Chapter Nineteen
Autumn curled her body into Joel’s as they stayed in bed together. Feeling his body arch into hers brought comfort, and she couldn’t imagine what would have happened had she found out about her sister—that she had a sister—without Joel North being the one to tell her.
Autumn had shed a lot of tears over the last forty-eight hours, but she no longer felt as if she didn’t belong. There was no question that Silver Ridge was meant to be her home. Everything about the town and the B&B had been full of hope for Autumn, a way to start a new life. Now, she felt even more compelled to make her family proud.
Uncle Fred knew that Autumn deserved to know the truth, and he presented it the only way he knew how.
“Now everything makes sense.” Autumn exhaled deeply. “All the money Uncle Fred needed trying to take care of her . . .”
Autumn didn’t finish her sentence. She couldn’t. Uncle Fred had nearly bankrupted himself trying to help her sister. With multiple failed rehab stints at the best facilities across the country, Uncle Fred never gave up hope for her sister. She always fled, leaving him to pay the bill while he tried in vain to get her help somewhere else.
Tears filled Autumn’s eyes and Joel pulled her in ever closer.
“It’s okay to feel all those emotions,” he whispered. “It’s okay to be angry and sad.”
“And happy.” She felt the tears fall down her cheeks. “I’m happy to finally know the truth.”
Joel was in awe of the woman he held in his arms. He’d never met anyone like her, and he knew he never would again. She was simply amazing with a heart of gold.
Oscar yawned at the foot of their bed, which made Autumn giggle, and he loved the sound. The happy truth for him was that he loved everything about the woman who had moved in across the street, and he couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.
Autumn Tucker could push him off as many docks as she wanted as long as he got to come home to her at night.
He kissed the back of her neck, which only brought out more laughter from her beautiful lips, but it was soon replaced by a sigh. Joel knew it would take a long time for her to absorb what all had happened in her life.
All it took was one mistake on her father’s part to shape her entire future and that of her sister’s. Her father had come to town to visit his brother, and he’d slept with a woman after drinking too much at one of the bars at the resort.
Joel’s mom remembered that night specifically because she’d had to call Fred Tucker to come pick up his brother. She thought it was odd that Fred’s brother was without his wife, and when Fred arrived, Autumn’s dad was nowhere to be found.
That was until the next morning, when her father was spotted leaving a guest room with a woman who happened to work at the resort. He was in rough shape, mortified and disgusted with himself.
Joel’s mom knew the woman because she’d hired her to work in the gift shop. Her name was Karly. When Karly started showing, his mom put two and two together. After giving birth, Fred and his wife magically began raising a daughter while Karly quit her job, never to return to Silver Ridge.
“I called my father last night,” Joel said softly.
He felt Autumn press into him a little deeper.
“Were you able to talk to him?” she asked softly, surprised at his admission.
“Not as long as I wanted, but it was a start.” Joel cleared his throat. “He was taking his youngest son out to Little League practice so he had to go.”
“I’m proud of you,” she said, squeezing his hand. “It’s going to take work, and it might not give you the ending you hope for, but at least you’ll know you gave it a chance.”
“Exactly.” Joel drew her into him and felt the warmth of her body next to his. He couldn’t imagine any other place he’d rather be.
He looked around her master bedroom. She’d managed to take down the wallpaper, and they’d done drywall work to repair the water damage. Autumn had painted the walls and refinished the floors herself. She’d already started tearing out the tile in the master bath, which meant it wouldn’t take long for her to have her dream bathroom. Anything this woman set her mind to became a reality.
The doorbell rang, and Autumn stretched, tugging the sheet up a little higher.
“I didn’t think anyone was scheduled to work today.” She yawned and slowly crawled out of bed.
Joel admired the curves of her body as she pulled a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her before she went to the window to look down.
“I don’t recognize the car, but they don’t seem to be leaving.”
The doorbell rang again, and Joel stood up, pulling on a pair of jeans and a shirt.
“I’ll go see who it is.”
“Maybe it would have been better to do the porch project last,” she teased. “I think that’s the inaugural doorbell ring.”
It, too, was new, and she’d finally settled on a basic doorbell despite all the tone and chime choices available.
Autumn quickly pulled a sweatshirt over her head and tugged on some sweatpants and followed Joel down the hall and to the stairs. It was actually kind of hard to believe this was her house. So much had changed in the home over the last two months that she started to believe she might open in time for ski season.
