Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel (free ebook reader for iphone txt) 📗

famous movie star mother. I was never mistreated or neglected,” she reassured Hattie, who believed her, and she seemed very forgiving of her adopted mother’s faults. “She never remarried after my father died, so I didn’t have to compete for her attention.”

“She sounds like a wonderful person,” Hattie said admiringly.

“She is. And she’ll be happy for me once she gets used to the idea. How soon can we do the DNA test?” she said, looking excited. Hattie already knew it was a simple mouth swab and they needed a DNA kit from the doctor.

“How about tomorrow?”

“Fine. I’ll call my doctor.”

“I can do it too if that will speed up the process.”

“I’d like you to come and meet my kids and my husband tomorrow,” Michaela said warmly. “How long will you be here?”

“As long as I need to be,” Hattie said quietly, basking in the warm glow of the hope that she had actually found Ashley. It seemed too good to be true. The needle in the haystack had shimmered in the sunlight of truth, and she had found it, with Fiona Eckles’s help. It really was a miracle, for them all. She had Fiona to thank for putting her on the right track.

After promising to come for dinner the following night, Hattie called Fiona from her hotel. It was late in Dublin, but Fiona had said that she worked late at night, so she called her and told her what had happened.

“And where does that leave you now?” Fiona asked her, as Hattie wondered what she meant.

“An aunt, I guess, if the DNA test shows that she’s my sister’s child.”

“And how are you feeling about the Church?” Fiona asked her pointedly.

“I’m not sure. I have no respect for the nuns who were involved in it, particularly those who burned the records, and ruined countless lives when they did. Others won’t be as lucky as we were, thanks to you, and a famous adoptive mother, which made it easier to track her down.”

“Don’t forget, those nuns had the blessing of the Church for what they did. They weren’t protecting anyone’s privacy, they were covering their tracks and the money they raked in for the Church, so no one could criticize them for it. And they forced the girls to give their babies up, with their parents’ blessings.”

“What are you saying?” Hattie asked her, looking worried.

“I’m saying that a vocation is a delicate thing. It’s made of spun glass. Mine was shattered forever by what I saw and what I learned at Saint Blaise’s.”

“I think mine is still intact,” Hattie said quietly. “This was only about my sister for me, nothing else.” She wasn’t on a witch hunt to condemn the Church, like Fiona had been with her book.

“It’s about all of us, Hattie. It’s about integrity and honesty, and pure motives. Even the Church has feet of clay sometimes. In the end, I couldn’t accept that. I felt as though I had committed myself to a life of hypocrisy that was all about money, not about helping those childless couples and poor girls who were too young to know what they were doing and the price they would pay later on. Look at your sister, and what you say it did to her.”

“My vocation is strong,” Hattie said, wanting to convince herself as much as Fiona.

“Then I’m glad for you. Mine wasn’t. I had to leave after all I knew. Maybe I was never meant to be a nun. I went in for shaky reasons, after a broken engagement, when I got jilted at the altar. That isn’t good enough to last for an entire life.” Hattie knew why she had gone into the convent, and she hoped the reason was good enough to carry her all the way. There was no question, what she had learned about Saint Blaise’s had shaken her respect for some of the decisions that people in the Church made, but not her faith. She had sought the convent as a refuge and safe haven, and it still was for her.

She thanked Fiona again for the invaluable information that had led to Michaela, and hung up thinking about what the ex-nun had said. Hattie could only conclude that Fiona’s vocation had been fragile, and not strong enough to withstand all that she’d seen at Saint Blaise’s, and her role in it. Hattie had no part in that. There was no blood on her hands. She had only been a child when it was happening. But Fiona’s words kept echoing in her head…a vocation is a delicate thing…like spun glass…and in her heart of hearts, Hattie knew just how true it was.

Chapter 7

Both Michaela and Hattie had the mouth swab for the DNA kits the next day. Michaela went to her doctor, and Hattie to a lab at UCLA and made the request. Melissa would have one too eventually, which would be conclusive, but this would give them some significant idea if they were related, and on the right track. Hattie didn’t want to give Melissa false hope and then break her heart again.

She went to Michaela’s house for dinner that night, and met her husband and their children, Andrew and Alexandra. David Foster was a handsome man in his late thirties, with dark eyes, dark hair, a cleft chin, and looked like a movie star. Michaela said he had done some acting and modeling before he went to law school and became an entertainment lawyer. He worked for a prestigious firm. He seemed to be very much in love with Michaela, and was great to his kids.

The children, Andrew and Alexandra, were adorable, and very well behaved. They were six and four, and all together they looked like the poster for the perfect family. Michaela had dark hair like Melissa, and had the same tall, lean build. Her features were more like her grandmother’s, but when she moved, Hattie was instantly reminded of Melissa. She found it hard