Growing Up Nelson: Book 3

Chapter 3

The once fast moving car pulled off the road and came to a stop. The woman turned to me as if she was ready to snap my neck for abating her hood from her head exposing her identity.

  "You had no right to do that!" She hissed.

  "I do if you know my dad and won't tell me! Now I'll ask you one more time WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY DAD?"

She silently turned back to the road and let out a sigh. This was really getting annoying. This guessing game was just getting out of hand and I'm tired of being treated like a kid. Some random just rescued me but won't give me any further explanation as to who she is and how she knows me! I wanna hit her! After the fifth moment of silence we sat through she finally said something.

  "How much of your past did he tell you about?" She asked with a sigh.

  "He didn't tell me much about anything because most of the time he sends me out of his office when he feels like I'm asking to many questions." I said shifting my body to her.

She sucked her teeth and turned back to me.

  "Please tell me you're joking." She snapped.

  "Ummmmm.......I'm not. He did show me a photo album of his from his teenage years."

  "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. But when I started asking about the strip of pictures on the last page he shut me down."

  "What.....strip of pictures?"

My face went blank. Now I feel like I'm in the hot seat.

  "It looked like the ones you get from the photo booth at the mall."

The woman didn't hesitate to pull down the sun visor above her head and take what looked like that same strip of pictures down and hand it to me. Examining the photos and then her face my gut feeling was confirmed at last.

  "I was right you are her! You're Regan!" I exclaimed.

She shook her head and face palmed herself in the center of her forehead.

  "That idiot! I knew he would do that!" She shouted into her arm.

My joy soon changed to confusion.

  "What's the matter?"

  "He promised me that once your adoption went through that he would tell you all about himself."

Now I'm really confused.

  "Why do you know about my adoption?" I asked leaning closer to her.

  "Carly......I know about your adoption because I......we.....believe we know who your birth mother is."

Now I'm really stunned. Hell I don't even thing stunned is the right term for all of this.

  "Where is she? Have you seen her? How is she?"

  "It's not that simple to explain Carly."

  "Well why isn't it? I was snatched from her by her psycho twin nut job! I need to know if she's still out there looking for me!"

  "Sweetie.....she's not."

Trying to contain the anger now boiling inside of me I took a deep breath as sat back against the car door.

  "Prove it then I wanna see her."

Regan looked at me with wide eyes.

  "Carly I-"

  "Shut up! Just take me to my mom!"

The snide look on her face told me that she didn't like my attitude right now. Huffing out a breath she threw the car in drive.

  "Strap in kid. You're gonna wish you ever asked."

We drove down the dark road and onto the highway but back in the opposite direction. After getting off at the exit we drove down another road just a mile and a half away and pulled off. The car stopped and Regan turned off the car and swung her car door open.

  "Come with me." She sighed.

My heart began to race. Is she about to kill me and dump my body? Now would be a good time to haul ass outta here. I was scared sure but something said to follow her. That this had to be done. I got out of the car and chased after her down a hill and to what looked like a memorial. Putting two and two together I knew she was right all along. My mom wasn't looking for me because......she's dead. Walking slowly to the cross made of flowers and red ribbons I dropped to the cold ground and sobbed. I found my mother but it wasn't at all how I wanted to find her.

  "Carly.....I'm......I'm so......sorry." Regan said as her voice began to break behind me.

I had managed to pull myself together long enough to ask her the only question that mattered.

  "What happened to her?"

  "It was a car accident. Her sisters boyfriend.....ran her off the road.....she......she died on impact."

After hearing that I cried even harder. I couldn't believe it. Finally the things in my life were making sense. My mother didn't give me away. She never even had the chance to enjoy me. Melissa and Dwayne took that from her. From me! They destroyed my life! I've never hated anyone more than I hated them. My dad had told me to never hate the woman who I thought abandoned me because I didn't really know what happened. Well now I know. I stopped crying and stood to my feet as the snow began to fall.

  "Come on Carly. Let's get you home. It's midnight and I have to get you back in time before the sun comes up."

I walked toward Regan and she put her left arm over my shoulder. As we started up the hill I stopped and turned to see my mom's memorial for what was going to be the last time.

  "Merry Christmas mama. I love you." I said as I felt the tears fall down my face.

We walked up the hill and back to the car. I looked at Regan and she looked back at me.

  "I was hoping this would be something your dad would have told you. I don't know what he's trying to protect you from but he needs to really think about what he's doing before he does it."

She got in the car and closed the door and left me wondering what could possibly be going on with these two. I got in and closed my door just as the car started.

  "Regan? How did you know.....about my mom?" I asked her wiping my face.

  "Your mom and I were friends in college. Wanna hear how your mom saved my life?" She asked with a smile.

I smiled back and nodded as she glanced over to me.

  "Oh you're gonna love this." She said as we drove back to Minneapolis on that early snowy Christmas morning.