The moment Maggie became aware of what was going on, she was buckled into the passenger seat of her sister’s car. 

“Where are we going?”

“To get your things.”

“I can’t go back there right now.”

“I know. Just let me handle it. You’re going to stay with me for a few days.”

“Where’s Jack?” A ball of panic rose in Maggie’s throat. 

“Sweetheart, Jack had to go to his protective order hearing, do you remember?”

“I have to go back, I said I’d go back and help him.”

“Honey, everything is a mess right now, you can’t go back there. We are going to lay low until everything shakes out. We’ll get this garbage with your bio mom straightened out and everything will be back to normal and I’ll help you.”

Her “bio mom.” Maggie started to shake uncontrollably, like she’d been locked in a freezer. She crossed her arms over her chest and saw gooseflesh rising on her skin. 

“What is she doing here…? Why did she come here?” 

Lily pulled the car into the driveway of the farm just in time to grab a blanket and put it around Maggie’s shoulders. “Honey, look at me. You’re in shock, you may be having a panic attack. And no wonder. What that woman put you through. You fainted, you’re having some kind of PTSD episode from seeing her again, but you’re going to be OK.”

Everything that happened before she blacked out was flooding back now. Her biological mother, Dottie, had suddenly appeared after more than ten years. Last time Maggie had laid eyes on Dottie was when the court had allowed a supervised parental visit when Maggie was 10. Dottie had sat and smoked and stared at her the whole time. “What’s that Jane woman putting in your head? She’s poisoning you against me. The whole system is against me. You lied to the police, you lied to your social worker. Ain’t you and Miss Jane just a fine couple of peas in a pod? Staring down at the world from your high horses down on my sorry ass for what I done. What did I do to you, missy? What did I ever do besides carry you in my body for nine months and do the best I could?”

“You know what you did.”

“You tell me because I don’t know.”

“You slapped my face so much I cried until I threw up. Then you shut me in the closet while you were on the pipe and messing around with your boyfriends.”

“I slapped you because you talked back when I told you to stay in your room, and maybe I shouldn’t have hit you so hard. I was high and now I’m straight, and I said I was sorry.”

“And you let your boyfriend whup me.”

“Because you ran away when I tried to whup you for sassing me.”

“I want to go home.”

“This is your home. This is your home. Wherever I am is your real home and don’t forget it.”

As soon as Maggie had reached the age to decide, she told the court she never wanted any visits with Dottie Jensen again.

She had grown up after that, being reassured almost daily by Jane that none of this was Maggie’s fault. She didn’t do anything to suffer the violence she had suffered. That her mother was a broken person who needed help. 

Twelve years had passed and Maggie had put herself together quite nicely. And then the second Dottie showed up, everything came crashing down.

Although, what if it were true? What if—oh god—what if Jack really was her biological father? It couldn’t be possible. They had had sex! Many, many times! They had done so many things. Without protection. What if…holy shit. No. She couldn’t think about that.

But it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Could it?

First of all, Maggie only slightly resembled Dottie. They had the same red hair, but their eye shape was different. The things that were different from Dottie were not similar to Jack’s. But none of that proved or disproved anything.

In her heart, she knew the truth. She knew Dottie was lying because Dottie Jensen was a liar. And in the moment Dottie came in, metaphorical guns a’blazin, she saw Jack’s face. He did not recognize Dottie.

Maggie had looked astonished at the sight of this woman she hadn’t seen in 12 years, and then looked to Jack questioningly. Jack had the genuinely quizzical look of an innocent man. 

“Ma’am?” he’d said to Dottie, just as polite as he could be, seriously confused.

And Dottie had continued. “You, sir, are the biological father of that young lady right there, your bride. I know because I had sex with you 22 years ago and we made that beautiful girl. I just never told you, and I’m sorry.”

Maggie had turned white as the blood drained out of her face and all extremities. “Jack?” she croaked. Jack was looking around like it had to have been a practical joke. But his first concern was Maggie. He had placed his hands on her shoulder.

“Babe, I don’t know who this woman is or what’s going on, but I’m going to figure it out.”

“Jack,” Maggie had said weakly. “That woman is my mother, Dottie Jensen. Do you…know her?”

She could barely get the words out, but she had done it. 

“No…your mama is Mama Jane. I don’t know this woman.”

“Dottie is my birth mother. Why is she here? Did you invite her?”

