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Her mother needed to know, and not by a phone call. And she needed Cleo to talk her through it.
And hell, she guessed she’d need that lawyer.
She doubted she was coherent during the drive. God knew she didn’t feel coherent. Cleo’s reaction, as expected, hit shock, amazement, suspicion, curiosity, and some outrage.
“What kind of heartless excuse for a human separates brothers like that? You know your grandparents would have taken both babies.”
“Exactly what I said. God, why is there always so much traffic?”
“And what you’re saying tells me the grandmother, her daughter, on the Poole side, they could’ve kept both. They had the means.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why they did it, or hid it. I definitely got the sense from Mr. Doyle that the family hid it all, the real parentage, the twins. I don’t know why, and I don’t know what to do.”
“I wonder if your dad knew. I don’t mean knew-knew. But felt. Like they say twins can. And, oh, his poor brother, losing his bride, his love, on their wedding day. But think about it, Sonya. He was an artist, like your dad. They had that bond, even though they never knew.
“Where the hell is Poole’s Bay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s find out.” Cleo pulled out her phone, Googled. “Okay, pretty small, one of those juts of land along the Maine coast. It’s probably beautiful, scenic.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t make any sense, Cleo.”
“Sure it does. This Collin Poole didn’t know about your dad, until he did. He did some due diligence, made plans to contact him. And your dad died. That’s another blow.”
She reached over, gave Sonya’s hand a squeeze. “Think of it. You’ve just found out you have a brother, a twin brother your family kept from you. But before you can reach out to him, he’s gone. That’s devastating. But he must’ve felt the bond, so he left his brother’s only child his home, his—well, pretty much everything from what you’ve told me.”
“But why didn’t he contact Mom, or me?”
“Maybe he couldn’t face it, face the possibility of another emotional blow. What if you’d told him to stick it, or you’d been all,Fine, what’s in it for me?”
“I wouldn’t have done that.”
“I know that, Son, but maybe he was just too emotionally fragile to handle it. It seems like, in the end, he tried to do the right thing. He didn’t have to. You’d never have known. Or, if you did the DNA thing and found out, he still owed you nothing really.”
“Here’s why I called you.” Some of the tightness in her chest loosened. “Why I needed you to come with me.”
“When you’ve talked to your mom, when you’re smoothed out some, you need to find out all you can about him. And about all of it.”
“So I need that lawyer.”
“You do. Let me Google the other one. Oliver Henry Doyle II, you said. Poole’s Bay, Maine. Okay, okay, here we go. He’s fifty-seven—”
“Really? I put him ten years younger even when he took the flap cap off and I saw a lot of black, like his eyebrows, in with the gray.”
“Looks like his father established the firm like fifty years ago, so that’s a lot. Married, two kids. Son, Oliver III, is thirty-two, daughter, Anna, twenty-eight, so our age. Everything seems solid and aboveboard. And I like that this Mr. Doyle told you to get a lawyer.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Cleo added. “You end up with a house on the Maine coast. You live there a few years—you can work anywhere, right?”
“You think I should—”
“I think you should seriously think about it. Hell, Sonya, it’s an adventure, and you’re due. And you’d find out more about your ancestry. Your grandparents are always going to be your grandparents. Nothing changes that. This is just more, and a chance to clear your decks, and find out that more.”
Sonya pulled into her mother’s drive. “I have a life here, a home here. You and Mom are here. I’m trying to establish my business.”
“Working backward, you’re just as capable of establishing your business there as here. Your mom and I are always going to be there for you, and Maine’s not a distant planet. You have a duplex, which I know very well has always been a stepping stone for you, and right now, your life here is work.”
She gave Sonya’s hand another squeeze. “But stay or go, let’s find out what there is to find out. And step one to all of it is telling your mom.”
