Return of the Reborn Princess novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Cut Off on the Porch

In front of the whole street Adele offers Poppy a home, Amos tears up the check, and Adele reads the DNA result aloud and cuts Eden off; a van with a ramp pulls up.

Adele did not knock.

She stood on the top step with the lawyer behind her and waited for someone to open the door.

Poppy opened it.

For a moment the two of them just looked at each other, one face at two ages.

"Poppy," Adele said softly. "Oh, my darling girl. You have no idea how long I've looked for you."

Poppy stepped back.

"I don't know you."

"No. You don't. And I will spend every day making that up to you."

Up and down Marl Street, front doors had started to open.

A woman in a bathrobe stood on the stoop next door.

Two men on the corner stopped talking.

A boy on a bike put one foot down on the pavement and took out his phone.

Adele saw all of it and smiled wider.

She was good at this.

She had been good at it at every charity lunch of my life.

I walked down the hall and stood in the doorway between her and Poppy.

"Hello, Mother," I said.

Her eyes moved to me, and nothing in her face moved.

"Eden. Sweetheart. You gave us such a fright this morning."

"I'm sure."

"We are not angry. Come out to the car. We'll sort all of this out at home."

"I'm home," I said.

Behind me I heard crutches on the floorboards.

Amos came up the hall with his jaw tight, one slow step at a time, and stopped at my shoulder.

Adele turned the smile on him.

"Mr. Lacey. I am Adele Drummond. I can only imagine what this day has been for you."

"Then don't imagine it," he said. "Say what you came to say."

"Of course."

She held out the long white envelope.

"Inside is a cashier's check for three hundred thousand dollars. It is not payment. It's gratitude, for raising my daughter well. The rest of it, a home, her place in our family, a future, we'll talk about, all of us, over time."

She said "my daughter" and looked at Poppy.

The street was very quiet.

Amos took the envelope.

He opened it and looked at the check for a long moment.

Then he tore it in half, and in half again, and held the pieces out to her on his open palm.

"I didn't raise her for gratitude."

"Mr. Lacey, please."

"She is not a thing you can buy back."

Somebody on the sidewalk said, "Yes," under their breath.

The boy on the bike was filming.

Adele took the pieces and put them in her coat pocket, unhurried.

"I understand how this feels," she said. "I would be angry too."

Her hand went to her collar.

I watched her fingers close on the chain.

"I'll be very direct," she said. "The folder, please."

The lawyer opened his briefcase and took out a thin blue folder.

"It was due tonight, but the laboratory sent it early, by courier, an hour after Eden left," Adele told the street. "A laboratory result. Twenty-four years ago, in the maternity ward of St. Brendan's, two babies were switched. I am Poppy's mother. Poppy is my daughter."

A murmur ran down the block.

"And Eden," she said, and she turned to me with her eyes full of tears, "is not mine."

She had always been able to cry when she needed to.

"The test is conclusive. I am so sorry, Eden. I loved you with all my heart. But the law is clear, and so is the truth."

She nodded at the lawyer.

He read from the folder in a flat voice.

"As of noon today, Ms. Drummond's credit cards, phone account and car are closed. Her name is removed from the Drummond family trust. Her personal belongings will be left on the front lawn of the Carrick Hill property for collection."

He closed the folder.

"She has no further claim on the Drummond name or household."

I stood in the doorway of a house I had walked into four hours ago.

Behind me, Poppy said, "That's cruel."

"That is the law, darling."

"No," Poppy said. "It's cruel."

The woman in the bathrobe had her phone up now too.

Adele looked at me with that gentle tearful face and waited for me to break.

At the lake house I had begged.

I remembered how it felt, the floor and the cold, and what I had said.

"Thank you," I said.

Adele blinked.

"Thank you for telling me in front of everyone," I said. "This morning at breakfast you told me I was yours, whatever happened. It isn't even one o'clock."

"Eden."

"Do you want to say it again? Louder? For the street?"

Her fingers were white on the chain.

Nobody on Marl Street was breathing loudly.

"I'll take your word that I owe you nothing," I said. "And I'll take the name that was mine to begin with."

I turned my head.

"Mr. Lacey, may I stay?"

"You may stay as long as you like," Amos said.

Poppy put her hand through my arm.

Adele stood on the step with her mouth in its lovely curve and her eyes dry.

"Poppy," she said. "We will talk soon."

"No," Poppy said, and shut the door.

Through the glass panel we watched Adele turn and walk down the steps.

The lawyer opened the car door for her.

She did not look back.

My hands let go of the doorframe, and then another car came around the corner.

It was a long grey van with a side ramp.

It parked across two spaces and the ramp began to lower.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend