. Max led me down the driveway, and I waved hello to my next-door neighbor who was hanging Christmas lights from his house.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I reached the sidewalk to find the same gray sedan parked in the exact spot it was the other day. I glanced over my shoulder at my neighbor, who was still on the ladder, figuring if this person was planning something, at least there’d be a witness. Jack had my paranoia setting in big-time. I pulled my phone from my pocket, readying to dial his number, then took a few steps down the sidewalk to see if they followed me. I heard the car door slam behind me, and my hand began to tremble as I punched in the passcode on my phone.

“Stephanie?” a woman’s voice called from the distance. I turned around slowly and cautiously to find a woman resembling the driver’s license photo Jack had showed me walking toward me. Max began to bark as she came closer, and I didn’t stop him like I normally would when a stranger would approach.

“I’m sorry. Do I know you?” I asked once she came into earshot and Max’s warning subsided. She was around my height, with long dark curls sticking out of her white winter beanie.

“No…umm.” She seemed flustered, and it was obvious she was struggling with the right words to say.

I had visions of her pulling a gun from her pocket and shooting Max and me right there. Maybe she was working with someone else who she just gave the signal to, and maybe they were on their way right now to run me down with a car. All the memories from that horrible day all those years ago that I had suppressed for so long began to surface, and suddenly I didn’t think Jack was being so paranoid after all. The only difference was, this time I was prepared, and I refused to let her know that deep down inside I was falling apart with fear.

“You were here the other day?”

She nodded guiltily.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Be-because my mother asked me to find you.”

I creased my eyebrows in confusion. “Your mother?”

“I’m your sister, Stephanie.”

Chapter 19

“ARE YOU OKAY?” Jack asked as he took a seat on the couch. As luck would have it, I had texted him, asking him to call me because I had some big news. I then proceeded to leave my phone downstairs while I went up to take an hour-long bath to try and decompress from the shock I was in.

“Yes, I’m so sorry. I forgot to bring my phone upstairs while I was in the bath and—”

He held up his hand to stop me from talking. “Steph, what’s going on? You seem rattled.”

I sighed heavily. “Hmm…guess my bubble bath didn’t help much. I found out who that woman was today. The one in the car out front.” Jack was hanging on to my every word, waiting for more, but it still felt so weird saying my sister, when my entire life I was an only child. “She’s my sister…well, half sister,” I continued, watching the stress that was all over Jack’s face morph into relief, then confusion.

“What?” he whispered, seeming just as surprised as I was when she had first introduced herself to me.

“Yeah, tell me about it. I think I would’ve been less shocked if she pulled out a gun. The only thing that prevented me from passing out was that I knew I was adopted. If I hadn’t found that letter in my mom’s things, you’d be visiting me in the hospital right now.”

“What did she say?”

“She really didn’t say much. She and her mother came here, trying to find me. She decided to introduce herself first and be the go-between, in case I rejected the idea of meeting her mother.”

“Are you going to meet her?”

I nodded. “They’re leaving tomorrow night, so I’m taking a personal day tomorrow and meeting her for coffee.”

“Did her daughter tell you anything about the circumstances, like why she gave you up for adoption?”

“No,” I whispered. “She said it wasn’t her story to tell. So I’m guessing I’ll find out tomorrow.”

Jack stared blankly into space before speaking once again. “Are you okay? Will you be able to handle all that on your own?”

“I think so. I mean, it’s not like I have any emotional connection to this woman other than she gave birth to me. Whatever happened in her past really holds no bearing on me.”

“Yeah, but her past is the reason for your existence.”

“I know that, but what can I do? It’s not like I can go back