When they got to the foyer, Joel swung open the door to a man holding an envelope.
“Autumn Tucker?” he asked.
“Yes. That’s me.” She glanced at Joel as the man whipped out an envelope.
“You got served.” He smiled, shoving it in her hand before he spun around and took off.
She shut the door and stared at the envelope.
“Let me guess.” Joel shook his head. “Ronald is at it again.”
She chuckled but begrudgingly tore open the envelope. A complaint had been filed. She was being sued for emotional distress along with the cost of medical care.
“Ugh.” She shook her head and groaned even louder. “Just when I think things are going well.”
Joel let out a sigh, and she turned around to face him. “I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”
“Yeah? Are you joining the suit over the dock incident?” she teased, and he broke into a smile.
“I’ve gotten plenty of payment for that,” he said, nuzzling her as he wound his arms around her waist. “But actually, it’s something kind of relating to this.”
She stilled and looked up into his eyes. “Remember how you thought there might be a lien attached to this home?”
Her chest tightened and she nodded, afraid of what he might say.
“It turns out, we never actually did sign a release on the lien. I’m not sure how that happened over the years, and I really don’t know how the title company didn’t pick up on it when they transferred it to you.”
She bit her lip, unsure where he was going with this.
“We own a lot of properties, not just in Silver Ridge.” He glanced at the envelope. “So I guess I can see how this got missed at our office.”
“What are you saying? Do you own The Blackberry Patch?”
“Not exactly, but we do own an umbrella policy for any accidents that happen on the premises. It’s a safety thing we do on all of our projects.”
“What kind of umbrella policy?” Her eyes searched his.
“It covers incidents like these, lawyer fees, and court costs. The policy covers damages up to a million, but there’s no way he’s getting anything close to that.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked, her eyes searching Joel’s.
“I had a bad feeling about that guy.” Joel rubbed the whiskers along his cheek and a smirk rested on his face.
“Yeah?”
“I had him followed for a few weeks right after he got back to California. Got lots of photos of him. Whatever he thinks he wants to claim, he might think twice.”
Her brows shot up in surprise. “You were busy doing that while I was pushing you into frigid lake water?”
Joel laughed and brought her in for a hug. “I knew you’d come around, and I had a feeling I knew what kind of guy Ronald was, so I thought I might as well start protecting what’s mine.”
“What’s yours, huh?” Her eyes glinted with happiness. She loved hearing those words come from Joel’s lips. “Well, you certainly are full of surprises.”
He tilted his head. “Somehow, I have a feeling you’re full of more.”
“If not me, then my family, apparently.” She laughed, but a heavy burden of sadness filled her as she thought back to her sister. The sister she would have loved to have known. The sister she was certain her mom would have taken in as her own.
It was hard for Autumn to wrap her head around why her father did what he did. It made her ill to think that her dad had deserted his own daughter. That wasn’t the dad she knew and loved so fiercely. Her family had always been so tight-knit and loving.
She let out a sigh and glanced at Joel, who was studying her.
“You okay?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Just thinking about my sister.”
He pressed his lips together and stayed quiet for a few seconds. “Do you mind if I take this and hand it over to our lawyers since we’re officially carrying a lien on this home?”
She smiled and handed it over. “How much is the lien for?”
“Two thousand dollars.” He grinned and she chuckled.
“Wow. Who knew a two-thousand-dollar lien could be a gift?”
“Indeed.” Joel kissed her cheek. “I’ll be back.”
She nodded and glanced down the hall. “I think I’m going to go down in the basement and sort through some more things, so if I don’t come up for dinner, come rescue me.”
“Want company?” He whistled for Oscar, and a thunderous rumble emerged from above as Oscar scrambled off their bed and down the stairs.
“Some watchdog he is.” Autumn smiled and petted Oscar at the soft spot behind his neck. “But I’d love his company.”
And she would. There was something kind of eerie about being in the basement alone. There were so many stories and secrets stored in the items below that she sometimes felt like she needed moral support just to venture down the stairs. It wasn’t like the secrets she’d found out so far weren’t huge. It was like she looked at every photo and box with one eye open.
Joel gave her another quick kiss before he left out the front door. It wasn’t like he could shower upstairs anyway. He had to go home for fancy things like plumbing in the master bathroom at the moment. She’d started ripping out the tile and was left with a shell for her master bath, but soon, there would be more.
