AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Traveling doesn’t sound too bad. I could use a change of scenery. We hang up and I sign into my work email, scanning the message there.
From: Constance Wilder
To: Hawk’s Eye Private Investigators
Subject: Find a Person
Hello, my name is Constance Wilder, and I am looking to hire a private investigator to locate my half-
sister, who I just found out about. I know her birth name, birthdate, and where she used to live. She may or may not still be in the Ventura County area.
I’d appreciate your help in finding her. Please let me know if you can help me. Thank you.
Ventura County. Not exactly the holiday destination that I had in mind, but I’d still have to drive over there and stay a night at least while I investigate. Traffic in Southern California is a bitch.
I weigh what I have going on and decide getting out of town wins, no matter what case I have to work. I reply and tell her that I’m happy to help her, and ask if she can send all the information she has.
The job looks easy enough, and it gets me out of town for a few days or so, which sounds appealing after the last few jobs, which were extremely emotionally draining. I’m happy to step away from the corporate embezzling, cheating spouses and petty thefts.
I finish my cocktail with Sim, have some pizza, and then head to the office. This is another benefit of my new job: I actually like it enough that I don’t mind going in on a weekend.
I don’t know if it’s because it’s new and exciting, but I love this change, and I’m glad that I followed my gut and took a chance on this.
I’m where I’m supposed to be right now, and it’s a good feeling.
* * *
My search for a Cara Wilder comes up empty. Constance’s email says that Cara is Caucasian and in her midtwenties, that she heard Cara is a teacher, and that she possibly might be using her mother’s last name. I search for all teachers named Cara in our surrounding towns and make a list of them. Luckily Cara isn’t an overly popular name, and I narrow it down to three people. I do a social media stalk and the first one is a fifty-five-year-old truck driver, while the second is a renowned Black doctor. The third one sticks out to me, not because she’s the last option, but because she’s drop-dead gorgeous, with shiny long brown hair, wide brown eyes and lips many women pay for.
Her last name is different from both her biological father and mother’s, but she could be married. A check with the DMV shows she has the same birthdate as Constance’s sister. After further research, it looks like she might have taken her stepfather’s surname.
Cara Ward.
Even though her social media is private, I learn that she’s a high school teacher, and Constance was right, she lives an hour or so up north. She’s been pretty close to Constance this whole time, yet they never knew about each other.
I message Nadia, telling her I’m taking that case and leaving for a night.
Chapter Two
Cara
“Miss Ward, why aren’t you married?” one of my ninth graders asks me.
In front of the entire class.
After starting my career in advertising and marketing, I’d decided it wasn’t for me. So I followed in my mother’s footsteps and became an English teacher instead.
Right now I’m wondering if I made the right choice.
“What does that have to do with your English assignment, Amy?” I ask.
I don’t really know the answer to her question. I’ve been dating Rhett Madden on and off for a few years now. We grew up as childhood best friends, along with our other friend Clover, and we were always told how people knew we would end up together.
It was inevitable.
Destined.
We are the love story that everyone saw coming.
