One Wild Night

Chapter 449: Puzzle Pieces

Candace shook her head, “No. Don’t. I don’t want them to know about me until I’m able to make sense of everything. This doesn’t change my opinion about her,” Candace said, and Jade pursed her lips.         

    

“But the story is beginning to add up, don’t you think? She said you were stolen from her by a man, and the sisters said a man brought you to the orphanage home,” Jade said thoughtfully.     

“If you think about it, it still doesn’t add up. If I’m to go by what you said you were told, then I was stolen from her at birth. On the other hand, the man who left me at the orphanage home did so when I was three years old. What happened in between? I’m not sure it’s the same person who stole me from her as she claims,” Candace said with a shake of her head, and Jade’s brow pulled together as she thought about it too.     

“You have a point. You do not remember anything about your life before you got to the orphanage home, do you?” Jade asked curiously, and Candace shook her head once again.      

“I don’t. Also, how did she suddenly know about my existence? And why is she so convinced that I am her daughter when she saw her baby’s corpse? How can she be putting so much effort into trying to find her supposed dead child when she abandoned the one who is alive?” Candace asked, and then she paused and her heart skipped a beat as it suddenly occurred to her that they were actually talking about her and not a stranger.     

She had a mother who was searching for her. If this was true, that meant she had a twin brother and a father.     

A father? A twin brother? A mother? That was a whole family. Were her father and brother still alive? Had she lived this whole time as an orphan when she had a whole family existing somewhere? People who might have actually cared about her but didn’t know she was existing?     

Unaware of what Candace was thinking about, Jade’s brows pulled together, “Perhaps she has made up with her husband and son, and wants to…”     

“A while ago you admitted that something was fishy about the whole story, right? I don’t think you should give them a call. I need some time to think. Let’s talk about this later. At least now you don’t have to go to the orphanage home anymore,” Candace cut in as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car, leaving Jade to do the same.      

She needed to be alone. She needed to rest her head and then think about this whole thing slowly and decide whether or not she wanted to meet this family.      

Her life was already messed up enough, and she was trying to fix things for herself and Jamal, she didn’t want them to be thrown into a whole new family drama.      

If her so-called mother was a celebrity as Jade had said, that must mean her reputation was very important to her. What would they think about her when they find out about the life she had led?      

Wouldn’t they all be ashamed of her if they learned she had been with someone like Jero, had a son out of wedlock with him, and had even been a stripper? Did she want to be subjected to their judgments and disappointment?      

Jade watched as Candace walked in quick steps ahead of her, and she couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her head as she hurried to catch up with her.     

At first, she had thought that Candace was in a hurry to pick up the package which Bill had left her, but she was surprised when Candace walked past the reception area without stopping, even when they beckoned to her.      

Jade had a concerned frown on her face as she went to the reception desk to pick up the fat envelope which Bill had left for Candace before hurrying up to catch up with Candace since she was with the key to the suite.      

“Are you okay?” Jade asked in concern once she caught up with her in front of the elevator.     

“Do you think you will be okay if you were in my shoes and you suddenly found out that after over twenty-five years of living as an orphan and living the kind of rough life I have lived you might have a family out there?” Candace asked in a defeated voice, and Jade’s brow pulled together in a concerned frown as she reached out and took Candace’s hand and squeezed it softly.      

“Everything will be fine. We will figure it out,” she assured her as the elevator door opened and they waited for those inside to step out before going in.      

“What is the name of your client? I mean the woman looking for her missing child?” Candace asked, and Jade did not miss how she detached herself from it like she was not the missing child in question.     

Jade figured that there was no harm in telling Candace about it now that she knew Candace was the person Sara was searching for, “Sara. Her name is Sara Walker,” Jade said, and Candace gave her a nod.      

“Don’t you think we should still go to the orphanage home? Now that you know you were not abandoned by your parents and your mother is searching for you, we should find out the identity of the person who left you there in the first place, and why,” Jade suggested, but Candace merely stared at her blankly.     

Seeing that Candace didn’t want to be engaged in any more discussion at the moment, Jade decided to be quiet, so they rode the elevator up to their floor in silence.     

Once they got inside their suite, Candace headed straight for her bedroom but Jade stopped her, “This is your package. I took it from the reception desk,” Jade said as she handed it to Candace.     

Candace looked down at the envelope blankly for some time as though she was trying to figure out what it was, and then she sighed when she remembered that Bill had left her Jero’s package. She had completely forgotten about it in the heat of this new revelation.     

“Thank you,” Candace murmured distractedly, and without bothering to open it to see what was inside she headed for her bedroom.         

    

“Don’t forget to let me know what is inside,” Jade called after Candace just before she shut the bedroom door behind her.     

Jade sighed as she kicked off her shoes and went to the bar to pour herself a large tot of whiskey. She needed it, and she wished she could share it with Candace who she believed also needed a drink.      

Unfortunately, she didn’t want to bother Candace by knocking on her door. She knew that Candace probably needed to rest after spending the night caring for Jero, watching him die that morning, and now learning that she wasn’t an orphan and her family had thought she was dead at birth. It was all too much for one person to take in such a short time. Not to talk about worrying about Andy and not even knowing where she was.      

Jade sighed as she raised the glass to her lips and took a gulp before remembering that she had to give Tom a call to let him know that there would be no need to look into Candace’s background anymore since she had found Candace’s mom.      

The person she was interested in looking into right now was Sara since even Candace had agreed that something was off about her.      

She suspected that if they looked into Sara they would find the true story behind Candace’s disappearance after birth. They also needed to know the identity of Candace’s father and twin brother, and see if Sara had informed them that Candace was alive.     

She doubted that Sonia would find anything related to it on the internet since her boss had said Sara wanted the whole thing to be hushed up. That had to mean that everything related to her past before her modeling career was a secret and it wasn’t on the internet.     

She was still going to need Tom’s help on this. Who knows? Perhaps Tom’s contact could help them look into Sara to find out all they needed to know so that Candace would make up her mind whether or not she wanted to meet her family.      

Without wasting any more time thinking about it, Jade took out her phone from her handbag. She paused when she unlocked her screen and saw that she had some unread message notification on her screen and she clicked on it.     

The messages were from Sonia, and they contained a short text, [The information on the internet is limited, but here is what I found] followed by a summary of all she had found concerning Sara Walker on the internet, and some pictures both from her early modeling days to the more recent ones.     

Jade absently scrolled through the messages, and then she paused when she came across a younger picture of Sara Walker. Her heart skipped a beat when she took another look at the picture and she recognized the face on the screen.     

Was this not the same person she had seen in the photo frame on Harry’s bedside? Harry’s mom?      

Aaron was a single father and Harry was his only son. Harry’s mom looked exactly like Sara Walker who had abandoned her husband and son after losing her daughter. Candace often reminded her of Harry.      

If she thought about it this way, and put all these pieces together it made sense, but Aaron had said Harry’s mom was an orphan and she was dead.      

There was no way all of this could be a coincident, could it? Was it possible that Aaron had lied to her about Harry’s mom? Did Aaron lie to Harry? Jade’s heart skipped a beat as the thought crossed her mind.     

Without wasting any more time thinking about it, she dialed Lucy’s line when she remembered that Lucy had said she had the picture of Harry’s mom on her phone now and had offered to send it to her the previous day.      

Once she took another look at the picture and confirmed that it was the same person, she was going to have to tell Tom about everything.