“Come on, Oscar. Let’s see what things we can dig up this time.”
Oscar whimpered, and she laughed, having to agree with his assessment. She wasn’t sure how much more she could bear.
Now, when she thought about her childhood and all the fun memories with her parents and how much they’d spoiled her, she couldn’t help but think about the sister she never knew.
She was able to piece together that they were very close in age, and in fact, Autumn might not even have been born yet when her father had the affair. He could have gotten both women pregnant around the same time and had chosen not to upset her mom by revealing what happened.
There was a part of her that wondered if her mom had known, or had she found out the night Autumn’s sister had died? Was that the revelation that had spurred the night’s events?
She shivered with sorrow as she and Oscar made their way down into the basement. There were so many questions she’d never have answers to, and she wasn’t even sure if the answers would make things better.
Autumn let out a sigh, and Oscar trotted close to her as she tried to push away the sadness about everything that had occurred. It was hard to believe that so many things in her life were connected in ways she could never understand.
If it hadn’t been for Joel’s turning down this home, she never would have had discovered the truth. These items in the basement would have gone on to the trash or to the local museum. She never would have known she’d had a sister. She never would have known she had such a family history here in Silver Ridge.
Oscar left her side and slowly lumbered toward a stack of boxes she hadn’t looked through yet. He started sniffing one of the boxes, so Autumn went over and lifted the lid off the one Oscar was interested in.
Her breath caught when she saw what looked like a box full of a teenage girl’s things. She found a few yearbooks, photos, and stuffed animals. Her chest tightened as she saw so many parallels to her own life whether it was books they’d both read or journals they’d kept.
She drew in a slow breath and kept her fingers on the front cover of the lavender journal she’d just pulled out of the box. She wanted to read it, but she was torn.
Really torn.
Just as she was about to put it back in the box, a folded piece of paper fell out, and she picked it up. Her heart ached when she read her sister’s penmanship.
To the sister I may never know but love.
With trembling hands, Autumn opened the letter and began reading the words she so desperately wanted to hear but never thought possible.
To my sister,
The school assignment was to pick the one person you know you’ll never get to meet but want to. I picked you. Everyone else chose presidents to look smart or dead celebrities, but I chose you, the one person I knew would love me if you knew about me.
There are so many things I want to tell you, but surprisingly, I don’t have many questions to ask.
I want you to know this is not your fault. This isn’t Dad’s fault either. I understand why he did it. I understand his choice. He didn’t want to destroy two lives, so he chose to save one. I hope that you choose forgiveness if you ever find out about me and what Dad did to save his family.
I have forgiven my mother for leaving me and my father for not choosing me. Forgiving them freed my soul to truly love, and I truly love my Uncle Fred and Aunt Nancy. They are my family and Silver Ridge is my home.
Part of me hopes you never find out about me, and part of me hopes that not only do you find out about me, but you find me and find this home. Silver Ridge is my home, and it’s your home too.
I’ve often dreamed of what it would be like to meet my sister. I know we’d be great friends, but I realize this reality would destroy more lives than it would help. I accept this as much as a person can.
I’m about to start college next year, and I think I know what I want to do. I plan to study psychology. I wanted to travel the world first, take a year off before college, but Uncle Fred won’t hear of it. He’s probably right. I probably would never come back. He knows me better than anyone.
I often find myself chasing things that take me elsewhere. I sit in class daydreaming about being anywhere but here, even though I know here is the best place to be.
I often imagine what it must be like to know you’re loved, truly loved, where the love is so strong it’s crushing. That’s how I imagine Dad’s love for you is, and that’s why you can’t be angry with him. Love makes people do crazy things. I may not have met you, but I know I love you.
Like I said, I don’t have many questions for you, but I do have one. It may seem trivial, but it’s a wish I’ve had since kindergarten. I’m not even picky about it.
But could you marry a North boy? Uncle Fred said it would drive Dad nuts, and well, that’s good enough for me.
Wishing this wasn’t an imaginary assignment and sending lots of love . . .
Your Sister Forever and Always,
Tiffany Tucker
Autumn slumped down to the ground with Oscar by her side. The tears wouldn’t stop streaming, and she was okay with that because she finally knew her sister and she might be able to forgive her dad.