The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,124
up.”
“Maybe he would be better off here, too.”
Taylor wasn’t compelled enough to comment.
“So what are you going to tell Oliver?”
It took a lot of energy to respond, but she managed to summon it. “Nothing. My mom made me block him and his brother so that they can’t bother me anymore, said she’d call them herself.”
“When?”
“I don’t know,” she said and that was the last thing she remembered before drifting off to sleep.
* * *
Autumn needed to call Oliver and have him get his parents on the line, but every time she started to punch in the number Taylor had given her, she stopped. She wasn’t ready to deal with that, was still too uncertain and upset about too many things.
For one, she knew she hadn’t been completely fair with Quinn. He’d faced a no-win situation, and he’d navigated it the best way he could. But she couldn’t reach out to him. She was too busy punishing herself for letting something else threaten the well-being of her family—essentially sabotaging the relationship because she felt guilty for being so happy.
But even acknowledging that didn’t make her break down. She was too fatalistic at the moment.
As she moved around the house, tidying up while her mother was gone, she thought about so many things. What’d happened to Nick and why she’d never been able to find him. What was about to happen to Taylor and what they should do about the baby. Whether she could seriously allow herself to give her whole heart to Quinn.
And something else, too: her father. She wasn’t sure why, but any crisis she went through somehow brought her back to what she used to obsess over as a child. Where did she come from? Who was she really? Was she related to other people out there that she didn’t know?
She’d already decided to take a DNA test once she returned to Tampa. Her mother didn’t have to know about it. She’d see what the results were before making up her mind whether to go any further. It was entirely possible that no one on her father’s side had been tested, which meant the results wouldn’t be definitive, anyway.
Maybe that was why, as she began to clean out her purse, she paused when she came across the card her friend had let her take home from their lunch together. The detective’s card—Drake D. Owens.
Had he ever found the woman he’d been searching for?
Even if he hadn’t, the fact that she’d heard about him more than once suggested he was conscientious and thorough. Given her own experience searching for Nick, she understood how valuable those traits were in a private investigator.
Perhaps he could help her find her father before it was too late and her father was dead. Putting it off any longer meant she might never get to meet him.
With a sigh, she slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and called the number on that card.
“This is Drake.”
She cleared her throat. “Mr. Owens?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Autumn Divac.”
“What can I do for you, Autumn?”
“I was wondering...did you ever find Bailey North?”
The atmosphere on the phone suddenly changed, grew tense in some indefinable way. “What’d you say your name was?”
“Autumn Divac. I live in Sable Beach?”
“Right. I see. Well, I’ve already found Bailey. But thanks so much for trying to help.”
She hadn’t told him she was trying to help. He had no idea why she was calling, and yet he was eager to get rid of her. Why? “Where’d you find her?” she asked before he could hang up.
He paused as though he couldn’t decide whether to answer. Then he said, “In... Virginia Beach. She was living down there.”
“So she got the money?”
“The money?” he repeated.
“I was told she’d receive an inheritance, if only you could find her.”
“You really don’t know who Bailey is?”
Autumn blinked in surprise. “Why would I?”
“I’m getting another call. I’ve got to go.”
“Wait—can’t you just answer the question?”
Silence.
“Mr. Owens?”
“If you really want to know, all you have to do is Google Bailey North,” he said and hung up.
Autumn rocked back in her chair. What a strange conversation! It was as if he’d recognized her name, as if he’d thought she and this Bailey North should be acquainted in some way.
She rubbed her forehead as their conversation ran through her mind again. All you have to do is Google Bailey North...
Using her phone, she performed the search and was astonished by the number of links that came up.
Bailey North, kidnapped and held hostage for seven years...