“Baby, you’re talking crazy.” Jack had her by the shoulders and the last thing Maggie remembered was the muffled sound of his angry voice as she blacked out.

Lily stroked Maggie’s face. The two sisters were parked at the farm. “You stay here, I’m going inside to get some clothes.” 

“But what about Jack?”

“Jack might have some explaining to do.”

“Jack didn’t do anything wrong. We’re getting married…”

“Sweetheart, we are going to take a step back and wait to figure things out.”

“But my wedding…”

“That pretty much ended with me, Jack and the judge helping you to the car and the bailiff taking Jack upstairs to be questioned by the judge.”

Maggie started to cry silently. Tears fell on the blanket, then from the blanket to the folds of her purple dress.

“We will fix this. Do you know your blood type? That’s one way to figure this out. The other is DNA; it’s a much easier test than it used to be. I feel like this is all a setup to mess with you guys. I’ll help you. But if it’s true, if he is your daddy, I am sure enough going to murder somebody. That woman or Jack, I’m not sure which. I’m so mad I could spit rattlesnakes. I don’t even know. Now you stay here, I’ll be right back with your things.”

* * *

One moment, Jack thought he was finally going to start his life with a partner. The only partner for him. His true love. Everything was perfect. But it turned out to be just a little too perfect. 

The next moment, total disruption and destruction. How did this happen? How did this woman claiming to be Maggie’s biological mother even know they would be here today, getting married? Moreover, he had never seen this Dottie person before in his life, let alone slept with her. The year Maggie was born was the same year he had been planning to marry Wendy. He had had no other sexual partners besides his fiancée at that time. 

But none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that his bride’s knees had given out at the sight of this woman. So it was obvious to him that this woman had hurt Maggie in a very real way. When she had collapsed, he’d caught her and scooped her up.

“Somebody get her some water!” he had shouted. Someone from somewhere had shown up with a water bottle. He’d held her on his lap on the bench inside the gazebo while everyone—the judge, Lily, Carrie, Ever and someone from the clerk’s office there to bear witness—all fussed around them. 

At least the bailiff had had the good sense to make Dottie keep her distance from Maggie after the collapse. 

When Maggie came to, she still wasn’t fully “there.” She locked eyes with Jack, and the look she gave him was…scared. Haunted. He never wanted to see that look from her again, and he would fight whoever he needed to, to fix this.

“Baby, it’s me. Are you OK?” he had asked.

Then the look on her face was pure panic. “I need to go.”

“None of what Dottie says is true. I’ve never seen her before.”

“OK, I need to go.”

That’s when Lily stepped in and said she would be taking Maggie away to calm down for a little while. Jack had protested, but Lily stood firm. The two of them may not have been biological sisters, but they had the same fierce way about them. 

“Listen,” Lily had said, putting her hand out to stop him from talking. “My sister has just been traumatized. She needs me. You fix this catastrophe on your end, but I’m taking care of her until this whole thing is resolved.”

Jack stood on the courthouse square and watched Lily’s car drive away with Maggie in it. 

A million things ran through Jack’s head. But instead of running amok, he picked the seven things to do in order to straighten things out and protect his woman.

First, deal with Dottie. He had a mind to grab this odd woman under the arm and march her out behind the shed with a switch. Her ear in one hand and a switch in the other. Like his daddy had rightly done to him when he’d been caught peeing in the water trough at the age of 6. That was the one and only time Jack had mistreated animals. It seemed like this abuser had never learned her lesson.

“You and I need to talk,” he said. Dottie looked up, and Jack saw that she had been crying. “Oh no you don’t. You don’t get to cry about ruining a woman’s wedding day.”

“My daughter. She’s not just some woman,” she choked out.

“She’s not your daughter and you’re not her mother. You may have given birth to her, but you did not give her life. You destroyed her childhood and now you destroyed her future. Some mother.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I am engaged to marry Maggie. I think I do know. You don’t think she’s told me about you?”

“She told you everything that Jane character wanted her to know. You don’t know half of the truth.”

“And why the fuck would I trust you to tell the truth, when you just lied to break up our wedding?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Come on, you know we’ve never even met before. What is wrong with you? What is your motivation?”

“You don’t remember me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Dottie Jensen. Class of ’93.”

“Nice try, I graduated Mount Pleasant in 1990.”

“Is it so hard to believe I had a college education? Try Iowa State, asshole.”

