"Dad?" Fiona Regan called out the screen door to her father Bill. "Where did you say that book was?" The teen flicked her raven hair over her shoulder and listened carefully for an answer to come from across the yard. She didn't realize that her dad had already come back into the house and was coming up behind her.
"What book?" Bill Regan asked patiently. He had emerged from the kitchen with a cup of water in one hand and an apple in the other.
"Oh! Daddy, you scared me to death. I thought you were out in the barn."
Bill chuckled at his daughter's dramatics. She wasn't nearly as startled as she feigned to be. He shook his head and patted her shoulder gently.
"Sorry to sneak up on you, sweetie. What book do you need?"
"You said we had a book on herb gardens. I looked in the bookcase, but I didn't see it. Do you know where it is?" Fiona had been itching to get into gardening since she'd been given some organic seeds from the research greenhouse owned by her mother's cousins Bobby and Mart. She knew the current autumn weather was not good for starting much more than a kitchen herb garden, but that would certainly be better than having to wait until spring to get her hands dirty.
"Well…" Regan started, "I'm not sure. I think it's in my office."
"Um…that's weird. Since when do you care about gardening?"
"Hey, I've been known to grow a few things here and there." Regan said with an air of offense.
"Besides mold on the fence posts?" Fiona couldn't resist teasing the big man before her. He looked tough, but he was nothing more than an old softy.
"Alright, you!" Regan reached out and tugged the girl's sleeve gently. "I've got to get back out in the barn. Feel free to check my shelves; just don't mess with the paperwork on my desk, okay?"
"No prob, sarge!" Fiona said with a quick salute. She smiled up at her father as he bent and kissed the top of her head on his way out.
After checking one last time for the book in the family room, Fiona headed to Bill's office on the other side of the house. She browsed the high build-ins looking for anything related to herbs. When she saw the book she wanted, she pulled over a footstool to help her gain the extra height she needed to be able to reach it. The petite girl stretched her slim arms as far as she could but was only able to reach the bottom corner of the sought after prize. With a rapid lift of her toes and a bit of a jumping motion, Fiona was able to push up at the corner of the book and send it hurling to the floor with a fwump. She scrambled down from her perch and noticed that some papers had flown out of the text when it fell.
"Hmmm. What's this?" She asked herself out loud. The items on the floor had a slightly yellow hue to them, as if they were old. Fiona picked them up and inspected them carefully.
One item was actually an envelope with several other pieces of literature in it: a pamphlet, a business card, some leaflets. Fiona looked at the professional logo and had a pretty good idea what this packet was all about. The envelope had the name Cryobank printed on it. She felt too embarrassed to read through those things. Her mother had explained to her about the special clinic when she learned that Daniel was really only her half brother, and she just didn't want to think about that right now. With a blush burning up her neck and into her cheeks, she quickly shoved the envelope into the back of the book.
The other item she had retrieved from the floor looked like a letter. It appeared to be the penmanship of a woman; at least, Fiona figured as much because of the neatness and curvy style of the letters printed on it.
It was addressed to her father, and to the young girl's horror…it wasn't in her mother's handwriting!
Fiona quickly unfolded the paper and skimmed the last line of the back to discover who would be writing such a personal message to her father. Her blood boiled when she recognized the name.
It's that Joan!
Fiona knew that her father had once dated the daughter of one of his equestrian associates, Mr. Stinson, and she didn't like the woman one bit! She seemed pushy and manipulative. As far as Fiona knew, Joan had been married at least four times. She knew her dad had no feelings for that woman, but she couldn't help but feel a protective sense of anger rise in her at the sight of the message.
What could she have possibly said in that letter to make him keep it all these years?
Without stopping to consider what she mind discover, Fiona decided to read it.