Chapter Fifteen – Frankie

“I wish she’d been happier to see us,” Frankie said to Adam as they stood outside the hospital entrance, waiting for Delia’s sister. “What if she stands us up?”

“Relax,” Adam said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. “She’ll be here. It was a shock, that’s all.”

“Are they twins?” Frankie recalled the sister’s face. Was that the same face as the woman whose heart beat in Frankie’s chest?

“Yes, I guess so. I thought I was looking at a ghost,” Adam admitted. “She’s a little older but so similar, I couldn’t mistake her.”

“You would have been her boytoy, if you had gotten together.”

“I would.” He kissed the top of her head. “But I don’t belong to her, I belong to you.”

“Hello.” The doors opened and Delia’s sister stepped outside. “I should introduce myself I suppose. My name is Elise.”

“Francesca, but everyone calls me Frankie.” She put a smile on her face, wanting Elise to like her. Or at least not dislike her.

“Adam Painter.” Adam held out his hand and Elise shook it.

“The hotel manager.” She gave a brief smile. “There’s a cafe along the road here, we can get a coffee. I think I might need something to eat, too. I’m in shock.”

“Sorry,” Frankie apologized, but she didn’t know what for.

“It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known I was going to be there.” Elise glanced sideways at Frankie. “You’re younger than I imagined.”

“I had a virus,” Frankie blurted out, then closed her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t want you to think I did anything wrong. I’m looking after Delia’s heart...as best I can.”

She wanted to apologize again but refrained.

“I have dealt with a lot of transplants over the last couple of years, I do understand that most of the time patients are victims of either disease or their genes. I’m not going to judge you, Frankie.” She smiled benevolently, and Frankie instantly warmed to her.

“I want to thank you,” Frankie said.

“You already did, in your letter,” Elise said. “Ah, here we are. Tuckers. Best coffee and sandwiches in town.” She pushed the door open and went inside. “Shall we sit here?”

“Sure,” Adam put his arm around Frankie, guiding her into a seat. She liked the press of his hand on the small over her back and took strength from him.

They ordered their food, even though Frankie was certain she wouldn’t be able to taste a single thing. Nerves made her mouth dry. No longer worried that Elise wouldn’t like her, she now obsessed over the real reason they had come here. How did Adam fit into all of this?

“Why did you come to the hospital?” Elise asked. “You said you wanted information.” She set her sandwich down on her plate as she suddenly asked, “Is your body rejecting Delia’s heart?”

“No, nothing like that. I keep taking the meds the doctors give me, and that’s all fine. Just fine.” Frankie pressed her hand on her chest.

“So why?” Elise asked.

Adam and Frankie exchanged glances. Then Adam answered. “Frankie and I have just met. We’re mates.” He let the words hang between them.

“I see. Congratulations. But I still don’t understand what this has to do with your visit.” Elise took a bite of her sandwich and chewed slowly.

“I once thought that I’d met my mate and she’d died,” Adam admitted.

“You thought Delia was your mate?” Elise's eyes widened and she swallowed her food with a gulp.

“How did you guess?” Frankie asked.

“Why else would you know who she was? Matching donors to organ recipients is not something you could correctly guess.” Elise nodded. “Go on.”

“I saw her in a fleeting moment, but she got into a car with another man.” Adam hesitated.

“Oh.” Elise looked down at her plate, and a silence stretched on between them. “Terence Xavier. He was a wonderful man, a real gentleman. They were so happy.” Adam and Frankie’s eyes met, and her heart rate increased at the sound of Terence’s name. “Did you know him?”

“Not exactly,” Adam replied.

Elise’s eyes narrowed as she assessed Adam, but she continued. “They were very much in love, like you two young people.”

“Were they mates?” Frankie asked in a whisper.

“Yes, they were,” Elise confirmed. “But you knew that, too, didn’t you?”

“No, we didn’t.” Frankie decided it was time to come clean. “Adam thought that Delia was his mate, he felt an attraction to her when he met her.”

“But she didn’t feel anything toward you?” Elise asked. “How could she when she already had a mate?”

“Which is where it all gets confusing,” Adam said. “I was sure, so sure that I mourned her when I found out she died. Then I met Frankie, and...well, that’s when I realized I’d gotten it wrong.”

“I’m still unsure as to what you wanted to know.” Elise drank her coffee, the color returned to her cheeks.

“We needed to know if the heart...if Delia’s heart is what Adam responds to.” That was the wrong word, but Frankie was unsure how else to phrase it.

“Oh!” Elise’s exclamation drew interest from other diners in the cafe. “You wanted to know if Delia was the organ donor, and if she was, whether your mate is Frankie or Delia?”

“Yes.” Adam’s admission drew a nod of understanding from Elise.

“We just wanted to know if there was a chance that my heart caused this reaction,” Frankie replied. “Is there a chance my heart belonged to Delia?”

“I think, considering the dates, we have to believe it is. If I show you the letter I received from the recipient, that would confirm it.” Elise looked at Adam. “But I can tell you, Terence and Delia had been mates for a few years. I can say with certainty, you are not my sister’s mate.”

“So why did he think he was?” Frankie asked.

“That is another mystery.” Elise finished her sandwich and gulped her coffee down. “Come on, let’s go and see if we can solve this mystery for you young people.”

“Are you sure?” Frankie asked. “We didn’t come here to make things painful for you.”

Elise shook her head. “Honestly, to know Delia’s heart has given you two the chance of happiness is the best gift you could give me. I was heartbroken when they died. As twins, we spent our whole life together, rarely more than a few miles apart. Her death wrenched us apart forever. To have you here brings us closer together once more in some small way.”