“Other than the fact that I’m embarrassed to be an alum from the same year as a child abuser? No, I don’t find it hard to believe. It’s a big school.”

“Do you remember the study group?”

Jack stared at her. Then he saw it. In her tear-stained face, behind the face ravaged by drugs and a lifetime of anger, he saw it. She was indeed Maggie’s mother, with her graying red curls. But besides that, there was, somewhere in there, the face of a person he did once study with.

“I have a vague memory of you.”

“That’s a nice thing to say. I guess you didn’t ask my name the night we made love after the bonfire. I’ll forgive that. We both had had a lot to drink.”

This story would have thrown Jack for quite a loop, if he had ever been a drinker at the time. He hadn’t ever gotten drunk until after college, after Wendy picked up and left him. A time he’d rather forget. 

It was only recently he’d been hitting the whiskey so hard, thanks to pressure from Easley Farms.

And then the light dawned. Everything became abundantly clear. Jack decided to proceed with a “good cop” strategy. He parked it next to Dottie on the bench and said, “Whatever they paid you to come up with this story, I’ll double it.”

Dottie broke down in tears once more. 

“I’m not kidding, Dottie. Spill it.”

“Nobody paid me. This is me paying off my debt.”

“To who?”

“I don’t know who he is, but I pick up my prescription at his lawyer’s office in Des Moines.”

“Prescription?” 

“I take Oxy for my sciatica and some other stuff to counteract the drowsiness. This lawyer gets stuff from a farmer with cheap connections in Mexico, because my doctor won’t give it to me anymore. So anyway, I’m behind on my scrip payments. Way behind. They said if I bust up this wedding and drag your name through the mud, then I’m paid in full. They also got a private investigator on you. That’s how they found out I was Maggie’s momma.”

Jack thought back over the last few weeks and realized he should have known about the private investigator all along. Everything made sense now. Chet’s lawyers had been provoking him to build up a case against him all along. 

“Well this is a daggum mess you’ve gotten yourself into, my future mother-in-law.”

“Did you just call me mother-in-law?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. I was being ironic. Who’s the lawyer?”

Dottie dug out her wallet from her handbag and pulled out a business card. Sure enough, it was Earl. Attorney for Easley Farms. Chet’s personal lawyer. Who had more interest in ruining Jack’s life than Chet? Which meant Chet was a dealer, or an importer, of illegal prescription pills. Very nice. Jack decided to play it cool.

“Dottie, believe it or not, I’m actually very sorry for everything you’ve been through. Now, it’s going to take a few days for me to come up with whatever money you owe. I have to sell the farm, so that means a little bit of paperwork. But I have a buyer…” 

“…They said you were a rich guy. They said you were a big-time farmer who was screwing them over.”

“My dear, it’s the opposite of that. That lawyer works for Easley Farms. Ever hear of them?”

“Yeah, they got that pre-cooked bacon down at the Hy-Vee.”

“Well, Easley has been trying to buy my property since the day I got my hands on the deed. I’m a small goat farmer. About 200 acres, is all.”

“Are you telling me my Maggie got a fancy degree and cut all ties with me just to grow up and marry an old goat farmer?”

“Careful, Dottie. Just promise me one thing. Once I get you the money, use it to get yourself to rehab, counseling, detox. Whatever it is going to take to get you off the pills, OK? If you ever want a relationship with your daughter, this is what you have to do.”

Dottie was quiet for a beat and then said, “You’re going to sell your farm to get Maggie back?”

“She’s a special woman. The only thing I love in this world more than farming is Maggie.”

Dottie sat and thought about it for a moment.

Jack thought for a moment as well. He could sell the farm and the whole lawsuit and criminal charges would go away. There was no point anymore in fighting the good fight against Easley and their big pork operation. He was a big-time drug pusher as well as a commercial farmer. He had more money flowing in than he knew what to do with. At least Dottie would start healing. He and Maggie could start clean, somewhere else. Jack had enough money in savings to put a down payment on a house in town, maybe some other town besides Middleburg. He could get a job as a farmhand again. They could both work. They could save up and buy some land and have a few goats. It would be good for their future children to learn how to care for the land, even if in a small way.

It was not the same dream Jack had envisioned for them this morning, barely an hour ago, but it was enough. It was still a nice future, and he would be damned if Maggie wasn’t a part of it.

Jack waited for Dottie’s answer.

When she gave it, he was satisfied.

And then, he made some phone calls.