is Tamara King. Please leave a message at the beep, and I’ll return your call as soon as I can.”
Mary froze. Should she leave a message? Her first inclination was to hang up. But she decided speaking to Tammy’s voice mail might actually be better than speaking to Tammy directly. A message would allow her the chance to decide if she wanted to return the call.
Perfect.
“Tammy, this is...this is Bailey North,” Mary said, hurrying to speak before Tammy’s phone could cut her off. “I go by Mary Langford now. I—I know this call has to come as a shock to you. It’s been so long. I’m sorry if...if you’d rather not hear from me. But I feel as though I owe you an apology, and I would love the chance to give it to you, if it wouldn’t be too unwelcome.” After she left her number, she disconnected and sprang to her feet. She had to do something to ease the anxiety that was bringing on a terrible hot flash, so she began to pace around the living room.
“Whew!” When she could bring herself to stop moving, she set her phone on the side table and fanned her face. “I did it. Now it’s up to her.”
She didn’t expect to hear back from Tammy right away, if ever, so once she managed to calm down, she made herself a cup of tea and picked up her latest book, a memoir by Jeanette Walls. She was just about to dive in when her phone went off.
Sliding her reading glasses higher on her nose, she leaned over to take a look at the screen and felt her stomach muscles tighten when she saw Tammy’s name.
This is it. Taking off her glasses and setting her book aside, she drew a deep breath before she answered. “Hello?”
“Bailey?”
“Yes?”
“It’s me. Tammy.”
Mary let her head fall onto the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “Thank you for returning my call.”
“Of course. You said you owe me an apology, but I want you to know that you don’t owe me anything. I owe you an apology for the despicable things my parents did to you. I still have nightmares about the night you had your baby—the terror in your voice as you begged for help. That’s something I’ll never forget. Neither will I ever forgive my parents for sending me back to cry myself to sleep when I tried to get them to help you.”
“You were such a brave little girl,” Mary said with a smile. “You did all you could for me. If it wasn’t for you, for how much I loved you, I would not have survived that dark time.”
“That’s just it,” she said. “I can’t believe you could love me. I’m connected to them. Not only did they put you through unspeakable horrors, they treated me so much better than they did you.”
“You were their child, Tammy. I understood that and was never jealous. Just grateful to have you there with me—not to mention, if it wasn’t for you saying what you did to the neighbor, I might never have escaped.”
“I’m the child of not one but two complete psychopaths,” she grumbled. “It’s a wonder I’m functional at all.”
“What happened to you after I was rescued?” Mary asked. “Where did you go?”
“My father’s single aunt took me in.”
“He had an aunt?” Neither one of them had ever mentioned that, and Mary felt she’d lived with them long enough to know of most of their family. “Where did she live?”
“In Memphis. I moved back to Nashville from there.”
Which was, no doubt, why Nora had also returned to Nashville.
“She wasn’t close to him,” Tammy continued. “But when she heard what happened, she decided to step up and soon became my guardian.”
“Had you ever met her?”
“Only once or twice, at my grandma’s house.”
“Going to live with a complete stranger must’ve been hard.”
“Not as hard as what you endured,” she said.
“Were you happy there with her?” Mary asked. “For the most part?”
A sigh came through the phone. “The transition wasn’t easy, but if not for her, I would’ve been put into foster care. So I’m grateful my life wasn’t worse. She was strict, but fair. Paid for my college. I can’t complain.”
“Then I’m grateful to her, too. Is she still alive?”
“Not anymore. She was in her fifties when she took me and had lupus. She had a stroke and passed three years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Despite the sad news about Tammy’s aunt, Mary