differently if she hadn’t been so busy trying to make it in New York City? Would she even have been able to make her mother see a doctor before the cancer had spread throughout her body? She should have spent more time with her at the end. Would it have killed her to take a few weeks off?
Nadya knew her mother had an extended family but had no idea how to contact them to let them know of Talaitha’s death. Not that she’d tried very hard to find them. When her mother had gotten pregnant by a gadzé, an Outsider, when she was sixteen, her family made her an outcast and shunned her. Virginity was prized among the Rom, and her mother had not only slept with a man without the benefit of marriage, but she’d compounded the crime by sleeping with an Outsider. The betrothal her father had arranged for her was broken and her family shamed.
To this day, Nadya had no idea who her father was or what he’d done when Talaitha showed up on his doorstep sixteen, pregnant and with nothing more than the clothes on her back. Obviously, he’d helped her somehow, because even though they lived on the edge of poverty, Nadya hadn’t gone hungry or homeless.
Maybe that was what her mama had left with the lawyer in Dale? Could she have left the name of her father in a letter? Was that why Nadya had to pick it up herself?
Nervousness turned the coffee in her stomach to acid as she considered the possibility. Did she even want to know who he was? Could he be someone she knew from town? She’d already worked out that he had to have been married, because his name wasn’t on her birth certificate, and Mama had never breathed a word of his identity.
Pushing down the nausea with an act of will, Nadya decided she didn’t want to know the man who’d donated his sperm so she could come into existence. Her mother had raised her to know right from wrong, to value herself for who she was on the inside and to make her own place in the world. Other than showing up for father-daughter field day at school, Nadya didn’t really see where he could have added anything to her life.
So why was she going to Georgia anyway? She could turn the car around and book a flight to the Caribbean like Sandra had said. Or she could follow her mama’s lead and just drive wherever the road took her. There was nothing for her in Dale, and there hadn’t been for over a decade.
Except there was. Her mama had left one last message to her, and she had to read it. Nadya doubted it would give her closure, but she couldn’t leave it hanging either. With any luck at all, she’d meet with the lawyer on Monday, go to probate court on Tuesday and have all the loose ends tied up and be out of Georgia by the end of the week.
Maybe she’d take an extended road trip for the remainder of her enforced vacation time. A few weeks wandering America’s byways would be a way to pay homage to her mama and take a much needed vacation all in one.
But first she had to get through Dale.
Chapter Two
“Sandra, should I go androgynous or professionally sexy?” Nadya asked, her cell phone on speaker.
“You’re meeting with the old town lawyer who doesn’t believe in technology, right?”
“Yes. My appointment is in an hour and a half. If I don’t get moving soon, I’m going to be late, but I’m dithering over what to wear. I feel like an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot—you’re preparing for a meeting with an unknown. Are your hair and makeup done?”
“Yes. Understated makeup, French twist with the hair, pearl earrings and matching necklace.”
“Gold watch?”
“Yup. I just don’t know whether to wear the pinstriped suit or the black skirt and jacket.”
“Go for the skirt. It says you’re not afraid of your femininity but you’re all business. Do you have a lacy camisole to go under it?”
“No, but my slip has lace.”
“Perfect. If you need to manipulate the old bastard, unbutton the suit jacket until the lace shows.”
Nadya laughed and felt ten times better as she hung up. Sandra was right, she was preparing for the unknown. Now that she thought about it, it was more like she was gearing up for battle. A battle she’d been fighting most of her adult life.
With every accomplishment she’d