Shadows of the Past: A Supernatural Suspense Mystery (Shadow Slayers Stories Book 1) by Nellie Steele (read aloud .txt) 📗

realize what was going on or the extent to which you’d been suffering with these nightmares. I certainly didn’t know you were being stalked.” She walked Josie to the couch as she talked, her arms around her shoulders. Sitting her down on the couch, she sat next to her, taking her hands. “I realize now what a tough time you’ve been having. I’m sorry to say, I have some difficult news to share with you. It may have some bearing on what you’re experiencing and may help with your treatment.” She turned toward Michael and Damien. “I’m sorry, but would you two mind giving us some privacy?”

“Sure, no problem,” Michael said.

“Absolutely, just yell if you need us, we’ll be upstairs,” Damien said. They both left the room, leaving Josie alone with her mom.

“I’m not being stalked, this is all blown out of proportion. I’m fine, really,” Josie said, once the men had left.

“Josie,” her mom began, “this has been weighing on my mind for a long time. I hoped never to have this conversation with you but I feel guilty keeping it from you now in light of what’s going on. I worried when you received the jewelry box but I hoped it was just some sort of a mix-up and nothing more came of it. But when Michael called me, I knew I had to come. There is something you need to know and I don’t want you to hear it from someone else. I want to be the one to tell you.”

“Michael had no right to call you and upset you, Mom. I’m fine.”

“Josie, please. This is hard enough for me, please let me talk.”

“About what? What are you trying to say?”

“Josie,” she began, squeezing Josie’s hands. “Your Dad and I, well, we, well, you know we love you more than anything. And, well, there is no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. The fact is, you’re not ours.”

“What?” Josie said, struggling to understand what her mother was stumbling to say.

“Biologically, Josie. You’re not our baby. I mean you’ll always be my baby, but I didn’t give birth to you.”

“What?!” Josie said, shocked. “I’m… I’m adopted?”

“More or less, yes.”

“More or less? What does that mean?”

“Your father and I were desperate to have a child. We were on the waiting list for adoptions but they told us it would be years before they even considered us for adopting a baby. We were desperate to have a baby.”

“So, what? You were suddenly moved to the top of the list? What?”

“No, we, well, we received a letter in the mail from a private adoption agency offering us the opportunity to adopt you. It said we had been selected from a list of potential parents and they had a baby for us.”

“What? How?”

“They offered us a baby, they told us you had no home and no parents and you could be ours if we promised to provide a loving and stable home for you. Well, of course, we accepted. We were so desperate, and you were so perfect.” She tucked a lock of hair behind Josie’s ear, smiling.

“Are you serious? You got a random letter saying they had a baby for you?”

“You weren’t some black market deal.” Her mother shook her head as she answered. “We had no reason to expect they weren’t legitimate. It was a certified letter from a private adoption agency. We assumed we were doing something good and fulfilling our own dream of being parents. We thought you were just an unplanned pregnancy. We had no reason to question them nor did we want to. We were desperate to have a child, and you were beautiful.”

“Some random agency sent you a random letter saying they had a baby, gave the baby to you and you didn’t question it?”

“Of course we asked some questions, Josie. But the man we met with had reasonable explanations and documents and we only had a limited amount of time to decide. We were told because they were a private agency this would be a quiet adoption. We assumed perhaps to salvage the mother’s reputation. We weren’t prepared for it, it took us by surprise!”

“Yeah, I’ll bet. Where is there even an agency who just mails random letters to people?” she asked rhetorically.

“Maine. The agency was in Maine. We had to travel to a little town called Bucksville, I’ll never forget it. We didn’t even have time to get a car seat for you. I held you in my arms the whole way home. Oh, Josie, I’m so sorry we never told you, but it made no difference to either of us that you weren’t biologically ours. We never thought it was important, you had no health issues or anything that would have prompted us to look into your background and like I said, we were just thrilled to have a child. We thanked the Lord every day for you and did our best to live up to the promise we made.” Her mom’s eyes filled with tears.

Josie’s heart went out to her mother. She kept the secret for almost twenty-five years and now she was forced to tell it. She knew her mother, she realized how terrifying this must be for her, how afraid she was of how Josie may react, petrified of being rejected by the daughter she had raised. The truth was Josie wasn’t angry, and she held no resentment toward her parents. They had lived up to their promise. She had a wonderful childhood that she wouldn’t have traded for anything. It didn’t make much difference to her that they weren’t her biological parents. They were her parents in every way that counted. She squeezed her mom’s hand. “It’s okay, mom. It doesn’t matter to me either that we’re not biologically related. You’ll always be my parents.”

Josie witnessed her mother’s relief. A few tears fell from her eyes; she wiped them away. “I’m glad to hear that, Josie. But I am concerned about this