Margaret forced a smile, but it didn't last long. Worry filled her eyes, and Evie felt the familiar fingers of dread crawling up her spine.
Before, Evie had always thought she had her mother's eyes. She knew better now, of course, but a part of her still saw the resemblance when she looked at her mother. Some psychologist somewhere probably had an explanation for that, but she didn't care to hear it.
"Have a seat, baby. I need to tell you something." Margaret's voice shook, but her hands were steady when she gestured to the bench on the opposite side of the nook.
Sliding onto the seat, Evie studied her mother. "What's going on?"
It took several deep breaths before Margaret was able to answer her. "It's about your parents. Your real parents."
The room did a quick little spin and Evie grabbed onto the table for support. "What?"
After a moment of hesitation, Margaret slid the stack of papers across the table. "After we adopted you, I hired a private investigator to track down your birth parents. All the information is in those files."
Evie jerked her hands away from the papers as though they might bite her. "I don't want it. I don't need this."
"But your sisters might. You all deserve to know the truth."
"The truth is I had two parents who chose me and loved me. That's all the truth I need."
"You're not the only one involved anymore, Evelyn," Margaret scolded softly. "They deserve a chance to know."
They sat in silence, the clock above the table ticking away the seconds as they both stared at the stack of papers.
"I do have one question," Evie asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"You can ask me anything."
"Did you know about them?" It was the one question she'd been dying to ask since she'd discovered her sisters. She wasn't sure she was ready to hear the answer, but she needed to know. "About Ro and Teagan?"
The answer, when it came, was short and brutal, "Yes."
"Why didn't you take all three of us?" The guilt she'd been trying to hold at bay for months crashed over her. "We could have afforded it. Why did you only take me?"
Color bloomed on her mother's cheeks, but she held her head high. "Your father and I had discussed our plans at length. We'd always been very adamant about wanting one child. When the three of you were put up for adoption, the agency tried to get us to take all of you. But, well, you, of all people, know how stubborn I can be."
The sharp, bitter laugh escaped before Evie could stop it. "Yeah. I know."
"It's not my proudest moment, Evelyn. But when they put you in my arms, I knew you were mine. I fell in love the moment I held you. And all I could think of was keeping you safe and happy. In my mind, your sisters were a threat to our family. So, I paid for the agency to keep the connection quiet."
"Leaving Ro and Teagan to the mercy of fate."
"I suppose." Margaret shrugged. "To be honest, I never thought much of it after we got you home. I assumed your sisters would be taken care of."
"You assumed wrong. Teagan was never adopted. She lived through hell because you were too fucking cold-hearted to open your home to another child. To my sisters." Rage, hot and burning, bubbled up inside of her. "You kept us apart, because you were too selfish to think past what you wanted."
Before her mother had a chance to answer, Evie's phone buzzed in her purse.
"I have to go. I have a meeting with my sisters. You know, the ones you tossed aside like last season's sweaters."
Grabbing her purse, Evie slid out of the nook. After a moment of hesitation, she scooped up the files and took them with her as she stormed out of her mother's house.
* * *
An hour later,she was parked in front of the old, forgotten farmhouse. The rage had died to embers during the drive up to the ranch, and she was able to think more clearly.
She would look through the papers and see what, if any, relevant information this investigator had uncovered. If there was anything noteworthy, she would pass it along to her sisters, and they could decide how to proceed.
As if thinking about them somehow conjured them, Teagan's car pulled up beside Evie's in the driveway. Ro hopped out of the passenger side, waving frantically as Teagan climbed out of the opposite door and rolled her eyes at their sister's antics.