Adam and Frankie finished their sandwiches, and then followed Elise out of the cafe. Her house was a fifteen-minute walk away. On the way, Elise told them how Delia and Terence had met while on vacation on the island of St. Lucia.

“Delia always did like her vacations in the sun,” Elise said wistfully. “Of course, I went along to keep her company. We were best friends as well as sisters.”

“You must miss her terribly.” Frankie couldn’t imagine life without Ruth, it would be even harder to live without a twin.

“I do. It fades over time, but there’s still a hole in my life where Delia should be. It would be easier if I had a mate of my own, but I don’t. I’ve never been lucky in that department. Which is why I have committed myself to helping to grow the Shifter Organ Donation Initiative.” Elise put her hand on Frankie’s arm and squeezed it as if checking she was real. “You are living proof that shifters need organs, too. Most of the time we’re good at healing, but there are times, such as when you get hit by a virus, or injury, where a donated organ is the only thing to save them.”

“So Delia’s death inspired you to do your job?” Adam asked.

Elise shook her head. “No. Delia’s death left me drowning in a pool of dark sorrow so deep and painful, I thought I’d never climb out. But then I got Frankie’s letter, and I knew what I had to do because if I didn’t do something, then there would be countless other shifter families who would lose their loved ones. A normal human organ is not compatible. The same as blood transfusions.”

Frankie’s brow creased as she looked at Adam. “Adam had a blood transfusion.”

“Interesting,” Elise said as she turned to walk up the driveway of a modest suburban house, set on a modest street. There was nothing to set it apart from the other houses in the street. Just as there was nothing to set Elise apart from any other person. She no doubt blended in well with the other nurses and doctors at the hospital.

“Isn’t it difficult? I mean not everyone knows about shifters.” Frankie wasn’t aware she had been treated any differently at the hospital when she had her surgery. “How does organ donation work for them?”

“Not everyone knows about shifters, that’s true. But many doctors do. Especially on the transplant teams. But they are sworn to secrecy. Patient-doctor confidentiality.” Elise unlocked the front door and they followed her inside. “Go through. There are photographs of Delia and Terence. You are welcome to look at them. I have a box upstairs I’d like to go through, there is something I’d like to share with you.”

“Thank you, Elise,” Frankie said quietly.

“No, thank you. This might give me some kind of closure. I have spent the last few years burying my head in work. I think I’m ready to look at the world anew.” Elise gave them a warm smile and then ran upstairs, agile, despite her graying hair and wrinkled complexion.

“Is that her?” Frankie asked as Adam picked up a photograph of a man and a woman standing together on the beach.

Adam traced his finger over the glass in the frame. “Yes.”

Frankie walked along the length of the wooden dresser, studying the photographs one at a time. They showed two little girls, identical in all ways. “This is their life together.”

“And this is Delia and Terence’s life together.” Adam stopped, his hand hovering over a photograph of Terence and Delia standing outside a building.

“Ah, Terence’s jewelry store,” Elise told him as she entered the room with a small wooden chest.

“He was a jeweler?” Adam asked, looking at the photograph closely.

“Yes. I’m afraid there are no jewels left.” Elise’s voice carried a hint of wariness.

“That’s not why we came,” Frankie quickly told Elise.

“I know.” She smiled, but her eyes flicked up to Adam, uncertainty beneath the surface.

“Is that the letter I sent?” Frankie asked as Elise took a worn envelope from the box.

“Don’t you recognize it?” Elise asked, surprised.

“Not the envelope, no.” Her smile faltered. “But I remember the words. I told you how sorry I was, and promised to look after my new heart. I asked you to try not to be sad. And I thanked you because I didn’t want my sister to have to cope with the loss of another person she loved.”

Elise’s eyes misted up with tears. “Then it is you.” She sounded relieved, as if she had still been unsure of their story, even though she had invited them into her house.

“Did Terence ever donate blood?” Adam asked, his voice strained.

“Possibly, it is the sort of thing he would do. Terence is the one that talked Delia into putting her name on the organ donor registry. He had lost a brother when he was younger, a brother who could have been saved.” Elise glanced up at Frankie, looking guilty. “If Delia hadn’t been so adamant in life that she wanted to be an organ donor, I wouldn’t have agreed to Delia’s organs being removed. And that would have been a mistake. I see that now.”

“Elise, I’m so incredibly thankful.” Frankie hugged her close.

“Why did you ask?” Elise switched her attention to Adam after she had wiped her face and blown her nose. “About Terence?”

“I had a blood transfusion before I saw Delia. I’m still hazy on why I thought she was my mate.” Adam still held the photograph of the jewelry store in his hands. “And I have this funny party trick, where I know all about diamonds even though I don’t have a clue where I learned it.”

“The internet?” Elise suggested.

Adam shook his head. “No, it’s more of a learned thing.”

“Adam’s bear also thinks Adam had a personality transplant.” Frankie grinned at her mate. “His bear calls him quaint.”

Elise stiffened. “Does he?”

“According to my bear, I’m old-fashioned,” Adam admitted.

“An old-fashioned gentleman. That’s how Delia described Terence to me the first day they met.” Elise shuffled through the papers in the box, deep in thought as she pulled out more photographs and other documents. “So many memories.”

“Thank you for sharing these with us,” Frankie said, sensing Elise was holding herself together for their benefit. “I think we have what we came here for.” She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Elise’s neck. “I’m sorry if it’s been painful. But this has made everything clearer to us.”

Frankie got up, and Adam joined her. “Yes, thank you, Elise.”

“If there’s anything else you need to know, you have my address now.” Elise put everything back into the box and shut the lid, smoothing her hands over it. “You’ve brought her back to me.”

But as Adam and Frankie left the house, Frankie was sure they hadn’t just brought Delia back, but Terence, too.